the matter of
temperament into consideration. Judd was as different from Bob as
Saturday was from Sunday. It did not take the students long to
discover that he was unusually shy and self-conscious. Judd would
almost jump at his own shadow. He avoided crowds and made friends
slowly. As for competition, he apparently detested it, retracing his
steps rather than encounter physical conflict. And so, when he might
have been the idol of the entire school, Judd soon became the object of
disgust.

"My eyes!" he would offer as excuse for his not taking up with sports.
It was true that he had had some trouble with his eyes but townspeople
shook their heads and said wisely that Judd's eyes were only serving as
his alibi. The trouble was more deep-rooted than that.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with Judd!" explained old Mr. Bailey,
proprietor of the Trumbull General Store, "I used to know his Dad, Jim
Billings. He was a steady customer of mine up to the time of his death
and some man he was, too! As husky a farmer as I ever see! He didn't
have any use for mollycoddles and he brought his oldest boy, Bob, up to
fight his own battles, not wasting any sympathy on him. But Judd came
along seven years after Bob and he missed out on old Jim's
disciplinin'. With the father dead, Judd came under his mother's care
and Mrs. Billings has sure put her boy on the toboggan. You see she's
so nervous and scarey that she imagines terrible things are going to
happen to everybody. She hasn't let Judd go skating on the bay for
fear the ice might break. She's against his going into sports because
he might get injured. She's made a hothouse plant out of that big,
strapping fellow and I say it's a cryin' shame because Judd's got the
same stuff in him his father was made of if he could only get it out.
Wish Judd could be around Bob for awhile. That's the kind of
association he needs!"

Mrs. Billings, well meaning though she had been, realized finally that
something must be done about Judd. Her anxious attention had been
divided between him and the operation of the farm. Hank Duncan, Jim
Billings' hired man, had taken charge of the place with Jim's passing,
Mrs. Billings insisting that Bob secure the college education which he
had planned before going into service.

"I can't understand what is the matter with Judd," she wrote her older
son early in June, "I've tried to give him every opportunity and to do
everything for him I thought