!" sneered Jim.

"Cigarettes can't hurt you. It's only cigars and pipes that do."

"Yes, I admit I am afraid," said Bert. "I'm afraid of getting sick.
Besides, I promised my mother I wouldn't smoke until I was twenty-one,
and I'm not going to tell a story. Anyhow, I've got an uncle who
smokes, and he says cigarettes are worse than a pipe or cigars, and he
ought to know."

"Aw, come on!" urged Jim.

"No," said Bert firmly, and he would not go. Jim went off with Danny
and some of the other boys, and they were laughing among themselves.
Bert felt that they were laughing at him, but he did not mind.

There was to be an examination of the school by some of the members of
the Board of Education late that afternoon, and, directly after recess,
Mr. Tetlow went to each room to tell the pupils and teachers to get
ready for it, and to put certain work on the blackboards, so it could
be seen.

When the principal got to the room where Danny Rugg and his particular
chums sat, Mr Tetlow, sniffing the air suspiciously, said:

"I smell smoke!"

"I have been noticing it, too," said the lady teacher. "Perhaps the
furnace does not work properly."

"It isn't that kind of smoke," went on Mr. Tetlow. "It is tobacco
smoke. Have any of you boys been smoking during recess?" he asked
sternly, looking across the room.

No one answered. Danny, Jim, and some of the others seemed to be
studying their geography lessons very hard.

"I just want to say a word about cigarette smoking," went on Mr.
Tetlow, "for that is usually how a boy begins. Of smoking in general,
when a boy gets to be a man, I have nothing to say. Some say it is
injurious, and others not, in moderation. But there can be no doubt
that for a growing boy to smoke is very harmful. Again I ask if anyone
here has been smoking?"

No one replied. The guilty boys bent deep over their books and did not
look up.

"Well, I am sure someone here has," said Mr. Tetlow. "I can smell it
plainly." He walked down the aisles, looking sharply from one boy to
another. If he was sure who were the guilty ones he gave no sign.
"And I want to add," said Mr. Tetlow, "that not only is cigarette
smoking harmful to the smoker, but it is dangerous. Many fires have
been caused in that way. If I find out who of my pupils have been
smoking around the school they will be severely punished."

CHAPTER XVII

THE FIRST SNOW

THERE was considerable talk among the boys in Danny's r