"By reading all I could find about them, sir."
"Well, George, I am really pleased," said Dr. Dewey; "pleased and encouraged to know that you have taken to reading instead of fighting. I was afraid you never would love books; but now that you have begun, you shall have all the good ones you will read."
"Thank you, father, I shall be glad of them."
"But come now, my son, supper is ready, and your sister is waiting for us."
"I will come pretty soon," said George, and his father descended the stairs.
A little later the boy went slowly down, and quietly slipped into his place at the table.
In a few minutes Dr. Dewey looked up, then started as if surprised, and dropped his hands to the edge of the table. He took a sharp look at George, and then said:
"What does that mean? How came you by that black eye?"
"There is only one way to get a black eye that I know of," said the boy.
"Fighting?"