“Yes—it’s his only sister. She’s a beautiful child, and they’re just devoted to her—the whole family. I never saw Reed so stirred up over anything before. You know he generally turns everything into a joke, but he doesn’t feel like joking this morning. Pity they can’t find out who the fellow is—isn’t it?”
Clark muttered some unintelligible reply, and Hamlin, surprised and a little disappointed at the other’s apparent lack of interest, turned away to his own seat.
Even to his mother Clark did not mention the affair; and she, as she read the account in the paper, had no suspicion that her own son was the modest young hero who had refused to give his name; while Reed never dreamed that it was his quiet schoolmate that had saved his home from being a house of mourning. But somehow, he could not forget the affair, or shake off entirely the impression that it had made on him. He began to realize that life is not all “fun,” and the coarse jokes of the Antis began to lose their flavor for him, and finally he amazed and rejoiced the L. A. O.’s by asking for admission to their number. The enthusiastic welcome that he received from those whom he knew to be the “best fellows in the class” was all that was needed to make him heartily glad of the break that he had made.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE COMPETITIVE DRILL.
Henderson had tendered his resignation as captain of Company C the day after he was suspended. He was surprised that he had received no notice of the acceptance of the resignation, and had more than once questioned the officers of his company since his return to school, but none of them knew anything about the matter; so he was feeling very uncomfortable about it, when, one morning, he received a summons to Professor Keene’s office. He answered the summons promptly. Ten minutes later, he left the office with his face brighter than it had been for many days.
“I say,” he said, as he joined Crawford, who was waiting for him, “would you believe it, Crawford, Keene won’t accept my resignation?”
“And you’re to remain captain?” said Crawford.
“Yes, and if Company C doesn’t win the prizes this time, I’ll know the reason why. There’s Griffin ahead. Come on, I want to speak to him.”
Griffin was first lieutenant of Company C, and was quite as anxious for that company to win as was Henderson himself, and so he entered heartily into the latter’s plans for long and frequent drills during the next four weeks.