will find even those things of use some time, no matter what you may
become in after-life. I will try and talk with you again on this subject
before I go away; but now I must leave you. I hope for your sake,
though, that you will think better about studying, and not throw away
your chance to do so now, while it is comparatively easy. To win success
in life you must study some time, and if you had stood anywhere near as
high as Binney Gibbs I might have managed to offer you--"

"Excuse me, Mr. Meadows, but I must speak with you just a moment," here
interrupted a voice, and put an end to the conversation between the
principal and the boy who had allowed his distaste for study to bring
him into disgrace.

As he walked away from the school-house, carrying all his books with
him, for the term was ended and the long vacation had begun, the flush
of mortification, called to his cheeks by Mr. Meadows's remarks, still
reddened them. He felt the disgrace of his position keenly, though he
had told the other boys, and had tried to make himself believe, that he
did not care whether he passed the examinations or not. Now that he had
failed to pass, he found that he did care. What was it that Mr. Meadows
might have offered him? It couldn't be _that_, of course; but if it
should have been! Well, there was no use in crying over it now. Binney
Gibbs had been honored, and he was disgraced. It was bad enough to
realize that, without thinking of things to make it worse. He was
thankful when he reached home and had closed the front door behind him;
for it seemed as though everybody he met must know of his disgrace, and
be smiling scornfully at him.

He was a sensitive chap, was this Glen Eddy; for that was his name, and
he was the same one who, as a baby, was rescued by Luke Matherson from
the railroad wreck so many years ago. Most people called him Glen
Matherson, and on the school register his name was entered as Glen Eddy
Matherson; but, ever since his last birthday, when Luke had told him
that he was not his real father, and had fully explained their relations
to each other, the boy had thought of himself only as Glen Eddy.

The master mechanic of the Brimfield Mills, for such Luke Matherson now
was, had meant to keep the secret of the boy's life to himself, at least
for some years longer. Glen had, however, heard rumors of it, and had on
one occasion been taunted by an angry playmate with the sneer that he
was only a nobody who didn