his face, he stroked the cleft in his chin thoughtfully--a trick he
never lost--and said in a quiet, convincing tone:

"You always were an awful fool, Judson," this to the bully. "If you
had the sense of a cat you wouldn't haze this little fellow for what
he can't help, but instead you'd use him. Why, if _I_ had him in _my_
French class, I'd make him do most of the reciting and keep old Duval
busy--he'd never see through it. Think it over. Come on, shaver!"

This he said to me and I trotted off his slave--his fag, I hoped, but
vainly, as it proved.

I tell this at length because it illustrates Roger's character so
perfectly. Not that he couldn't fight, but he preferred not if a
little practical arbitration could be made to do the work of battle.
And yet he was rather tactless in a social sense: this was his
professional attitude, you understand.

"You're the little French boy," he said, as I followed him. "What's
your name, anyhow? I'm Roger Bradley." As if I didn't know!

"If you pl--I mean, mine is Winfred Jerrolds," I said shyly.

"You're not really French, are you?"

It was the first time I had ever been proud of my American blood. I
told him about my American mother and my English father, his tragic
death and her return to her own country after twelve years of absence;
of the acquisition of my wonderful French, which was only the work of
two years, of my violin lessons, strictly concealed from the other
boys, of my old Swiss nurse, now our cook, of my French poodle, and a
score of other secrets never breathed before.

He was deeply interested, inquired the brave details of my father's
death, shook hands heartily, and expressed his intention of inviting
me to his home some time during the vacation. We parted the best of
friends and shall be, I trust, till we part for good and all.

I did not visit him, however, that vacation. Some slight injury,
received during a game of his favourite baseball, affected his eyes,
and for six months he could not use them at all, so he did not return
to school until the next autumn. When we met again it was on a
different basis, for I had made good use of my time and had mounted
rapidly in my classes. Whether it was because I kept the habit of
vacation study (the entire lazy freedom of American school children
during the long vacation was very shocking to my mother) or whether my
habit of application and concentration, the fact that I had really
been taught to study, not m