Every clear morning I was in the saddle before breakfast, and there are few roads or lanes within ten miles of Rivermouth that have not borne the print of her vagrant hoof.
I studied like a good fellow this quarter, carrying off a couple of first prizes.

The Captain expressed his gratification by presenting me with a new silver dollar.

If a dollar in his eyes was smaller than a cart-wheel, it wasn't so very much smaller.

I redeemed my pencil-case from the treasurer of the Centipedes, and felt that I was getting on in the world.
It was at this time I was greatly cast down by a letter from my father saying that he should be unable to visit Rivermouth until the following year.

With that letter came another to Captain Nutter, which he did not read aloud to the family, as usual.