sh
things. If he is poor he is not a miser and if he has to work for his
schooling that is his business. If Dick Percival, the acknowledged head
of the school in studies as well as in athletics, can associate with
him and be proud of his company, the rest of us have nothing to say and
I, for my part, certainly have not."

"Neither has any decent fellow among the Hilltops," added Harry,
enthusiastically, and the majority echoed his sentiment, the few that
remained silent and indulged in black looks being unobserved amid the
general acceptance of the new scholar.

CHAPTER IV

ANOTHER ATTEMPTED HAZING

Herring and Merritt and others like them were not satisfied to accept
Jack Sheldon on the same footing as had Percival and the better class of
boys at the Academy.

Herring had been used to doing about as he pleased with the new boys and
any interference seemed like a curtailing of his rights as he looked at
it, and he greatly resented it.

"We'll see if that new berry picking chap can get the best of us, Ern,"
he said to Merritt when he was alone with a few of his cronies after
Harry Dickson's declaration that Jack was good enough for any of them to
associate with.

"He won't do it, Pete," replied Merritt.

"There's no use in doing anything in the dormitories," remarked Zenas
Holt, one of the party.

"No, that makes too much noise," muttered another of the party all being
interested in the scheme which they knew Herring must be concocting to
get the best of Jack.

"No, everybody hazes new fellows in the dormitories," growled Herring.
"He'll be watching for us and then he has made a lot of new friends and
they will go to his help."

"We want to catch him alone," suggested Merritt.

"That's the talk," added Holt.

"Just what I was thinking of," said Herring, "and if you fellows will
stop talking so much, I'll tell you how we can fix it."

These boys were just the sort to attack another with the odds against
him and never had a notion that there was anything cowardly in that way
of accomplishing their ends.

As a matter of fact, Herring was afraid of Percival, who was his equal
in size and strength as well as in athletic qualities and a good boxer
to boot, and therefore did not wish to have the latter about when they
set out to haze Jack.

"There are other ways of doing the thing besides getting up a row in the
dormitories," he said.

"Sure!" added Merritt. "We don't want the profs. coming in on