Doubtless the first cause of his resentment had been simply Ray's humble position. He knew his own father was rich, and held a position of influence not only in the town, but throughout the State. This had led him to assume aristocratic airs toward Ray. He continually spoke of him as "one of my father's mill hands," or as "that fellow from the Forge," as though honest toil could belittle the man or his soul. After Ray's triumphant acquittal, he had seemed to accept the inevitable, and treated him with an air of sufferance, if not of courtesy. Possibly this would have continued to have been his attitude toward him in the school, had not a circumstance occurred soon after the opening of the term which brought Ray unconsciously into what Lawton called "a direct antagonism with himself," and thus the old feeling of resentment was not only re-aroused, but was intensified. At the close of school one day, Mr. Greenough detained the scholars for a few minutes to make, what he called, an important announcement. "It is generally known to the scholars of the town," he said, "that at the end of the year the school board presents a silver medal to the scholar graduating with the highest rank. But it may not be as generally understood that this medal can be won only by a scholar belonging within the corporation limits, and even then it must be a scholar whose name has been on the school register for the entire school year. In other words, whatever rank an outside scholar may hold, or whatever the rank one may attain who has entered during the school year, the fact that one is without the corporation, and that the other has not been on the school roll for the whole year, will debar each from receiving this honor. "But the school board, finding that so many have entered the school this term under one or the other of these restrictions, has decided to give them an opportunity to win at least one distinction, and has requested me to announce that a set of Shakespeare's works, bound in morocco and valued at ten dollars, will be given to that scholar of the senior class, without regard to the time he entered the school, or the place where he may reside, who, in the judgment of the examining committee, shall show the most marked improvement in his studies, the highest average scholarship, and the most perfect deportment. There is but one exception to this competition: the scholar on the corporation roll, who wins the silver medal, cannot also receive the second prize; that must go to the one who ranks next to him, if it should be found that he, in the judgment of the committee, would otherwise have been entitled to it. Here is now a chance for distinction open alike to all, and I trust that there will be such an incentive to all to try for it that a higher excellence will be manifest in our studies, and thus the wisdom of the board in offering the prize be completely vindicated."