Henry is mild in his manners, and a respectable student, but possesses no positive character.

He comes from a town ten miles distant, and boards with the principal.

Frank, though the youngest of the three, excels the other two in scholarship.

But there is some doubt whether he will be able to go to college.

His father is in moderate circumstances, deriving a comfortable subsistence from a small farm, but is able to lay by a very small surplus every year, and this he feels it necessary to hold in reserve for the liquidation of the mortgage held by Squire Haynes.