It was but
a small amount, but it enabled Dudley to lay aside his blue overalls, and
return to the old school again. Dr. Parmlee, the principal, was delighted
to have such a good pupil back again. Whittaker came back about the same
time, and the very first day he whispered to some of the boys that Dudley
smelled of soap-grease. The boys laughed thoughtlessly, as boys are apt
to do, and passed the poor joke round. Dudley maintained the respect of
the school in general, but there was a small clique, who never knew their
lessons, but who prided themselves on being genteel dunces. These folks
used to talk about the soap-grease, even in Dr. Parmlee's presence; but
the Doctor quietly retorted that if Crawford's hands smelled of
soap-grease, that was better than to have soap-grease inside his head and
pomatum on the outside. They were a little more modest after this, but
they could not forbear allusions that kept Dudley under fire. His mother,
who was very proud of her son's independence, could not but feel sorry
that he was subject to such persecutions. "Ah, mother," he would say,
"the thing that I am proudest of in my life is, that I spent a year in
Bluff's soap factory. Don't think that I am annoyed at the barkings of
lap-dogs.
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