s! What d' ye call 'em, Milt? Correscations of the serry beltum."

Shepard was a short youth with thick yellow hair, and a comically
serious quality in the twist of his long upper lip.

Milton grinned. "Convolutions of the cerebrum, I s'pose you're driving
at. Shep comes to school to have fun," Milton explained to Bradley.

"Chuss," said Shep, by which he meant yes; "an' I have it, too,
betyerneck. I enter no plea, me lord"--

There came a burst of applause as a tall and attractive girl came in
with her arms laden down with books. Her intellectual face lit up with
a smile at the applause, and a pink flush came into her pale cheek.
"That's Miss Graham," whispered Shepard; "she's all bent up on
Radbourn."

The teachers came in, the choir rose to sing, and the exercises of the
morning began. Bradley thought Miss Graham, with her heavy-lidded,
velvety-brown eyes, looked like Miss Wilbur. Her eyes were darker, he
decided, and she was taller and paler; in fact, the resemblance was
mainly in her manner which had the same dignity and repose.

At Milton's suggestion Bradley remained in his seat after the rest of
the pupils had marched out to the sound of the organ. Then Milton
introduced him to the principal, who took him by the hand so cordially
that his embarrassment was gone in a moment. "Come and see me at
eleven," he said. After a short talk with him in his room a couple
hours later, his work was assigned.

"You'll be in the preparatory department, Mr. Talcott, but if you care
to do extra work we may get you into the junior class. Jennings, look
after him a little, won't you?"

The principal was a kind man, but he had two hundred of these rude,
awkward farmer-boys, and he could not be expected to study each one
closely enough to discover their latent powers. Bradley went away down
town to buy his books, with a feeling that the smile of the principal
was not genuine, and he felt also that Milton was a little ashamed of
him here in the town. Everything seemed to be going hard with him. But
his hardest trial came when he entered the classroom at one o'clock.

He knew no one, of course, and the long, narrow room was filled with
riotous boys and girls all much younger than himself. All the desks
seemed to be occupied and he was obliged to run the gauntlet of the
entire class in his search for a seat. As he walked down the room so
close to the wall that he brushed the chalk of the blackboard off upon
his shoulder, he ma