turned he ran for the door.

"It is," Daniel Arker was shouting.

"It ain't," Samuel Carter retorted, sticking out his tongue.

"Boys, be quiet!" I commanded.

"He said his eye was swole worse 'an mine oncet," cried Daniel.

His good eye was blazing, his shoulders were squared back, and his fists
were clenched. There was no sign of a snuffle about him now. Heaven,
but he looked fine! All this time I had wronged Daniel. I had only
known him as he crawled to me broken and bruised after the conflict. I
had never known the odds he had encountered, for when I questioned him he
just snuffled. Now I saw him before the battle, ready to defend his
honor against a lad of more than his years and size, and the wickedest
fighter in the school. I believed that had I let him loose there he
would have whipped. But one in my position is hemmed in by tradition, so
in my private capacity I was patting the boy's head with the same motion
that I used in my public capacity to push him into his seat, while with a
crutch I made a feint at Samuel that sent him scurrying to his place.

The biggest boy in the school sauntered in. He carefully upset three
dinner pails from the shelves in the rear as he hung up his hat. I
reprimanded him most severely, but I finished my lecture before he had
replaced the cans. Then he shuffled to his place and got out a book as a
sign that school might begin.

Now, I always liked that biggest boy. He knew his position so well. He