he
had only half mastered them, for his thoughts had wandered continually
from the subject of the lesson before him to the events of his day at
school, trying to discover what he had done to offend his
schoolfellows, that they should all at once send him to Coventry in
this fashion. The study of mathematics, French, chemistry, and physics
did not help him to the solution of this problem; but the school
mystery greatly hindered the other subjects from becoming clear to his
mind, and when he took his place in class the next morning he knew it
would be a bad day for him with his class-work.

It was worse even than he feared, and as he lost place after place,
and went down at last even below the dunces of the form, it hurt him
more to see how gleeful the other boys were over his mistakes than to
lose his place in the class.

At last, when Horace had blundered worse than usual over some lesson,
the master said, 'What is the matter with you to-day, Howard? Are you
ill? Have you got a headache?'

'No, sir,' answered Horace, for he was a truthful lad, and could not
avail himself of the excuse the master had thus offered him.

'You could not have prepared your lessons last night, then; you know
the rule about this, don't you?' said the master sternly.

'Yes, sir; I studied my lessons for more than two hours last night,'
said Horace, reddening and growing more confused, for he knew all the
class were staring at him, and, as he fancied, glorying in his
discomfiture. In this he was not far wrong; but there were one or two
who pitied him in his various dilemmas, and would have broken that ban
of silence that had been decreed against him, but the leaders kept
their eyes upon them, and they would not venture to brave the
displeasure of their elders.

Altogether it was a cruelly hard day for Horace, and he felt strongly
inclined to say when he went home, that he would never go near the
school again, but become a carpenter like his brother. One trade would
be as good as another, if he could not go on and learn more of the
mysteries of chemistry and physics It was some consolation to him
that his master had told him to prepare a special lesson in chemistry,
in readiness for some practical experiments that were to take place
the following day.

In his eagerness over this Horace forgot the vexations and trials of
the day, and had mastered it so quickly, that he was able to look over
again the lessons that had floored him in class