“Yes, sir,” said Larry, “and I’m very much obliged for the help you have given me.”
“I was only too glad to do it,” replied the professor. “I hope you will get on well in your classes. If you need help come to me.”
Larry learned from the professor the proper night school to apply at on the evening the term opened. It was some distance from the house where Larry lived. He started off with well wishes from his mother.
He found quite a crowd of boys around the doors, for the school had not yet opened. The youngsters were skylarking, laughing, shouting, and playing tricks. It was almost like a day school, Larry thought, except that the boys were bigger, for all of them worked in the daytime. Some came from a desire to educate themselves, but a number were obliged to attend under the factory laws. These laws provided that if a boy went to work too young he must make up for it by attending night school.
It was these latter lads who seemed to be making the most fun. They evidently did not care much about the lessons.
“Here comes another!” cried a voice, as Larry walked down the street toward the school. “Let’s make him run the gauntlet!”
“Line up!” shouted several, and they formed a narrow path, with boys on either edge of the sidewalk, making a lane which Larry would have to pass through. At first he did not appreciate what was up, but when he saw the lads raise bundles of books or papers, and prepare to hit him as he passed along, he knew what was coming.
It was fashioned after the gauntlet the Indians used to force their prisoners to run through, only in the olden days death was often the end of the game. Here it was mainly for fun, though sometimes very rough.
“Soak him now!” cried several as Larry reached the head of the line and started through the lane of boys.
At first Larry hesitated. Then he realized that if he turned back the boys might call him a coward. And he felt that if he was to go to school with them it would be an unpleasant thing to bear that name. So he resolved to run the gauntlet, come what might.