After the school was out, John Bacon said to Edward Lawton: "Hey, Ned, it's lucky for you that Branford is an outsider, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?" asked his companion, loftily.
"Because you might lose the silver medal that you are after," responded John.
"Bosh! You don't suppose that mill hand can win a prize, do you?" asked Lawton, with a sneer.
"His chances are good, you can bet!" exclaimed John Bacon, more forcibly than politely. "I only wish mine were as good."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Edward, angrily. "You, like every one else, seem to think Ray Branford is a prodigy. I tell you, he isn't half as smart as you think."
"Time will tell," remarked Bacon, dryly. "You know as well as I do that he entered the senior grade last September, and that at the end of the term he passed an examination that gave him a place next to you, and a dreadful small per cent. below you. And I have heard that Mr. Greenough said that had Branford been in the class room during the term he would easily have won the first place. Now he is in the class room, and my opinion is that, if he keeps on the whole term in his recitations as he has in the past week, nothing but the fact that he is an outsider will prevent him from taking the honors right away from Mr. Edward Lawton; and that's what the trouble is—hey, Ned?"
"I tell you he can't, and I don't fear him that much." And he snapped his fingers contemptuously; then he turned the corner of the street leading to his home, and hurried away from his tantalizing companion.
He was more annoyed, however, than he cared to show. All the week he had been forced to recognize the fact that Ray had ranked as high in his studies as he, and the fact irritated him. Up to Ray's coming he had easily led his class, and had already begun to look upon the graduating medal as his own. But he knew now, even if he were not prepared to acknowledge it, that if he continued to hold the first place in the class he must work for it as he never had before; and he resented the fact that it was one whom he so thoroughly disliked that forced him into such a situation. He still believed that the silver medal was his; but if Ray should win the set of books, and show a higher scholarship than himself, there would be little satisfaction in receiving the graduation honor. It would be well known that Ray's place of residence alone had prevented him from taking it.
He entered the house in a sullen and discontented mood, which was at once aggravated by overhearing his sister Daisy's remark to their mother. She was a year or two younger than he, but being in the grammar department was in the same room with him, and had, of course, heard Mr. Greenough's announcement.