and you stood out in the hall
and marked the list with your fountain-pen."

"Then I am heartily ashamed of myself," confessed Dr. Swift
candidly. "I had no right to do anything of the sort. I should have
sat down and put some thought into the matter. Do you suppose it would
be too late, son, for you to change your course of study this term?"

"I shouldn't want to change it much, Dad," replied Theo. "I'd be sorry
to give up any of the things I am taking, for I have worked hard at
them and it would be discouraging to have my time all thrown away. But
perhaps now that I am knocked out of athletics I might put those extra
hours into something else. Some of the boys take sloyd."

"The very thing!" exclaimed the Doctor. "Manual training is just what
we're after. You would enjoy it, too."

"I don't know whether I would or not, Dad," returned Theo frankly. "I
never was much good with tools. I like athletics better."

"That is because you have never learned to use tools properly," said
his father. "Where do you suppose I'd be now if I hadn't started out
when I was a boy to tinker round a farm? That's where I got my manual
training, and there isn't a course in the country that can equal it. I
had to use my brains, too, as well as my hands, for very often the
things I needed were not to be had and I was forced to make something
else do. It was a great education, I can tell you! What skill I have
at surgery I attribute largely to that early training. Now we'll set
right to work to remedy this lack in you, son. I'll see your principal
to-day and arrange for you to begin sloyd when you go back to school."

Theo made a grimace at which his father laughed.

"If you don't like it you can at least take it as a medicine,"
remarked the Doctor with a grin.

Dr. Swift was as good as his word, for when Theo returned to school
the following day he found that in addition to his other work he was
expected to spend an hour each morning in the carpenter's shop, a
realm toward which he had always maintained the keenest scorn. It
seemed such a foolish thing to learn to saw and drive nails! What was
the use of taking lessons? When a board was to be cut what was there
to do but take the saw and cut it? It was easy enough. As for driving
nails--that feat required no teaching.

But to Theo's amazement it needed only the first lesson to demonstrate
to him that these superficial conclusions were quite wrong. It was one
thing to cut a board haph