“The moral,” replied Tom, “is; When anything troubles you take a fall out of it. It may hurt for a while, but you’re a lot better for it afterwards.”
“And you think Gerald’s like Cæsar Augustus?” asked Dan.
“Sure. The whole scheme of things here was troubling him. He didn’t understand authority; didn’t know whether it could bite or not. So he had a show-down. Now he knows where he stands. He will come out from under the stove now; you see if he doesn’t.”
“Oh, you’re an idiot,” said Alf. “The trouble is with him, Dan, he thinks he’s a blooming philosopher. But he may be right—for once. I don’t know. Anyhow, you tell Gerald to come over Saturday for his boxing lesson.”
“Well, but there’s no reason why you should be bored with him every week, Alf. If he wants any more lessons I’ll attend to him. I don’t know anything about it, but he will be just as satisfied, I dare say.”
“You think so, do you?” asked Alf indignantly. “Let me tell you that that kid is going to be a boxer. Why, he knows more about using his hands now than half the fellows in school. Don’t you worry about my being bored, old man. In a month or so I’ll have to go my hardest to keep him from knocking my head off!”
“Why doesn’t he get to know more fellows?” puzzled Tom.
“I don’t know, really,” Dan answered. “He’s sort of quiet until you know him real well, but I should think he’d get acquainted better. He meets a good many fellows every day in class and around school. I don’t believe he has more than a nodding acquaintance with any of the fellows at his table. I don’t know what the trouble is.”
“He isn’t a good ‘mixer,’” said Alf. “What we’ll have to do is to take him in hand, fellows. Look here, Dan, bring him up to Cambridge Saturday night for the debate, and we’ll introduce him to a few fellows. And Tom can have him over to Oxford now and then. The rules won’t let us introduce him more than once a month, but if Tom takes him to one meeting and we take him to another that’ll be twice.”
“I’d like to get him into Cambridge,” said Dan, “but the election doesn’t come until May, does it?”