wrought the naked savage,
decorated with paint and feathers, and courting his wife by knocking her
senseless with a club and carrying her to a cave, into the well-dressed,
gallant, kindly, thoughtful and refined gentleman of to-day.

Just a little of this realizing sense of what he should be, and why,
came to the boy, and as ever will be it was a woman's face and a woman's
smiles, albeit a very young and blue-eyed one, that inspired the
thought. His parents rallied him a little about the party, but to him it
was--especially its ending, a sacred secret. Then one day he astonished
them by asking if he might have a new suit and go to the academy that
coming winter. He had never before shown any unusual eagerness for
study, and this request was surprising. For several weeks the question
was held in abeyance, though duly considered in the family councils; and
then one day at the supper-table the answer came.

"If the boy wants more learnin'," his father said, "by gosh, he can have
it. I never had much chance at books myself, but that ain't no reason
why he shouldn't. We'll fix ye up," he said cheerfully, with a twinkle
in his eye, "so ye won't be ashamed to go to a party again;" from which
it may be inferred that the old gentleman had divined some things which
the boy little suspected he had.

When the winter term at the village academy opened, the boy was there,
his courage a good deal strengthened by a new suit that fitted and a
pair of boots that did not give the impression that he was falling
downstairs at every step. But his entry into the new school was not a
thornless path. Most of the faces were new to him, and many a good deal
older. He still felt himself what he was--a big, awkward boy, though a
boy with a determined will to study hard and make the most of his
opportunity.

He soon learned a good many things; one of which was that earnestness in
study did not always win the favor of either teacher or schoolmates;
that in school, as in the world, pleasant manners and flattering words
counted for more than devotion to duty. He also learned that such a
thing as favoritism between master and pupil existed, and that the
poorest scholar often stood nearest the teacher's heart. The master, Mr.
Webber, he discovered, had a monstrous bump of self-esteem. He was a
small man, not larger than the boy, who was sixteen, and large for his
age, and who, as big boys will, cherished a sort of contempt for small
men. It is possib