cases is alike. Neither thought sufficiently about
what he was doing. Newton was absorbed with other things, and Billy was
thinking of nothing, and yet both he and Newton were duffers, which goes
to prove that without care any one may belong to that class.

How many men who have begun life as reputed "duffers" have turned out
great men! but you will find that none of them ever did themselves any
good till they had cured themselves of that fault. That's what you, and
I, and Billy Bungle must all do, boys.

Just two words more about Billy. We all liked him, as I have said, for
he was imperturbably good-tempered. He bore no malice for all our
laughing, and now and then, when he was able to see the joke, would
assist in laughing at himself.

And then he never tried to make himself out anything but what he was.
Of all detestable puppies, the duffer who tries to pass himself off for
a clever man is the most intolerable; for nothing will convince him of
his error, and nothing will keep him in his place. He's about the one
sort of character nobody knows how to deal with, for he sets everybody
else but himself down as duffers. What can anybody do to such a one?

But there is another extreme. Billy's great fault was that he was too
ready to believe others who called him a duffer. Don't take it for
granted you are a duffer because any one tells you so. Find it out for
yourself, and when you've found it out--"don't be a duffer!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE DANDY.

Fine feathers make fine birds. This is a proverb which a great many
people in our country--especially young people--most devoutly believe
in, and they show their belief in a very emphatic way. They rig
themselves out in the height of the fashion, no matter how ridiculous it
is, or how uncomfortable; they take airs upon themselves which do not
properly belong to them; they try to pass for something finer than they
are, and if they do not end by being laughed at it is no fault of
theirs.

You never saw such a dandy as we had at our school. He rejoiced in the
name of Frederick Fop, and seemed possessed of the notion that his
dainty person was worthy of the utmost amount of decoration that any one
person could bestow upon it. No one objects to a fellow having a good
coat and trousers, and a respectable hat; but when it comes to canary-
coloured pantaloons, and cuffs up to the finger ends, and collars as
high as the ears, and a hat as shiny as a looking-