"Robert, I am sorry there is a serious fault marked against you. In recitations you have done better than any boy in the Lower School and better than most in the Upper. But I do not like a stubborn boy; we can none of us—we teachers, I mean—excuse such a fault as that. I hear good reports of you in every direction, and your name has been mentioned among the few who stand a chance of winning the Medal of Honor.
"It is a most serious matter for a boy to refuse to answer proper questions put to him by those who have him in charge. You must learn this now. To obey is your duty. Do you realize that?"
"Yes, sir," said Bobby in a low tone, and swallowing hard. "I understand, sir."
What he understood was that, if he had been willing to tell on his chum, and Shiner, and Sparrow, he might have won the medal. But he could not do that!
He had never thought of taking the matter up with Dr. Raymond. An older boy—Captain Gray, for instance—might have gone to the Doctor and stated his side of the case. But Bobby did not question for a moment the right of Mr. Leith to put in that report against him.
It was pretty hard for the boy to bear. He wanted so much to write his parents that he had won the distinction of the gold medal Dr. Raymond had shown them on that first day of school. The Lower School was solid for Bobby and many of the older lads admired the pluck and good humor of the boy from Clinton. His strongest partisans were Fred Martin and Sparrow Bangs, who admired him so much because he was so different from themselves, perhaps.
Pee Wee was Bobby's staunch champion, too. The fat boy boldly declared his admiration for the Clinton boy in any company.
"There isn't another boy like him," Pee Wee said in gymnasium one day, when Bobby was absent. "Say! there's not one of you big fellows but what he's done a favor for—and more than once. I say—"
"Come! you needn't froth at the mouth over it," growled Max Bender.
"Huh! you haven't anything to say against Bobby," declared Pee Wee.