a name. It's a little odd, but you'll think of it
every time you go up stairs and see the ladder. Call it 'Up-the-Ladder
Club,' and then it will have a meaning that you are boys who mean to do
your best, climbing up always, up, up, up!"

Miss Bertha here reached as high as she could, and her admirers, with
sparkling eyes, stretched upward their small arms, also, shouting,
"Up-the-Ladder Club! Up-the-Ladder Club!"

"I'll put it to vote, teacher," said the president, with dignity. "Those
in favor of it, say 'Aye.'"

A ringing "Aye" was now given, and after it, came a sharp-featured,
wrinkled face at the door.

"Land's sake, Bertha, what's the matter?"

"O it's only my class, grandmother."

"It scat me dreadfully. I thought it was fire," and, saying this, the old
lady, with a sigh of relief, withdrew.

"And now, teacher, we want a badge; something to wear, you know,"
exclaimed Sid.

"What's that you have on?" Miss Bertha asked of Juggie.

"A sword," replied that warrior, displaying his right leg, on which he had
already chalked a sword.

"That's for the down-townies," said the governor, in a martial tone.

"I'm--afraid--the 'down-townies' will laugh at that; are not you?"

The club had only thought of what they might do to the "down-townies," not
at all of what the latter would do to them. They certainly had not given a
thought to any ridicule these old enemies might heap upon them. A sadden
chill now struck the sword-plan and it went down in the boys' estimation
like the mercury in the glass on a cold day.

"Now, I don't want my class to be sword-boys. I can't say I fancy the
idea. I will tell you something that I think will be nice, and I will make
the badge."

Here the mercury began to climb the glass again, and that chilled look in
the boys' faces began to thaw out.

"I will make you--each one of you--a pretty white shield, to be worn on
the left arm, make it of pasteboard, so it will be stiff, and then cover
it nicely with white silk."

The boys began to hurrah. The mercury was away up the glass now.

"A white shield, that will mean something. That means purity, honesty,
every thing good and fair, and that your beautiful white shield will be
your defense against harm. You are my knights of the white shield."

The applause following this was almost tumultuous.

"You are the Up-the-Ladder Club, that is, boys who are always going ahead
in every thing good; climbing up, not lazy or bad, but boys, w