He pulled over the pedestal, set it urider the spot whence the noise had come and climbed wabblingly up on it. He could just reach his long arms up into the ropes. His finger-tips touched soft, warm fur. Then something sharp inside of a furry mass struck his arm. A tiny black kitten had leaped upon him just above the wrist. The sudden impact startled Harold and caused him to lose his balance on the pedestal. His sole support started swaying.
Harold thrust the kitten under his sweater and tried hard to maintain his equilibrium.
At that precise moment Dan Sheldon, who with several of his Sophomore cronies had followed the Freshman into the wings and were now concealing their mirth as they watched him from this vantage spot, rang the curtain on the stage smartly aloft.
On the other side of the curtain, in the main body of the Tate auditorium, sat the whole student body awaiting the arrival of the delayed Dean Pennypacker and his boring address!
To the amazement of the Tatians, they now gazed, not upon the dignified figure of the dean, but upon a frightened Freshman endeavoring wildly to regain his balance upon a tall, frail pedestal! Even as they stared at this strange spectacle, the Freshman lost
