The greater part of the boys were his friends and he gave little attention to those who were not, keeping on good terms with them while not having much to do with them.
As far as he was concerned, however, the boys knew no more of him at the end of the week than they had known at the beginning and many of them decided that it was as well to let him remain a mystery until he chose to further enlighten them.
Without being churlish or obstinate, Jack was reserved and all they knew, which could have been obtained outside as well as from him was that he lived in another county, some ten miles distant, that he was the only child of a worthy widow and that he was paying for his schooling out of money that he had earned or would earn from his own efforts in one line or another.
“At any rate if he does have to earn the money to carry him through,” said Billy Manners to a number of the boys one afternoon when school was over for the day, “he is not mean and contributes what he can to the legitimate fun of the Hilltops and does not waste his coin on foolish things. If he is poor he is not a miser and if he has to work for his schooling that is his business. If Dick Percival, the acknowledged head of the school in studies as well as in athletics, can associate with him and be proud of his company, the rest of us have nothing to say and I, for my part, certainly have not.”
“Neither has any decent fellow among the Hilltops,” added Harry, enthusiastically, and the majority echoed his sentiment, the few that remained silent and indulged in black looks being unobserved amid the general acceptance of the new scholar.
CHAPTER IV
ANOTHER ATTEMPTED HAZING
Herring and Merritt and others like them were not satisfied to accept Jack Sheldon on the same footing as had Percival and the better class of boys at the Academy.
Herring had been used to doing about as he pleased with the new boys and any interference seemed like a curtailing of his rights as he looked at it, and he greatly resented it.