“Yes, you must be. You are too apt to sputter out what you think without any regard to the consequences.”
The Gazette was circulated among the boys of the Academy and also sent to their parents and to many other schools which exchanged with them, so that it had a considerable circulation.
In a short time there were complimentary notices of the latest number of the Gazette in several of the school periodicals, all of them noticing its improvement and speaking highly of the new editor.
“Somebody thought that the Gazette would be a dead one,” laughed Billy Manners one afternoon when reading over one of the other papers with a number of his chums, “but it will be livelier than ever now. Jack is just the boy to run it and make it one of the best there is.”
Billy Manners was one of the chief funmakers of the Academy, although he was a good student as well and stood high in his classes.
He was fond of a joke even if it happened to be at his own expense but more often it was at that of some one else.
Billy and the others were so much interested in reading the complimentary notice of the Gazette that they failed to observe the coming of Colonel Bull, the military instructor of the Academy.
Now the Colonel was a bit of a stickler for ceremony and the boys were always obliged to salute him when they met him.
Failing to notice his approach, however, he was upon them before they saw him and the only warning of his coming was the hearing of a sharp command:
“Attention! Where are your manners, you cubs? Salute me this instant and keep your eyes about you another time.”