The principal’s residence was a small two-storied brick cottage standing back of Weeks Hall, and hidden from sight by a grove of trees, through which the graveled driveway wound in and out. At half-past seven Hansel found himself standing before the front door. Its stained glass in strange shades of green, yellow, and brown added to his depression. He had never spoken to Dr. Lambert and, like most fellows, stood very much in awe of him, and his present mission was one which might not, he believed, please the doctor. A white-aproned maid admitted him to a tiny library, asked his name and disappeared. Ten minutes by the old clock in the hall passed; then footsteps sounded without, and the doctor stood at the doorway.

“This is Dana, I believe? I have the[177] name correctly?” he asked. Hansel murmured assent.

“Come this way, please,” said the principal. Hansel followed him across the hall and into the office, a plainly furnished room with unpapered walls, against which a few photographs of the school hung. The doctor motioned Hansel to a chair, seated himself at the broad-topped desk, and looked politely attentive.

The principal was a small-framed man of some fifty-five years of age, dressed habitually in a suit of smooth black cloth with a long-tailed coat. His countenance was neither repellent nor attractive, but Hansel thought it wholly lacking in sympathy, and his embarrassment grew each moment. The doctor passed his hand slowly over his drooping mustache, which, like his hair, was somewhat grizzled, and coughed softly.

“You—ah—wished to see me?” he asked finally.

“No, sir,” answered Hansel, “that is, yes, sir, if you please.” After this unfortunate beginning he relapsed again into embarrassed silence, casting about wildly in his mind for the right words to introduce his subject. Finally,[178] when the expression of surprise on the principal’s face had deepened to one of annoyance, Hansel took the plunge.

“It’s about Phin, sir,” he blurted.

“Phinsur? Who’s Phinsur?” asked the doctor with a frown.

“Phin Dorr, I mean.”

“Ah, yes, Dorr; hum; what about Dorr?”

“His mother’s sick, sir.”

“Indeed? I am very sorry to hear of it.”

“And Phin has had to stay at home and look after her.”

“At home? He has left the academy?”

“No, sir, he lives in the village with his mother, Mrs. Freer.”

“Really? I was not aware of that.”

“Nobody was, sir.” And Hansel, with much floundering, explained. When he had finished, the doctor nodded gravely in token of understanding.

“A very devoted mother, Dana, but ill advised. I do not approve of parents coming here to live with their sons. May I ask what it is you want me to do?”

“Why, sir,” answered Hansel, gaining confidence,[179] “you see Phin has been obliged to be absent from recitations for two or three days, and he is trying for a scholarship, and he is afraid he won’t get it on account of being absent.”

“And he has asked you to intercede for him?”

“No, sir, he doesn’t know I’ve come to see you, but he’s a particular friend of mine, sir, and I don’t want him to lose the scholarship. I thought if you knew why he was absent you would—would make allowances.”

“So I will,” answered the principal gravely. “So I will. I don’t approve of the arrangement whereby Mrs.—Freer, you said?—whereby Mrs. Freer is living in the village, but that is another matter. You may tell Dorr, if you wish, that he will be given every opportunity to make up what recitations he has missed.” He drew a sheet of paper toward him and wrote on it in slow, careful characters. “Dorr, I believe, is a very worthy lad, and he should be congratulated on having such devoted friends.”

“Thank you, doctor,” murmured Hansel. He arose, but the other motioned him back.

[180]

“While you are here,” said the principal, “I should like to discuss another matter with you. I understand from Mr. Ames that you are one of the prime movers in a—ah—movement to alter the athletic arrangements here?”

“I suppose I am, sir.”

“Kindly tell me what it is you wish to accomplish.”

And Hansel told him, not very fluently, I fear, and the principal heard him through with unchanging countenance, his eyes from under their bushy eyebrows scrutinizing the boy’s face every instant. When Hansel had finished, the doctor nodded thoughtfully once or twice.

“I begin to understand. Your position is well taken, it seems to me, but I do not very clearly understand athletics. The athlete has always seemed to me to be a—ah—privileged character, with a set of ethics quite his own. But you, I understand, apply the ethics governing ordinary affairs to him.” The doctor’s voice seemed slightly tinged with irony. “Am I right?”

“It seems to me,” answered Hansel boldly, “that what would be dishonest in the schoolroom[181] or in business would be equally dishonest in sport.”

“Possibly, possibly,” answered his host with a wave of his hand which seemed to thrust argument aside. “And this boy, Cameron, whom you mention as a specific case? You are certain that his tuition is paid by the—by his fellows?”

“Paid from the football expense fund contributed by the fellows; yes, sir.”

“And that fact, in your estimation, should prohibit him from playing the game of football?”

“With other schools, sir.”

“But if the—ah—other schools do not offer objections?”

“I don’t suppose they know what the facts are, sir.”

“I see. Then you think that if the other schools knew they would object?”

“I think so, sir; I think they would protest him.”

“In which case——?”

“Why, then it would be up to—I mean, sir, that in such a case it would lay with you to say whether or not he could play.”

“Thank you. You have given me quite a[182] good deal of information on a subject of which I have been, I fear, inexcusably ignorant. I begin to think that I have been mistaken, that athletic ethics are much the same as any other. Strange, very strange!” He arose and Hansel followed his example. At the door he held out his hand. Something almost approaching a smile softened the immobile features. “Good night, Dana. I am glad to have made your acquaintance. We shall meet again, doubtless.”

Outside Hansel took a deep breath of relief.

“Thunder!” he muttered with a shiver, “that’s like visiting in an ice chest! I wonder, though, if he is going to take our side!”

Then he hurried off to keep his appointment with Harry.

The next afternoon, Friday, he called again at Phin’s. The door was opened by a stout, placid-faced woman in a blue-striped dress and white apron.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Whitney,” said Hansel. “Is Phin in?”

“Yes, but he is asleep, I think. He didn’t go to bed until about midnight, and I haven’t waked him yet; he seemed to need the rest.”

[183]

“Oh, well, don’t call him, then. How is Mrs. Freer?”

“Much better this morning. The doctor thinks she’ll soon be around again now. She had some beef tea this noon.”

“That’s fine.” Hansel lowered his voice for fear the patient upstairs might hear. “Mrs. Whitney, some of us fellows at the school are going to pay you, so don’t you take anything from Phin or his mother, if they want you to, will you? You see, they’re rather short of ready money just now, and we want to help Phin out a bit.”

“I understand,” said the nurse, with a smile. “I’ll look to you for my money.”

“Yes, but don’t you leave until the doctor says you may; P............