his big sleigh. The schoolboys gave him a parting salute of
snowballs which the farmer tried in vain to duck.

"Hi, yeou!" he roared. "Want to knock the top of my head off? Stop it!"
And then, to escape his tormentors, he whipped up his horses and dashed
out of the Hall grounds at top speed. It was the last the boys saw of
him for a long time.

It was not until after the day's sessions were over that Dave got a
chance to see Gus Plum alone. The two met in the upper hallway and
walked to the dormitory the former bully occupied, and Plum locked the
door.

"Sit down, Dave, I want to talk to you," said Plum, and motioned Dave to
the easiest chair the dormitory contained. Then he sank on the edge of a
bed close by.

"All right, Gus, fire away," answered Dave, and he wondered what was
coming next.

"I--er--I don't know how to say it--how to begin," stammered the former
bully, and his face showed a trace of red in it. "But I've made up my
mind to speak to you, and ask your advice. You saved me from a terrible
disgrace, Dave, and I know you'll tell me the best thing to do."

"What about?"

"Well--about everything. First of all, about staying here. At first I
thought I could do it--that I could face the crowd and live it down. But
now--the way some of the boys treat me--and look at me--and the remarks
made behind my back! Oh, Dave, it's terrible,--you can't imagine how
hard it is!" And there was a quiver in Gus Plum's voice that meant a
great deal.

"I am sorry to hear of this, Gus. But you must live it down, there is
nothing else to do."

"I can go away--my folks are ready to send me to another school."

"Don't do it--stay here and fight it out. I know how you feel--I felt
that way when they called me 'a poorhouse nobody.'"

"Oh, Dave, I did that! I am so sorry now!"

"You are bound to win in the end--if you do what is fair and honest. So
long as Doctor Clay is willing to keep you, you'd better stay by all
means."

"Yes, yes, I know, but--but--there is something else." Plum dropped his
hands in his face. "I don't know how I am going to tell you, but I want
to tell somebody. It's been on my mind ever since it happened." And
then, to Dave's amazement, Gus Plum threw himself across the bed and
began to sob violently.

CHAPTER VI

GUS PLUM'S CONFESSION

That the former bully of Oak Hall was thoroughly broken-down there could
be no doubt, and Dave pitied him from the bottom of his heart. He
wondered w