And this is the test that must be set over against all systems and institutions that have to deal with unformed characters.  The everlasting question must be put again and again, does this, that or the other save, find, restore, or benefit the individuals that come under its influence?  Whatever does this, is good; whatever fails to do this is not good.  It is fair to ask what the machine does in this regard!

CHAPTER XVI.

It was a trying time for both “Dodd” and Mr. Bright as they walked together, hand in hand, towards the school-house.  The trouble was that neither of them could say anything.  Mr. Bright felt that words might only mar the matter, and “Dodd” was too busy thinking of what was just before him, to say a word.  The master realized the situation, and counted their steps, almost, as they walked along.

Presently he felt “Dodd’s” hand working nervously in his own, as if to break their clasp.  His heart sank, but, inspired by that same power which had so often come to him in an emergency, he said: 

“What is it ’Dodd’?”

“I can’t apologize,” returned the boy; “I don’t know what to say,” and his lips trembled as he spoke, while tears welled from his eyes.

How many things there are that interpose between us and our duty!  You have found it so in your own experience, haven’t you, my friend?

“Say that you did wrong this morning; that you are sorry for what you did; that you apologize for your action, and that you pledge your word of honor to your fellows that you will be a gentleman in school in future,” said Mr. Bright.

The nervousness was no longer in the hand, and both “Dodd” and Mr. Bright felt that they were about to win in the strife.  They quickened their steps, and were shortly in the school room.

But there was a trial yet, and one that I fear would have been insurmountable for a good many of us, brave men and women though we think we are.

As teacher and pupil entered the room they discovered the three members of the board of education seated upon the platform.  One of the number had heard the story told by the boy in the postoffice, and had hastened to make up his mind that “Dodd” should be expelled from school.  He hurried to see the other members, and for the first time since Mr. Bright had been in charge of the Emburg school, this educational triumvirate appeared, in a body, in his school room.  Their presence was exceedingly annoying, just at this moment—­the very time when they should have kept their hands off.  But this is apt to be the way with boards of education in towns of the Emburg stripe.