withheld from him by me for his own welfare. The time has now come when
he and you should know all about it."

As he paused for a moment, the boys looked around at each other with
something like consternation. Their curiosity was intense. He spoke with
a tensity of feeling they had hardly ever noticed in him before, and not
one of them had an inkling of what he was driving at.

"It means that some of you have received more than they deserved," he
resumed. "That also should be known--for the good of all. It is a
reflection on no one but myself, however, and I think you know me well
enough by this time to be sure that I have been moved by no other
consideration than the future good of the one most nearly concerned."

Again he stopped, the class waiting breathlessly for him to go on. At
that moment Keith became aware that the teacher's gaze rested firmly on
him with an expression that sent the blood in a hot stream to his face.

"Wellander," Dally began again, and in spite of the beating of his own
heart, Keith noticed that the teacher's voice trembled a little as he
spoke. "Will you do me the favour of rising a moment? You are the boy I
have in mind."

Keith rose like an automaton. His eyes clung to the lips of the
teacher, and he seemed to expect from those lips some utterance that
must make his whole future life different. As often happened in moments
of intensified emotion, he became strangely oblivious of all the little
eddies and cross-currents of thoughts and feelings that made up his
ordinary, every-day consciousness of himself.

"For two years I have kept you number two in the class," Dally said,
speaking in an easier tone as if to lighten the strain on everybody.
"You should have been number one. Davidson, whom I placed above you has
at no time been your superior in anything but self-control. But it was
just your--what I have sometimes called your fuzzy-wuzziness, that made
me afraid of placing you where you rightly belonged, at the head of the
class. It is my belief that you have in you greater gifts than any other
boy in this class, but I am not yet sure of what you will do with them.
It was my eagerness to see you make full use of them that made me poke
fun at you and keep you out of the place that rightfully was yours.
Perhaps I did wrong, but my meaning was right. I shall always watch you
closely, and I hope you will try your best not to disappoint me. Will
you promise that?"

"I will," gasped Keith.