ible. The boys already inside lounged
near any desks but their own, and conversed in low tones about almost
everything except the subject upper-most in their minds, this subject
being a handsome but rather sober-looking boy of about fourteen years,
who was seated at a desk in the back part of the room, and trying,
without any success whatever, to look as if he did not know that all the
other boys were looking at him.

It was not at all wonderful that the boys stared, for none of them had
ever before seen the new pupil, and Laketon was so small a town that the
appearance of a strange boy was almost as unusual an event as the coming
of a circus.

"Let's give it up," said Will Palmer, who had for five minutes been
discussing with several other boys all sorts of improbabilities about
the origin of the new pupil; "let's give it up until roll-call; then
we'll learn his name, and that'll be a little comfort."

"I wish Mr. Morton would hurry, then," said Benny Mallow. "I came early
this morning to see if I couldn't win back my striped alley from Ned
Johnston, and this business has kept us from playing a single game.
Quick, boys, quick! Mr. Morton's getting ready to touch the bell."

The group separated in an instant, and every member was seated before
the bell struck; so were most of the other boys, and so many pairs of
eyes looked inquiringly at the teacher that Mr. Morton himself had to
bite his lower lip very hard to keep from laughing as he formally rang
the school to order. As the roll was called, the boys answered to their
names in a prompt, sharp, business-like way, quite unusual in
school-rooms; and as the call proceeded, the responses became so quick
as to sometimes get a little ahead of the names that the boys knew were
coming.

Suddenly, as the names beginning with G were reached, and Charlie Gunter
had his mouth wide open, ready to say "Here," the teacher called, "Paul
Grayson."

"Here!" answered the new boy.

A slight sensation ran through the school; no boy did anything for which
he had to be called to order, yet somehow the turning of heads, the
catching of breath, and the letting go of breath that had been held in
longer than usual made a slight commotion, which reached the ears of the
strange pupil, and made his look rather more ill at ease than before.
The answers to the roll became at once less spirited; indeed, Benny
Mallow was staring so hard, now that he had a name to increase his
interest in the