of Hamilton, had been born and bred
in Sherburne County. He had long been lying in a peaceful grave with a
tall granite shaft above it, but each year one of the boys of Sherburne
County received a gift from him--the privilege of coming free of expense
to Ridgley. For two years Teeny-bits had been going to the high school
at Greensboro, covering the four miles on his bicycle morning and
afternoon. Then the unbelievable had happened: he had won the Ridgley
scholarship, and father and mother Holbrook, whose hearts were centered
on his future, received the news as a direct gift from Heaven. Their
pride in him made up for the loneliness of the house after he had gone.

The career of Teeny-bits at Ridgley was not to be without its incidents,
it seemed. He had been a roomer in Gannett Hall only ten days and the
feeling of newness had not worn off when the school was treated to a
sensation that caused no little talk and brought him into more
prominence than had the victory in the wrestling match.

On a Wednesday morning before breakfast a sheet of paper was found
tacked to the bulletin board that hung inside the door of the dormitory.
The message that it bore had been typed crudely as if the person who had
done it were a novice in the use of the typewriter. It consisted of two
straggling lines and the words were:

"Beware of Teeny-bits! Holbrook is not his name! He's ashamed to tell
the truth!"

Two dozen boys saw the paper and read the message before Snubby Turner
tore it down and carried it up to Teeny-bits' room. They told other boys
about it and no end of talk went round the school.

"This was on the bulletin board," said Snubby to Teeny-bits. "A lot of
the fellows wonder what the dickens it means."

"You're a good friend of mine, Snubby," said Teeny-bits, "and I'll tell
you what it means. I wonder if Bassett put it up--but I don't see how he
knew anything about me--unless Tracey Campbell told him. Tracey lives
over in Greensboro and went to public school with me."

"Bassett tags around after him like a tame sheep--I don't like either
one of them," said Snubby.

The story that Teeny-bits told his friend was the same story that Mr.
Holbrook had told Doctor Wells.

Teeny-bits had never known who his father and mother were--and yet his
mother, or at least the woman whom he believed to be his mother, lay
buried in the village cemetery. Her grave was marked with a plain slab
of marble in which was cut the brief inscrip