nspired,
he ventured to cherish toward him a feeling of love as well as of
respect; and although Mr. Snelling did not exactly inspire awe, nor even
much respect, he managed to like him not a little also. As for the
boys--well, there were all sorts and conditions of them; good, bad, and
indifferent; boys who thought it very fine and manly to smoke, and
swear, and swap improper stories, and boys who seemed as if they would
have been more appropriately dressed in girls' clothes, so lacking were
they in true manly qualities; while between these two extremes came in
the great majority, among whom Bert easily found plenty of bright,
wholesome companions.

There were some odd chaps at the school, with whose peculiarities Bert
would amuse the home circle very much, as he described them in his own
graphic way. There was Bob Mackasey, called by his companions, "Taffy
the Welshman," because he applied the money given him by his mother
every morning to get some lunch with, to the purchase of taffy; which
toothsome product he easily bartered off for more sandwiches and cakes
than could have been bought for ten cents, thus filling his own stomach
at a very slight cost to his far-seeing mother.

A big fat fellow in knickerbockers, by name Harry Rawdon, the son of an
officer in the English army, had attained a peculiar kind of notoriety
in the school, by catching flies and bottling them.

Then there was Larry Saunders, the dandy of the school, although
undoubtedly one of the very plainest boys in it, who kept a tiny square
of looking-glass in his desk, and would carefully arrange his toilet
before leaving the school in the afternoon, to saunter up and down the
principal street of the city, doing his best to be captivating.

Two hot-tempered, pugnacious chaps, by name Bob Morley and Fred Short,
afforded great amusement by the ease with which they could be set at
punching one another. It was only necessary for some one to take Bob
Morley aside and whisper meaningly that Fred Short had been calling him
names behind his back, or something of that sort equally aggravating, to
put him in fighting humour. Forthwith, he would challenge Master Fred in
the orthodox way--that is, he would take up a chip, spit on it, and toss
it over his shoulder. Without a moment's hesitation, Fred would accept
the challenge, and then the two would be at it, hammer and tongs,
fighting vigorously until they were separated by the originators of the
mischief, wh