was little known to Mr. Cathro at this time, except as the boy who
had got the better of a rival teacher in the affair of Corp, which had
delighted him greatly. "But if the sacket thinks he can play any of his
tricks on me," he told Aaron, "there is an awakening before him," and he
began the cramming of Tommy for a bursary with perfect confidence.

But before the end of the month, at the mere mention of Tommy's name,
Mr. Cathro turned red in the face, and the fingers of his laying-on hand
would clutch an imaginary pair of tawse. Already Tommy had made him
self-conscious. He peered covertly at Tommy, and Tommy caught him at it
every time, and then each quickly looked another way, and Cathro vowed
never to look again, but did it next minute, and what enraged him most
was that he knew Tommy noted his attempts at self-restraint as well as
his covert glances. All the other pupils knew that a change for the
worse had come over the dominie's temper. They saw him punish Tommy
frequently without perceptible cause, and that he was still unsatisfied
when the punishment was over. This apparently was because Tommy gave him
a look before returning to his seat. When they had been walloped they
gave Cathro a look also, but it merely meant, "Oh, that this was a dark
road and I had a divot in my hand!" while his look was unreadable, that
is unreadable to them, for the dominie understood it and writhed. What
it said was, "You think me a wonder, and therefore I forgive you."

"And sometimes he fair beats Cathro!" So Tommy's schoolmates reported at
home, and the dominie had to acknowledge its truth to Aaron. "I wish you
would give that sacket a thrashing for me," he said, half furiously, yet
with a grin on his face, one day when he and the warper chanced to meet
on the Monypenny road.

"I'll no lay a hand on bairn o' Jean Myles," Aaron replied. "Ay, and I
understood you to say that he should meet his match in you."

"Did I ever say that, man? Well, well, we live and learn."

"What has he been doing now?"

"What has he been doing!" echoed Cathro. "He has been making me look
foolish in my own class-room. Yes, sir, he has so completely got the
better of me (and not for the first time) that when I tell the story of
how he diddled Mr. Ogilvy, Mr. Ogilvy will be able to cap it with the
story of how the little whelp diddled me. Upon my soul, Aaron, he is
running away with all my self-respect and destroying my sense of humor."

What had so c