“But then if you’d done that there’d sure have been a howl raised later on by lots of folks who still have it in for me because of the past,” urged Nick, though it could be easily seen that he felt particularly pleased by what the captain of the Scranton High Seven had just told him.

“Let them howl,” Hugh went on to say.  “There never yet was a fellow who nobly redeemed his past but what a bunch of wolves set up a howl on his heels.  Don’t you pay any attention to those fellows, Nick.  Stick to your game through thick and thin.  Every day you go on as you have been doing you win fresh friends.  Even Mr. Leonard, who used to fairly detest you, is now singing your praises; and Dr. Carmack told me he was pinning his faith on you.  He’s a long-headed man, Nick, a very far-seeing man, who knows boys and is not easily deceived.  He believes in you; so do I, and a lot of other fellows.  You’re going to make good, and I know it.”

“Well, I’m going to keep on fighting, that’s all I can say, Hugh,” replied Nick grimly.  “I’ll get there, or bust the biler trying.  But sometimes I have an awful time with myself, just because I can’t wholly believe folks will respect a chap who’s done as many mean things as I have in the past.”

“You must put that out of your mind, Nick,” urged the other.  “Why, don’t you think I’d have ten times as much respect for the fellow who’s been down, and climbs up again through his own will-power, than for the one who’s always been shielded from temptation, and never really proved what he had in him?  Nine-tenths of the fellows who walk along so straight are kept on that road because they happen to have wise parents to watch over them; and they were never given an overpowering appetite to do wrong things.”

Nick drew a long breath.  His eyes glistened again, and perhaps with something besides the animation that Hugh’s kind and encouraging words kindled within his soul.

“You see,” he went on to say, presently, when he could control his voice, “I always did like to run smack up against a hard proposition.  It’s in my nature to want a good fight, and I reckon I’ve got it this time.  But I’m a whole lot stubborn, too, Hugh, as likely you’ve learned; and I don’t give up easy.  Since I started to reform I’m a-going to get there if it takes a leg.  Anyhow, it’s a heap sight pleasanter doing it outside the Reform School than inside, like some fellows I used to train with are a-going to do, it seems.”

All this kind of talk pleased Hugh immensely.  He felt more than ever satisfied with the magnificent result of that clever little scheme of his.  Reading Hugo’s masterpiece had brought it about, too, and he would always have occasion to remember this when handling that volume recording the wonderful achievements of the one-time ignorant convict and human beast named Jean Valjean.

Nick just then saw several other boys hurrying to overtake Hugh.  He immediately evinced a desire to start off on a tangent, and head elsewhere.