“Funny what became of that coin, though,” the latter said, as he took his old coat from the nail where it hung.
“I rather think there’s a hole in this pocket, Raleigh,” said Mr. Horton, feeling at the bottom of the coat “See here!” and he held up the side where the coin could be plainly felt between the outside and the lining.
Dixon told the two boys enough of Willie Gray’s story to explain his own connection with the affair, and awaken their sympathy for the widowed mother.
There were no more losses that year, in the Central school.
Willie Gray’s interview with Professor Keene, and his suspension from the school for a month proved a lesson that he did not care to have repeated, but his severest punishment was in seeing his mother’s bitter shame and sorrow when she heard the story. He wore very shabby clothes the rest of that year, and so did his mother, but by the end of the school year every scholar’s loss had been made good, and from that time on no more scrupulously honest boy than Willie Gray could have been found in all that city.
As to Dixon, Raleigh and Barber conceived a new respect and regard for him after this affair, and even his openly expressed liking and admiration for “the girls,” awakened amusement instead of scorn.
“For you see, boys,” Dixon said one day confidentially to the two, “You see, boys, I’ve got a lot of sisters at home—half a dozen of ’em—and a right pretty lot they are too. You wouldn’t think they were any relation to a freckled carrot-head like me. But, bless you—they have never found out how homely I am, and, as I’m the only brother they’ve got, I’ve been kind of spoiled, I reckon. Anyhow, you wouldn’t believe how I miss those girls, and I like all girls for their sakes, don’t you see?”
St. John never found out that a suspicion had rested upon him. Indeed, it is doubtful if he knew that there had been any losses, since, as it happened, nothing had been taken from his desk; and Hamlin never again saw Dixon hanging about a saloon, since he no longer had to look for Willie Gray in such places.