r
consideration. It is this--that the man who devotes too much thought to
'getting even' with other folks is likely to let slip a lot of good,
solid chances for getting ahead in the world. I don't blame any fellow
for protecting his own rights and dignity, but just think over what I
said, won't you, about the chap who spends too much of his time thinking
up ways to get even with others?"

"There's a good idea in that, sir," Dick assented.

"Of course you've heard, Master Prescott, that 'revenge is sweet?'"

"Yes; I have."

"And I believe, Master Prescott, that the saying is often true. But did
it ever strike you, in this connection, that sweet things often make one
sick at his stomach? I believe this is just as true of revenge as it is
of other sweets. And now run along, or you won't have time to do justice
to the pudding that your mother has undoubtedly been baking for you this
morning."

As Dick hastened from the room he found Dave Darrin waiting for him. Out
in the corridor beyond these two encountered Holmes, Dalzell, Hazelton
and Reade, for these six boys of the "top grade" generally stuck
together in all things concerning school life.

"Was Old Dut blowing you up for showing him how to pitch a book?"
inquired Greg.

"No; Old Dut doesn't seem to hold that in for me very hard," smiled
Prescott. "But he was giving me something to think over."

"Huh!" muttered Greg, as the boys walked down the outer steps. "I'd like
to give him something to think about. Why did you get so crusty when I
sprang the idea of doing the wreck scene in his flower beds to-night?"

"Because the idea was too kiddish," returned Dick. "Besides, Old Dut was
talking to me a good deal along such lines."

"Did you go and tell him what I wanted to do?" flared Greg.

"I didn't. But Old Dut pinned me down and asked me whether that book
throwing were really an accident, and I had to admit that it wasn't.
Now, listen!"

Dick thereupon repeated his conversation with Principal Jones.

"He's a wise man, all right," nodded Harry Hazelton.

"I guess so," nodded Dave Darrin. "After all, it would look rather
kiddish in us to go slipping up to his front yard in the dark night,
lifting off his front gate and carrying it down to the river."

"It would be stealing, or wasting, property, also," agreed Tom Reade.

"So, fellows," resumed Dick, "I guess----"

"Hullo! What's going on down there?" broke in Darrin hastily, as all six
of the Grammar Sch