, and there isn't much
that he wouldn't do for me."

"You deserve it," said Ralph.

"Well, to make a long story short, he was a student at the Earlville
Academy. He's a fine, manly fellow, nothing sneaking or mean about
him. One night, though, he and his school chums got to cutting up.
They raided the town and had a dozen fights with the village boys. One
of them was taken prisoner, a lad named Ernest Gregg. The academy
fellows decided to haze him. They put him through an awful course of
sprouts. They ducked him in the river, scared him with mock gunpowder
explosions, and wound up by tying him blindfolded to a switch near a
railroad track. They left him there all night. The result was that
when little Ernest was discovered the next morning, he was in a high
fever and delirious."

"Too bad," murmured Ralph. "I don't think much of your Marvin Clark."

"Hold on, don't misjudge him. He helped to capture the enemy, as they
called poor little Gregg, but he left the crowd right after that,
supposing his chums would scare their captive a bit and let him go.
Clark had no hand whatever in the downright persecution that sent the
boy to the hospital. It seems that some of the gunpowder got into the
eyes of the little fellow, and the douse in the river had given him a
cold. The scare he got had nearly driven him out of his right mind,
for he was a timid little fellow. A month later Ernest was discharged
from the hospital nearly blind, thin, pale and weakly, a mere shadow
of his former self."

"Of course the academy fellows tried to make up for all that,"
suggested Ralph.

"They didn't. Vacation came on, and they hied to their homes with not
a thought of the great sorrow they had brought on their innocent
victim. They say that Clark was just furious when he heard of it all.
He laid out two of the ringleaders and shamed them in public. He
sought out Ernest and took him to the best hotel in town. He hired
doctors, and loaded the little fellow with comforts and luxuries."

"It must have cost him something," remarked Ralph.

"What did Clark care for that? His father was rich and gave him all
the money he wanted. He had an account at a bank, and was heir to two
aunts who doated on him and who were fabulously rich. I never saw a
fellow take to heart the misfortunes of a poor little stranger as
Clark did. The incident seemed to have changed his whole life. He
sobered down wonderfully. He blamed himself for the whole thing, and
to