-a
school at which there were so many boys that some little fellows of his
age might have felt frightened and depressed. But not so Ted. He went on
his own cheery way without misgiving. The world to his thinking was a
nice and happy place--not _all_ sunshine of course, but very good of
its kind. And school-life, though it too had its shadows, was full of
interest and satisfaction. Ted loved his fellows, and never doubted, in
his simple taking-for-granted of things being as they should be, but
that he was loved by them; and how this way of looking out on the world
helped him through its difficulties, how it saved him from unreasonable
fears and exaggerated anxieties such as take the bloom off many a
child-life, it would be difficult for me to describe. I can only try to
put you in the way of imagining this bright young life for yourselves.

The boy whom, of course only _next_ to his dear Percy, Ted loved best in
the world was, to use his own words, "a fellow" of about his own age,
whose name was Rex. That is to say, his short name; for his real one
was Reginald, just as Ted's was Edmond. They had been together at the
big school from the first of Ted's going, being about equal in their
standing as to classes, though Rex was rather the elder, and had been
longer at school. At Ted's school, as at all others, there were quarrels
and fights sometimes; and many a day he came home with traces of war, in
the shapes of bumps and bruises and scratches. Not that the battles were
all _quarrels_,--there were plenty of good-tempered scrimmages, as well
as, occasionally, more serious affrays, for boys will be boys all the
world over. And, worse than that, in all schools there are to be found
boys of mean and tyrannical spirit, who love to bully and tease, and who
need to be put down now and then. And in all schools, too, there are
boys of good and kindly feelings, but of hasty and uncontrolled temper,
and they too have to be taught to give and take, to bear and forbear.
And then, too, as the best of boys are _but_ boys after all, we are
still a long way off having any reason to expect that the best of
schools even can be like dovecots.

I don't know that Ted's school was worse than others in these respects,
and Ted himself was not of a quarrelsome nature, but still in some ways
he was not very patient. And then, slight and rather delicate though he
was, he assuredly had a spirit of his own. He couldn't stand bullying,
either of himsel