Dan smiled at the suggestion, though the words of praise were sweet to him. To an extent they served to drive away some of the darker feelings that had been in his mind. He decided in his quiet way that he would keep his eyes open and perhaps some of the things in which he was aware that his training was deficient might be improved without his roommate referring to them, for in spite of his unassuming ways Dan was keenly sensitive to the suggestions for improvement which Walter felt free to make. That same evening after supper Smith, Hodge, and Ned all came to Dan’s room, and their words of praise for the work of the afternoon were doubly soothing to Dan’s troubled heart. After all, perhaps, he was not entirely out of place among the boys of the Tait School, he thought. As the conversation turned to other matters and Ned’s words kept his companions in good humor, Dan felt himself strongly drawn to the boy. Sturdy, thickly set, his round face plain in feature, but lighted up by his love of fun and his manifest friendliness for everyone, Dan decided that Ned was one of the boys to whom anyone might turn with confidence. Whatever Ned’s defects might be, he was true. “Look here, Ned,” Smith was saying, “do you see that scar on my cheek?” “I do,” replied Ned. “What of it?” “I got it in the cars the other day. I had to stand, and right in front of me was a woman who had a long hatpin in her hat. I tell you such things ought to be stopped by law. I’m opposed to them.” “Yes. You’re against long hatpins, so to speak,” laughed Ned. “Well, I’ve been against them myself several times.” “That’s all right,” said Hodge as the boys laughed. “You want to keep away from those things.” “My father told me just before I left home how to keep the doctor away,” said Smith. “How?” “‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ That’s poetry. You fellows might not know it, so I’m repeating it for your benefit.” “I know something better than an apple to keep him away,” said Ned. “What’s that?” “An onion. That’ll keep the doctor and everybody else away too.” “Ned, we’ll have to shut you up if you don’t quit that,” said Hodge. “That makes me think of something that happened at home just before I left for school,” continued Ned, unabashed. “My father was looking for a new chauffeur. There was one chap that applied for the place that my father rather liked, though I didn’t agree with him exactly. Finally my father asked the fellow how long he had been in his last position. ‘Five years,’ the fellow told him. ‘That’s a good record――a remarkably good record in these days,’ my father said. You know he always says ‘these days’ as if he thought the world somehow was running down and was almost out, and the worst of it is he always looks straight at me when he says it.” “I wonder why,” suggested Hodge soberly. “I wonder about it too,” said Ned.