pt them at home
to do some work, and so forth. Schoolboys are always fertile in excuses,
and, only too often, indifferent as to the quantity of truth these may
contain.

Another curious feature of Mr. Garrison's system, or rather lack of
system, was that he kept no record of the order of standing in the
classes; and so, when the class in geography, for instance, was called
to recite, the boys would come tumbling pell-mell out of their seats,
and crowd tumultuously to the space in front of the desk, with the
invariable result that the smaller boys would be sent to the bottom of
the class, whether they deserved to be there or not. Then as to the
hearing of the lesson, there was absolutely no rule about it. Sometimes
the questions would be divided impartially among the whole class.
Sometimes they would all be asked of a single boy, and if he happened to
answer correctly,--which, however, was an extremely rare
occurrence,--the class would be dismissed without one of the others
being questioned.

Another peculiarity of Mr. Garrison's was his going out on business for
an hour or more at a time, and leaving the school in charge of one of
the older boys, who would exercise the authority thus conferred upon him
in a lax and kindly, or severe and cruel manner, according to his
disposition. One of the boys generally chosen for this duty was a big,
good-hearted fellow named Munro; another was an equally big, but
sour-dispositioned chap named Siteman; and whenever Mr. Garrison showed
signs of going out, there was always intense excitement among the boys,
to see who would be appointed monitor, and lively satisfaction, or deep
disappointment, according to the choice made.

It was a little while, of course, before Bert found all this out, and in
the meantime he made good headway in the school, because his father took
care that his lessons were well learned every evening before he went to
bed; and Mr. Garrison soon discovered that whoever else might fail,
there was one boy in Bert's classes that could be depended upon for a
right answer, and that was Bert himself.

There was another person who noticed Bert's ready accuracy, and that was
"Shorty" Bowser.

"Say, Bert," said he one day, "how is that you always have your lessons
down so fine? You never seem to trip up at all."

"Because father always sees that I learn 'em," answered Bert. "If I
don't learn 'em in the evening, I've got to do it before breakfast in
the morning."

"I