THE RECONCILIATION.
Bert hung his head a little lower, which is a way that all boys have when they are in the wrong; so the teacher did not question him any farther, but said:
“Boys, Grayson is a stranger here. I know him to be a boy of good habits and manners, and I give you my word that if you have any trouble with him, you will have to begin it yourselves. And if you expect to be gentlemen when you grow up, you must learn now to treat strangers as you would like to be treated if away from your own homes. Grayson, Sharp, go to your seats.”
“May I speak to Sharp, sir?” asked Grayson.
“Yes,” said Mr. Morton.
“I’m sorry I hit you,” said the new boy. “Will you shake hands and be friends?”
Bert looked up suspiciously without raising his head, but Grayson’s hand was outstretched, and as Bert did not know what else to do, he put out his own hand; and then the two late enemies returned to their seats, Bert looking less bad-tempered than usual, and Grayson looking quite sober.
Somehow at the afternoon recess every boy treated Grayson as if he had known him for years, and no one seemed to be jealous when Grayson invited Bert to play marbles with him, and insisted on his late adversary taking the first shot. But the teacher’s remarks about Grayson had only increased the curiosity of the boys about their new comrade, and when Sam Wardwell remarked that old Mrs. Bartle, with whom the teacher and his pupil boarded, bought groceries nearly every evening at his father’s store, and he would just lounge about during the rest of the afternoon and ask her about Grayson when she came in, at least six other boys offered to sit on a board-pile near the store and wait for information.
As for Grayson, he sat in the school-room writing while the teacher waited, for more than an hour after the general dismissal, to hear Bert Sharp recite those detestable four pages of history, and Bert was a great deal slower at his task than he would have been if he had not had to wonder why Grayson had to do so much writing.