here--this is
what makes my blood tingle;" and he turned over the pages of his Bible
and read, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the
king, 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this
matter. If it _be_ so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from
the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O
king. But _if not,_ be it known unto thee, O king, that we will _not_
serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.'"
He read the last verse twice, emphasizing the nots, and dwelling on them
as if they gave him actual pleasure, and were hard to part with.

They were silent a minute, and then Arthur said, "Yes, that's a glorious
story, but it don't prove your point, Tom, I think. There are times when
there is only one way, and that the highest, and then the men are found
to stand in the breach."

"There's always a highest way, and it's always the right one," said Tom.
"How many times has the Doctor told us that in his sermons in the last
year, I should like to know?"

"Well, you ain't going to convince us, is he, Arthur? No Brown
compromise to-night," said East, looking at his watch. "But it's past
eight, and we must go to first lesson. What a bore!"

So they took down their books and fell to work; but Arthur didn't
forget, and thought long and often over the conversation.

FOOTNOTE:

[D] A kind and wise critic, an old Rugboean, notes here in the margin:
The "small friend system was not so utterly bad from 1841-1847." Before
that, too, there were many noble friendships between big and little
boys, but I can't strike out the passage: many boys will know why it is
left in.

CHAPTER III.

ARTHUR MAKES A FRIEND.

"Let Nature be your teacher:
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things.
We murder to dissect--
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves:
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives."--WORDSWORTH.

ABOUT six weeks after the beginning of the half, as Tom and Arthur were
sitting one night before supper beginning their verses, Arthur suddenly
stopped, and looked up, and said, "Tom, do you know anything of Martin?"

"Yes," said Tom, taking his hand out of his back hair, and delighted to
throw his Gradus ad Parnassum on to t