de a really ludicrous figure. All of his fine, free,
unconscious grace was gone and his strength of limb only added to his
awkwardness.

The girls were of that age where they find the keenest delight in
annoying a bashful fellow such as they perceived this new-comer to be.
His hair had been badly barbered by Councill and his suit of cotton
diagonal, originally too small and never a fit, was now yellow on the
shoulders where the sun had faded the analine dye, and his trousers
were so tight that they clung to the tops of his great boots, exposing
his huge feet in all their enormity of shapeless housing. His large
hands protruded from his sleeves and were made still more noticeable by
his evident loss of their control.

"Picked too soon," said Nettie Russell, with a vacant stare into space,
whereat the rest shrieked with laughter. A great hot wave of blood
rushed up over Bradley, making him dizzy. He knew that joke all too
well. He looked around blindly for a seat. As he stood there helpless,
Nettie hit him with a piece of chalk and someone threw the eraser at
his boots.

"Number twelves," said young Brown.

"When did it get loose?"

"Does your mother know you're out?"

"Put your hat over it," came from all sides.

He saw an empty chair and started to sit down, but Nettie slipped into
it before him. He started for her seat and her brother Claude got there
apparently by mere accident just before him. Bradley stood again
indecisively, not daring to look up, burning with rage and shame. Again
someone hit him with a piece of chalk, making a resounding whack, and
the entire class roared again in concert.

"Why, its head is _wood!_" said Claude, in apparent astonishment at his
own discovery.

Bradley raised his head for the first time. There came into his eyes a
look that made Claude Russell tremble. He again approached an empty
chair and was again forestalled by young Brown. With a bitter curse he
swung his great open palm around and laid his tormenter flat on the
floor, stunned and breathless. A silence fell on the group. It was as
if a lion had awakened with a roar of wrath.

"Come on, all o' ye!" he snarled through his set teeth, facing them
all. As he stood thus the absurdity of his own attitude came upon him.
They were only children, after all. Reeking with the sweat of shame and
anger which burst from his burning skin, he reached for a chair.

Nettie, like the little dare-devil that she was, pulled the chair