ords. The pupils all
seemed to feel that they stood in the presence of a great strife. One
naturally holds his breath under such circumstances.

Then "Dodd" stood up in his place, and the latent manhood, that had
long lain dormant within him, asserted itself. In a clear though
somewhat subdued voice, he said:

"I want to apologize for what I did this morning, and I pledge you my
word of honor that hereafter, so long as I am a member of this school,
I will behave myself."

His voice trembled somewhat towards the close, but he went bravely
through to the end, and then sat down.

Then Mr. Bright bowed his head, and said:

"Our Father in heaven, whose weak and erring children we all are, bless
the boy whose confession we have just heard, and help him to keep his
word of honor like a man. And help us all, in all our strifes with
evil and with wrong, that we may come out of them better, and stronger,
and purer, even as our Master was made perfect through suffering,
Amen." That was all!

Perhaps there were dry eyes in the room just then. If so, they did not
appear,

After a pause of an instant, Mr. Bright said:

"You may go on with your work," and the pupils turned to their books
again.

In five minutes more the hum of the busy school room was as if nothing
uncommon had happened, and classes were reciting as usual.

The deacon and his fellow-members sat upon the platform till recess,
listening to recitations, and then left; the president remarking to the
teacher as they went out, that they "thought the school was doing very
well!"

"Dodd" and Mr. Bright walked home together after school was out.

"Where do you suppose I hid?" asked "Dodd," as they walked along.

"I have no idea," returned Mr. Bright.

"I ran down cellar, and, crawled part way up the airshaft back of the
furnace," said "Dodd." And that was the last that was ever said about
the affair by either teacher or pupil.

CHAPTER XVII.

For a few months after the event just narrated "Dodd" went to school to
Mr. Bright, and during the whole time he deported himself as a good and
faithful student should. But with the next meeting of the Conference,
Parson Weaver was shifted again, and with him went the hero of this
story. (I think "Dodd" may justly be called a hero after so bravely
doing what he did in the presence of the school and the board of
education, as just told.) Mr. Bright also left Emburg the following
year, and so he and "Dod