other fellows engaged in playing prisoner's base, or some such
rough-and-tumble game, with envy. Once upon a time his mother,
chancing to pass along the street in her fine car, was horrified to
discover her darling Claude actually taking part in some "rowdy game,"
in which he scrambled with the rest just as vehemently, and was,
moreover, even worse off than the other boys with regard to soiled
garments and disheveled hair. Evidently the long suppressed spirit
of the lad had broken bounds, and for once he allowed himself to be
natural.

The other fellows never tired of telling how she had called to him
almost frantically, as though she believed he had become inoculated
with some deadly germ, and must be contaminated, bundling the boy into
the car, and actually crying with dismay when she found that he
actually had a scratch upon his nose, which had been bleeding. But it
was also noticed that Claude grinned at his late fellow wrestlers as
he was borne triumphantly away, as though to emphasize the fact that
he had, at least, enjoyed one real period of excitement in his life,
to remain as a bright spot for many days.

Hugh had often wondered whether there might not be some way through
which this deluded mother might be shown what a terrible error she
was making in bringing up her boy to be so inane and useless. He
needed physical development more than any other fellow in Scranton
High. Constant feeding upon lofty ideas, and never given a chance
to develop his muscles, was wrecking his health. Mr. Leonard had
even gone to Mrs. Jardine and entreated her to let him undertake a
moderate programme of athletic exercises with Claude; but he might
as well have tried to lift the high-school building as to make her
change her set ideas.