“I will sign it,” said James; “but it must be done immediately.”

“I will see some of the girls at once.” And, so saying, the young lady hastened away.

In many groups the matter was discussed on that day, and much excitement prevailed; but the movement for a petition failed, and the following morning dawned with the assurance that the rebuke would be administered before the whole school. The scholars assembled with hearts full of pity for the unfortunate girl. No one felt more keenly for her than James. He expected to see her overcome and crushed.

The principal called upon her to rise, and the rebuke was administered, while all the scholars dropped their heads in pity for her. She survived the ordeal. She neither wept nor fainted. On retiring from the chapel, with the crowd of scholars, she remarked to James, in the hearing of many:

“It seems to me that Uncle Sutherland was rather personal.”

The jocose remark created a laugh all round, and none laughed more heartily than James, who concluded that their profound sympathies had been sadly wasted.

James had not been at Hiram long before the students discovered one prominent trait of his character, viz., a keen sense of justice. He was fond of ball-playing, and he wanted everybody to enjoy it. One day he took up the bat to enjoy a game, when he observed several of the smaller boys looking on wistfully, seeming to say in their hearts, “We wish we could play.”

“Are not those boys in the game?” he asked.

“What! those little chaps? Of course not; they would spoil the game.”

“But they want to play just as much as we do. Let them come in!”

“No; we don’t want the game spoiled. They can’t play!”

“Neither shall I, if they cannot,” added James, decidedly. And he threw down his bat.

“Well, let them come, then,” shouted one of the players, who wanted the game to go on. “Spoil it, if you will.”

“We shall make it livelier,” responded James, taking up his bat, and calling upon the little boys to fall in. “We may not have quite so scientific a game, but then all hands will have the fun of it; and that is what the game is for.”