the shuffling of feet as the school moved toward the auditorium. The orchestra, brought together for the first time since June, was conscious of the vacant places due to graduation and played a ragged and terrifying march.
"I have called you together to-day," Mr. Rue, the principal, said in his slow, exact way, "to tell you something of the home room plan that is to be used in this school."
Perry looked concerned. He had not expected that his bubble would burst so soon.
"Every student," the principal was saying, "will be assigned to a home room. That will be the student's home room as long as he remains in the school. The student will report there, go there for study periods and make it, in short, his school home. He will give to the room his loyalty, and the room will give him, in return, its consolidated strength. Each room will have a teacher assigned to it, and that teacher will be leader and helper, advisor and companion, captain and friend, to every student in his room. Alphabetical lists have been posted on the bulletin boards. Every student's name has been listed with the room to which he has been assigned."
Something told Perry that boys were staring at him and expressing a whispered and indignant condemnation. The orchestra struck up its rag-
