Explore "All Taut" by Oliver Optic on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
On the first day of the new term, Captain Gildrock made his usual speech of welcome and explanation. Just one-half of the school were new scholars, and it took a week to get them properly classified. Nearly one-third of the number were "hard boys; " though six of them had been disciplined for two weeks, on board of the steamer. But the new pupils had not learned their duties in the schoolroom.
Tom Topover had come to that part of the programme of the institution, where he expected to recover his lost prestige as a leader of his gang. Study had always been an abomination to him; and he supposed it was to his companions, the original Topovers. For himself, he refused to make any effort to apply himself; and, when called upon for a recitation, he was entirely unprepared. He thought he could get the better of his teachers and the principal in this department.