For several days the other boys were very gentle with Bobby. It did not make Bobby feel very comfortable, but he knew they meant it kindly.
Soon, however, their awkwardness wore off, and they were as rough and friendly as ever, and he liked it better. Deep in his heart he kept thinking all the time of his parents, and the possibilities arising out of the wreck of the steamship. Outwardly he was much the same as ever.
Only one thing Bobby Blake desired now more than before. He longed—oh! how he did long—to win the Medal of Honor. If his parents were shipwrecked, and there was any suffering for them in it, it seemed to Bobby that if he won the Honor Medal at Rockledge School, that fact would alleviate their misery, wherever they were!
Yet there was nothing of the mollycoddle about Bobby. Fun appealed to him just as strongly as it ever did to any ten year old boy.
There were certain set rules of Rockledge School that he would not break and that he kept Fred from breaking.
"There's no fun in getting caught and held up to the whole school as dishonorable," he told Fred. "We're expected to keep in bounds. We know the bounds well enough. And if we want to go out of them, we have only to ask, and give a good reason, to get permission to go farther."
"Aw, they treat us as if we were a lot of babies," growled Fred Martin.
"They do nothing of the kind," Bobby replied. "Doctor Raymond treats us as though we were gentlemen. He trusts to our honor. I wouldn't disappoint him for a farm!"
"We-ell!" sighed Fred. "I suppose you're right, Bobby. I—I almost wish he didn't treat us just this way. There'd be some fun in busting up the old rules!"
And that was where Dr. Raymond showed his wisdom. He knew how to manage boys with the least amount of friction.