w chap, Hibbert. I rather fancy Plunger had been playing pranks
with his bed, but he didn't shout out or take on; so he was pluckier
than I was. Do you think the fellows here will look down on me for
snivelling?"

"I cannot say. I hope so. Is young Hibbert out?"

"He's somewhere about the ground, I think."

Paul searched about the ground, but could see nothing of him. He turned
into the field adjoining, and there he found him, sitting on the trunk
of a tree, quite apart from the other boys, with his face resting on his
hands.

"He's just as soft as young Moncrief, but he's too proud to show it.
He's been crying, I know."

If the boy had been, he brushed away all sign of it when he heard Paul's
footsteps, and started quickly to his feet. The frightened look in his
eyes disappeared when he saw who it was. They grew quite bright in an
instant.

"What are you doing here, youngster?" said Paul kindly, placing a hand
upon the boy's shoulder. "You're not going to be a moper, are you? That
will never do."

"A moper? No; but I'm different, I think, from most other boys. God has
made me different, you see"--with a feeble attempt at a smile, as he
glanced at his shoulder, "I don't care for the games most boys care for,
and--and I like quiet places like this, away from the crowd."

Paul could not help a feeling of pity as he followed the boy's glance to
his deformed shoulder. He was acutely sensitive to his deformity, and
that, perhaps, was the main reason why he shrank from the society of
other boys--why he preferred solitude.

"Have the youngsters in your dormitory been ill-treating you?" he asked,
regarding Hibbert closely as he put the question.

"Oh, no!" came the quick answer. "They've had their fun, of course,
which I enjoyed as much as any of them. I never mind a joke--indeed I
don't; so don't think they put upon me."

Paul did not inquire what the jokes were. It was not well to inquire too
curiously into the jokes of the juniors. He had been through that mill
himself. Besides, though he pitied Hibbert, he didn't want to encourage
him to tell tales out of school, especially as the boy seemed averse to
the practice.

"You're a plucky little chap and as good as you're plucky, I'll
warrant."

"Good--good? No, don't say that!" cried Hibbert, so earnestly that Paul
could not help regarding him in wonder.

He stood with his thin hands pressed tightly into each other, so that
the nails seemed piercing into his f