d to Plunger. The boys following
behind grew black in the face trying to choke down their laughter.

"Jolly good of you, Harry!" exclaimed Plunger, regarding the photograph
admiringly. "I didn't know you were such an awfully good-looking fellow.
Trounce will think a lot of it, I can tell you."

The matron's rooms were a modern addition to the school, at the end of
the building. Mrs. Trounce, who was at heart rather an amiable woman,
was busily engaged in her room sorting out an endless array of boys'
wearing apparel. Her motherly face, therefore, wore an unusually severe
and worried expression as the boys entered the room. The windows outside
were suddenly darkened with innumerable faces peering through the
window.

"I have the honour--the distinguished privilege," said Plunger, with an
elaborate bow to the matron, "of presenting to you Master Henry
Moncrief, of Oakville."

Upon this he gave Harry a nudge, and Harry promptly fell on his right
knee before the matron, and drawing from his pocket the photograph he
had just shown to Plunger, presented it to Mrs. Trounce with a bow, and
"Allow me, madam."

A titter came from the faces pressed against the windows outside. Mrs.
Trounce took the photograph. The severity of her face did not relax, nor
did it soften when, looking from the photograph, she saw the words
beneath it, "With love and kind regards."

She looked for the moment as though she were about to administer to
Harry a sound box on the ears, but, altering her mind, she bestowed it
instead on the ears of Master Plunger.

"With my love and kind regards, Master Plunger!" she exclaimed.

The titters outside grew louder.

"Oh, thanks--so much!" said Plunger, with his hand to his ear at this
totally unexpected reception, which he had anticipated to be the portion
of his chum. "Come along, Harry; we won't waste any more of Mrs.
Trounce's time. She's very busy. I'll show you your sleeping quarters,
and then we'll hunt up Bax."

He beat a hasty retreat from the room, half anticipating that if he
stayed longer the matron might seek to balance matters by boxing the
other ear.

"Why did she do that, Freddy?" asked Harry, when they had got safely
from the room.

"It was your photo that did it, Hal; that's quite certain. I noticed how
she changed colour when she looked at it. It must have reminded her of
some unhung scoundrel she's met with in the course of her career, and
she took it out of me. She knows I like