"My dear boys!" he said, ringingly. "It is a joy to me to find you so nearly unanimous. And you have chosen the boy of whom, above all others, we approve.
_Then_ they cheered. It was impossible to silence the Lower School, at least, for fully three minutes. Bobby stood, blushing and trembling during this "unseemly riot."
"Robert," said Dr. Raymond, quietly, at last, "you have been a good boy here, and an exceptionally faithful scholar. I have watched your course for the year with interest. You have won out under circumstances that were most trying.
"You boys have a code of morals of your own. I know it. ’Thou Shalt Not Tell Tales’ seems greater to you than any other commandment. And I confess I do not uphold the tale-bearer.
"If a boy does wrong, he should tell on himself. _That_ is being honorable. Especially if he knows that because of his wrong-doing any other fellow is suffering.
"You all know that Robert bore a burden of punishment for months which he did not really deserve. There is another among you, however—and I’m proud of him!" and the doctor flashed a single glance toward Fred Martin’s red hair and red face, "who came forward when he understood, and did his all to remove the black mark from Robert’s record.
"It makes me happy to know that I have such boys as these in Rockledge School. I do not believe there are fifty boys anywhere—in any school—any finer than _my_ boys," declared the Doctor, with growing enthusiasm.
"And I have never presented the Medal of Honor to any of my boys with greater pride than I shall feel when I pin this star upon Robert Blake’s coat this afternoon."
The school cheered again. Even Mr. Leith smiled at the enthusiasm displayed by the youngsters. They formed in line, Barry and Frank Durrock lifted Bobby to their shoulders, and the procession marched down stairs and out, and around the campus.
Bobby felt terribly disturbed. It seemed to him as though his ears would never stop burning.
They made too much of it. He was delighted that he could tell his mother and father of his success, and show them the gold star. But he could not see just how he had won it, nor how he had won the boys’ enthusiastic approval.
There was another honor for him, too. He was selected as one of the new members of the school secret order—The Sword and Star. _That_ went with the winning of the medal without question.