remarking,--

"My dear, there are more than a dozen waiting in the parlor. Have you
not spent a great deal of time on those four?"

"They're worth it, Mary. There's enough in every one of them to make a
man of, and they've all started fairly well."

"I fear that is more than you will be able to say of all these others."

"Of course it will. Their fathers and mothers have had a great deal to
do with that."

They were all "examined," however, in due season, some in one way and
some in another; and during all that time Dab Kinzer and his friends
were inwardly wondering, whether they said so or not, precisely what
impression they had made upon the doctor.

It was just as well, every way, that they did not know.

It was a curious fact, that with one accord they accompanied Dick on his
return to their boarding-house; and, while he disappeared through the
door at the end of the hall with Miss Almira, some invisible
leading-string dragged them up stairs. Not that they really had any
studying to do; but it was dinner-time before they had finished turning
over the leaves of their text-books, and estimating the amount of hard
work it would cost to prepare for an "examination" on them.

There was no good reason for complaint of that dinner any more than of
their breakfast; and it wound up with a very excellent Indian-meal