"You play a splendid game," said Will to Grayson as they went up stairs
side by side. "Where did you learn it?"

Joe Appleby, who was on the step in front of the couple, dragged just an
instant in order to catch the expected information, but all he got was a
bump from Palmer, that nearly tumbled him forward on his dignified nose,
as Grayson answered,

"Oh, in several places; nowhere in particular."

Palmer immediately determined that he would follow his new schoolmate
home at noon, and discover where he lived. Then he would interview the
neighbors, and try to get some information ahead of that stuck-up Joe
Appleby, who, considering he was only four months older than Palmer
himself, put on too many airs for anything. But when school was
dismissed, Palmer was disgusted at noting that at least half of the
other boys were distributing themselves for just such an operation as
the one he had planned. Besides, Grayson did not come down stairs with
the crowd. Could it be possible that he was from the country, and had
brought a cold lunch to school with him? Palmer hurried up the stairs to
see, but met the teacher and the new boy coming down, and the two walked
away, and together entered the house of old Mrs. Bartle, where Mr.
Morton boarded.

"He's a boarding scholar," exclaimed Benny Mallow. "I've read of such
things in books."

"Then he'll be stuck up," declared Joe Appleby.

This opinion was delivered with a shake of the head that seemed to
intimate that Joe had known all the ways of boarding scholars for
thousands of years; so most of the boys looked quite sober for a moment
or two. Finally Sam Wardwell, whose father kept a store, broke the
silence by remarking, "I'll bet he's from Boston; his coat is of just
the same stuff as one that a drummer wears who comes to see father
sometimes."

"Umph!" grunted Appleby; "do you suppose Boston has some kinds of cloth
all to itself? _You_ don't know much."

The smaller boys seemed to side with the senior pupil in this opinion;
so Sam felt very uncomfortable, and vowed silently that he would bring a
piece of chalk to school that very afternoon, and do some rapid
sketching on the back of Appleby's own coat. Then Benny Mallow said:
"Say, boys, this old school must be a pretty good one, after all, if
people somewhere else send boarders to it. His folks must be rich: did
you notice what a splendid knife he cut his finger-nails with?--'twas a
four-blader, with a pearl handle.