You put the cigar end in a hole, pull the trigger, and the cigar was snipped.

The simplicity of the thing fascinated Primus, and after his return to school I found that he had broken into my Cabana boxes and snipped nearly three hundred cigars.
[Illustration] As soon as he arrived Primus laid siege to the heart of William John, captured it in six hours, and demoralized it in twenty-four.

We, who had known William John for years, considered him very practical, but Primus fired him with tales of dark deeds at "old Poppy's"-- which was Primus's handy name for his preceptor--and in a short time William John was so full of romance that we could not trust him to black our boots.

He and Primus had a scheme for seizing a lugger and becoming pirates, when Primus was to be captain, William John first lieutenant, and old Poppy a prisoner.

To the crew was added a boy with a catapult, one Johnny Fox, who was another victim of the tyrant Poppy, and they practised walking the plank at Scrymgeour's window.