lads. Unquestionably he had been rather more shielded from several forms
of temptation than had most of his playmates, for his mother's isolation
had made him not merely her son, but very largely her companion. In
certain ways this had tended to make him more manly than the average
fellow of his age, but in others it had retarded his development; and
this backwardness had been further accentuated by a deliberate mind,
which hardly kept pace with his physical growth. His school record was
fair: "Painstaking, but slow," was the report in studies. "Exemplary,"
in conduct. He was not a leader among the boys, but he was very
generally liked. A characteristic fact, for good or bad, was that he had
no enemies. From the clergyman to the "hired help," everybody had a
kind word for him, but tinctured by no enthusiasm. All spoke of him as
"a good boy," and when this was said, they had nothing more to say.

One important exception to this statement is worthy of note. The girls
of the High School never liked him. If they had been called upon for
reasons, few could have given a tangible one. At their age, everything
this world contains, be it the Falls of Niagara, or a stick of chewing
gum, is positively or negatively "nice." For some crime of commission or
omission, Peter had been weighed and found wanting. "He isn't nice," was
the universal verdict of the scholars who daily filed through the door,
which the town selectmen, with the fine contempt of the narrow man for
his unpaid "help," had labelled, "For Females." If they had said that he
was "perfectly horrid," there might have been a chance for him. But the
subject was begun and ended with these three words. Such terseness in
the sex was remarkable and would have deserved a psychological
investigation had it been based on any apparent data. But women's
opinions are so largely a matter of instinct and feeling, and so little
of judgment and induction, that an analysis of the mental processes of
the hundred girls who had reached this one conclusion, would probably