re handsome, very handsome.

"It's a pretty big place," said the Doctor, throwing his nervous little
body back in an easy chair and studying the four-hundred-and-second
problem of the year. "You'll find a good deal in it--a great many
interests."

"He certainly has a wicked eye," thought Stover, watching with
fascination the glance that confronted him like a brace of pistols
suddenly extended from under shaggy bushes. "Now he's sizing me
up--wonder if he knows all?"

"Well, John, what was the trouble?" said the Doctor from his easy,
reclining position.

"The trouble, sir? Oh," said Stover, sitting bolt-upright with every
sinew stiffened. "You mean why they fired--why they expelled me, sir?"

"Yes, why did they fire you?" said the Doctor, trying to descend.

"For getting caught, sir."

The Doctor gazed at him sharply, seeking to determine whether the
answer was from impertinence or fright or a precocious judgment of the
morals of the nation. Then he smiled and said:

"Well, what was it?"

"Please, sir, I put asafetida in the furnace," said Stover in
frightened tones.

"You put asafetida down the furnace?"

"Yes, sir."

"That was a very brilliant idea, wasn't it?"

"No, sir," said Stover, drawing a long breath and wondering if he
could possibly stay after such a confession.

"Why did you do it?"

Stover hesitated, and suddenly, yielding to an unaccountable impulse
toward the truth that occasionally surprised him, blurted out:

"I did it to make trouble, sir."

"You didn't like the school?"

"I hated it! There were a lot of girls around."

"Well, John," said the Doctor with heroic seriousness, "it may be that
you didn't have enough to do. You have evidently an active
brain--perhaps imagination would be a fitter word. As I said, you'll
find this a pretty big place, just the sort of opening an ambitious
boy should delight in. You'll find here all sorts of boys--boys that
count, boys you respect and want to respect you, and then there are
other boys who will put asafetida in the furnace if you choose to
teach them chemistry."

"Oh, no, sir," said Stover, all in a gasp.

"Your parents think you are hard to manage," said the Doctor, with the
wisp of a smile. "I don't. Go out; make some organization; represent
us; make us proud of you; count for something! And remember one thing:
if you want to set fire to Memorial Hall or to dynamite this study do
it because _you_ want to, and not because some other