knew just how far it was proper for him to go, and never once did he
overstep those bounds. He held the respect and fear of his juniors
without making any open breach with the teacher. But in one way William
Bellus had been peculiarly favored. His predecessors had to deal with
Perry Thomas, and in spite of his gentle ways and intellectual cast,
Perry is active and wiry. He is a blacksmith by trade, and is the
leading tenor in the Methodist choir. This makes a combination that for
staying powers has few equals. My biggest boy's predecessor had been
utterly broken. Even the girls jeered at him until he quit school
entirely. But William had another problem. It was the disappointment of
his life that Perry Thomas retired just as he came into power. He had
declared at a mass-meeting behind the woodshed that it was a gross
injustice on the part of the directors to put a crippled teacher in
charge of the school. Where now was glory to be gained? They would have
a school-ma'am next, like they done up to Popolomus, and none but little
boys, and girls not yet out of plaits, would be so servile as to suffer
such domination. Mark Hope, the soldier, he honored! Mark Hope, the
veteran, he revered! Mark Hope, the teacher, he despised; for his
crutches made him a safe barricade against which no Biggest Boy with a
spark of honor would dare to hurl himself. There might be in the school
boys base enough to charge that he lacked spirit in his attitude of armed
neutrality. Let those traducers step forward, whether they be two or a
dozen. What would follow, the Biggest Boy did not say; but he had pulled
off his coat, and there was none to dispute him. His position was
established. Thereafter he assumed toward me a calm indifference. He
was never openly offensive. He always kept within certain carefully laid
bounds of supercilious politeness. At first he was exasperating, and I
longed to have him forget himself and overstep those bounds, that I might
make up for his disappointment in being cheated out of Perry Thomas. But
he never did.