"Teachers should never have favorites," said the squire
dogmatically. "It is highly detrimental to a teacher's influence,
and subversive of the principles of justice. Have you got your
essay with you, John?"

"Yes, sir."

"You may sit down and read it to me, and if I think it deserving,
I will take care that you sha'n't lose by the teacher's
injustice."

John readily obeyed. He hurried up to his chamber, and, opening
his writing-desk, took out a sheet of foolscap, three sides of
which were written over. This he brought down-stairs with him. He
began to hope that he might get the boat after all.

The squire, in dressing-gown and slippers, sat in a comfortable
armchair, while John in a consequential manner read his rejected
essay. It was superficial and commonplace, and abundantly marked
with pretension, but to the squire's warped judgment it seemed to
have remarkable merit.

"It does you great credit, John," said he emphatically. "I don't
know what sort of an essay young Frost wrote, but I venture to
say it was not as good. If he's anything like his father, he is
an impertinent jackanapes."

John pricked up his ears, and listened attentively.

"He grossly insulted me at the town meeting to-day, and I sha'n't