“Do you think you enjoyed the hunt as much as you would if you hadn’t gone off at recess, contrary to my express orders?” inquired Marcus.
“Well, yes, I don’t see as that made any difference,” replied Harrison, looking as calm and unconcerned as though he were discussing the point with some comrade.
“I see you are inclined to be frank,” continued Marcus. “I am glad of that—I like frank, open dealing in everybody, boys as well as men. Don’t you?”
“Why, yes, I do,” replied the boy.
“And are you willing to be perfectly frank with me, if I will be so with you, in talking over matters now?” inquired Marcus.
“Well, I can’t stop long—I agreed to go somewhere, after school,” replied Harrison.
“But we must attend to this business first,” replied Marcus, in a decided tone. “Now if you say you will deal frankly with me, I will proceed at once.”
“Well, I will,” said Harrison.
“Then I will be equally frank with you, and so we shall have a fair understanding of each other,” replied Marcus. “I have noticed for several weeks, especially since Mr. Upton has been sick, that you were inclined to be disrespectful towards me, and to annoy me and the school by certain little improprieties that it was difficult to prove wilful, though they certainly seemed to be so. As I know of no reason why you should wish to trouble me—for I believe I have always treated you kindly—I have taken as charitable a view of this as I could. I have tried to think that you did not mean any harm, but were only a little odd in your ways. But when you set my authority at defiance so coolly, last Saturday, I saw that something more serious than oddity was the matter. And that something has got to be met, promptly and decidedly. Now there are two ways of meeting such a spirit in a scholar. One way is, to inflict a severe and disgraceful punishment, which will serve as a warning to the other pupils, if it does not reform the guilty one. The other way is, to win him from his error by mild and kind means.
“Now, Harrison, you know very well which of these systems of government we have adopted here. You have seen no rod or ruler, since you came here, and I hope you will not, if you stay through the term. But that is by no means certain. Sometimes, when mild measures fail, Mr. Upton adopts stern ones; but he always tries kindness first. There is only one other resort, in desperate cases, and that is, to expel the offender. Now, if I have been rightly informed, the harsh system had been pretty faithfully tried upon you before you came here, had it not?”