“Well, it’s a bad business,” said Hamlin, “but one thing I’m sure of, and that is, that there’ll be a heap less trouble in section D next year if Henderson is not here.”
“I think so, too, though if Crawford is here there’s sure to be trouble enough.”
“Yes, he and Green are a bad team. I hope Freeman will keep away from them now.”
“Clark thinks he will,” said Hamlin.
“I hope he’s right,” replied Gordon; “I believe there’s good stuff in little Freeman.”
The school year was nearly ended now, and for the next two weeks written examinations were held almost every day.
When the last reports were given out, the L. A. O.’s all stood well, and some had excellent records. Clark and Gordon each had a hundred for the quarter, while Henderson and one or two others were well up in the nineties; but in spite of all this, the class record was a very poor one.
At the last meeting of the L. A. O.’s, this was the first subject discussed. Parliamentary methods had not, as yet, been introduced into these meetings to any extent, and all the discussions were perfectly free and informal.
It was Raleigh who began. “I’m about sick of this old school,” he began gloomily. “Just see how we’ve worked and dug these last two terms, and, in spite of it all, section D stands no higher than it did the first quarter. We’re still at the bottom of the heap, and still known in the city as the ‘tough section.’ I’ve made up my mind to cut it all next year and go to a private school. My father says I may.”
“And my father says I must,” said Bates, who had long since joined the L. A. O.’s. “After the doings at the drill, he said I shouldn’t come back here next year.”