A CO-EDUCATIONAL INCIDENT.

IT was a cool May evening at Oberlin. The students were sitting under the trees singing hymns or playing squat-tag and blind-man's-buff on the campus. Here and there a kindly-faced professor might be seen playing puss-in-the-corner with a merry group of girls, a copy of OEdipus peeping out of one of his pockets and a Revised New Testament out of another. But one by one the happy revellers ceased their sport, and in parties of two or three withdrew to their respective dormitories.

A few minutes after Guy Guileless, '82, might have been seen seated at a table in his room with a number of friends, all using Gaskell's Compendium by the light of a philosophical Argand burner. There is a gentle knock at the door, and the "lady-like" janitoress leaves a freshly washed bundle of linen and departs. Before long Guy's friends leave him and he is alone with the Compendium. With a light heart he prepares to retire, humming softly to himself as he forms plans for the morrow. Ah, better for him had that morrow never dawned! After wrapping up his soiled linen in a neat bundle for the janitor, he was about to get into bed when he stepped quite unexpectedly on a tack. Was it an omen of the ills to follow? Who can tell? "Gosh ding it!" exclaimed Guy. (This is an Oberlin oath sanctioned by Mrs. Hayes.)

The next morning, a bright and sunny Sabbath, he awoke and sprang lightly from his couch. Blithely he proceeded to untie the bundle of clothes. An exclamation of surprise escaped him. One by one, with feverish haste he examined the pieces. Each garment was new to his gaze, its form and pattern strange, its use impossible to conjecture. Slowly the awful truth dawned upon him. The garments belonged to a "co-ed"!

But a bright thought crossed his mind. He would wear the clothing he had taken off the night before. Vain hope! The janitor had removed it, and all the rest was in the college locker in charge of the Faculty! Oh, horrible! Cold perspiration stood upon his brow as he paced the floor. Was he to miss chapel? What would his grandmother say when he broke the awful truth to her? Should he be obliged to shake the confiding trust of his dear teachers, and be for ever condemned in their eyes as a wicked chapel-cutter? He sickened at the thought. The chapel bell chimed sweetly on the dewy morning air. What could he do? His brain was on fire! Where could he turn?

Let us draw the curtain on this heart-rending scene, and as we glide down the long, lonely hallway, let us softly apply our ear to the door of a neighboring room. Hark! Do you not hear it, - the convulsive sobbing of a woman in distress? Patter, patter, patter, the tears go as they fall - upon what? Surely it can be nothing else, - upon a stiffly starched shirt-bosom, while the poor girl cries as if her heart would break. Ah, yes, dear reader, do not pretend to conceal your tears, it is no other than the unhappy "co-ed," with whom the miserable youth across the way has exchanged clothing.

That day two bright and smiling faces were missed at chapel, and with a grave and sorrowful shake of the head the noble president communicated the fact to his wife on the platform beside him. Afternoon service has come and gone, and still two bright and smiling faces are missing.

At length the storm, which had been so long gathering, burst. The edict of the president and his wife went forth, commanding the two offenders to appear before them; and grimly they awaited the arrival.

The two entered the sanctum simultaneously through different doors, and a bright blush suffused the tear-stained cheek of the maiden as she saw a frill of "Hamburg edging" peeping from under the modest coat-sleeve of the youth. He gave one look, and a long, convulsive shudder shook his manly frame as he perceived a shirt-button peeping from beneath the lace about her neck.

Inch by inch the sad truth was drawn from the weeping culprits, and a Faculty meeting was called at once to obtain permission to open the college locker and obtain a fresh supply of linen. The president then embraced the youth, and his wife the maid. In passing we would suggest that it would have been better if he had embraced his wife and had let the youth embr - but we digress. The result of the meeting was satisfactory, and the trembling pair folded up their clothes like the Arabs, and as silently stole away.

R. R.