lder than the rest that they were looked up to as leaders in
everything except study.

It cannot be denied that the three were indolent by nature, inclined to
rebel at authority, and their enforced attendance at school was the
affliction of their lives. They had given their teachers no end of
trouble, and more than once had combined in open rebellion against
their instructors. Tom's father was a trustee, and like the parents of
many ill-trained youths, including those of Dick and Fred, he could see
nothing wrong in the conduct of his son. As a consequence, discipline
at times was set at naught in the Bushville institutions, and one of
the best teachers ever employed by the district threw up his situation
in disgust, and went off without waiting to collect his month's salary.

The successor of this gentleman was Mr. Lathrop, a young man barely
turned twenty, with a beardless face, a mild blue eye, a gentle voice,
and such a soft winning manner that the three leaders gave an
involuntary sniff of contempt when they first saw him and agreed that
he would not last more than a week at the most.

"We'll let up on him, for a few days," Tom explained to some of his
friends, "so as to give him time to get acquainted. I b'lieve in
letting every fellow have a show, but he's got to walk mighty straight
between now and the end of this week," added the youth impressively; "I
ain't in favor of standing any nonsense."

A nodding of heads by Dick and Fred showed that Tom had voiced their
sentiments.

But, somehow or other, Mr. Lathrop was different from the teachers that
had preceded him. He never spoke angrily or shouted, and his first act
on entering the schoolroom was to break up the long tough hickory "gad"
lying on his desk and to fling it out of the window. The next thing he
did, after calling the school to order, was to tell the gaping,
open-eyed children the most entertaining story to which they had ever
listened. The anecdote had its moral too, for woven in and out and
through its charming meshes was the woof of a life of heroic suffering,
of trial and reward.

At its conclusion, the teacher said to the pupils that if they were
studious and transgressed no rules, he would be glad to tell them
another story the next day, if they would remain a few minutes after
the hour of dismissal. The treat was such a rare one that all the
girls and most of the boys resolved to earn the right to enjoy it.

"I'm going to hear th