for it. It was not time for that yet. "Dodd's" starved real self, if
fed with what might once have been wholesome food for it, would have
been choked, perhaps to death, by a bit of praise, just then, and a
wholesome sense of merit would have been changed into a detestable
conceit.

A teacher has to be so careful about these things.

Mr. Bright seated himself at the table, transferred the name to his
register, then took another bit of paper and began writing on it,
remarking as he did so:

"You will please occupy the seat in front of you this afternoon, and
hereafter. I have written a list of the books you will need," he
added, picking up the strip he had just been writing on, "and you will
please procure them this afternoon. You will recite with the entering
class in this room, according to the programme that is on the board
behind my desk."

But "Dodd" did not move a muscle while Mr. Bright spoke. He did not
look up, even when reference was made to the programme. He made no
response when assigned his seat, or to his place in school. He sulked
and frowned and stood out against everything, and was sullen and
malicious to the last degree.

To all this, however, Mr. Bright paid no heed. He stepped down to the
boy's desk again, put the list of books upon it, then turned and left
the room abruptly, without a word.

The act was so sudden, so unlike what "Dodd" had expected, that it left