"Don't go off angry, old man. You know I don't want you to do anything of the sort. I will take my medicine when I am orderly, and I know you will do the same when it comes your turn."
"Well, I didn't know——" began Bart, in a somewhat sulky manner.
"You ought to know pretty well by this time. I am not much given to kicking or growling, but I do want to have a sober talk with you, and I hope you will not fire up at anything I say."
"All right; go ahead," said Hodge, throwing himself wearily into a chair, and thrusting his hands deep into his pockets. "I'll listen to your sermon."
"It isn't to be a sermon. You should know I am not the kind of a fellow to preach."
"That's so. Don't mind me. Drive ahead."
"First, I want to ask how it is you happened to let yourself be put back in recitations?"
"Oh, Old Gunn just put me back—that's all."
"But you are fully as good a scholar as I am, and you could have gone ahead into the first section if you had braced up."
"Perhaps so."