e arouse any ill-feeling
against him. Boys are odd creatures. They heartily admire and applaud
the fiery, reckless fellow, who takes no thought for the consequences,
and yet they thoroughly appreciate the quiet, cool self-command of the
one who does not move until he knows just what he is going to do. And so
they were well pleased with both the friends, and quite ready to admit
them into the full fellowship of the school.

The Lloyds were greatly interested by Bert's account of the hoisting.
They praised him for his self-control, and Frank for his plucky fight
against such odds, and they fully agreed with Bert that hoisting was a
poor business at best, and that he would be doing right to have nothing
to do with it.

"Perhaps some day or other you'll be able to have it put a stop to,
Bert," said his mother, patting his head fondly. "It would make me very
proud if my boy were to become a reformer before he leaves school."

"I'm afraid there's not much chance of that, mother," answered Bert.
"The boys have been hoisting the new chaps for ever so many years, and
Dr. Johnston has never stopped them."

That was true. Although he feigned to know nothing about it, the doctor
was well aware of the existence of this practice peculiar to his school,
but he never thought of interfering with the boys. It was a cardinal
principle with him that the boys should be left pretty much to
themselves at recess. So long as they did their duty during the school
hours, they could do as they pleased during the play hour. Moreover, he
was a great admirer of manliness in his boys. He would have been glad to
find in everyone of them the stoical indifference to pain of the
traditional Indian. Consequently, fair stand-up fights were winked at,
and anything like tattling or tale-bearing sternly discouraged. He had
an original method of expressing his disapprobation of the latter, which
will be illustrated further on. Holding those views, therefore, he was
not likely to put his veto upon "hoisting."

As the days went by, Bert rapidly mastered the ways of the school, and
made many friends among his schoolmates. He found the lessons a good
deal harder than they had been at Mr. Garrison's. And not only so, but
the method of hearing them was so thorough that it was next to
impossible for a boy who had come ill-prepared to escape detection. Dr.
Johnston did not simply hear the lesson; he examined his scholars upon
it, and nothing short of full acquaint