“Thank you; you are very complimentary. I suppose you will call me a tyrant next,” sneered he. “I am only telling you what I have heard the fellows say,” I meekly responded. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” snarled he; and I was fully convinced then, if I had not been before, that honest counsel to such a person is a thankless task. Tommy walked up and down the hall precisely as his magnificent father would have done, if he had been vexed and disconcerted. I had told him wholesome truth, for which he was not grateful to me. “Come with me, Wolf,” said he, imperiously, after he had considered the matter a while. The rest of the students were scattered about the building and play-ground of the institute, talking over the meeting, or electioneering for the great occasion, in the afternoon, if Major Toppleton did not veto the proceedings. I followed Tommy over the lawn, where many of the students were assembled in groups. He took no notice of them, unless it was to cast angry and scornful glances at them. He led the way to his father’s house, where we found the major in his library. “Father, we may as well burst up the Lake Shore Railroad, so far as the students are concerned,” said the irate and disgusted president of the company. “What’s the matter now, Tommy?” asked the major, looking up from the newspaper he was reading. “They are going to run me off the ticket for directors,” growled Tommy, dropping heavily into an arm-chair, as though the end of the world had come, and there was nothing more to live for. “They say I have been putting on airs.” “Perhaps you have, Tommy!” suggested the major, who, for some reason or other, was disposed to receive the intelligence very good-naturedly. “I am the president of the road, and have only done my duty. I’m not going down on my knees to those who are under me.” “But a certain degree of gentlemanly forbearance and consideration is prudent in business relations,” added the major. “Now let me hear what the matter is, and we will see what can be done.” Between Tommy and myself we told the great man what had transpired at the hall, and announced the vote of the stockholders, relating to the adjourned meeting and the dinner. The major actually laughed at the impudence of the boys. He was a politic man when policy paid better than violence. There was certainly a breeze among the stockholders of the Lake Shore Railroad. Tommy was in peril of losing his office, which would leave the owner of the road without a suitable representative in the board of directors. The movement must be checked, or the connection of the Institute with the road must be dissolved.