there might be in them. I charge it to no superior merit in myself, but
I believe from the very first I was a favourite with our teacher. I
studied hard, and endeavoured to give no trouble by misconduct, though
I doubtless had my faults as well as others. It may be that Mr. Oswald
sometimes allowed his feelings to exhibit themselves more than was
exactly wise. I have often heard him say that strong likes and equally
strong dislikes were natural defects in his own character, against which
he was obliged to exercise a continual watchfulness.

The idea once formed, that Mr. Oswald favoured me above others, gained
ground amazingly fast. Each boy was on the watch, and the smallest
action was noticed and repeated from one to another in an exaggerated
form, till I became an object of bitter dislike to more than half the
school. Many underhand attempts were made by some of my companions to
hurt me in the good opinion of my teacher; but he possessed too much
penetration and discernment to be easily misled, and for some time all
attempts to injure me came back on themselves; but the feeling of enmity
among the boys gained strength with each passing day. One day, about
the middle of the forenoon, a gentleman who was owing Mr. Oswald money,
called and gave him a ten-dollar bill. Mr. Oswald stepped to the door,
where he received the money, and when he returned to the school-room,
being busily engaged with a class, instead of placing the bill in his
pocket-book lifted the cover of his desk and deposited it there;
thinking to remove it before leaving the room, at noon. He forgot to do
so, and went home to dinner leaving the money in his desk, without even
locking it. The circumstance recurred to his mind soon after the school
was called to order in the afternoon; and, going at once to his desk,
could hardly credit his own eyesight when he perceived that the bill was
gone; he examined all the papers in the desk, as well as every crevice
and corner, but no bill could be found; and he became convinced that it