an give that up you may as well shut
up shop altogether."

"Well, if I must do one or the other, I think I'll keep the shop open,"
said Riddell, cheerily. "By the way," added he, looking at his watch
and sighing, "I have to see some juniors in my study in two minutes.
Good-bye."

"Be sure you're down for the tub practice this afternoon."

"I'll be there," said Riddell.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

BLOOMFIELD IN TRIBULATION.

Bloomfield was beginning to discover already that the new dignity to
which he had been raised by his own partisans at Willoughby was anything
but a bed of roses. Vain and easily led as he was, he was not a bad
fellow by any means; and when the mutiny against the new captain first
began, he flattered himself that by allowing himself to be set up in
opposition he was really doing a service to Willoughby, and securing the
school against a great many disasters which were certain to ensue if
Riddell was left supreme.

But in these lofty hopes he was getting to be a trifle disappointed. In
his own house, of course, especially among those over whom he was wont
to rule in athletic sports, his authority was paramount. But these,
after all, constituted only a small section of Willoughby. Over the
rest of the school his influence was strangely overlooked, and even the
terrors of his arm failed to bring his subjects to obedience.

It was all very well at first, when the one idea was indignation against
the doctor's new appointment. But as soon as the malcontents discovered
that they had raised one more tyrant over their own heads, they began to
find out their mistake, and did their best to correct it. They argued
that as they had elected Bloomfield themselves they weren't bound to
obey him unless they chose; and when it came to the point of having to
give up their own will in obedience to his, they remembered he was not
the real captain of Willoughby and had no right to order them!

So poor Bloomfield did not find things quite as comfortable as he had
expected.

One of the first rebuffs he got was administered by no less stately a
hand than that of Master Telson of the schoolhouse.

This young gentleman ever since his last unfortunate expedition in
"Noah's Ark" had been somewhat under a cloud. His forced absence from
the river for a whole week had preyed upon his spirits. And when at the
end of that period he did revisit his old haunts, armed with a captain's
permit, it was only to discover that