She decided that Sharon Whipple would be the one to consult.

Sharon liked the boy--had taken an interest in him.
Perhaps words in time from him might avert the calamity, especially after her father had refused to be concerned.
"Prize fighting!" said the judge, scornfully.

"What'll he be doing next?
Never settles down to anything.

Jack-of-all-trades and good at none." It was no use hoping for help from a man who thought fighting was foolish for the boy merely because he would not earnestly apply himself to it.
She went to Sharon Whipple, and Sharon listened even more sympathetically than she had hoped he would.

He seemed genuinely shocked that such things had been secretly going on in the life of his young friend.