Excerpt from Against Wind and Tide, Vol. 1 of 3 Playing truant again, I suppose, said the schoolmaster, and went on calling over the roll. He had played truant himself when he was a boy, and remembered the sweetness Of stolen delights, - also, he remembered the penalty, - also, he was in the habit Of exacting it in full from the present generation Of delinquents who transgressed his rules. He therefore straightened his cane and laid it handy across his desk, while Robert noted the familiar, ominous preparations and shuddered. It was a parody on Justice whetting her sword. Cyrus was a favourite with the master, but favour did not blunt the edge Of the inevitable stroke; the lad's palm was well acquainted with the sting Of a hander, and his idle shoulders had writhed many a time under a vigorous lacing from the supple cane. King Solomon's precept was in high authority at this date, and in full practice also; but even as with young Rehoboam, it proved a failure with Cyrus Hawthorne. There are some vices that cannot be beaten out Of a boy, and Cyrus's tendency to play truant on sunshiny mornings was one Of these ingrain vices. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.