“Oh, you must come,” urged Tom.  “We have a fine bottle of root beer and a lot of candied fruit for you.”

If there was one thing that Mumps liked, it was root beer, while he knew candied fruit was very rich eating.  Accordingly he hesitated.

“I’ll get all I can first and tell on them afterward,” he thought, and allowed Tom, and Sam to conduct him into the dormitory occupied by the Metropolitan Sextet.

“Here is Mumps come to join us!” cried Tom, as he introduced the sneak into the room and he winked at Dick.  “Now, Mumps, sit down and make yourself at home, and I’ll get something for you,” and he motioned the sneak to a position at the head of his bed.

He hurried off, and presently came back to Mumps with a fine slice of candied orange.  The sneak was greedy, and instantly transferred the entire slice to his mouth and began to chew it vigorously.

“Oh!” he cried presently, and drew down his face in disgust.

“What’s the matter, Mumps?” asked Sam.

“This orange tastes like kerosene!” spluttered Mumps, and rushed to the window.  As he put out his head, Tom pointed to the sneak and then to the lamp at which he had “flavored” the candied fruit.  “We’ll get square just wait,” he whispered. “"You gave me that howled piece on purpose...” the sneak, as soon as he had cleared his mouth.  “Oh, what an awful dose!  Somebody give me a drink of water.”

“The water is all gone, Mumps,” answered Tom.  “Awfully sorry.  Have a glass of root beer,” and he poured out a tumbler full.

Willing to drink anything to take that taste out of his mouth, the sneak took the tumbler and gulped down about half of the root beer.

The remainder was about to follow, when suddenly he stopped short.  “Oh, my!”

“Awfully good, isn’t it?” put in Dick.

“Good?  It tastes like salt water!” snorted Mumps.  And he was not far wrong, for Tom had taken the pains to put a lot of salt in to the glass before filling it up.

“Why, that is the best root beer I ever tasted,” put in Larry.  “It’s as sweet as sugar.  Let me taste your glass, Mumps.”

“Do so with pleasure,” and the sneak passed it over.  Larry pretended to take a gulp.  “Fine!  Couldn’t be better.  Isn’t that so, Frank?” and he passed the glass to Hairrington.  “It’s certainly as good as mine, and that’s 0.  K.,” answered Frank; and then George Granbury took the tumbler and declared the root beer was even better than what he had had previously.

“It’s certainly your stomach, Mumps, my boy,” said Tom.  “You look kind of funny —­ just like a fellow I knew who got the smallpox.”

“He does look like a fellow getting the smallpox,” put in Dick.  “Mumps, does your tongue feel dry-like?”

“Dry, of course it is dry —­ and salty,” growled Mumps, but he began to grow uneasy.

“Let me see your tongue,” put in Sam, who happened to have a blue pencil in his pocket.  As he spoke he broke off some of the blue point and crumbled it in his fingers.