t a short distance into the lake. The rowers landed and
carried the painter of the scow on shore, by which they pulled the
clumsy craft up to the bank.

The tents, cooking utensils, and other camp furniture, were landed and
conveyed to the high ground in the southerly portion of the island. As
soon as this work was done, Henry Vallington intimated that he wished
all the boys to assemble near the point, for a "powwow," to consult
upon the state of affairs. The word was passed from mouth to mouth,
till all the rebels had gathered at the appointed place.

"Now, fellows, we want to make arrangements for doing this business in
good order. When Mr. Parasyte gets back to the Institute, and finds
that we are gone, he will not be likely to take it as quietly as he
has all day. Our breaking away has really broken up the Parkville
Liberal Institute, and I shouldn't be surprised if its principal took
some decided steps. I haven't any idea what he will do, but in my
opinion he will do something."

"What can he do?" asked Tom Rush.

"He can do a great many things, and especially a great many foolish
things. I suppose, when we come down to the niceties of the matter, we
hadn't any right to take the boats or the tents. In fact, Mr. Parasyte
stands _in loco parentis_ to us."

"In what?" asked one of the boys who did not study Latin.

"In the place of our parents; and therefore has authority to do
anything which parents might do. I can't help saying that I have no
respect for Mr. Parasyte; that I despise him from the bottom of my
heart. He knows, just as well as we do, that Bill Poodles made the
trouble yesterday, and he persists in punishing Thornton for it. For
such a man I can have no respect."

"So say we all!" shouted the boys.

"There is no safety for any of us, if we permit such injustice. He may
take a miff at any of us any time. I hope that something good will
come out of this scrape; and I think that something will."

I learned then, for the first time, that Vallington had drawn up a
paper, setting forth the grievances of the students, in which several
instances of Mr. Parasyte's injustice and partiality were related, and
concluding with a full history of the affair between Poodles and
myself. This paper had been signed by eighty-one of the students, and
the publisher of the Parkville Standard had engaged to print it on a
letter sheet, to be sent to the parents of the rebel scholars.

"Mr. Hardy has been discharged.