I ought to take room, just here, too, to say that the president of the board was really glad that an issue had come, and that they could now rid the school of Parson Weaver’s boy.  The fact is, this man was deacon in a church of a denomination other than that to which the parson belonged, and the rivalry between the two sects had been brisk, not to say thoroughly bitter and almost mean, for a long time.  Anything that would disgrace the family of the pastor of the opposing church would weaken the influence of the church itself, and the same would redound to the glory of the church in which the deacon officiated.  I grant that this is a side issue, but side issues are often of more moment, in cases like this, than are main issues.

As “Dodd” and Mr. Bright came in, the deacon rose to meet them.  The school was already in order, and “Dodd” went on to his seat.  Mr. Bright turned to his own desk to meet the advancing president of the board.

“Can we have a word with you, before school takes up?” said the deacon, drawing down the corners of his mouth and looking particularly pious and exceedingly virtuous, as he thought.

“Wait a few minutes,” replied Mr. Bright, crowding past the man in the effort to reach his desk.

“But we prefer to speak to you now,” urged the president.  “The matter is very pressing.”

“I will attend to it presently,” answered Mr. Bright, and then, ignoring the dignitary who addressed him, he turned to the school and said: 

“Before we begin the regular work of the afternoon, ‘Dodd’ Weaver has a word to say.”

A deep silence fell upon the school at these words.  The pupils all seemed to feel that they stood in the presence of a great strife.  One naturally holds his breath under such circumstances.

Then “Dodd” stood up in his place, and the latent manhood, that had long lain dormant within him, asserted itself.  In a clear though somewhat subdued voice, he said: 

“I want to apologize for what I did this morning, and I pledge you my word of honor that hereafter, so long as I am a member of this school, I will behave myself.”

His voice trembled somewhat towards the close, but he went bravely through to the end, and then sat down.

Then Mr. Bright bowed his head, and said: 

“Our Father in heaven, whose weak and erring children we all are, bless the boy whose confession we have just heard, and help him to keep his word of honor like a man.  And help us all, in all our strifes with evil and with wrong, that we may come out of them better, and stronger, and purer, even as our Master was made perfect through suffering, Amen.”  That was all!

Perhaps there were dry eyes in the room just then.  If so, they did not appear,

After a pause of an instant, Mr. Bright said: 

“You may go on with your work,” and the pupils turned to their books again.

In five minutes more the hum of the busy school room was as if nothing uncommon had happened, and classes were reciting as usual.