The Turner Twins Part 5

"Never you mind!" said Laurie, grabbing his arm. "You come on out of here before you die on my hands. I'm sorry to tell you, ma'am, that he doesn't know when to stop eating. I have to go around everywhere with him and look after him. If I didn't, he'd be dead in no time."

"I want to know!" exclaimed the Widow Deane interestedly. "Why, it's very fortunate for him he has you, isn't it?"

"Yes'm," answered Laurie, but he spoke doubtfully, for the little white-haired lady seemed to hide a laugh behind her words. Ned was grinning. Laurie propelled him to the door. Then, without relinquishing his grasp, he doffed his cap.

"Good afternoon," he said, "We'll come again,"

"We know not how," added Ned, "we know not when."

"Bless my soul!" murmured the Widow, as the screen door swung behind them.

Back at school, the twins found a different scene from what they had left. The grounds were populous with boys, and open windows in the two dormitory buildings showed many others. The entrances were piled with trunks and more were arriving. A rattling taxi turned in at the gate, with much blowing of a frenzied but bronchial horn, and added five merry youths to the population. Ned and Laurie made their way to East Hall, conscious, as they approached, of many eyes focussed on them from wide-flung windows. Remarks reached them, too.

"See who's with us!" came from a second-floor cas.e.m.e.nt above the entrance; "the two Dromios!"

"Tweedledum and Tweedledee!"

"The Siamese Twins, I'll bet a cooky!"

"Hi, East Hall! Heads out!"

The two were glad when they reached the shelter of the doorway. "Some one's going to get his head punched before long," growled Ned, as they started upstairs.

"What do we care? We don't own 'em. Let them have their fun, Neddie."

"I'll let some of them have a wallop," was the answer. "You'd think we were the first pair of twins they'd ever seen!"

"Well, maybe we are. How do you know? Suppose those trunks have come?"

They had, and for the next hour the twins were busy unpacking and getting settled. From beyond their door came sounds of much turmoil; the noise of arriving baggage, the banging of doors, shouts, whistling, singing; but they were otherwise undisturbed until, just when Laurie had slammed down the lid of his empty trunk, there came a knock at their portal, followed, before either one could open his mouth in response, by the appearance in the doorway of a bulky apparition in a gorgeous crimson bath-robe.

"h.e.l.lo, fellows!" greeted the apparition. "Salutations and everything!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "h.e.l.lo, fellows! Salutations and everything!"]

CHAPTER IV-KEWPIE STARTS SOMETHING

The twins stared silently and suspiciously for an instant. Then Ned made cautious response.

"h.e.l.lo," he said, with what must have seemed to the visitor a lamentable lack of cordiality.

The latter pushed the door shut behind him by the kick of one stockinged foot, and grinned jovially. "My name's Proudtree," he announced.

"You can't blame us," replied Laurie, coldly.

Proudtree laughed amiably. "It is a rotten name, isn't it? I live across the corridor, you know. Thought I'd drop in and get acquainted, seeing you're new fellows; extend the hand of friendship and all that. You understand. By Jove, Pringle was right, too!"

"That's fine," said Ned, with more than a trace of sarcasm. "What about?"

"Why," answered Proudtree, easing his generous bulk into a chair, "he said you fellows were twins."

"Not only were," said Laurie, gently, "but are. Don't mind, do you?"

"Oh, come off your horse," begged the visitor. "Don't be so c.o.c.ky. Who's said anything? I just wanted to have a look. Never saw any twins before-grown-up twins, I mean. You understand."

"Thought you said you came to extend the hand of friendship," retorted Ned, sarcastically. "Well, have a good look, partner. There's no charge!"

Proudtree grinned and accepted the invitation. Ned fumed silently under the inspection, but Laurie's sense of humor came to his aid. Proudtree appeared to be getting a lot of entertainment from his silent comparison of his hosts, and presently, when Ned's exasperation had just about reached the explosive point, he chuckled.

"I've got it," he said.

"Got what?" Laurie asked.

"The-the clue! I know how to tell you apart! His eyes are different from yours; more blue. Yours are sort of gray. But, geewhillikins, it must be a heap of fun! Being twins, I mean. And fooling people. You understand."

"Well, if you're quite through," snapped Ned, "maybe you'll call it a day. We've got things to do."

"Meaning you'd like me to beat it?" asked the visitor, good-temperedly.

"Just that!"

"Oh, come, Ned," Laurie protested, soothingly, "he's all right. I dare say we are sort of freakish and-"

"Sure," agreed Proudtree, eagerly, "that's what I meant. But say, I didn't mean to hurt any one's feelings. Geewhillikins, if I got waxy every time the fellows josh me about being fat-" Words failed him and he sighed deeply.

Laurie laughed. "We might start a side-show, the three of us, and make a bit of money. 'Only ten cents! One dime! This way to the Siamese Twins and the Fat Boy! Walk up! Walk up!'"

Proudtree smiled wanly. "I only weigh a hundred and seventy-eight and three quarters, too," he said dolorously. "If I was a couple of inches taller it wouldn't be so bad."

"I don't think it's bad as it is," said Laurie, kindly. "You don't look really _fat_; you just look sort of-of-"

"Amplitudinous," supplied Ned, with evident satisfaction.

Proudtree viewed him doubtfully. Then he smiled. "Well, I've got to get rid of nearly fifteen pounds in the next two weeks," he said, with a shake of his head, "and that's going to take some doing."

"What for?" Laurie asked. "Why destroy your symmetry?"

"Football. I'm trying for center. I nearly made it last year, but Wiggins beat me out. He's gone now, though, and Mulford as good as said last spring that I could make it this fall if I could get down to a hundred and sixty-five."

"Who's Mulford?" inquired Ned. "A fortune-teller?"

Proudtree ignored the sarcasm. "Mulford's our coach. He's all right, too. The trouble with me is, I'm awfully fond of sweet things, and I-I've been eating a lot of 'em lately. But I guess I can drop fourteen pounds if I cut out pies and candy and things. Don't you think so?"

Proudtree appealed to Laurie almost pathetically.