True, I had been treated with harshness, but I had no right to rebel as I had done.

Had I kissed the rod, it would have lost its sting,--had I borne the smart with patience and gentleness, my companions would have sympathized with and pitied me; it would not have been known beyond the walls of the academy.

But now, it would be blazoned through the whole town.

The expulsion of so distinguished a scholar as Richard Clyde would be the nine days' gossip, the village wonder.

And I should be pointed out as the presumptuous child, whose disappointed vanity, irascibility, and passion had created rebellion and strife in a hitherto peaceful seminary.