Oliver Optic

Outward Bound Oliver Optic

Book Excerpt: ...hat something should be done, and the retired naval officer was in the right frame of mind to do it. Just then, when he was wrought up to the highest pitch of indignation, his anger vanished. Shuffles at sixteen was the counterpart of himself at fifteen. This was certainly no reason why the hand of justice should be stayed. Mr. Lowington did not intend to stay it, though the thought of his own juvenile depravity modified his view, and appeased his wrath. He put on his hat and left the house. He walked over to the Academy, and being shown to the office of the principal, he informed him of the depredations committed in his garden."Who did it, Mr. Lowington?" demanded the principal, with proper indignation in his tones and his looks."Shuffles.""I need not have asked. That boy gives me more trouble than all the others put together," added Mr. Baird, with an anxious expression. "And yet what can I do with him?""Expel him," replied Mr. Lowington, laconically."I don't l...