“I hope you will find yourselves mistaken about that,” said Mr. Horton, “and that more than half the class will be ready to join you at once. Certainly, you can use this room; but, of course, you must be very quiet and orderly in your discussions.” “We’ll do our best, sir,” said Gordon, as he turned away and began to distribute slips of paper, laying one on each desk.
Mr. Horton picked one up. It read:—
“You are requested to attend a class meeting in this room at 2.15 this afternoon, for the discussion of matters of great importance to every member of the class.
“Fred Gordon.
Alec. Graham.
Ralph Sherman.“
These notices awakened the liveliest interest and curiosity, and not one boy left the room when school was over, while Mr. Horton departed promptly that there might be no delay in the business of the hour. The door had barely closed behind him when the room was in an uproar, many voices calling upon Gordon, Graham and Sherman to know what was up.
Gordon, having tried in vain to make himself heard amid the din, seized a ruler and rapped on his desk, and having thus gained attention for a second, he sprang up on his seat and began rapidly:—
“If you’ll just keep quiet a minute or so, I’ll tell you why this meeting was called. You all know that section D does not bear a very high reputation, but perhaps you don’t all know what a very bad name we have gained, not only in the school, but outside of it.”
“Oh, rats!” called out Henderson; but Green said, “Hush up, Hendy. Let’s hear what the good little boy’s got to say. We can sit down on him easy enough after he gets through preaching.”
Gordon went on, “I heard a gentleman—one of the prominent business men in town—say the other day, that ‘such a set of young toughs as seemed to be collected in section D would be a disgrace to any school,’ and a lady that my mother knows, refused to allow a boy belonging to this section to be introduced to her daughters. Now I think that we’ve all reason to be ashamed of our record when people talk that way about us, and what is more, the school board has taken the matter up, and is determined to have a change here. So you see we’ve got to behave ourselves anyhow, and so why not take matters into our own hands and do it of our own accord without waiting till we’re forced into it?”
“Oh, shucks! I’d like to see anybody force me to do anything I don’t want to do,” said Crawford.