Quit the bluff game; it’s playing with fire. Call in the boys who are behind in their work and settle up the matter of studies without any reference to playing. Talk very little about what you are going to do in checking up deficiencies. Do a few of these things and let the talk come the other way. Hold out natural inducements to good work and spare the threats for rare occasions. “Barking dogs seldom bite,” is an old saying that applies to those fearsome teachers who forecast a terrible punishment and then let the matter pass without further attention. Each occurrence of a situation such as this is a loosened spoke in your wheel of fortune. Don’t put yourself in the hands of a conspiracy by playing a loose game in discipline. COMMENTS Shrewd pupils can catch a rash superintendent and trip him into a heavy fall. ILLUSTRATION (HIGH SCHOOL) Miss McCord, of the Benton High School, was very unpopular one winter because she had failed two star basketball performers, and thus kept them from remaining on the team. These players were in her advanced algebra class, with about twenty other students, all ardent basketball enthusiasts. One day she said to Coith Burgess, who was not one of the players, but who had been especially indignant at her firmness, “I should like to see you for a moment, Coith, after class.” [Sidenote: Sacrificing Scholarship] “Oh, _would_ you?” Coith shaped the words with his mouth, but uttered no sound, and Miss McCord did not see the disrespectful response. When the class was dismissed he started to go with the rest. Miss McCord, seeing him go and thinking he had forgotten her request, said to him, “Don’t forget, Coith,” and went on with her conversation with another pupil. When she had finished it, Coith was nowhere in sight. He had gone on to the assembly room, where he was explaining to all the disaffected his reasons for not doing as “the old crank” had asked him. Miss McCord had no mind to pass over the matter lightly. She talked at once to the principal, and the two arranged a plan of treatment. Nothing was said to Coith, but he was not asked to recite the next day, nor did Miss McCord appear to hear him when he volunteered. The next day the same thing happened; Miss McCord did not seem to hear or see him at all. That afternoon, Coith met Mr. Stacey, the principal, in the hall. “How’s this, Burgess?” he inquired, “You’re reported absent two days in succession in advanced algebra.” “Absent? Not a bit of it. I’ve been there all right, but Miss McCord hasn’t asked me to recite. She doesn’t give a fellow a chance.” “Were you there?... All right.” Mr. Stacey was looking gravely at Coith. “What reason could Miss McCord have had for not paying any attention to you?” Coith began to flush and stammer. Finally, he told the story of his disobedience, rather sullenly but frankly. “Why did you do it?” “I don’t know. Just natural meanness, I guess.”