ink."

Mr. Parasyte smiled as though he had entirely forgiven me; as though
he had, in some mysterious manner, wiped out the stains of falsehood
upon my character. I bowed, but made no reply. I was sentenced to
expulsion; but the penalty was to be remitted on condition that I
would apologize to Poodles.

Apologize to Poodles! For what? For his attack upon me, or for the
lies he had told about me? It was no more possible for me to apologize
for knocking him over when he assailed me than it would have been for
me to leap across Lake Adieno in the widest place. I did not wish to
deprive myself of the advantages of attending the Parkville Liberal
Institute; but if my remaining depended upon my humiliating myself
before Poodles, upon my declaring that what I had done was wrong, when
I believed it was right, I was no longer to be a student in the
academy.

The exercises of the school proceeded as usual for a couple of hours,
and there were no further signs of insubordination among the boys. At
recess I purposely kept away from my more intimate friends, for I did
not wish to tell them what course I intended to pursue, fearful that
it would renew the disturbance.

An hour before the close of the session, the boys were required to
bring in their examination papers in arithmetic. Every student, even
to Poodles, handed in solutions to all the problems, and Mr. Parasyte
and his assistants at once devoted themselves to the marking of them.
In half an hour the principal was ready to report the result.

Half a dozen of the class had all the examples right, and I was one of
the number. Very much to my astonishment, Poodles also was announced
as one of the six; and when his name was mentioned, a score of the
students glanced at me.

I did not understand it. I was quite satisfied that Poodles could not
do the problems himself, and it was certain that he had obtained
assistance from some one, though the declaration on the paper was duly
signed. He had found a friend less scrupulous than I had been. Some
one must have performed the examples for him; and as he had them all
correct, it was evident that one of the six, who alone had presented
perfect papers, must have afforded the assistance. After throwing out
Poodles and myself, there were but four left; and two of these, to my
certain knowledge, had joined in the demonstration in my favor:
indeed, they were my friends beyond the possibility of a doubt.
Between the other two I had n