The latter himself was smiling a good deal as if he could not help it,
but he did not know the exact reason why every one of those boys looked
so cheerful just then.

The thought in Ford's mind came within an inch of getting out over his
tongue.

"Dwarf? Why, he's more like a giant. How Joe and Fuz Hart did spin it!"

The great man was certainly a good "six feet two," and all his bodily
proportions were correspondingly ample.

Frank Harley was the last to be shaken hands with, and so had time to
think,--

"Afraid of him? Why, he's too big to be afraid of. We're all right."

That was the whole truth. Dr. Brandegee was too big, in mind as well as
body, for any boy of their size to feel at all uneasy after the first
half-minute of looking in his calm, broad, thoughtful face. Every member
of that quartet began to feel a queer sort of impatience to tell all he
knew about books.

The doctor mentioned the fact that he had that morning received letters
from their parents and friends, announcing their arrival; but the oddity
of it was that he seemed to know, at sight, the right name for each boy,
and the right boy for each name.

"He might have guessed at Dick," thought Ford; "but how did he know me?"