intly, "I--I guess I--I'm not--er--what y'd call
_glad_."

"Ah, me grand lad!" exclaimed the priest. "Ye feel like I want ye t'
feel! Because that's how a fine, decent lad _ought_ t' feel! Not glad!
Not gloryin' over a bully that's had his desert! Not holdin' on t' hate
once the fight is done! Lad dear, ye don't ever disappoint Father Pat!
And, oh, he thanks God for it!"

Johnnie felt boyishly shy and awkward then, looking at the floor and
wriggling his toes, and taking back into his cheeks quite a supply of
color in the form of blushes.

One-Eye also broke forth with commendations. "That's the ticket!" he
cried. "No crowin'! Aw, Johnnie, y're a blamed white kid!" Whereupon,
feeling around close to the floor till he located one of Johnnie's
ankles, he made his way up to those narrow--and sore--shoulders, and
gave them such a hearty slap of approbation that tears started in a
certain pair of yellow-gray eyes.

"I'm glad, too, that you feel as you do about it," said Mr. Perkins,
earnestly. "And, Johnnie, have you done your good turn yet to-day?"

"No, sir," answered Johnnie, apologetically. "But y' see, I been tied t'
the table, and also I jus' only come to, and----"

"I understand," broke in the scoutmaster quickly. "But perhaps when Mr.
Barber comes in--his face, you know. Could you wash it up a bit?"

"Ye-e-e-es, sir,"--reluctantly; for young as he was, Johnnie realized
that whatever his own feelings toward the longshoreman might be, they
were no gauge of the feelings of the longshoreman toward him. However,
dutifully he went to find the wash basin, and fill it; and he accepted
from Mr. Perkins a most immaculate wash cloth, this one of those
wonderful handkerchiefs which had colored borders.

He was prepared for his good turn not a moment too soon. For the stairs
outside were creaking under slow and heavy steps. "The conq'rin' hero!"
announced One-Eye, with a blind, but sweepin' bow in the general
direction of the on-comer.

"Sh!" cautioned Mr. Perkins.

One-Eye did a comical collapse upon the mattress, his reinhand, as he
chose to term his left, well stuffed into his mustached mouth. The
others were silent, too--as the door opened and Big Tom came crawling
in.

This was a woefully changed Big Tom. His great, hairy face was darker
than usual, what with the battering it had received, and the blood
which was drying upon it. There was a scarlet gap across one of those
prominent ears, the lobe of which was as