"Yes," said Ben.
"Well, we've heard all about you, and the rest of you. King talked just whole packs about you all."
"Don't," said Ben, and he put up his hand; everything seemed to turn suddenly dark.
"Hush up, Grayson, can't you have some sense?" said a tall, dark-haired boy, angrily, and by a speedy movement he had rescued Ben from the first grasp. "Now, then, come over to my room," he pointed to a long building on the west, "and I'll tell you all about it."
But Grayson had no mind to be so easily pushed off. "That's no fair," he cried; "I had him first."
"No, sir, take your hands off, I'm—" and he clutched Ben again, determined to fight to the end for possession.
"That's right. Get out, Tim," a dozen voices took it up in a subdued tone, it is true, but equally determined to see fair play.
And the tall, dark-haired boy, being shouldered off the steps, Ben soon found himself sitting down in the midst of Jasper's school companions, Grayson still hanging like a leech to him.
"You see we can't do anything but hang around here," one of the boys was saying, "and when anybody comes out, why, we hear a bit how he is."
"And to think it needn't have happened only for Pip,—O dear!" said a stout, chubby-cheeked boy, who didn't look as if he ever did anything but laugh and eat.