heim' which they gave and spent a lot of money on, and they even went a hundred francs in debt for it."
"The same thing happened in Sentisbrugg, with their Athletic Club."
"Why, what happened there?"
"They gave an exhibition of gymnastic exercises in the town hall, and he laughed at them and said they were more vain than any silly woman. If that fine fellow Dolf had not stood up for him, it might have been serious for him, and even now I would not advise him to stroll around alone in the dark out to the Sentisbrugg school house and back. People in general leave him alone, though, they're used to him by now. Only once in a while somebody throws a stone at him after dark."
Gerold listened closely to this arraignment, and began to feel a strong desire to be the instrument of justice in punishing this scourge of the Canton. "I could be like Siegfried," he thought. "I'm ten, and that would be just the right way to begin to be a hero. It wouldn't be too simple, nor too difficult." He boasted that he would knock down every one he met, big or little, who wore spectacles, without even looking to see who they were.
A plump little man, carrying a messenger's bag, spoke up. "Don't worry about him. One of these days you'll find the Foolish Student at the bottom of the Aar." He said this with confidence and in a significant tone as if he knew more than he was willing to admit.
"I wouldn't go so far as to say that," remarked some one else conservatively, "but certainly he can't last very long. He has his mother's constitution, and all her brothers and sisters
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