ance with it would content him. He
had an original system of keeping the school record, which puzzled Bert
very much, and took him a good while to understand.

On the doctor's desk lay a large book, something like a business ledger.
One page was devoted to each day. At the left side of the page was the
column containing the boys' names, arranged in order of seniority, the
boy who had been longest in the school being at the head, and the last
new boy at the foot. Each boy had a line to himself, running out to the
end of the page, and these parallel lines were crossed by vertical ones,
ruled from the top to the bottom of the page, and having at the top the
names of all the different classes; so that the page when ready for its
entries resembled very much a checker board, only that the squares were
very small, and exceedingly numerous. Just how these squares, thus
standing opposite each name, should be filled, depended upon the
behaviour of the owner of that name, and his knowledge of his lessons.

If Bert, for instance, recited his grammar lesson without a slip, the
letter B--standing for _bene_, well--was put in the grammar column. If
he made one mistake, the entry was V B, _vix bene_--scarcely well; if
two mistakes, Med, _mediocriter_--middling; and if three, M,
_male_--badly, equivalent to not knowing it at all. The same system
prevailed for all the lessons, and in a modified form for the behaviour
or deportment also. As regards behaviour, the arrangement was one bad
mark for each offence, the first constituting a V B, the second a Med,
the third an M, and the fourth a P, the most ominous letter of all,
standing, as it did, for _pessime_--as bad as possible--and one might
also say for punishment also; as whoever got a P thereby earned a
whipping with that long strap, concerning which Bert had heard such
alarming stories.

It will be seen that, by following out the line upon which each boy's
name stood, his complete record as a scholar could be seen, and upon
this record the doctor based the award of prizes at the close of the
term. For he was a firm believer in the benefits of prize-giving, and
every half-year, on the day before the holidays, a bookcase full of fine
books, each duly inscribed, was distributed among those who had come out
at the head in the different classes, or distinguished themselves by
constant good behaviour.

Once that Bert fully understood the purpose of this daily record, and
the principle u