“Or me, either,” said Henderson.
“Oh, well—if you want to be suspended or dismissed from the school for good, I’ve no doubt that can soon and easily be brought about,” said Gordon.
“They ain’t agoin’ to suspend fifteen or twenty boys, an’ don’t you believe it,” said Coyle.
“’Specially when those fifteen or twenty belong to the brightest section in the school,” added another boy.
“Small thanks to you for that,” retorted Graham, at which there was a general laugh, the speaker being by no means a brilliant scholar.
He joined in the laugh, saying lazily, “Oh well, the rest of you do poling enough without me.”
“But we’re losing ground even in scholarship,” put in Sherman, “another section beat us last quarter, and a girl’s section at that.”
“Oh well, we don’t grudge the pretty dears a few marks,” supplementing his remarks with a coarse laugh, and a word or two that made more than one boy’s cheeks burn.
“There, fellows!” cried Gordon, turning to a group near him, “that’s the kind of thing that has brought our section down so low. It isn’t just fun, or even carelessness and disorder. It is low, filthy talk, and the oaths that some of us use so constantly, that make everybody so down on us, and I don’t wonder at it.”
“Pretty little boy! Does his mammy know he’s out?” said Henderson, tauntingly.