ectly keep his own counsel. If a new rule was promulgated, Joseph
obeyed it to the letter. But whether it was agreeable or disagreeable
to him, no teacher could ever find out. Nor was his obedience of that
tame, passive sort which comes from indifference and lack of spirit. We
all knew him to be resolute, and to be possessed of strong passions. But
his power of self-restraint was equal to his power of reticence. He had,
indeed, in a very marked degree, qualities which you look for only in
those who have had a long schooling in the stern realities of life, and
which you find rarely even then. He was as self-poised as a man of
fifty, with not a particle of that easy impulsiveness so nearly
universal at his age.

None of the gentleman's performances surprised me so much as the
character which he assigned to this boy, and all the more because
something of the boy's self-continence and reserve was written upon his
face and manner. He was represented by the Professor, in general terms,
as having a free and easy, rollicking sort of disposition--not being
really worse than his companions, though probably having the reputation
of being so. 'If he got into more scrapes than the others [Joseph was
never in a scrape in his life], it was more owing to his natural
impulsiveness than to anything inherently bad in him. And then, when he
did get into a scrape, he had no faculty for concealing it. His organ of
secretiveness was unusually small. The boys would hardly admit him to a
partnership in their plans of mischief, so sure was he inadvertently to
let the cat out of the bag,' etc., etc.

_Boy No. 6_ was the weakest boy, mentally, that we had in school. He was
barely able to take care of himself. Some of his mistakes and blunders
were so ridiculous, that they were handed down among the traditionary
jokes of the school, and I am afraid even at this day to repeat them,
lest they may be recognized. If the manipulator had had the cranium of
Daniel Webster under his fingers, he could not have drawn a mental
character more marked by every trait that belongs to intellectual
greatness of the highest order. Finding that he was making a decided
impression upon his young hearers, the Professor continued to pile up
qualities and powers, until the scene became almost too much for the
most practised gravity.

The examinations occupied an hour, and I made copious notes of the
whole, writing down, as nearly as I could, the exact expressions used by