“Are you a member of the debating club, Gordon?”
“No, sir,” answered Wayne, surprised into an expression of ordinary curiosity quite unbecoming a great reformer.
“You should join. I think you have the making of a very lucid and convincing speaker.” The boy strove to detect an expression of irony on the master’s face, but saw none. “Unfortunately, in the present case you have selected a side in the debate that is not defensible. And, also unfortunately, I have neither the time nor the inclination to enter the lists with you. But I will say one or two things on the subject. In the first place, it is a waste of your time to consider whether or not the faculty has the right to make the rule regarding physical training; the indisputable fact is that the faculty has made the rule. For the sake of argument—although I said I would not argue—let us assume that the faculty has not the right. What can you do about it? The rules are not altered, after ten years, on the demand of one scholar out of a school of some two hundred. If the pupil stands firm and the faculty stands firm what is going to be the result? Why, the two must part company. In other words, the pupil must leave. Do you think it is worth it?”
“But it’s wrong, sir, and if I accept the—the arrangement I am indorsing it, and I can’t do that.”
“But maybe it isn’t wrong; we only assumed it to be, you remember. You don’t care for athletics?”
“Not much, sir; I like riding and shooting and fishing, but I don’t see the good of fussing—I mean exercising—with dumb-bells and chest weights and single sticks; and it tires me so that I can’t do my lessons well.” The principal raised his eyebrows in genuine astonishment.
“Are you certain of that? Maybe you have not given the thing a fair trial. We believe here at Hillton that it is just as necessary to keep a boy’s health good as his morals, and our plan has worked admirably for many years. The rule regarding ‘compulsory physical education,’ as you call it, is not peculiar to Hillton; it is to be found at every preparatory school in the country, I feel sure. A capability for good studying depends on a clear brain and a well body, and these, in turn, depend on a proper attention to exercise and recreation. The first of these we demand; the other we encourage and expect. Who is your roommate?”
“Donald Cunningham, sir.”
“Indeed! And does he have very much trouble with his studies?”
“No, sir; but he has been at it for two years—the gymnasium work, I mean. I’m not used to it, and I find the studies difficult, and if I am tired I can’t do them.”