be practically defied, and by a freshman, was too much for the official, who had a certain dignity of which he was proud.
"Ha!" he exclaimed, "you are impertinent, Parsons."
"I didn't so intend, sir."
"Ha! I don't have to be informed of my rights by you. I know them. You will write me out two hundred lines of Virgil by to-morrow afternoon and you will stand suspended for two weeks, with absolutely no privileges regarding athletics or going away from college!"
It was a hard sentence under any circumstances. It was an unjust one in Tom's case, and he knew it. Yet what could he do?
"Very well, sir," he replied, trying to overcome a certain trembling feeling in his throat, and he turned to go.
"If," went on the proctor in a slightly more conciliatory voice, "you think better of your resolution and let me know the name of the student who so outrageously assaulted the watchman, I may find it possible to mitigate your punishment. Mind, I am not asking you to inform me in an ordinary case of breaking the rules, but for an extraordinary infraction. The watchman has a badly injured leg. So, if you wish to inform me later, I will be glad to hear from you."
