What had induced the captain to take in such a dictatorial and harsh master as Jasper Grinder was a mystery which nobody could explain.
As a matter of fact, Grinder had come into the Hall under a misrepresentation.

He was from the Northwest, and claimed to have been a professor at a well-known California college.

It was true he had once taught at this college, but his record was far from being as satisfactory as Captain Putnam had been led to believe.

It was true he was a learned man,--quite the opposite of Josiah Crabtree, who had been wise only in looks,--but it was also true that he was a high-strung, passionate man, given to strange fits of anger, and that he was a miser, never spending a cent that was not absolutely required of him.
"I say, let me go!" cried Sam, as Jasper Grinder almost dragged him across the parade ground between the gymnasium and the school building.
"I am not to blame for this row." "Silence! I won't listen to a word until we are in the office," commanded the irate teacher.
"He started the whole thing," came from Tubbs.

"He called me Tubby, and got the crowd to singing a song about me." "I had nothing to do with the song, and all the boys have called you Tubby since you came here," went on Sam.
"Be quiet, I tell you!" cried Jasper Grinder, and clutched the arm of each so tightly that Tubbs set up a yell of pain.