"No, he isn't!" said Daisy; "though he works for Mr. Woodhull, his real home is at his father's, of course, and he was admitted to the school without tuition or restriction. Sadye Greenough told me so." "Well, he didn't enter until this term," said Edward, desperately. "Why, Eddie, you know as well as I do, he was admitted in September, and recited every week of last term to Mr. Greenough. He also passed his examination at the end of the term, ranking next to you," said Daisy, with some show of indignation. "I surely want you to get the medal, but I don't think it is right to make out that things are different from what you know they really are. You ought, with hard work, to easily keep your lead, and I told Sadye Greenough so. But I do think it is remarkable how fast Ray has gained the position he occupies, and mamma thinks so too, don't you, mamma?" "He certainly has shown rare perseverance, and is to be commended for it. I only hope my son will show a magnanimity and honorableness as great. He certainly is too honorable to want any position, or to win any position except by fair and open means. Much as your father and I want you to graduate at the head of the class, we would prefer that you should be at its foot, rather than have you exhibit a single dishonorable or unmanly trait." Then the subject was dropped. That the lad had been uninfluenced by his mother's words, however, was manifest by his remarking to himself, as he went to his own room: "I'll win that medal by fair means if I can, but by foul if I must. No drunkard's son shall take an honor away from me." Meanwhile, Ray, utterly unconscious of the resentment he had roused in Edward Lawton's breast, and with no thought of taking the honors of his class, went quietly forward with his studies. On the principle he had adopted months before, to do whatever he had to do with all his might, he learned each lesson conscientiously and well. He frequently studied until midnight, and even then rose early enough in the morning to give his lessons a careful review before the time for doing the morning chores. He applied himself to his studies so assiduously, that Mr. Woodhull grew anxious, lest he should impair his health, and one morning as they sat at the breakfast table he spoke to the lad about it. Ray laughingly replied: "One good look at me and the breakfast I am eating would send that anxiety to the four winds; and really, as long as I take the daily exercise I now do, I scarcely see how ill-health can get the slightest hold," a remark that his robust frame and enormous appetite fully justified.