d would save her boy from wrecking his life and
bringing misery to his friends, as this beloved brother had done.

Now Leonard chose to be half offended over what his mother had said to
him. 'Mother wants me to be like a duffing girl,' he whispered to
himself as she left the room. 'I wonder who it is she was telling me
about. Somebody who has got himself into a nice scrape, and been
obliged to leave England. It was a nice thing to be told I was like
this scapegrace,' he muttered. But, in spite of his anger, he did
manage to learn something of his lessons that night before he went to
bed; and he might have got on fairly well in class, if he had not met
Taylor early in his walk to school. Taylor was brimming over with the
importance of a piece of news he had heard.

'What do you think, Morrison? There are a lot of sneaks in the school
who have set up a swatting club without saying a word to us about it!'

'Yes, I know; my pater has heard of it, and wants me to join it.'

'You'll never do it, Morrison!' exclaimed the elder lad.

'Not if I know it. What do you take me for? Isn't it enough to be
worried by the masters? No, thank you; I'm going to stick to my
friends.'

'Yes, and you must fight with them too, unless you want to see
Torrington's ruined as a school for gentlemen. That's what my pater
says, and I guess he knows as much as most. He has made his pile;
means I shall be a gentleman, and that is all he cares for. Lessons be
blowed! They're all very well for scholarship boys and such cads. Your
father ought to be ashamed of himself ever to have sent that board
school boy among gentlemen, and the beggar will have to go!'

Leonard did not reply, for he did not like to hear any action of his
father blamed, and so he walked along in silence, while Taylor poured
out further angry denunciations until the school was reached.

During the course of the class lessons that morning it became very
evident that there was a dividing line between those who had carefully
studied their subjects and the rest of the class. Warren, Howard, and
seven or eight other lads held the top part of the class in all
subjects, and Taylor, Morrison, and the rest of that part kept
steadily at the bottom.

'I've had enough of this,' said Taylor when they came into the
playground after dinner. 'That scholarship boy is at the bottom of the
whole thing, and we must get rid of him.'

'You've said that before,' grumbled Curtis.

'Yes, I know I