ght and left hands alternately,
striking Rod upon the face and chest, while the latter's blows fell
principally upon his forehead; until finally, in the fourth round,
Graham, whose face had suffered severely, gave up the contest, and
covering his head, with his hands, ran away from Bert, who was too tired
to pursue him.

Great was the cheering at this conclusive result; and Bert, panting,
perspiring, and exhausted, found himself the centre of a noisy throng of
his schoolmates, who wrung his hand, clapped him upon the back, called
him all sorts of names that were complimentary, and, in fact, gave him a
regular ovation. After he had gone to the tap and bathed his hot face,
Bert was very much pleased to find that the brunt of the battle had
fallen upon his forehead, and that, consequently, he would hardly be
marked at all. To be sure, when he tried to put his cap on, he
discovered that it would be necessary to wear it very much on the back
of his head, but he felt like doing that, anyway, so it didn't matter.

He would have liked to shake hands with Rod, and make it all up, but Rod
was not to be found. After fleeing from his opponent, he had snatched up
his coat, and, deserted even by Rawdon; who was disgusted at his running
away, he had gone out into the street, and did not appear again for the
rest of the day.

His victory worked a great change in Bert's feelings. He was no longer
troubled about what his parents would think of the fight. He felt sure
they would applaud him, now that he had come out of it with banners
flying, so to speak. And he was not far from right, either. Mrs. Lloyd,
it is true, was a good deal shocked at first, and Mr. Lloyd questioned
him very closely; but when they heard the whole story, much of which,
indeed, was already familiar to them, they both agreed that under the
circumstances Bert could not have acted otherwise, without placing
himself in a false position.

"At the same time, Bert, dear," said his father, laying his hand upon
his shoulder, "as it is your first, so I hope it will be your last
fight. You have established your reputation for courage now. You can
sustain it in other ways than by your fists."

Dr. Johnston's method of showing that he was fully cognisant of the
event was highly characteristic. The next morning when Bert, with
swollen forehead, and Rod, with blackened eyes, came before him in the
same class, he said, with one of his sardonic smiles:

"Ah, Graham, I see Ll