But during the weeks that Ray had been growing in favor with his teachers and the majority of his schoolmates, there was one who steadily refused to like him. Edward Lawton at first treated Ray with a cool indifference, while he tried, by hard study, to keep the lead over him. Had he studied as conscientiously as Ray, and with the same desire to thoroughly master each lesson, he might easily have kept the supremacy he already held; for he was naturally a talented and gifted boy. But he cared nothing for knowledge in itself, and studied only for the honor of leading his class. Even then he might have succeeded, had he not formed a habit of passing lightly over, or entirely neglecting any point of his lessons that seemed to him insignificant, or likely to pass unnoticed. This superficialness soon manifested itself, as it always will, and in a moment when it was least expected, as it often does. The class was reciting in Latin; and in the passage that Edward Lawton was rendering, an allusion was made to the "swift-footed Camilla."
"Who was she?" Mr. Greenough asked.
The lad stammered and hesitated for a while, but finally confessed that he did not know. The question passed down the class unanswered until it came to Ray, who replied:
"She was the daughter of King Metabus, of the Volscian town of Privernum, and was one of the swift-footed messengers of Diana, accustomed to the chase and to war."
A few days later, a similar incident occurred in the geometry class. Edward again stumbled over some question he ought to have known, and Ray without hesitation gave the correct answer. Slight as these circumstances were, and free as Ray's heart was from any intentional reflection upon Edward's superficialness, the latter chose to so regard his answers, and talked out of school hours in no gentle terms of "the Black Forge Mill hand who was putting on airs over him."
His ill feeling toward Ray was soon apparent, but only reacted upon himself. Boys love fair play, and they know when one of their number is ill-treated; and whatever popularity Edward had possessed, gradually waned as his attitude toward Ray became known.
No one had been quicker to discern his ill-treatment of Ray than his own sister Daisy, and espousing Ray's cause, she both at home and at school freely denounced what she called "my brother's contemptibleness." Nor had Edward's ill-will for Ray escaped the notice of Mr. Greenough. He at once divined the cause, but as there had been no serious rupture between the boys, and as Ray's bearing toward Edward was ever one of uniform courtesy, he let the affair go unnoticed, hoping that some circumstance would occur that would show the offended boy the unreasonableness of his position, and lead him to change his course.
Affairs were in this condition as the winter term drew to a close. The examinations revealed what was generally expected, that Ray by a handsome percentage had led the class. When the announcement was made, Edward Lawton went sullenly out from the schoolroom, muttering to himself: "I have led one term, and that Branford one. If I can now lead the other, the medal is mine. Fair means have failed; I'll now try the foul." And allowing every good feeling and noble principle to drop out of sight, he suffered his secret resentment to grow into an open jealousy, and his open dislike into a hateful spite. For early the next term the contemptuous indifference he had at first manifested toward Ray gave place to one of the most persistent systems of petty annoyance one lad ever perpetrated upon another. Well was it for Ray that he had not only read the divine words: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city," but had also by God's grace wrought them into his heart, and made them a part of his daily life.
CHAPTER XII.
GOOD FOR EVIL.