officer."

"Ay, won't he!" said Tom, brightening. "No fellow could handle boys
better, and I suppose soldiers are very like boys. And he'll never tell
them to go where he won't go himself. No mistake about that. A braver
fellow never walked."

"His year in the sixth will have taught him a good deal that will be
useful to him now."

"So it will,"' said Tom, staring into the fire. "Poor dear Harry," he
went on--"how well I remember the day we were put out of the twenty! How
he rose to the situation, and burnt his cigar-cases, and gave away his
pistols, and pondered on the constitutional authority of the sixth, and
his new duties to the Doctor, and the fifth form, and the fags! Ay, and
no fellow ever acted up to them better, though he was always a people's
man--for the fags, and against constituted authorities. He couldn't
help that, you know. I'm sure the Doctor must have liked him?" said Tom,
looking up inquiringly.

"The Doctor sees the good in every one, and appreciates it," said the
master dogmatically; "but I hope East will get a good colonel. He won't
do if he can't respect those above him. How long it took him, even here,
to learn the lesson of obeying!"

"Well, I wish I were alongside of him," said Tom. "If I can't be at
Rugby, I want to be at work in the world, and not dawdling away three
years at Oxford."

"What do you mean by 'at work in the world'?" said the master, pausing
with his lips close to his saucerful of tea, and peering at Tom over it.

"Well, I mean real work--one's profession--whatever one will have really
to do and make one's living by. I want to be doing some real good,
feeling that I am not only at play in the world," answered Tom, rather
puzzled to find out himself what he really did mean.

"You are mixing up two very different things in your head, I think,
Brown," said the master, putting down the empty saucer, "and you ought
to get clear about them. You talk of 'working to get your living,' and
'doing some real good in the world,' in the same breath. Now, you may be
getting a very good living in a profession, and yet doing no good at all
in the world, but quite the contrary, at the same time. Keep the latter
before you as your one object, and you will be right, whether you make
a living or not; but if you dwell on the other, you'll very likely drop
into mere money-making, and let the world take care of itself for good
or evil. Don't be in a hurry about finding your work in the world