have any adverse effect on Teeny-bits
Holbrook.

"It rolls off him like water off a roof!" exclaimed Fred Harper, who was
one of the newcomer's greatest admirers. And so it seemed, for
Teeny-bits went about his work methodically and seemed entirely
unimpressed by the attentions of his numerous followers. He made time to
do his studying and did it well, but he was not what his classmates
called a "shark"; he had to work and work hard for what he got.

One morning during a class in English literature, Mr. Stevens asked
Bassett to tell what he knew about the writings of Walter Pater.

"Well," said Bassett, putting on a look of extreme intelligence, "he
wrote quite a while ago and he didn't succeed at first very much, but
toward the end he was more successful."

"Is that all you can tell me?" asked Mr. Stevens.

"Oh, no!" said Bassett with the manner of one whose knowledge has been
underrated. "He was quite a figure in his time and he wrote a lot of
stuff--I think it was----poetry."

"That's enough, Bassett," said Mr. Stevens. "Holbrook, can you tell me
anything about Walter Pater?"

"No, sir, I can't," said Teeny-bits.

"Thank you," said Mr. Stevens. "I'd rather have an honest answer than an
attempt to bluff!"

Every one in the room looked at Bassett, who scowled back at the smiles
of his classmates. "I didn't try to bluff, sir," he said to Mr. Stevens,
but the English master paid no attention to the denial and every one
knew that the self-styled "Whirlwind" had been guilty of treating the
truth as if it had been a rubber band.

The incident was small, but it increased the enmity that Bassett had for
Teeny-bits and added another score to those scores that he intended some
day to wipe out.

There were others in Ridgley School who bore Teeny-bits no
affection--one of them was Tracey Campbell, who had been the first to
hail the newcomer by his nickname. Tracey Campbell was a candidate for
the football team playing on the scrub; Coach Murray, it was said,
looked with favor upon him and was about to promote him to the first
eleven. But of late Mr. Murray had not paid so much attention to
Campbell; his interest, as far as the scrub was concerned, seemed to be
veering in another direction.

It may have been that Tracey Campbell had something in mind more than
merely playing a prank when he took it upon himself on a Wednesday night
to amuse some of the fellows who were lounging about the steps of the
dormitories.