tly excluded from nearly all other, more
peaceful pursuits and interests of these older ones, it was not
unnatural that he should feel merely a spectator's interest in their
fistic battles also, and that he should look upon them as he would have
looked upon any other natural phenomenon--with some excitement, perhaps,
but with no personal concern.

Bob admired his mother. To him, she was the most beautiful and the most
resourceful woman in the world. He had found her judgment upon many
subjects so wise that he was quite prepared to believe her position in
this matter (which did not appear to be vital) completely and
unquestionably correct, and to promise accordingly.

But conditions which exist on the big, bare public-school playgrounds,
away alike from parental restraint and parental protection, are quite
different from those in the home door-yard, and the code which obtains
in the ward-school world is not an open book to all mothers of
chubby-fisted sons who are called upon to observe it. It seems difficult
for mothers to comprehend that a normal boy's standing on the
school-ground is, like that of a young cock in a barn-yard, simply a
matter of mettle and muscle.

So it was as early as Bob's second day at school--on the first Papa Jack
had gone with him--that a revelation came both to him and to his mother.
To him it was a painful revelation, first because he had this new code
to learn, and afterward because of his promise; and it was the latter
thing that made the real difficulty. When you are a small boy you can
easily adapt yourself and your habits of mind to new conditions and
environment; but when you have some one else to think of, and when you
are bound by a promise, that complicates matters.

[Illustration: "SCHOOL-BAG AND LUNCH-BOX DROPPED FROM HIS HANDS"]

Now, one "Curly" Davis--who was said to have been christened Charles,
but whose astonishingly spiral locks surely constituted better authority
for a name than any possible application of baptismal water--was, by
right of reputed might, dictator of the Vine Street Primary. Curly was
alleged to be of pugnacious disposition, and had not been bred to
appreciation of the Golden Rule. He had the outward bearing of one who
has reason for confidence in his personal prowess. He was popularly
believed to have fought many fights and fierce,--just when and where his
admirers seemed not to consider important,--and he had a reputation for
ferocity rather disproport