In the morning, though it neared school time, Bud lingered around and
seemed in no disposition to get ready to go.

"Bettah git ready fer school," said Hannah cheerily.

"I don't believe I want to go any more," Bud replied.

"Not go any more? Why, ain't you 'shamed to talk that way! O' cose you
goin' to school."

"I'm ashamed to show my face to the boys."

"What you say about de boys? De boys ain't a-goin' to give you an
edgication when you need it."

"Oh, I don't want to go, ma; you don't know how I feel."

"I'm kinder sorry I let you go into dat company," said Hannah musingly,
"'cause it was de teachin' I wanted you to git, not the prancin' and
steppin'; but I did t'ink it would make mo' of a man of you, an' it
ain't. Yo' pappy was a po' man, ha'd wo'kin', an' he wasn't high-toned
neither, but from the time I first see him to the day of his death, I
nevah seen him back down because he was afeared of anything," and Hannah
turned to her work.

"Little sister" went up and slipped her hand in his. "You ain't a-goin
to back down, is you, Buddie?" she said.

"No," said Bud stoutly, as he braced his shoulders, "I'm a-goin'."

But no persuasion could make him wear his uniform.

The boys were a little cold to him, and some were brutal. But most of
them recognized the fact that what had happened to Tom Harris might have
happened to any one of them. Besides, since the percentage had been
shown, it was found that "B" had outpointed them in many ways, and so
their loss was not due to the one grave error.

Bud's heart sank when he dropped into his seat in the Assembly Hall to
find seated on the platform one of the blue-coated officers who had
acted as judge the day before. After the opening exercises were over he
was called upon to address the school. He spoke readily and pleasantly,
laying especial stress upon the value of discipline; toward the end of
his address he said "I suppose company 'A' is heaping accusations upon
the head of the young man who dropped his bayonet yesterday." Tom could
have died. "It was most regrettable," the officer continued, "but to me
the most significant thing at the drill was the conduct of that cadet
afterward. I saw the whole proceeding; I saw that he did not pause for
an instant, that he did not even turn his head, and it appeared to me as
one of the finest bits of self-control I had ever seen in any youth; had
he forgotten himself for a moment and stopped, however quickly, to
secur