h, although fairly satisfactory as to your
abilities, said there was a great want of steadiness in your
general conduct. I am convinced that you are doing no good for
yourself, and that the sooner you settle down to a desk, in my
office, the better. I have therefore written this morning,
informing Mr. Tulloch that I shall remove you, at Michaelmas.

"Your sister has been here, with her husband, today. I am sorry to
say that they do not view your wild and lawless conduct in the same
light that I do, and that they are unable to see there is anything
positively disreputable in your being mixed up in midnight
adventures with burglars. I am glad to gather, from Admiral
Langton's letter, that Mr. Tulloch has seen your conduct in the
proper light, and has inflicted a well-merited punishment upon you.

"All this is a very bad preparation for your future career as a
respectable trader, and I am most annoyed to hear that you will be
called on to appear as a witness against the men who have been
captured. I have written to Admiral Langton, acknowledging his
letter, and expressing my surprise that a gentleman in his position
should give any countenance, whatever, to a lad who has been
engaged in breaking the rules of his school; and in wandering at
night, like a vagabond, through the country."

Bob looked rather serious as he read through the letter for the
first time but, after going through it again, he burst into a shout
of laughter.

"What is it, Bob?" Tom Fullarton asked.

"Read this letter, Tom. I should like to have seen the admiral's
face, as he read my uncle's letter. But it is too bad. You see, I
have regularly done for myself. I was to have stopped here till a
year come Christmas, and now I have to leave at Michaelmas. I call
it a beastly shame."

It was some consolation to Bob to receive, next morning, a letter
from his sister, saying she was delighted to hear how he had
distinguished himself in the capture of the burglars.

"Of course, it was very wrong of you to get out at night; but
Gerald says that boys are always up to tricks of that sort, and so
I suppose that it wasn't so bad as it seems to me. Uncle John
pretends to be in a terrible rage about it, but I don't think he is
really as angry as he makes himself out to be. He blew me up, and
said that I had always encouraged you--which of course I
haven't--and when Gerald tried to say a good word for you, he
turned upon him, and said something about fellow-f