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} + + div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage + { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } + + .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } +} + +@media print { + div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } + div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } + + .vfill { margin-top: 20% } + h2.title { margin-top: 20% } +} + +/* DIV */ +pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } + +</style> +<title>BOBBY BLAKE AT ROCKLEDGE SCHOOL</title> +<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> +<meta name="PG.Title" content="Bobby Blake at Rockledge School" /> +<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" /> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/img-cover.jpg" /> +<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Frank A. Warner" /> +<meta name="DC.Created" content="1915" /> +<meta name="PG.Id" content="39799" /> +<meta name="PG.Released" content="2013-06-03" /> +<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> +<meta name="DC.Title" content="Bobby Blake at Rockledge School or Winning the Medal of Honor" /> + +<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> +<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> +<meta content="Bobby Blake at Rockledge School or Winning the Medal of Honor" name="DCTERMS.title" /> +<meta content="bobby.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> +<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> +<meta content="2013-06-05T23:53:05.306226+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> +<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> +<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> +<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39799" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> +<meta content="Frank A. Warner" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> +<meta content="2013-06-03" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> +<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> +<meta content="EpubMaker 0.3.20a7 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39799 ***</div> +<div class="document" id="bobby-blake-at-rockledge-school"> +<h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">BOBBY BLAKE AT ROCKLEDGE SCHOOL</span></h1> + +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> +</div> +<div class="align-None container titlepage"> +<p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">BOBBY BLAKE</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="large">at Rockledge School</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<!-- class: medium + +or +Winning the Medal of Honor --> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics medium">By</em><span class="medium"> +<br />FRANK A. WARNER</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics small">Author of</em><span class="small"> +<br />"BOBBY BLAKE AT BASS COVE" +<br />"BOBBY BLAKE ON A CRUISE," Etc.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">WHITMAN PUBLISHING CO. +<br />RACINE, WISCONSIN</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<div class="align-None container verso"> +<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Copyright, MCMXV, by +<br />BARSE & CO.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">Printed in the United States of America</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">CONTENTS</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst"><span class="small">CHAPTER</span></p> +<ol class="upperroman simple"> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#the-overland-limited">"The Overland Limited"</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#apples-and-applethwaite-plunkit">Apples and Applethwaite Plunkit</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#fred-in-trouble">Fred in Trouble</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#an-eventful-afternoon">An Eventful Afternoon</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#the-tale-of-a-scarecrow">The Tale of a Scarecrow</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#a-fish-fry-and-a-startling-announcement">A Fish Fry and a Startling Announcement</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#financial-affairs">Financial Affairs</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#the-peep-show">The Peep-Show</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#off-for-rockledge">Off for Rockledge</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#new-surroundings">New Surroundings</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#getting-acquainted">Getting Acquainted</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#in-the-dormitory">In the Dormitory</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#the-poguey-fight">The Poguey Fight</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#the-honor-medal">The Honor Medal</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#getting-into-step">Getting Into Step</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#hot-potatoes">Hot Potatoes</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#lost-at-sea">Lost at Sea</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#the-bloody-corner">The Bloody Corner</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#the-result">The Result</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#on-the-brink-of-war">On the Brink of War</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#give-and-take">Give and Take</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#what-bobby-said">What Bobby Said</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#good-news-travels-slowly">Good News Travels Slowly</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#red-hair-stands-for-more-than-temper">Red Hair Stands for More Than Temper</a></p> +</li> +<li><p class="first noindent pfirst"><a class="medium reference internal" href="#the-winner">The Winner</a></p> +</li> +</ol> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="the-overland-limited"><span class="x-large">BOBBY BLAKE AT ROCKLEDGE SCHOOL</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">CHAPTER I</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">"THE OVERLAND LIMITED"</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>A boy of about ten, with a freckled face and +fiery red hair cropped close to his head, came +doubtfully up the side porch steps of the Blake +house in Clinton and peered through the screen +door at Meena, the Swedish girl.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Meena was tall and rawboned, with very red +elbows usually well displayed, and her straw-colored +hair was bound in a tight "pug" on top of +her long, narrow head. Meena had sharp blue +eyes and she could see boys a great way off.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Mis' Blake—she ban gone out," said Meena, +before the red-haired boy could speak. "You +vant somet'ing? No?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I—I was looking for Bobby," said the visitor, +stammeringly. He and Mrs. Blake's Swedish girl +were not on good terms.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I guess he ban gone out, too," said Meena, +who did not want to be "bothered mit boys."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boy looked as though he thought she was a +bad guesser! Somewhere inside the house he +heard a muffled voice. It shouted:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Whoo! whoo! whoo-whoo-who-o-o-o!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The imitation of a steam whistle grew rapidly +nearer. It seemed to be descending from the roof +of the house—and descending very swiftly. +Finally there came a decided bang—the landing of a +pair of well-shod feet on the rug—and the voice +rang out:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All out! All out for last stop! All out!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"</span><em class="italics">That's</em><span> Bobby," suggested the boy with the red +hair, looking wistfully into Meena's kitchen.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Vell!" ejaculated the girl. "You go in by the +dining-room door, I guess. You not go to trapse +through my clean kitchen. Vipe your feet, boy!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boy did as he was bade, and opened the +dining-room door. A steady footstep was thumping +overhead, rising into the upper regions of the +three-story house.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The red-haired youngster knew his way about +this house just as well as he knew his own. Only +he tripped over a corner of the dining-room rug +and bumped into two chairs in the darkened +living-room before he reached the front hall.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This was wide and was lighted above by ground-glass +oval windows on all three flights of stairs. +The mahogany balustrade was in a single smooth +spiral, broken by no ornament. It offered a +tempting course from garret to ground floor to +any venturesome small boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All aboard!" shouted the voice overhead.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"The Overland Limited," said the red-haired +boy, grinning, and squinting up the well.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ding-dong! ding-dong! All aboard for the +Overland Limited! This way! No stop between +Denver and Chicago! All aboard!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a scramble above and then the +exhaust of the locomotive was imitated in a thin, +boyish treble:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sh-h! sh-h! sh-h! Choo! choo! choo! +Ding-dong-ding! We're off—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>A figure a-straddle the broad banister-rail shot +into view on the upper flight. The momentum +carried the boy around the first curve and to the +brink of the second pitch. Down that he sped +like an arrow, and so around to the last slant of +the balustrade.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Next stop, Chi-ca-</span><em class="italics">go</em><span>!" yelled the boy on the +rail. "All o-o-out! all out for Chicago!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And then, bang! he landed upon the hall rug.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"How'd you know the board wasn't set against +you, Bobby?" demanded the red-haired one. +"You might have had a wreck."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hello, Fred Martin. If I'd looked around and +seen your red head, I'd sure thought they'd flashed +a danger signal on me—though the Overland +Limited is supposed to have a clear track, you know."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred jumped on him for that and the two chums +had a wrestling match on the hall rug. It was, +however, a good-natured bout, and soon they sat +side by side on the lower step of the first flight, +panting, and grinned at each other.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby's hair was black, and he wore it much +longer than Fred. To tell the truth, Fred had the +"Riley cut," as the boys called it, so that his hair +would not attract so much attention.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred had all the temper that is supposed to go +with red hair. Perhaps red-haired people only +seem more quick tempered because everybody +"picks on them" so! Bobby was quite as +boisterous as his chum, but he was more cautious and +had some control over his emotions. Nobody ever +called Bobby Blake a coward, however.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He was a plump-cheeked, snub-nosed boy, with +a wide, smiling mouth, dancing brown eyes, and an +active, sturdy body. Like his chum, he was ten +years old.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Thought you had to work all this forenoon, +cleaning the back yard?" said Bobby. "That's +why I stayed home. 'Fraid some of the other +fellows would want me to go off with them, and we +agreed to go to Plunkit's Creek this afternoon, +you know."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You bet you!" agreed Fred. "I got a dandy +can of worms. Found 'em under that pile of +rubbish in the yard when I hauled it out."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But you haven't cleared up all that old yard so +soon?" determined Bobby, shaking his head.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred grinned again. "No," he said. "I +caught Buster Shea. He's a good fellow, Buster +is. I got him to do it for me, and paid him a cent, +and my ten glass agates, and two big alleys, and +a whole cage-trap full o' rats—five of them—we +caught in our barn last night. He's goin' to take +'em home and see if he can tame 'em, like Poley +Smith did."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh!" snorted Bobby, "Poley's are </span><em class="italics">white</em><span> +rats. You can't tame reg'lar rats."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That wasn't for me to tell him," returned +Fred, briskly. "Buster thinks he can. And, +anyway, it was a good bargain without the rats. +He'll clean the yard fine."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Then let's get a lunch from Meena and I'll +find my fish-tackle, and we'll start at once," +exclaimed Bobby, jumping up.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ain't you got to see your mother first?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"She knows I'm going. She won't mind when +I go, as long as I get back in time for supper. +And then—she ain't so particular 'bout what I do +just now," added Bobby, more slowly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Jolly! I wish my mother was like that," +breathed Fred, with a sigh of longing.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! I ain't so sure I like it," confessed +Bobby. "There's somethin' goin' on in this +house, Fred."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What do you mean?" demanded his chum, +staring at him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Pa and mother are always talkin' together, +and shutting the door so I can't come in. And +they look troubled all the time—I see 'em, when +they stare at me so. Something's up, and I don't +know what it is."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Mebbe your father's lost all his money and +you'll have to go down and live in one of those +shacks by the canal—like Buster Shea's folks," +exclaimed the consoling Fred Martin.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. 'Tain't as bad as that, I guess. +Mother's gone shopping for a lot of new clothes +to-day—I heard her tell Pa so at breakfast. So it +ain't money. It—it's just like it is before +Christmas, don't you know, Fred? When folks are +hiding things around so's you won't find 'em before +Christmas morning, and joking about Santa Claus, +and all that."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Crickey! Presents?" exclaimed Fred. +"'Tain't your birthday coming, Bob?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. I had my birthday, you know, two months ago."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What do you s'pose it can be, then?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I haven't a notion," declared Bobby, shaking +his head. "But it's something about me. +Something's going to happen me—I don't know what."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Bully!" shouted Fred, suddenly smiting him +on the shoulder. "Do you suppose they're going +to let you go to Rockledge with me this fall?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Rockledge School? No such luck," groaned +Bobby. "You see, mother won't hear of that. +Your mother has a big family, Fred, and she can +spare you—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Glad to get rid of me for a while, I guess," +chuckled the red-haired boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, my mother isn't. So I can't go to +boarding school with you," sighed Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well," said the restless Fred, "let's get a +move on us if we're going to Plunkit's."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We must get some lunch," said Bobby, +starting up once more. "Say! has Meena got the +toothache again?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"She didn't have her head tied up. But she's +real cross," admitted Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"She'll have the toothache if I ask for lunch, +I know," grumbled Bobby. "She always does. +She says boys give her the toothache."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Nevertheless, he led the way to the kitchen. +There the tall, angular Swede cast an unfavorable +light blue eye upon them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I ban jes' clean up mine kitchen," she complained.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We just want a lunch to take fishing, Meena," +said Master Bobby, hopefully.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You don't vant loonch to fish mit," declared +Meena. "You use vor-rms."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred giggled. He was always giggling at +inopportune times. Meena glared at him with both +light blue eyes and reached for the red flannel +bandage she always kept warm back of the kitchen +range.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I ban got toothache," she said. "I can't vool +mit boys," and she proceeded to tie the long +bandage around her jaws and tied it so that the +ends—like long ears—stood right up on top of her +head.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But you can give us just a little," begged +Bobby. "We won't be back till supper time."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This seemed to offer some comfort to the +hard-working girl, and she mumbled an agreement, +while she shuffled into the pantry to get the lunch +ready. She did not speak English very well at +any time, and when her face was tied up, it was +almost impossible to understand her.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Sometimes, if Meena became offended, she +would insist upon waiting on table with this same +red bandage about her jaws—even if the family +had company to dinner! But in many ways she +was invaluable to Mrs. Blake, so the good lady +bore Meena's eccentricities.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>By and by the Swedish girl appeared with a box +of luncheon. The boys dared not peek into it +while they were under her eye, but they thanked +her and ran out of the house. Fred was giggling +again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"She looks just like a rabbit—all ears—with +that thing tied around her head," he said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Whoever heard of a rabbit with red ears?" +scoffed Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He was investigating the contents of the lunch +box. There were nice ham sandwiches, minced +eggs with mayonnaise, cookies, jumbles, a big piece +of cheese, and two berry tarts.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, Meena's bark is always worse than her +bite," sighed Bobby, with thanksgiving.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And </span><em class="italics">this</em><span> bite is particularly nice, eh?" said +Fred, grinning at his own pun.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Guess we won't starve," said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Besides, there is a summer apple tree right +down there by the creek—don't you know? If the +apples are all yellow, you can't eat enough to hurt +you. If they are half yellow it'll take a lot to +hurt you. If they're right green and gnarly, +about two means a hurry-up call for Dr. Truman," +and Fred Martin spoke with strong conviction, +having had experience in the matter.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="apples-and-applethwaite-plunkit"><span class="large">CHAPTER II</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">APPLES AND APPLETHWAITE PLUNKIT</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Bobby found the little grape basket in which +he kept his fishing-tackle on a beam in the +woodshed. Clinton was an old fashioned town, and +few people as yet owned automobiles. There +were, therefore, not many garages, but plenty of +rambling woodsheds and barns. When all the +barns are done away with and there are nothing +but garages left, boys will lose half their chance +for fun!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Blakes' shed, and the stable and barn +adjoining, offered a splendid play-place in all sorts +of weather for Bobby and his friends. There +were a pair of horses and a cow in the stable, too. +Michael Mulcahey was the coachman, and he liked +boys just as much as Meena, the Swedish girl, +disliked them. This fact was ever a bone of +contention between the old coachman and Meena. +Otherwise Michael and Meena might have gotten +married and gone to housekeeping in the little +cottage at the back of the Blake property, facing +on the rear street.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He ban </span><em class="italics">in</em><span>-courage them boys in their +voolishness," accused Meena. "Me, I don't vant no boys +aroundt. Michael, he vould haf the house overrun +mit boys. So ve don't get married."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Just now Michael was not at the barn. He had +driven Mrs. Blake to the neighboring city in the +light carriage, on her shopping trip. Bobby and +Fred trailed through the back gate and down the +lane, leaving the gate open. Later Meena had to +run out and chase the chickens out of the tomato +patch. Then she tied the red bandage in a harder +knot and prepared to show herself a martyr to her +mistress when it came supper time.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Back of the Blake house the narrow street cut +into a road that led right out into the country. +There were plenty of houses lining this road at +first, but gradually the distance between them +became greater.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Likewise the dust in the road grew deeper. It +was not a way attractive to automobiles, and it +had not been oiled as were many of the Clinton +streets.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let's take off our shoes and stockings and save +our shoes," suggested Fred. "We'll go in swimmin' +before we come back, so we'll be all clean."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let's," agreed Bobby, and they sat down at +once and accomplished the act in a few moments. +They stuffed their stockings into their shoes, tied +the laces together and slung them about their +necks. The shoes knocked against their +shoulder-blades as they trotted on, their bare feet scuffing +up little clouds of dust.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We raise a lot of dust—just like the Overland +Limited," said Bobby, looking back. Bobby had +once travelled west with his parents, and they had +come back by way of Denver. He had never +forgotten his long ride in that fast train.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Go ahead!" declared Fred. "</span><em class="italics">I'm</em><span> the +Empire State. You got to get up some speed to +beat </span><em class="italics">me</em><span>."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>A minute later two balloons of dust could have +been seen hovering over the road to the creek—the +boys were shrouded in them. They ran, scuffing, +as hard as they could run, and kicked up an +enormous cloud of dust.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They stopped at the stile leading into Plunkits' +lower pasture. The boys from town never went +near the farmhouse. Plunkits' was a big farm, +and this end of it was not cultivated. If they went +near the truck patches, somebody would be sure +to chase them. There always had been a feud +between the Clinton boys and the Plunkit family.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But there wasn't a swimming hole anywhere +around the town—or a fishing stream—like the +creek. The Plunkits really had no right to drive +anybody away from the stream, for the farm +bordered only one side of it. The city boys could go +across and fish from the other side all they wanted +to. That had been long since decided.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The best swimming hole was below the boundary +of the Plunkit land, anyway, but this path across +the pasture was a short-cut.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If we see that Applethwaite Plunkit and his +dog, what are we going to do?" asked Fred, as +they trotted along the sidehill path, white with +road dust from head to foot.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Nothing. But if he sees us, that's another +matter," chuckled Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right. You're the smart one. But what +will we do?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Run, if he isn't too near," said Bobby, practically.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And suppose he </span><em class="italics">is</em><span> too near?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Guess we'll have to run just the same," +returned Bobby, thoughtfully. "He can lick either +of us, Fred. And with the dog he can lick us both +at once. That dog is real savage. He's made him +so, Ap Plunkit has."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I bet we could pitch on Ap and fix him," said +the combative Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, you just keep out of trouble if you can, +Fred Martin," advised Bobby, cautiously. "You +know—if you get into a fight, you'll catch it when +you get home. Your father will be sure to hear +of it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well! what am I going to do if they pitch on +me?" demanded Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"'Turn the other cheek,'" chuckled Bobby, +"like Miss Rainey, our Sunday-school teacher, says."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! that's all right. A fellow's got two +cheeks; but if you get a punch in the nose, you +can't turn your other nose—you haven't one! So +now!" declared the very literal and pugnacious +Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Just then they came close enough to the creek +to see the willows along the hank. At the corner +of the Plunkit fence there stood a big apple tree—a +"summer sweetnin'" as the country folk called it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" ejaculated Fred Martin. +"See those apples? And they're </span><em class="italics">yellow</em><span>!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Some of them are," admitted his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"More'n half of them, I declare. Say! we're +going to have a feast, Bob. Come on!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby grabbed him by the sleeve. "Hold on! don't +go so fast, Fred," exclaimed the brown-eyed +boy. "Those apples aren't ours."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But they're going to be," returned Fred, grinning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, you don't mean that," said Bobby, +seriously. "You know you mustn't climb that tree, +or pick apples on </span><em class="italics">this</em><span> side of the fence. Here's +where we crawl through. Now! lots of the limbs +overhang this other side of the fence—and there's +a lot of ripe apples on the ground."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Pshaw! the Plunkits would never know," complained +Fred. But he followed Bobby through the +break in the pasture fence, just the same.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby was just as much fun as any boy in +Clinton; Fred knew </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>. Yet Bobby was +forever "seeing consequences." He kept them both +out of trouble very often by seeing ahead. +Whereas Fred, left to himself, never would stop +to think at all!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They had come two miles and a half. Where +were there ever two boys who could walk as far as +that without "walking up an appetite"?</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"My goodness me, Fred!" exclaimed Bobby, as +they came to the clear-water creek in which the +pebbles and sand were plainly visible on the +bottom. "My goodness me, Fred! aren't you +dreadfully hungry?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I could eat the label off this tomato can—just +like a goat!" declared Fred, shaking the can which +held the fishworms before his chum's face and +eyes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Then let's eat before we bait a hook," +suggested Bobby. "I don't care if Meena </span><em class="italics">does</em><span> have +the toothache. She makes de-lic-ious sandwiches."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>! I should say she did," agreed +Fred, sitting down cross-legged on the grass +under a spreading oak that here broke the hedge +of willows bordering the stream.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys soon had their mouths full. It was not +yet noon, but the sun was high in the heavens, and +it twinkled down at them between the interlacing +leaves and twigs of the oak. A little breeze played +with the blades of grass. A thrush sang his heart +out, swinging on a cane across the stream. A +locust whirred like a policeman's rattle in a tall +poplar a little way down the creek. In the distance a +crow cawed lazily as he winged his way across a +field, early plowed for grain.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This is a fine place," said Bobby. "I just love +the country."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This is the way it is at Rockledge," declared +Fred, proudly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"How do you know? You've never been there."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But Sam Tillinghast, who comes to see us once +in a while, went to Rockledge before he went to +college. He says Rockledge is right up on a bluff +overlooking Monatook Lake, and that a fellow can +have more fun there than a box of monkeys!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I never had a box of monkeys," said Bobby, +grinning, and with his mouth full.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's all right. I wish you were going," +said Fred, wagging his head. "Don't you +suppose that's what's the matter at your +house—what your pa and your mother are thinking +about?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No," said Bobby, wagging his head, sadly. +"I guess it ain't nothing as good as going to +boarding school. You see, they look so solemn +when I catch them staring at me."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Maybe you've done something and they are +thinking of punishing you?" suggested Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. I haven't done a thing. I really haven't! +I'd thought of that, and I just went back over +everything I've done this vacation, and I can't +think of a thing," decided Bobby, reflectively.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, if it's something bad, you'll find out soon +enough what it is," said Fred, playing a regular +Job's comforter.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And if it is something </span><em class="italics">good</em><span>, I suppose they'll +worry me to death—or pretty near—too, eh!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Mebbe if we could find a Gypsy woman she'd +tell your fortune and you'd know," said Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yah! I don't believe in such stuff," declared +Bobby. "You remember that old woman that +came around selling baskets last spring and +wheedled that ten cents out of you? She only +told you that you were going to cross water and +have a great change on the other side."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, she knew!" exclaimed Fred, earnestly. +"Didn't I fall into the canal the very next day and +have to swim across it; and you brought me a +change of clothing from home? Huh! I guess +that old woman hit it about right," declared the +red-haired boy, with conviction.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby chuckled a long time over this. It +amused him a great deal. He and his chum had +eaten up nearly the whole of Meena's luncheon—and +she had not been niggardly with it, either.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm going to have some of those apples," +declared Fred. "Come on."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right," agreed Bobby, who had no +compunctions about taking the apples on this side of +the fence. He believed that the Plunkits had no +claim upon the fruit that overhung somebody else's +land! That is the usual belief of small boys in the +country, whether it is legally correct, or not.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>When the chums bit into the yellow apples on +the ground they found that almost every one had +been seized by a prior claimant. Fred bit right +through a soft, white worm!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! oh! oh!" exclaimed the red-haired boy, +and ran down to the creek's edge to rinse his +mouth. "Isn't that awful?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't bite blindly," advised Bobby, chuckling. +"You were too eager."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm going to have a decent apple," declared +Fred, coming back.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He jumped up, seized one of the lower branches +of the apple tree, and scrambled up to a seat on +a strong limb. Several tempting looking "summer +sweetnin's" were within his reach. He seized +one, looked it all over for blemishes and, finding +none, set his teeth in it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"How is it?" asked Bobby, biting carefully +around a wormy apple.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Fine," returned his chum, and tossed Bobby +an apple he plucked.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>At that very moment a voice hailed them from a +distance, and a dog barked. "There's that +Applethwaite Plunkit and his dog," gasped Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure it is," said Fred, turning his gaze upon +the lanky boy of twelve, or so, and the big black +and brown dog that were running together across +the pasture.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now we're in for it!" exclaimed Bobby, +somewhat worried.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="fred-in-trouble"><span class="large">CHAPTER III</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">FRED IN TROUBLE</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Fred sat kicking his bare heels together and +grinning over the fence at the Plunkit boy and +his dog.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Get down out of that tree—you!" exclaimed +the Plunkit boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Who says so?" demanded Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"</span><em class="italics">I</em><span> do."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, say it again," responded Master Fred, +in a most tantalizing way. "I like to hear you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Applethwaite Plunkit was not a nice looking boy +at all. He had perfectly white hair, but he wasn't +an albino, for albinoes have pink-rimmed eyes. +His eyes were very strange looking, however, for +they were not mates. One was one color, and one +was another.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There are many such afflicted people in the +world; usually they have one gray eye and one +brown one. But Ap Plunkit had one eye that was +of a sickly brown color, while the other was of a +sickly green. That means that the "whites" of +his mismated eyes were yellowish in hue.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Perhaps, because of this misfortune, the other +boys plagued him, and that had soured his temper. +He was very angry with Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Get out of that tree, you red-headed monkey!" +he shouted, "or I'll set my dog on you!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I won't do it, you white-headed donkey—and +your dog can't get me; not unless he can climb a +tree," added Fred, grinning again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll come over there and knock you out of it," +threatened Ap.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'd like to see you do it," responded Fred, +swinging his feet again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll show you!" cried Ap, and he started for +the hole in the fence. "Come on, Rove!" he called +to the dog.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The big dog followed his master. He was part +Newfoundland and would have made a fine playmate +for any boy, if he had not been trained to be +ugly with all strangers. When he got through the +fence and saw Bobby standing idly by, he growled +at him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Look out, Bob!" shouted Fred. "He'll bite you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm not doing anything," said Bobby Blake. +"And you had better not set your dog on me, Plunkit."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You fellers are too fresh," said the farm boy. +"My father says you're not to come around here—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Your father doesn't own this land, and your +father doesn't own this creek," whipped in Fred, +from the branch.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You fellers came across our land to get here," +declared Ap.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"How do you know </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>, Mr. Smartie?" asked +Fred. He had just finished eating an apple. He +threw the core at the dog and hit him on the nose. +Rover growled and then jumped up and snapped +at Master Fred's bare heels.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" shrieked the daring Fred, +kicking up his heels excitedly. "Didn't get me +that time, did you? I'm not </span><em class="italics">your</em><span> meat."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You stop that, Ap," ordered Bobby. "Call +off your dog."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He had not been altogether idle. There was a +heavy club of hard wood lying nearby, and he +seized it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He'd better get down out of that tree or Rove +will eat him up," said Ap, boastfully.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Those branches overhang this land. The +apples don't belong to you any more than they do to +us," said Bobby, and he thought he was quite right +in saying so.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yah!" scoffed Ap. "He had to climb the +tree-trunk to get there, and the tree's on </span><em class="italics">our</em><span> side +of the fence."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Didn't neither, Mr. Smartie!" cried Fred, in +delight. "I jumped up and grabbed a limb, and +pulled myself up. Have an apple?" and he aimed +one of the hard, green ones at Ap.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't you do that, Fred!" called up Bobby, in +haste.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, then, I'll give it to the dog," said Fred, +throwing the apple to Rover.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You come down out of that tree, and you stop +pelting my dog!" commanded Applethwaite +Plunkit.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes—I—will!" responded Fred, biting into +another apple.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well! I'll lick one of you, anyway!" +exclaimed Ap, who had been slily stepping nearer.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And immediately he threw himself on Bobby. +He caught the latter so unexpectedly that he +couldn't have used the club had he wished to.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come on, Rove!" shrieked Ap. "Bite him, +boy—bite him!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You stop that!" shouted the red-haired boy in +the tree. "Bobby hasn't done a thing—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The dog growled and ran around the two struggling +boys. Perhaps he was looking for a chance +to bite his master's antagonist. At least, it looked +so.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby Blake, although never a quarrelsome lad, +was no mollycoddle. Attacked as he had been, he +struggled manfully to escape the bigger boy. He +dropped the club, but he tore off Ap's hat and flung +it into the creek.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Go for it, sir! After it!" he screamed, and +Rover heard him and saw the hat. That was one +of the dog's accomplishments. He was a Newfoundland, +and retrieving articles from the water +was right in his line.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He barked and bounded to the edge of the steep +bank. He evidently considered that, after all, his +master and Bobby were only playing, and this part +of the play he approved of.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The instant Bobby heard the splash of the big +dog into the water, he twisted in Ap's grasp, +tripped him, and fell on top of the larger boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! oh! oh!" gasped Ap. "You're hurtin' +me—you're killin' me! I can't breathe—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" yelled Fred, giving voice to +his favorite battle-cry, and he dropped from the +apple tree, running to Bobby's help.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But Bobby got up and released the bawling +farm-boy at once. "Come on, Fred," he said. +"Let's get out o' here."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why, you got the best of him!" cried Fred, in +disgust. "Let's duck him! Let's throw him in +after his old dog."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No you don't," declared Bobby, seizing Fred's +hand. "We're going to get out while we have the +chance. I only tripped him and got the dog out +of the way so you could escape."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh!" exclaimed Fred. "I didn't get as +many apples as I wanted."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I don't care. You come on," said his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Whoever heard of the winning side giving way +like this?" grumbled the red-haired boy. +"Anyway," he added, picking up the club Bobby had +lost, "if that dog comes after us, I'll hit him."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby picked up the box containing the remainder +of their luncheon, and led the way through +the bushes. The dog had come ashore, and it and +Ap Plunkit were quickly out of sight. Fred was +still grumbling about leaving the foe to claim "the +best of it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He'll pitch on us next time, just the same," he +declared. "Why didn't you punch him when you +had him down, Bob?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, come on!" said his chum. "Always +wanting to get into a fight. You keep that up +when you get to Rockledge School, and you'll be +in hot water all the time."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Shucks!" grinned Fred. "I'd like to be in +</span><em class="italics">cold</em><span> water right now. The swimming hole isn't +far away. Let's."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We can't go in but once—you know we can't," +said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why not?" demanded Fred, quickly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Because we promised our mothers we wouldn't +go in but once a day this vacation."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! That ain't saying but what we can take +off our clothes and put on our swimming trunks, +and stay in all day long."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That would be just as dishonest as going in +two or three times, Fred," exclaimed Bobby. +"And you wouldn't do it. Besides," he added, +grinning; "you know you tried that </span><em class="italics">last</em><span> summer, +and 'member what you got for it?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You bet you!" exclaimed the red-haired one. +"I got sunburned something fierce! No. I won't +do </span><em class="italics">that</em><span> again. That's the day we built the raft on +Sanders' Pond, and oh, how I hurt! I guess I do +remember, all right."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No," said Bobby, after a minute. "We'll go +fishing first, and then take a swim before we go +home. That'll clean us up, and make us feel +fresh. There's that old stump again, Fred. I +believe there's a big trout lives under that stump. +Don't you 'member! We've seen him jump."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ya-as," scoffed Fred. "But that old fellow +won't jump for a worm. He's had too many +square meals this summer, don't you know? It'll +take a fancy fly, like those my Uncle Jim uses +when he goes fishing, to coax Mr. Trout out of the +creek."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm going to try," said Bobby, who could be +obstinate in his opinion.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll be satisfied if I catch a shiner," declared +Fred. "I'll try off that rock yonder. Come on! +There's a couple of dandy fishpoles."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Like real country boys, Bobby and Fred cut +poles each time they went fishing. No need to +carry them back and forth to their homes in +Clinton and it did not take five minutes to cut and +rig these poles.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What nice, fat worms," said Bobby, when +Fred shook up the tomato can.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's what the robin said," chuckled Fred. +"Know what my sister, Betty, said yesterday +morning? You know it rained the night before +and the robins were picking up worms on the lawn +right early—before breakfast.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Bet was at the window and one fat robin picked +up a worm, swallowed it, and flew right up into a +tree where he began to sing like sixty! Bet says:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"'Oh! that robin gives me the </span><em class="italics">squirms</em><span>; how can +he sing that way when he's all full of those crawly +things?'"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now hush!" ordered Bobby, the next moment. +"I'm going to drop this nice fellow right down +beside that stump and see if I can coax +Mr. Trout up."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But Mr. Trout did not appear. Bobby, with +exemplary patience, tried it again and again. He +changed his bait and dropped a fresh worm into +the brown, cloudy water where he believed the +trout lay.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You're not fishing," chuckled Fred, from his +station on the rock, a few yards away. "You're +just drowning worms."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh!" returned Bobby. "I don't see any +medals on </span><em class="italics">you</em><span>. You haven't caught anything."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But I'm going to!" whispered Fred, swiftly, +and holding his pole with sudden attention.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then, with a nervous jerk, he flung up the pole. +Hook and sinker came with it, and a tiny, wriggling, +silver fish, about a finger long, shot into the +air. But Fred had not been careful to select his +stand, and he drove his line and fish up among the +branches of a tree.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now you've done it—and likely scared my +trout," exclaimed Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred, in his usual impulsive fashion, tried to +jerk back his line. The hook and sinker were +caught around a branch. The shiner dropped off +the hook and rested in a crotch of the branch. +No fish ever was transformed into a bird so quickly +since fishing was begun!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And while Bobby laughed, and held his sides, +Fred jerked at the entangled line again and again +until, stepping too far back, and pulling too hard, +the line chanced to give a foot or two, Master Fred +fell backwards and—</span><em class="italics">flop!</em><span> into the deep pool below +the rock he went!</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="an-eventful-afternoon"><span class="large">CHAPTER IV</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">AN EVENTFUL AFTERNOON</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>"On! oh! oh!—gurgle! gurgle! </span><em class="italics">blob</em><span>! Help! +Give us a hand—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Down Master Fred went again, and, his mouth +being open, he swallowed more of the murky +water of the creek than was good for him. He came +up, coughing and blowing.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby, although forced to laugh, extended the +butt of his own fish pole and Fred seized it. In +half a minute he was on the bank, panting and +"blowing bubbles," as Bobby said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You can laugh—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I hope so," returned Bobby, turning to give +his attention to his own hook and line. "Oh!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Something was the matter down under that +stump; the water was agitated. The taut line +pulled in Bobby's hands.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! A bite!" cried he, picking up his pole. +"Oh, Fred! I've hooked that old trout!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Master Martin was too much taken up with his +own affairs just then to pay much attention. +Bobby, all of a tremble (for he had never caught a +trout over a finger long), began to "play" the fish +cautiously. It seemed to be sulking down in its +hole under the old stump. Bobby pulled on the +line gently.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Meanwhile Fred, getting his breath, began to +remove his saturated garments.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I guess," he grunted, "we might as well go in +swimming right now. Gee! I'm wet. And these +things will have to dry before I start home. Oh!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby's line "gave" suddenly. Bobby uttered +a yell, for he thought the trout had jumped.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Whatever was on his hook shot to the surface of +the brown pool. Bobby went over backward on +the grass. The point of his pole stood straight +up, and the hook was snapped out of the water.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a long, black, </span><em class="italics">squirmy</em><span> thing on the +hook. As Bobby squealed, the eel flopped right +down into his face!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw! ouch! take him off!" shouted Bobby, and +flung away his pole.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In a second the eel was so tangled in the fishline +that one might have thought it and the line had +been tied into a hard knot! Fred was rolling with +laughter on the bank, his wet shirt half over his +head.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" he shrieked. "Now you got +it. You laughed at </span><em class="italics">me</em><span>, Bobby Blake. See how +you get it yourself."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby began to laugh, too. He could see that +the joke was, after all, on him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And that's your big trout—ho, ho!" shouted +Fred. "An old eel. Kill him with a club, Bobby. +You'll never get him untangled if you don't."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And he'll wiggle </span><em class="italics">then</em><span> till the sun goes down. +Just like a snake," declared Bobby, repeating a +boyish superstition held infallible by the boys of +Clinton.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, dear!" sighed Fred, at last pulling the wet +shirt off. "I'm aching for laughing. What a +mess that line's in."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And how about your own!" demanded Bobby, +on a broad grin again, and pointing into the +branches of the tree where Fred had flung his +shiner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We're a pair of fine fishermen—I don't think!" +admitted Fred, in some disgust.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He got off the remainder of his wet clothing, +and slipped on his trunks.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You might as well do the same, Bobby," he +advised, while he laid his clothing over the low +bushes back from the bank of the creek, where the +sun could get at them nicely. "Look at your shirt. +All slime from that old eel."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I wish he'd keep still a minute," said Bobby, +with some impatience. "</span><em class="italics">What</em><span> were eels ever +made for?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They're good eating, some folks think. But +I'd just as lief eat snakes."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Some savages eat snakes," said Bobby, trying +to keep one foot on the tail-end of the eel, and +unwinding the fishline.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But the next moment the squirmy creature +wound itself up in the line again into a harder knot +than before.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Looks just like the worm he swallowed," +chuckled Fred. "There! he's got the hook out of +his mouth. Fling him back, Bobby!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby did so, pitching eel and line into the +water. There was a flop or two and the wriggling +fish got free. Then Bobby hauled in his line and +began to rebait the hook.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I guess I'll try fishing somewhere else," he +said. "I won't try here. If there ever </span><em class="italics">was</em><span> a +trout under that stump, he's scared away."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There never was a trout where an old eel made +his nest," scoffed Fred, struggling with his own +line.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That eel didn't belong here," announced +Bobby, with confidence. "What do you bet I don't +catch a trout to-day?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Never mind. I've landed </span><em class="italics">one</em><span> fish," chuckled +Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Fish! what's it doing roosting in that tree, +then!" demanded Bobby, giggling. "It's a bird."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred managed to untangle his own line, and in +doing so he shook the shiner out of the branches.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Catch it!" he shouted. "There it goes!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Plop!" the fish went right into the pool, and +with a wiggle of its tail disappeared.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We're a couple of healthy fishermen," scoffed +Bobby. "We land them, and then lose them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Le's go farther down stream. We've made +so much noise here that we couldn't catch +anything but deaf fish—that's sure."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby was quite agreed to this, and Fred in his +bathing trunks, leaving his wet clothing to dry on +the bushes, led the way along the creek bank. +Bobby followed with the can of worms.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They found another quiet place and this time +both took pains to cast their lines where no +overhanging branches would interfere with the tips of +their poles. The creek was well stocked with +sunfish, yellow perch, shiners, and small brook trout. +Once—"in a dog's age," Fred's Uncle Jim +said—somebody landed a big trout out of one of the +deeper holes in the stream.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys fished for an hour, and both landed +perch and shiners.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If we get enough of them we can have a fish +supper," declared Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"At home?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure. We can clean them—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Who'll cook them? Our Meena won't," +declared Bobby, with confidence.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And I don't suppose our girl will, either. +Besides, we'd have to catch a bushel to give the +crowd at our house a taste, even," for there were +five young Martins at Fred's house, besides +himself, ranging from the baby who could just toddle +around, to Fred's fourteen year old sister, Mary. +There was another girl older than Fred, who was +the oldest boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Just wish Michael Mulcahey would light a fire +in his stove and pan them for us," said Bobby, +wistfully. "'Member, he did once!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes. But we haven't caught enough yet."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hush!" murmured Bobby. "I got another bite."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In a minute he had landed a nice, big sunfish. +He cut a birch twig then, with a hook on the end +of it, and strung his three fish. Fred did the same +for his two, and the fish were let down into the cool +water, and were thus kept alive.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They moved farther down the creek after a bit, +and tried another pool. The strings of fish grew +steadily. It looked, really, as though they would +have enough for supper—and it takes a right good +number of such little fish to make a meal for two +hungry boys.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Not that they wanted food again so soon. During +the afternoon they ate the rest of the lunch +and some apples to stave off actual hunger!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I bet you get sunburned again," said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, I won't. I'm in the shade all the time."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"The wind will burn as well as the sun."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But I'm not in and out of the water all the +time, like I was that day at Sanders' Pond. Just +the same," added Fred, "I'm going into the creek +now. There's a dandy place for fish just across +there."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There's some stepping stones below. I'll go +over with you," declared Bobby, winding up his +line.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was not afraid of splashing himself. He +ran across the stones laid in the bed of the creek. +Bobby came more cautiously, but he did not see +the wide grin on Fred's face as he stood on the far +side and watched his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby stepped on the rock in the middle of the +stream. Just as it bore his full weight, and he +had his right foot in the air, stepping to the next +dry-topped rock, the one under him rolled!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The red-haired boy had felt that stone "joggle" +when he came across but he had leaped lightly +from it. Bobby was caught unaware.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He yelled, and tried to jump, but the stepping +stone, under which the action of the water had +excavated the sand, turned clear over. "Splash!" +went Bobby into the water.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He stood upright, but he was in a pool over his +knees, and the agitated water splashed higher. +His knickerbockers were as wet as Fred's clothes +had been when he waded out.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, oh, oh!" shouted Fred, writhing on the +grass. "Aren't you clumsy? Now you'll have +to take off </span><em class="italics">your</em><span> clothes to dry, Bobby."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You might have told a fellow that rock was +loose," grumbled Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And you might have told </span><em class="italics">me</em><span> that I was stepping +off into the old creek when I was jerking at +my line," retorted Fred. "I got it worse than +you did."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby removed his trousers and wrung them +out. Then he put them on again. "They'll dry +as good on me, as off," he said. "Now, come on. +Let's go up along and see if we can't get some +more fish."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They whipped the creek for half a mile up +stream, and were successful beyond their hopes. +Both boys had a nice string of pan-fish when they +came to the deep swimming hole, which was only +a few yards below the corner of Plunkit's farm +Sphere the apple tree stood.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The sun was then sliding down toward the +western horizon. Bobby's trousers were pretty well +dried. He put on his bathing trunks, and followed +Fred into the pool.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Both boys were good swimmers. There was a +fine rock to dive from and a soft, sandy bottom. +No danger here, and for an hour the chums +had a most delightful time.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then Bobby brought his own clothes across to +the side of the creek where they had begun to +fish. Fred brought the fishing-tackle and the two +strings of fish. Then he trotted down the bank +to get his own clothes and their shoes and stockings.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby was half dressed when he heard his chum +shouting. "Bobby! Bobby!" shrieked the red-haired boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fearing that his chum was in trouble, Bobby +started for the sound of Fred's voice, on a hard run.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm coming, Fred! Hold on!" he shouted, as +loudly as he could.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In a few moments he came out into the open +place where Fred had carefully arranged his +clothing on the low bushes. There wasn't a garment +there, and Fred came out of the brush, his face +very red and angry.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's the matter?" asked Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Matter enough!" returned his chum. "Don't +you </span><em class="italics">see</em><span>?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Not—not your clothes gone?" gasped Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes they are. Every stitch. And your shoes, +too. What do you think of </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why—why—Somebody's taken them?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Of course somebody has. And it's your +fault," said Fred, very much provoked. "If you +had helped me pitch in and lick that Ap Plunkit, +he wouldn't have dared do this."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Maybe—maybe he'd have licked us," stammered Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He'll—he'll just have to lick me when I meet +up with him next time, or else he'll take the +biggest licking </span><em class="italics">he</em><span> ever took," threatened the +wrathful Master Martin, wiping a couple of angry tears +out of his eyes with a scratched knuckle.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="the-tale-of-a-scarecrow"><span class="large">CHAPTER V</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">THE TALE OF A SCARECROW</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>"My goodness! you can't go home that way," +said Bobby Blake, faintly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He did not laugh at all. The situation had +suddenly become tragic instead of comic. Fred +could not walk back to Clinton in his +bathing-trunks—that is, not until after dark.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I wish I had hold of that Ap Plunkit," +repeated Fred Martin. "</span><em class="italics">He</em><span> did it," he added.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, we don't know—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Of course we do. He sneaked along there +after us and found my clothes, and ran away with +them—every one. And your shoes and stockings, +too!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No he didn't, either!" cried Bobby, suddenly, +staring up into the tall tree over their heads.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Eh?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There are the shoes and stockings—shoes, +anyway," declared Bobby, pointing.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was a chestnut tree above their heads. It +promised a full crop of nuts in the fall, for the +green burrs starred thickly the leafy branches.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Whoever had disturbed the chums' possessions +had climbed to the very tip-top of the chestnut +and hung the two pair of shoes far out on a small +branch.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's Ap Plunkit's work—I know," declared +Fred, with conviction. "He climbs trees like a +monkey. You see how long his arms are. I've +seen him go up a taller tree than this."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Maybe he's taken your clothes up there, too," +said Bobby, going to the trunk of the tree.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"The mean scamp!" exclaimed Fred. "How'll +we get them, Bob? I—I can't climb that tree this +way."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Neither can I," admitted his friend. "But +wait till I run and get my clothes on—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And you'd </span><em class="italics">better</em><span> run, too!" exclaimed Fred, +suddenly, "or you won't find the rest of </span><em class="italics">your</em><span> +clothes."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Thus advised, Bobby Blake set out at once +for the spot where he had been dressing. There +was no sign of Applethwaite Plunkit about—or of +any other marauder. Just the same, when Bobby +was dressed and went down the creek side again +to Fred, he carried all their possessions with him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>That chestnut was a hard tree for Bobby to +climb—especially barefooted. There were so +many prickly burrs that had dropped into the +crotches of the limbs, and, drying, had become +quite stiff and sharp. He had to stop several +times as he mounted upward to pick the thorns +from his feet.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But he got the shoes and stockings, and, hanging +them around his neck, came down as swiftly as +he could. Both boys at once sat down and put on +this part of their apparel. Fred was almost +tempted to cry; but then, he was too angry to +"boo-hoo" much.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll catch that Ap Plunkit, and I'll do something +to him yet," he declared. "I'll have him +arrested for stealing my clothes, anyway."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"How can we prove he took them? We didn't +see him," said Bobby, thoughtfully.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I tell you what," Bobby said. "Let's go up +to his house and tell his mother. We </span><em class="italics">know</em><span> he did +this, even if we didn't see him. Of course, we got +him mad first—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We didn't have to get him mad," declared +Fred. "He's mad all the time."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, we plagued him. He just was getting square."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But such a mean trick to steal a fellow's clothes!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Maybe his folks will see it that way and make +Applethwaite give them back."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But I can't go up there to the house with only +these old tights on!" said Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No," and Bobby couldn't help grinning a +little. "You wear my jacket."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And if I have lost my clothes," wailed Fred, +"and have to go home this way, my father will give +it to me good! Come on!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let's each find a good club. That dog, you +know," said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure. And if we meet up with Ap, I'll be +likely to use it on him, too!" growled Fred, angrily.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby decided that it was useless to try to +pacify his chum at the moment. It seemed to +relieve Fred to threaten the absent Ap Plunkit, and +it did that individual no bodily harm!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>So the boys found stout clubs and started up the +bank of the creek. Fred was feeling so badly that +he did not pick more of the "summer sweetnin's" +when they came to the apple tree.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They crawled through the hole in the boundary +fence of the Plunkit Farm and kept on up the +creek-side. First they crossed the pasture, then +they climbed a tight fence and entered a big +cornfield. The corn was taller than their heads and +there were acres and acres of it. It was planted +right along the edge of the creek bank, and they +had to walk between the rows.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If old Plunkit sees us in his corn, he'll be +mad," said Fred, at last.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This is the nearest way to the house, and we've +got to try and get your clothes," said Bobby, +firmly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>After that, he took the lead. The nearer they +approached the farmhouse, the more Fred lagged. +But suddenly, in the midst of the long cornfield, +Master Martin uttered a cry.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Look there, Bob!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's the matter with you? I thought it +was the dog."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, sir! See yonder, will you?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Nothing but a scarecrow," said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes. But it has clothes on it. I'm going to +take them. I'm not going up to that house +without anything more on me than what I've got."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby began to chuckle at that. It seemed too +funny for anything to rob a scarecrow. But Fred +was pushing his way through the corn toward the +absurd figure.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Suddenly Fred uttered another yell—this time +his famous warwhoop:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>! I got him!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You got who?" demanded Bobby, hurrying +after his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This is some o' that Ap Plunkit's doings—the +mean thing! Look here!" and he snatched +the cap off the scarecrow's head of straw.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why—that looks like </span><em class="italics">your</em><span> cap, Fred," gasped +Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And it </span><em class="italics">is</em><span>, too."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That—that's just the stripe of your shirt!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And it is my shirt. And it's my pants, and +all!" cried Fred. "I'll get square with Ap +Plunkit yet—you see if I don't. There's the old +ragged things this scarecrow wore, on the ground. +And he's dressed it in </span><em class="italics">my</em><span> things. Oh, you wait +till I catch him!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Meanwhile Fred was hastily tearing off the +garments that certainly were his own. They were +all here. Bobby kept away from him, and laughed +silently to himself. It was really too, too funny; +but he did not want to make Fred angry with </span><em class="italics">him</em><span>.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now I guess we'd better not go to the +farmhouse—had we?" demanded Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let's go home," grunted Fred, very sour. +"It's almost sundown."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right," agreed his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He tore my shirt, too. And we might never +have found these clothes. I'm going to get +square," Fred kept muttering, as they struck +right down between the corn rows toward the +distant roadside fence.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Just as they climbed over the rails to leap into +the road they were hailed by a voice that said:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hey there! what you doin' in that cornfield?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was the Plunkit hopeful—otherwise +Applethwaite, the white-headed boy. He sat on the +top rail near by and grinned at the two boys from +town.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There you are—you mean thing!" cried Fred +Martin, and before Bobby could stop him, he +rushed at the bigger fellow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He was so quick—or Ap was so slow—that Fred +seized the latter by the ankles before he could get +down from his perch.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Git away! I'll fix you!" shouted the farm boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He kicked out, lost his balance, and Fred let +him go. Ap fell backward off the fence into the +cornfield, and landed on his head and shoulders.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He set up a terrific howl, even before he scrambled +to his feet. By his actions he did not seem to +be so badly hurt. He searched around for a +stone, found it, and threw it with all his force at +Fred Martin. Fortunately he missed the town boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Immediately Fred grabbed up a stone himself +and poised it to fling at his enemy. Bobby threw +himself upon his chum and seized his raised arm.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now you stop that, Fred!" he commanded.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why shouldn't I hit him? He flung one at +me," declared the angry boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I know. But he didn't hit you. And you +might hit him and do him harm. Suppose you put +his eye out—or something? Come on home, +Fred—don't be a chump."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—well," growled Fred, and threw the +stone away.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You know you are always getting into a muss," +urged Bobby, hurrying his chum along the road +toward town. "What'll you do when you go to +Rockledge—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You got to go with me, Bob," declared Fred, +grinning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! I wish they'd let me," murmured his friend.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But as far as he could see then, no circumstances +could arise that would make such a wished +for event possible.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="a-fish-fry-and-a-startling-announcement"><span class="large">CHAPTER VI</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">A FISH FRY AND A STARTLING ANNOUNCEMENT</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>They got home at early supper time, fish and +all. But one look into the kitchen assured Bobby +that it was useless to expect Meena to pan their +catch for them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The "rabbit ears" stuck up on top of her head +at a more uncompromising angle than ever. +Mr. and Mrs. Blake had not returned from town. At +a late hour Michael Mulcahey had come back with +the carriage and announced that his mistress +would stay in town for dinner with Mr. Blake and +they were to be met at the 10:10 train.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Michael had just finished cleaning the carriage +and now sat with his pipe beside the stable door. +He was a long-lipped Irishman, with kindly, +twinkling eyes, and "ould counthry" whiskers that met +under his chin, giving his cleanly shaven, +wind-bitten face the look of peering out through a frame +of hair.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"'Tis a nice string of fish ye have, byes," he said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And I s'pose we got to give them to the cats," +complained Fred. "They won't cook 'em at my +house, and Meena's got the toothache."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Michael grinned broadly, puffing slowly at his +pipe. "Clane the fish, byes. There's a pan jest +inside the dure. Get water from the hydrant. +Have ye shar-r-rp knives?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, yes, Michael!" cried Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scale thim fish, then. I'll start a fire in my +stove. An' I've a pan. Belike Meena, the girl, +will give ye a bit of fat salt por-r-rk and some +bread. Tell her she naden't bother with supper. +We'll make it ourselves—in what th' fancy folks +calls 'ally-frisco'—though </span><em class="italics">why</em><span> so, I </span><em class="italics">dun</em><span>-no," +added Michael.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He knocked the dottle out of his pipe and washed +his hands. The boys, meanwhile, were cleaning +the little fish rapidly, and whispering together. +They were delighted with the coachman's suggestion. +It was just what they had been hoping for. +Fred even forgot his "grouch" against +Applethwaite Plunkit.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby ventured to the kitchen door. Meena +was just untying the red bandage, but the moment +she caught sight of him she hesitated. She may +have felt another slight twinge of "face ache."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Vat you vant?" she demanded.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby told her what they were going to do. +Michael had his own plates, and knives and forks. +He had "bached it" a good many years before +he came to work for Bobby's father. Meena saw a +long, quiet evening ahead of her.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Vell," she said, ungraciously enough, for it +was not her way to acknowledge her blessings—not +in public, at least. "Vell, I give you the pork +and bread. But that Michael ban spoil you boys. +I vouldn't efer marry him."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What did she say?" asked the coachman when +Bobby returned to the room over the harness +closets in which Michael slept—and sometimes +cooked.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"She says she won't marry you because you +spoil us," declared Bobby, winking at Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Did she now?" quoth Michael. "So she has +rayfused me again—though it wasn't just like a +proposal </span><em class="italics">this</em><span> time. Still—we'll count it so's to +make sure."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He gravely walked to a smooth plank in the +partition behind the door, and picked up the stub of a +pencil from a ledge. On this board was a long +array of pencil marks—four straight, up and down +marks, and a fifth "slantingdicular" across them. +There were a great many of these marks.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Each of these straight, up and down, marks +meant "No," and the slanting mark meant +another "No"; so that Meena's refusals of the +coachman's proposal for her hand were grouped +in fives.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"The Good Book says Jacob sarved siven years +for Rachael, and then another siven. He didn't +have nawthin' on me—sorra a bit! When +Meena's said 'No' a thousan' times, she'll forgit +some day an' say 'Yis.'"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He went back to shaking the pan on the stove, +in which the cubes of salt pork were sputtering. +He mixed some flour and cornmeal in a plate, with +salt and pepper. Wiping each of the little fish +partly dry, he rolled them in the mixture, and then +laid them methodically in rows upon a board. +When the fat in the skillet was piping hot, he +dropped in the fish easily so as not to splash the +hot fat about. Then with a fork he turned them +as they browned.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>As he forked them out of the hot fat, all brown +and crispy, he laid them on a sheet of brown paper +for a bit to drain off the fat. Then the boys' +plates and his own were filled with the well fried +fish.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There's just a mess for us," said Michael, as +they sat down. "For what we are about to rayceive +make us tr-r-ruly grateful! Pass the bread, +Master Bobby. 'Tis the appetite lends sauce to +the male, so they say. Eat hearty!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby and Fred had plenty of the "sauce" the +coachman spoke of. After the excitement and +adventures of the afternoon they had much to tell +Michael, too, and the supper was a merry one.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred had to go home at eight o'clock and an +hour and a half later it was Bobby's bedtime. +But the house seemed very still and lonely when +he had gone to bed, and he lay a long time listening +to the crickets and the katydids, and the other +night-flying insects outside the screens.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He heard Michael drive out of the lane to go to +the station and he was still awake when the +carriage returned and his father and mother came +into the house. They came quietly up stairs, +whispering softly, but the door between Bobby's +room and his mother's dressing-room was ajar +and he could hear his parents talking in there. +They thought him asleep, of course.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But Bobby's got to be told, my dear. I have +bought our tickets—as I told you," Mr. Blake said. +"We can't wait any longer."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, dear me, John!" Bobby heard his mother +say. "</span><em class="italics">Must</em><span> we leave him behind?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"My dear! we have talked it all over so many +times," Mr. Blake said, patiently. "It is a long +voyage. Not so long to Para; but the transportation +up the river, to Samratam, is uncertain. +Brother Bill left the business in some confusion, I +understand, and we may be obliged to remain some +months. It would not be well to take Bobby. He +must go to school. I am doubtful of the +advisability of taking </span><em class="italics">you</em><span>, my dear—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You shall not go without me, John," interrupted +Mrs. Blake, and Bobby knew she was +crying softly. "I would rather that we lost all the +money your brother left—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There, there!" said Bobby's father, comfortingly. +"You're going, my dear. And we will +leave Bobby in good hands."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But </span><em class="italics">whose</em><span> hands?" cried his wife. "Meena +can look after the house, and Michael we can trust +with everything else. But neither of them are +proper guardians for my boy, John."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I know," agreed Mr. Blake, and Bobby, lying +wide awake in his bed, knew just how troubled his +father looked. He hopped out of bed and crept +softly to the door. He did not mean to be an +eavesdropper, but he could not have helped +hearing what his father and mother said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We have no relatives with whom to leave him," +Mrs. Blake said. "And all our friends in Clinton +have plenty of children of their own and wouldn't +want to be bothered. Or else they are people who +have </span><em class="italics">no</em><span> children and wouldn't know how to get +along with Bobby."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It's a puzzle," began her husband, and just +then Bobby pushed open the door and appeared in +the dressing-room.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I heard you, Pa!" he cried. "I couldn't help +it. I was awake and the door was open. I know +just what you can do with me if I can't go with you +to where Uncle Bill died."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Bobby!" exclaimed Mrs. Blake, putting out +her arms to him. "My boy! I didn't want you to +know—yet."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He had to hear of the trip sometime," said +Bobby's father.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And I'm not going to make any trouble," said +Bobby, swallowing rather hard, for there seemed +to be a lump rising in his throat. He never liked +to see his mother cry. "Why, I'm a big boy, you +know, Mother. And I know just what you can do +with me while you're gone."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's that, Bobs?" asked his father, cheerfully.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let me go to Rockledge School with Fred +Martin—do, </span><em class="italics">do</em><span>! That'll be fun, and they'll look out +for me there—you know they are </span><em class="italics">awfully</em><span> strict at +schools like that. I can't get into any trouble."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Not with Fred?" chuckled Mr. Blake.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well," said Bobby, seriously, "you know if I +have to look out for Fred same as I always do, </span><em class="italics">I</em><span> +won't have time to get into mischief. You told +Mr. Martin so yourself, you know, Pa."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Blake laughed again and glanced at his wife. +She had an arm around Bobby, but she had +stopped crying and she looked over at her +husband proudly. Bobby was such a sensible, +thoughtful chap!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I guess we'll have to take the school question +into serious consideration, Bobs," he said. +"Now kiss your mother and me goodnight, and go +to sleep. These are late hours for small boys."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby ran to bed as he was told, and this time +he went to sleep almost as soon as he placed his +head upon the pillow. But how he </span><em class="italics">did</em><span> dream! +He and Fred Martin were walking all the way to +Rockledge School, and they went barefooted with +their shoes slung over their shoulders, +Applethwaite Plunkit and his big dog popped out of +almost every corner to obstruct their way. Bobby +had just as exciting a time during his dreams that +night as he and his chum had experienced during +the afternoon previous!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Nothing was said at the late Sunday morning +breakfast about his parents' journey to South +America. Bobby knew all about poor Uncle Bill. +He could just remember him—a small, very brown, +good-tempered man who had come north from his +tropical station in the rubber country four years, +or so, before.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Uncle Bill was Mr. Blake's only brother, and +most of Bobby's father's income came from the +rubber exporting business, too. Uncle Bill had +lived for years in Brazil, but finally the climate +had been too much for him and only a few months +ago word had come of his death. He had been a +bachelor. Mr. Blake had positively to go to +Samratam to settle the company's affairs and +Bobby's mother would not be separated from her +husband for the long months which must necessarily +be engaged in the journey.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby felt that he </span><em class="italics">must</em><span> talk about the wonderful +possibility that had risen on the horizon of his +future, so, long before time for Sunday School, he +ran over to the Martin house and yodled softly in +the side lane for Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred put his head out of a second-story +window. "Hello!" he said, in a whisper. "That +you, Bobby?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yep. Come on down. I got the greatest +thing to tell you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wait till I get into this stiff shirt," growled +Fred. "It's just like iron! I just </span><em class="italics">hate</em><span> Sunday +clothes—don't you, Bobby?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby was too eager to tell his news to discuss +the much mooted point. "Hurry up!" he threw +back at Fred, and then sat down on the grassy +bank to wait.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He knew that Fred would have to pass inspection +before either his mother or his sister Mary, +before he could start for Sunday School. He +heard some little scolding behind the closed blinds +of the Martin house, and grinned. Fred had +evidently tried to get out before being fully +presentable.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He finally came out, grumbling something about +"all the girls being nuisances," but Bobby merely +chuckled. He thought Mary Martin was pretty +nice, himself—only, perhaps inclined to be a little +"bossy," as is usually the case with elder sisters.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Never mind, Fred," Bobby said, soothingly. +"Let it go. I got something just wonderful to tell +you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What is it?" demanded Fred, not much interested.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I believe something's going to happen that +you've just been </span><em class="italics">hoping</em><span> for," said Bobby, smiling.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That Ap Plunkit's got the measles—or something?" +exclaimed Fred, with a show of eagerness.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, no! It isn't anything to do with Ap +Plunkit," returned Bobby, in disgust.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What is it, then?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>So Bobby told him.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="financial-affairs"><span class="large">CHAPTER VII</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">FINANCIAL AFFAIRS</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Two boys in Clinton did not go to Sunday +School that day with minds much attuned to the +occasion. Fred could scarcely restrain himself +within the bounds of decent behavior as they +walked from Merriweather Street, where both the +Blakes and the Martins lived, to Trinity Square, +where the spire of the church towered above the +elms.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The thought that Bobby was going with him to +Rockledge (Fred had jumped to that conclusion +at once) put young Martin on the very pinnacle +of delight.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Of course, it would be great if your folks +would take you to South America," admitted +Fred, after some reflection. "For you could +bring home a whole raft of marmosets, and +green-and-gray parrots, and iguanas, and the like, for +pets. And you'd see manatees, and tapirs, and +jaguars and howling monkeys, and all the rest. +But crickey! you wouldn't have the fun we'll have +when we get to Rockledge School."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Fun</em><span> seemed to be all that Fred Martin looked +forward to when he got to boarding school. +Lessons, discipline, and work of any kind, never +entered his mind.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>That evening Mr. and Mrs. Blake, with Bobby, +went up the street to the Martin house, and the +parents of the two chums talked together a long +time on the front porch, while the children were +sent into the back yard—that yard that Buster +Shea had cleaned so nicely the day before, being +partly paid in rats!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>When the Blakes started home, it had been +concluded that Bobby was to attend school with Fred, +and that if Mr. and Mrs. Blake did not return +from their long journey in season, Bobby was to +be under the care of the Martins during vacation.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Another young one won't make any difference +here, Mrs. Blake," said easy-going Mrs. Martin. +"Really, half the time I forget how many we have, +and have to go around after they are all abed, and +count noses. Bobby will make us no trouble, I +am sure. And he always has a good influence over +Fred—we've remarked that many times."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This naturally made Mrs. Blake very proud. +Yet she took time to talk very seriously to Bobby +on several occasions during the next few days. +She spoke so tenderly to him, and with such +feeling, that the boy's heart swelled, and he could +scarcely keep back the tears.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We want to hear the best kind of reports from +you, Bobby—not only school reports, but in the +letters we may get from our friends here in +Clinton. Your father and I have tried to teach you +to be a manly, honorable boy. You are going +where such virtues count for more than anything else.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Be honest in everything; be kindly in your +relations to the other boys; always remember that +those weaker than yourself, either in body or in +character, have a peculiar claim upon your +forbearance. Father would not want you to be a +mollycoddle but mother doesn't want you to be a +bully.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You will go to church and Sunday School up +there at Rockledge just as you have here. Don't +be afraid to show the other boys that you have +been taught to pray. I shall have your father find +out the hour when you all go to bed, and at that +hour, while you are saying your prayers and +thinking of your father and me so far away from +you, I shall be praying for my boy, too!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't you cry, Mother," urged Bobby, squeezing +back the tears himself. "I will do just as +you tell me."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was arranged that Mr. Blake should take the +boys to school when the time came, but there was +still a fortnight before the term opened at +Rockledge. Bobby and Fred had more preparations +to make than you would believe, and early on +Monday morning Fred came over to the Blake +house and the chums went down behind the garden +to have a serious talk.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! there's fifty boys in that school," Fred +said. "There's another school right across +Monatook Lake. They call it Belden School. There's +all sorts of games between the two schools, you +know, and we want to be in them, Bobby."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What do you mean—games?" asked Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why, baseball, and football, and hockey on +the ice in winter, and skating matches, and +boating in the fall and spring—rowing, you know. +Lots of games. And we want to be in them, don't we?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure," admitted his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It's going to cost money," said Fred, +decidedly. "We'll have to get bats, and good +horse-hide balls, and a catcher's mask and glove, and a +pad, and all that. We want to get on one of the +ball teams. You know I can catch, and you've +got a dandy curve, Bobby, and a fade-away that +beats anything I've ever seen."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes. I'd like to play ball," admitted Bobby, +rather timidly. "But will they let us—we being +new boys?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We'll make them," said the scheming Fred. +"If we show them we have the things I said—mitt, +and bats, and all—they'll be glad to have us +play, don't you see?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But we haven't them," suddenly said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. But we must have them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! they'll cost a lot of money. You know +I don't have but a dollar a month," said Bobby, +"and I know Mother won't let me open my bank."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Of course not. That's the way with mothers +and fathers," said Fred, rather discontentedly. +"They get us to start saving against the time +we'll want money awfully bad for something. +And then we have to buy shoes with it, or +Christmas presents, or use it to pay for a busted +window. </span><em class="italics">That's</em><span> what cleaned out my bank the +last time—when I threw a ball through Miklejohn's +plate-glass window on the Square."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well," said Bobby, getting away from </span><em class="italics">that</em><span> +unpleasant subject, "I have most of my dollar left +for this month, and Pa will give me another on the +first day of September."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I haven't but ten cents to my name," +confessed Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Then how'll we get new bats, and the mask, +and pad, and all?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's what we want to find out," Fred said, +grimly. "We'll have to think up some scheme +for making money. I wish I'd cleaned our yard +Saturday instead of hiring Buster Shea."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"</span><em class="italics">That</em><span> didn't cost you much," chuckled Bobby. +"Only a cent—and you couldn't have sold the five +rats for anything."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—well—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let's start a lemonade stand," suggested Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. It's been done to death in Clinton this +vacation," Fred declared, emphatically. "Besides, +the sugar and lemons and ice cost so much. +And you're always bound to drink so much yourself +that there's no profit when the lemonade's gone."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby acknowledged the justice of this with a +silent nod.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Got to be something new, Bobby," urged Fred, +with much belief in his chum's powers of +invention. "</span><em class="italics">You</em><span> think of something."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Might have a show," said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—now—Bobby! you know that's no +good," declared Fred. "We'd have to let a lot +of the other fellows into it. Can't run a circus—not +even a one-ring one—without a lot of performers. +And they'd want the money split up. We +wouldn't make anything."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"A peep-show," said Bobby, still thoughtfully +chewing a straw.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, shucks! that's worse. The kids will only +pay pins, or rusty nails, to see </span><em class="italics">that</em><span> kind of a +show."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. That's not just what I mean," Bobby +said, thoughtfully. "Let's have a show that will +only need us two to run it, Fred. Then we won't +have to divide the money with anybody else. And +let's have a show that grown up folks will want to +see."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Great, Bobby! That's a swell idea—if we +could do it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I believe we </span><em class="italics">can</em><span> do it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Tell a fellow," urged Fred, excitedly. +"Grown folks have money. We could charge +them a nickel—maybe a dime—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. A penny show," said Bobby, still chewing +the straw. "Of course, it's got to be worth a +penny—and then, it'll have to be sort of a joke, +too—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Whatever are you trying to get at, Bobby +Blake?" demanded his chum in wonder.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Listen here. Now—don't you tell—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He pulled Fred down beside him and whispered +into his ear. The red-haired boy looked puzzled +at first. Then he caught the meaning of his +chum's plan, and his eyes grew big and he began +to grin. Suddenly he flung his cap into the air +and seized Bobby round the neck to hug him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" he yelled. "That's the greatest +thing I've ever heard, Bob! And we can have +it right down 'side of my father's store."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Martin kept a grocery store on Hurley +Street, in a one-story building on one side of which +was an open lot belonging to the store property. +There was a side-door to the store-building opening +upon this lot, but not far back from the street.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>For the next two or three days Bobby and Fred +were very busy indeed at this place and, with some +little help, they managed to erect a structure that +was made partly of old fence-boards and partly of +canvas.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The half-tent, half-shack was about ten feet +wide. It had a sloping canvas roof. It ran back +from the sidewalk far enough to mask the +side-door into Mr. Martin's store.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Martin was not in the secret of the nature +of the boys' proposed "show," but he was a good +natured man and made no objection to his son and +Bobby utilizing his side door.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You see, we must have an 'entrance' and an +'exit'," Bobby explained. "Folks can pass out +through the store after seeing our show."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure," chuckled Fred. "As long as we don't +call it 'egress,' nobody will be scared that it's some +strange and savage animal. All right. 'Exit' +it is," and he proceeded to paint the sign, per +Bobby's instructions.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And that was not the only sign to be painted. +Fred was rather handy with a brush, and when all +the sign-painting was done, Bobby pronounced the +work fine.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In front of the tent, Bobby had built a little +platform with a box, waist high, before it. Bobby +was to be the lecturer, or "ballyhoo," and was, +likewise, to sell the tickets. The other boys were +eaten up with curiosity about the show, but neither +Bobby nor Fred would give them a chance to get a +look inside the shelter after the roof was on.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a canvas wall in the front, with a +very narrow entrance. Inside that was a canvas +screen so that nobody peeking into the doorway +could see much of what lay beyond. They had one +kerosene lamp to light the interior.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They made several other arrangements for the +opening of the show, and then there was nothing +to do but wait for Saturday to arrive. On that +day many people from out-of-town came into +Clinton to market, and the Hurley Street stores were +well patronized all day long. Bobby and Fred +knew they would not lack a curious company outside +the tent, whether they tolled many within or not.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="the-peep-show"><span class="large">CHAPTER VIII</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">THE PEEP-SHOW</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Very early on Saturday morning Bobby and +Fred went down to Hurley Street and hung the +painted banners upon the front of the show tent. +As to their beauty, there might have been some +question, but Fred had painted the words clearly, +and there could be no mistaking their meaning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The sheets on which the signs were painted +stretched across the width of the tent, and the +upper line read:</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><span>FOUR MARVELS OF THE WORLD</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Underneath this startling statement, in no less +emphatic letters, appeared the following:</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics">ON EXHIBITION:</em><span> +<br /></span><em class="italics">The Strongest Man in the World</em><span> +<br /></span><em class="italics">The Handsomest Woman in the World</em><span> +<br /></span><em class="italics">The Prettiest Girl in the World</em><span> +<br /></span><em class="italics">The Smartest Boy in the World</em></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>The surprising nature of these signs began to +draw a crowd almost at once—even before +breakfast. The early comers were mostly boys, and +Bobby and Fred were not yet ready to admit the +curious.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The chums kept perfectly serious faces and +refused to answer any of the questions, or respond +much to the raillery of their young friends.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You know that ain't so, Bobby Blake!" +exclaimed one boy. "You can't have all those +people in that tent. And where'd you get them? +Huh! 'Strongest man in the world.' Who's +that? Sandow, or John L. Sullivan? Bet you +jest got a picture of Samson throwin' down the +pillars."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's what it is—just pictures!" agreed the +other curious ones.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred grinned at them and was—wonderful to +relate!—as silent as his chum. They had agreed to +say nothing in response to the chaffing.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And who was the handsomest woman in the +world?" scoffed another boy, who was rather +better informed than most of his mates. "Cleopatra, +maybe! And she was blacker than our +Phoebe who washes for my mother. All +Egyptians are black."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'd just like to know who you think is the +prettiest girl, Bobby Blake?" demanded one of the +bigger girls who went to school with the chums, +her nose tip tilted to show her scorn. "What do +you know about pretty girls?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If you want to see her, you can do so by +paying your penny by and by," said Bobby politely.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Humph! I'd like to see myself!" snapped +the young lady—and at once went home and +secured a penny for that very purpose!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I s'pose you've got a photograph of your own +self in there for the smartest boy, Reddy +Martin!" suggested one of the big fellows who dared +give Fred this hated nickname.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well," drawled Fred, his eyes sparkling, "if +it lay between you and me who was the smartest, +I don't believe </span><em class="italics">you'd</em><span> get any medal."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys took turns breakfasting on crackers +and cheese in Mr. Martin's store. Fred's father +was greatly amused by the signs in front of the +tent and he wanted a private view of the wonders. +But he was politely refused.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We can't begin the show till Bobby's made the +lecture, Dad," declared Fred. "And we're not +going to begin till there's a crowd on the street. +We'll pass them right into the store here, and I +bet you and the clerks will be too busy waiting on +customers to see the show at all," and he chuckled.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In only a single matter did the boys have help +in the arrangements for the show. Mr. Blake, +without being in the secret of the show itself, had +written the lecture which Bobby was to deliver +outside the tent every time a crowd gathered.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby put on a shabby drum-major's coat, with +one epaulet, which had been found in the Martins' +attic. On his head he perched an old silk hat +belonging to his father, with the band stuffed out +so that it would not slip down over his ears and +hide his face entirely.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He beat upon a tin pan with a padded drum-stick, +and thus brought together the first crowd +before the show-tent at about nine o'clock. His +ridiculous figure and the noise of the drumming +soon collected twenty or thirty grown people—mostly +men at that hour—beside a crowd of boys, +and a few timid girls who fringed the crowd.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Having called his audience together, Bobby, +with a perfectly serious face, began his speech +which he had learned by heart, and spoke as well +as ever he recited "a piece" on Friday afternoons +at school:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Kind Friends:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This wonderful exhibition has been arranged +for the sole purpose of extracting money from +your pockets and putting it into ours. We make +this frank announcement at the start so that there +may be no misunderstanding.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This marvelous Museum is not a charitable +institution nor is it for the benefit of any +philanthropic cause.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It is merely an effort and an invention to +promote good humor; any person unable to appreciate +a joke on himself, or herself, is respectfully +requested not to patronize our stupendous and +surprising entertainment.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Where before, in any conglomeration of +Wonders of the World, have four such marvelous +creatures been placed simultaneously on exhibition?</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, kind friends, but one person is admitted +to our entertainment at a time, and but one of +these advertised marvels will be exhibited to each +visitor. This is a positive rule that cannot be +broken.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"The charge for our educational and startling +exhibit is but a penny—a cent—the smallest coin +of the realm. It will not make you, and it cannot +break you.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"In addition, it is understood that the person +paying his, or her, entrance fee to this Museum +of Marvels, agrees to keep silent regarding what +is shown within, for at least twenty-four hours. +On that, and on no other terms, do we accept your +penny.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If one should not be satisfied that a penny's +worth is given in exchange for the entrance fee, +the same will be cheerfully refunded.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, kind friends, one at a time," concluded +Bobby, stepping down from the rostrum to the +narrow entrance to the tent. "Form in line at +the right, please. Have your pennies ready; we +cannot make change. Doctor Truman is the first +to enter the Hall of Marvels. Thank you, +Doctor!" as the cheerful, chuckling physician, bag in +hand, on his morning rounds to see his patients, +pushed forward to the entrance of the tent.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a good deal of hanging back at first. +Bobby had expected that. And Fred might have +lost hope had he been outside where he could see +the crowd that began to dwindle away when +Bobby's funny speech was finished.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But in a moment the doctor's roar of laughter +from within the tent brought some of the +suspicious ones back. The doctor appeared at the +store door, his plump sides shaking with laughter, +and wiping the joyous tears from his eyes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What is it, Doc?" asked an old farmer. +"What's them 'tarnal boys doin' in that tent?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Pay your penny and go in and see," exclaimed +Doctor Truman, hurrying away. "If a laugh like +that isn't worth a cent, I don't know what is!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred's whistle had announced the departure of +the first visitor by way of the shop door, and +Bobby urged up another:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't crowd, kind friends. The performance +will continue all day and this evening—or until +everybody desiring to do so has seen one of these +four Wonders of the World."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Jim Hatton, the harness maker, followed the +doctor. He didn't laugh, but the curious ones +heard him exclaim, a moment after his disappearance:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, I'll be jiggered!" which was Mr. Hatton's +favorite expression, and he came out of the +front door of Mr. Martin's shop, grinning broadly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What was it, Jim?" asked the same curious farmer.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Can't tell ye, Jake. See it yourself—'nless +you're afraid o' riskin' a penny to find out just +how smart our boys here in Clinton be," and +Mr. Hatton went off to his shop still grinning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Somebody pushed forward the very girl who +had sharpened her wit on Bobby before the exhibition +opened. She had her penny clutched tightly +in her hand.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't you let go of that cent, Susie," advised +Bobby, grinning at her, "if you think you'll want +it again for anything. For you won't be pleased +by what you see—maybe."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Susie tossed her head and went inside. In just +a minute Fred blew his whistle and Susie, with +flaming cheeks, appeared at the front door of the +store.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What was it, Susie?" demanded one of her friends.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Which did you see—the strong man, or the +handsome lady, or the pretty girl, or the smart +boy?" cried another.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But Susie shut her lips tightly, glanced once at +Bobby, who was letting the curious old farmer +pass into the tent, and then she ran home. The +curiosity of the boys and girls mounted higher +and higher.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The old farmer popped out almost as quick as +he popped in. He was chewing a straw vigorously, +and his face was flushed. It was hard to +tell for a moment whether he was mad, or not.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wal, Neighbor Jake, did yet git your money's +wuth?" demanded another rural character.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The bewhiskered old fellow turned on the +speaker, and gradually a grin spread over his +face.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say, Sam!" he drawled. "You never had +none too much schoolin'. Your edication was +frightfully neglected. You pay that there boy a +cent and go in there, and you'll l'arn more in a +minute than you ever did before in a day! You +take it from me."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Thus advised his neighbor pressed forward and +was the next "victim." When he came out his +face was red likewise, while Jake burst into a +mighty roar of laughter and rocked himself to and +fro on the horseblock in front of the store door.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Soon the second farmer joined in the laughter, +and thereafter, for an hour, the two stood about +and urged everybody from out of town whom they +knew to enter the peep-show.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Occasionally Bobby mounted the platform, +banged on the pan, and lifted up his voice in the +speech Mr. Blake had written for him. It coaxed +the people to stop before the show every time. +And between whiles, Bobby kept repeating:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It is only a cent—and your money back if you +are not satisfied! If it is a joke, keep it to +yourself and let the next one find it out. Come on! +Have your pennies ready, please, kind friends. +See one of the four greatest wonders of the world."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>At first none of the ladies who were out shopping +did more than stop and listen and wonder +among themselves "what that Blake boy was up +to now." But the girl who worked in Mr. Ballard's +real estate office ran across the street to +see what the crowd was about, and was tempted +to enter the tent.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>She came out giggling, and greatly delighted, +and pretty soon the girls who worked in the +offices and stores along Hurley Street, were +attracted to the show. They all seemed to be highly +delighted, when they came out through the store.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I declare!" exclaimed Mrs. Hiram Pepper, to +a neighbor, as they passed the peep-show again. +"I've a mind to see what that means."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It's some foolishness," said her friend, who +was a rather vinegary maiden lady named Miss +Prissy Craven. "I wonder what that boy's +mother can be thinking of!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why, Mrs. John Blake is as nice a lady as +there is in town," declared Mrs. Pepper. "And +I must say for Bobby that he's never in any +mischief. He's full of fun—like any boy. But there +ain't a </span><em class="italics">smitch</em><span> of meanness in him."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Humph!" exclaimed the other lady, sourly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, you wait. I'm going in," declared +Mrs. Pepper, fumbling in her purse for a penny.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>She marched up to Bobby, eyeing him rather +sternly. To tell the truth, for the first time the +young showman quailed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Maybe you'd—you'd better not go in, Mrs. Pepper," +he mumbled.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why not? Ain't it fit for a lady to see?" +demanded she, with increasing sternness.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, yes!" and Bobby </span><em class="italics">had</em><span> to giggle at that. +"But—but—Well, anyway, you mustn't tell, and +you can have your money back if you don't like +the show."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ha!" exclaimed Mrs. Pepper, "as though I +was worried about the loss of a penny," and she +went into the tent with her back very straight.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>She came out shaking with laughter. The tears +rolled down her face and she had to sit down on +Mr. Martin's steps to get her breath. Miss +Prissy Craven demanded, sharply: "What under +the sun is the matter with you, Mis' Pepper? I +never seen you behave so. What is it in that tent +them boys have got? I sh'd think it was a giggle +ball full o' tickle!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ha, ha, ha!" chuckled the amused Mrs. Pepper. +"You go in yourself, Prissy, and see what +you think of it. I can't tell you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm going!" announced the maiden lady, nodding +her head. "But lemme tell you," she added +to Bobby, "if it's anything I don't like, you'll hear +about it when I come out."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby looked across at Mrs. Pepper doubtfully, +but he had to grin. The lady who was laughing +nodded to him vigorously, and he let Miss Craven +through.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In less than a minute she flounced through the +store and demanded, in her high, rasping voice:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What did you mean by trickin' me that-a-way, +Mis' Pepper? I never was so disgusted in all +my life. A perfec' swindle—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You can get back your penny if you didn't +like it," suggested Bobby, trying hard not to +laugh.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, I—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But Mrs. Pepper broke in upon the angry +spinster's possible tirade: "Jest what did you see, +Prissy?" she asked the angry one, with emphasis. +Miss Craven's mouth remained open for fully +half a minute, but no sound came forth. The +blood mounted into her face, and then she shut +her lips and started off hastily for her own home. +</span><em class="italics">Evidently she did not want to tell</em><span>!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This incident excited the curiosity of the +bystanders more than ever. So far every person +seeing the show had "played fair" and had +refused to say what he or she had seen on the inside +of the tent.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby had refused to let the smaller boys or +girls into the show, telling them that late in the +day they might see it for nothing. That had been +agreed upon with Fred, for the proprietors of the +entertainment were afraid that the little folk +would be tempted to talk the matter over among +themselves and thus spoil the fun—as well as +reduce the receipts.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And the pennies came in faster than Bobby or +Fred had dared hope. During the morning those +people who had business on Hurley Street came +to see the show, and to listen to Bobby as +"bally-hoo," and by noon-time wind of the peep-show +had gone all over town.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby's mother, and Fred's, too, heard of it +from their husbands at luncheon, and they +decided to see what their young hopefuls were about. +Bobby was just a little bit scared when he saw his +mother; he didn't know whether she would see the +joke as his father had, earlier in the day—for +Mr. Blake had come out of the tent roaring with +laughter.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It beats anything how those two youngsters +have got the whole town guessing," he had said +to Mr. Martin. "And they have hit on a positive +human failing that shows more sober thought than +I believed either of them capable of."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Dare you let your mother in to see this show, +Bobby Blake?" asked Mrs. Blake, seriously, when +the boy's lecture—which he now rattled off glibly +enough—was finished.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There's no 'free list'," said Bobby, his eyes +twinkling. "Pa told me to be sure not to let you +in unless you paid. And I am sure, Mother, that +you will see the handsomest woman in the world, +if you want to, when you go inside."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I declare! you have </span><em class="italics">me</em><span> puzzled, Bobby +Blake," said easy going Mrs. Martin.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Just a minute, please!" urged Bobby, detaining +his chum's mother. "You'll have to take your +turn. But one person is allowed to enter at a +time. This way! this way, kind friends! The +line forms on the right. Only a penny—a cent—the +smallest coin of the realm. It won't make +you and it can't break you!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The two mothers joined each other afterward +outside of Mr. Martin's store. They looked into +each other's faces wonderingly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What do you think of those boys?" demanded +Mrs. Martin. "What will they do next?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I—I don't know," admitted Mrs. Blake, with +a sigh. "But I </span><em class="italics">do</em><span> fear that they will turn that +school they are going to this fall topsy-turvy!"</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="off-for-rockledge"><span class="large">CHAPTER IX</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">OFF FOR ROCKLEDGE</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Trade at the peep-show was brisk until +mid-afternoon. Bobby and Fred had been able to get +only a bite of luncheon from the store "in their +fists," and had compared notes but seldom.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby's trouser-pockets were borne down with +the weight of pennies. In refusing to make +change it soon became very hard along Hurley +Street to obtain pennies at all. All the copper +money in the town was fast coming the way of the +proprietors of the peep-show.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Neither Bobby nor Fred realized this fact—nor +what it meant to them—until after the First +National and the Old Farmers' Banks had closed +their doors for the day. The storekeepers then +began running around to borrow copper money, +and it was some time before anybody knew what +made the scarcity of pennies in the storekeepers' +tills!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Meanwhile the financial adventure of Bobby +Blake and Fred Martin was prospering.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby suddenly saw the long-armed, white-headed +Applethwaite Plunkit standing in the +crowd eying him while he delivered his talk. +The crowd before the rostrum laughed as usual, +and those who had been in to see the show urged +their friends to venture likewise.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The white-headed farm boy from Plunkit's +Creek was pushing forward to enter the show. +Bobby had hoped he would not venture, but when +Ap approached, Bobby made up his mind quickly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You can't go in, Applethwaite," he said, +decidedly. "We don't want you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why not!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Never mind why not," said Bobby, firmly, +looking straight into the flushed face of the boy +who had treated him and Fred so meanly just a +week before. "But you can't go in."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ain't my cent just as good as anybody else's?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Not here it isn't," declared Bobby, who knew +very well that if the white head appeared in the +tent where the red head was, there would be an +explosion! Besides, he did not trust Ap. He +believed Ap would do all he could to break up the +show after he had seen it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Ap began to bluster and threaten, but there +were too many grown folk around for him to dare +attack Bobby. "You jes' wait," he whispered. +"I'll fix you some time."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby did not know what Applethwaite might +try to do, and when he saw him a little later with +a group of boys who were pretty rough looking, +he was worried. These boys stood across the +street from the show and Bobby was afraid they +were waiting for some slack time, when there were +no grown folk about, to "rush" the tent.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He called Fred out and told him what he feared +and Fred went through and told the biggest clerk +in his father's store. The clerks were interested +in the two young showmen, for they had been into +the tent and were delighted with what they had seen.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The big fellow promised, therefore, to come +running and bring the other clerks to help, if the boys +whistled for assistance. This plan quieted +Bobby's fears, and he gave his mind to the lecture, +and to coaxing the audience into the show, one by one.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Suddenly the young lecturer saw Mr. Priestly +in the crowd. He flushed up pretty red when he +saw him, for Mr. Priestly was the minister at the +church the boys attended, and Bobby thought he +was about the finest man in town.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The clergyman was a young man who had made +a name for himself in University athletics, and he +had the biggest Boys' Club in town. Bobby and +Fred were particular friends of the young +minister, and for a moment Bobby wondered if +Mr. Priestly would approve of the peep-show.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The gentleman's ruddy, smoothly shaven face +was a-smile as he listened to Bobby's speech, and +his blue eyes twinkled. He was the first to reach +the tent entrance when Bobby stepped down from +the platform.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Which wonder am </span><em class="italics">I</em><span> to see, Bobby?" he asked, +as he presented his penny to the youthful showman.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We—we favor the clergy, Mr. Priestly," said +Bobby, hesitatingly, yet with an answering smile. +"</span><em class="italics">You</em><span> shall see two wonders." Then he called in +to his partner: "Hey, Fred!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hullo!" returned the red-haired one, coming +to the entrance.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Here's Mr. Priestly," said Bobby, in a low +voice. "I want you to show </span><em class="italics">him</em><span> the strongest +man in the world, and the very best man in Clinton!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh-ho!" cried Mr. Priestly. "</span><em class="italics">That's</em><span> the way +of it, eh?" and he pinched Bobby's cheek as he +went into the tent. "I believe I can guess your +joke, boys."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Never mind! nobody else has guessed it," +chuckled Fred, going before him. "Stand right +there, Mr. Priestly."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The oil lamp was in a bracket screwed to a post +in the back of the tent. Just where its light shone +best was a narrow red curtain. Fred became +preternaturally solemn as he stepped forward and +laid his hand upon the cords that manipulated the +curtain.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We will show you, Mr. Priestly," he said, "the +Strongest Man in the World—and as Bobby says, +the very </span><em class="italics">best</em><span> man in Clinton!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He pulled aside the curtain and Mr. Priestly +saw his own reflection in a long mirror that had +been borrowed from the Martin attic.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, well!" exclaimed the minister, nodding. +"And is this all your show?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Anybody who is not satisfied with what he +</span><em class="italics">sees</em><span>," returned Fred, chuckling, "can have the +entrance fee refunded."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>At that the clergyman burst into a great laugh. +"You boys! you boys! You certainly have them +</span><em class="italics">there</em><span>. One must be dissatisfied with himself to +ask for the return of his penny. I—I am not +altogether sure that this doesn't smack of a swindle; +but it certainly </span><em class="italics">is</em><span> smart. You should show your +own face in the glass, Fred, when the younger +victims come in to see the Smartest Boy in the +World."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, sir," grinned Fred. "Every fellow that +comes in is better satisfied to see his own +reflection, I reckon."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The clergyman went out, laughing. That the +joke had kept up all day was the wonder of it. +The audience became smaller as supper time drew +near.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then came Mr. Harrod, who kept the variety +and ice cream store down the street. "Say," he +said to Bobby. "You boys must have cornered +all the pennies in town. I've got to have some. +I'll give you a dollar bill for ninety cents, Bobby +Blake."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right, sir," cried Bobby. "Is a dollar's +worth all you want? I'll send them down to your +store in a few moments."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Send two dollars' worth," returned Mr. Harrod, +hurrying away.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hi, Betty Martin!" shouted Bobby to Fred's +"next oldest sister," who was on the fringe of the +crowd. "Come here and count pennies—do, please!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hi Betty Martin" stuck out her tongue +promptly and did not stir. "Call me by my +proper name, Mister Smartie!" she said, sharply.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, me, oh, my! I beg your pardon," laughed +Bobby. "Miss Elizabeth Martin, will you please +count some of these pennies and roll them into +papers—right there on the box, please?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right," said Betty, who did not like to be +called after any Mother Goose character.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>She was a bright girl and she counted the +pennies correctly into piles of thirty, rolled them +up that way, carried six of the rolls down to the +variety store, and brought back a two dollar bill.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then Mr. Martin needed copper money, and +Betty counted a dollars' worth out for him—at +the rate of exchange established by Mr. Harrod.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wow, Bobby!" murmured Fred, at the door +of the tent. "We get them coming and going, +don't we? Ten cents on the dollar, too! We're +getting rich."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But the peep-show had had its run. Not many +could be coaxed in after supper, and the boys +were tired, too. They had not eaten a proper +meal all day, and Mr. Martin advised them to +shut up shop.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They took down the signs, put out the lamp, +and went into the back room of the grocery to +count the receipts. The amount was far beyond +their expectations, and naturally Bobby and Fred +were delighted.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It takes you to think up the bright ideas, +chum," said Fred, admiringly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But Bobby looked thoughtful. "I wonder if +Mr. Priestly thought it was just right?" he +murmured. "I suppose we </span><em class="italics">did</em><span> fool them all," and he +sighed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Shucks!" exclaimed Fred. "They didn't +have to be fooled if they didn't want to. And +even Prissy Craven didn't come back for her +penny, did she?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Only a few days more before they would start +for Rockledge School. The chums bought the +bats and mask and other things they craved. +They packed their trunks two or three times over. +They carried the books they liked best, and many +treasures for which their troubled mothers could +see no reason whatsoever.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, this can of pins and nails, Bobby," urged +Mrs. Blake, helplessly. "What </span><em class="italics">possible</em><span> good can +they be? I do not see how I am to get your +clothing into the trunk."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—Mother!" gasped Bobby. "Don't throw +them away. A fellow never can tell when he'll +want a pin—or a nail—or a button—or something. +Never mind putting in so many stockings. Leave +the can—do, Mother!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>All the Clinton boys who had been the chums' +particular associates at school were greatly +interested in what they termed Bobby's and Fred's +"luck." They all had to be told, over and over +again, of the expected wonders of Rockledge +School.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And I bet you and Fred turn things upside +down there," said "Scat" Monroe, with an envious sigh.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I bet we don't!" responded Bobby, quickly. +"Dr. Raymond is awfully strict, they say. +We'll have to walk a chalk line."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, if Fred Martin ever walks a chalk-line," +scoffed another of the fellows, "it'll be a mighty +crooked one!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>However, the night before the boys were to +start for Rockledge, the good natured groceryman +gave his son a long talk, and Fred went to bed +feeling pretty solemn. For the first time, he +began to realize that he was not going away to +boarding school merely for the fun there was to be got +out of it!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You haven't made much of a mark for yourself +in the Clinton Public School, Frederick," said +Mr. Martin, sternly; "but I do not believe that is +because you are either a dunce, or stubborn. You +have been frittering away your opportunities.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I am tired of seeing your name at the foot of +your class roster—or near it. Inattention is your +failing. You are going where they make boys +attend. And if you do not work, and keep up with +your mates, you will be sent home. Do you +understand that?</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And if you are sent home, you shall be sent to +another school where you'll have very little fun at +all for the rest of your life. I mean the School +of Hard Experience!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You shall be set to work in my store half of +each day, like a poor man's son, and go to the +public school the other half day, and your name will +be on the truant officer's list."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And I guess he meant it," said Fred to Bobby +the next morning. "Father doesn't often scold, +but he was mad at me for being so low in my +classes last term."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys started for the railroad station with +Mr. Blake, gayly enough, however. When Bobby +had parted from his mother, he had to swallow a +big lump in his throat, and he hugged her around +the neck </span><em class="italics">hard</em><span> for a minute. But he had forced +back the tears by the time they got to the Martins' +house.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There the other children were all out on the +front porch to bid their brother and Bobby +good-by. "Hi Betty Martin" threw an old shoe +after them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"For luck," she said. "That's what they do +when folks get married."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But Bobby and I aren't getting married," +complained Fred, rubbing his right ear where the +shoe had landed. "And, anyway, no girl's got a +right to shut her eyes tight and throw an old boot +like </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>. How'd you know you wouldn't do some +damage?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's the luck of it," chuckled Bobby. "It's +lucky she didn't hurt you worse."</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="new-surroundings"><span class="large">CHAPTER X</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">NEW SURROUNDINGS</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>The boys were so eagerly looking ahead that +they scarcely gave a backward glance at Clinton, +as the train rolled away. Mr. Blake had his +paper and a whole seat to himself. Bobby and +Fred occupied a seat ahead of him, and laughed +and chattered as they pleased.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This is only Friday," said Fred, "and classes +don't begin at Rockledge until Monday. We'll +have two whole days to get acquainted in. Do +you s'pose there will be some of the boys at the +Rockledge station to meet us?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And a brass band, too, maybe—eh?" chuckled +Bobby. "I guess nobody but the principal of the +school knows we're coming, Fred. We'll be new +boys, and the bigger fellows will boss us around +at first."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! they can't boss </span><em class="italics">me</em><span> if I don't want to be +bossed," declared the pugnacious Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't you begin to talk that way," advised his +chum. "We'll have to be pretty small potatoes at +first."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I don't see why," grumbled Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You'll find out. My father went to a boarding +school when he was a boy, and he told me," Bobby +explained.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They did not have to wait until reaching +Rockledge to learn something about the temper of the +boys with whom they would be associated. At +Cambwell several students got aboard and came +into their car. They were all older than Bobby +and Fred, and they were very noisy and self-assertive.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They sang, and joked together in the seats up +front. Finally they spied the two boys from +Clinton sitting in the middle of the car.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hullo!" exclaimed a tall, thin, yellow-haired +boy who seemed to be a leader in the fun. +"There's a couple of kids who look as though +they'd just left home and mamma. Bet they're +going with us."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>One of the other boys said something in a low +tone, and then he and the yellow-haired one got +up and came down the aisle.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say!" said the second boy, who was short and +stocky and squinted his eyes up in a funny way +when he talked. "Goin' to school, sonnies?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, we are," said Fred, sharply.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Rockledge or Belden?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Rockledge, if you please," said Bobby, politely.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh!" said the tall boy, grinning. "I don't +know whether it pleases us any to have you go to +Rockledge. But it's lucky you're not bound for +Belden."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why?" asked Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We'd have to chuck your hats out of the +window. We don't allow any Belden boys to ride in +this train with their hats on."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And do the Belden boys throw the Rockledge +boys' hats out of the window?" asked Bobby, +innocently enough.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If they're able. But they ain't. You sure +you are going to Rockledge?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You can wait till we get off the train and then +find out whether we tell the truth, or not," said +Fred, rather crossly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say, young fellow! we don't like fresh fish +at Rockledge," warned the yellow-haired boy. +"If you're going there, you want to walk Turkey."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby pinched Fred warningly, and both the +chums remained silent.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I never did like the looks of red hair, anyway—did +you, Bill?" suggested the squinting chap, +grinning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. We'll have to dye it for him," said the +yellow-haired boy. "What color do you prefer +instead of red?" he asked Fred Martin.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, I wouldn't like it to be straw-colored," +responded Fred, promptly, and with a meaning +glance at his interrogator's hair. "Any other will +suit me better."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The yellow-haired boy flushed and his pale eyes +sparkled. Fred stared back at him quite boldly, +for the ten year old was no coward, whatever else +he might be.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Fresh fish—just as I told you," muttered the +other strange boy, scowling and squinting at the +same time. He was a very ugly boy when he did +this. "Both of them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well!" began Bill, and then stopped.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The train had halted at another station the +moment before. Somebody entered the front door +of the car, and at once the group of boys going to +Rockledge School set up a shout.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hi, Barry!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"See who's come in with the tide! Hey, Captain!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hullo, Barry Gray!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Captain! Captain! How-de-do!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Even the yellow-haired boy and his comrade +turned to look. Bobby and Fred saw a handsome, +brown haired fellow coming down the aisle. He +was fourteen or older. He carried a light +overcoat over his arm and he was very well dressed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He tossed his coat and bag into one of the racks, +and began shaking hands. Everybody seemed +glad to see him. As he quickly glanced down the +aisle his look seemed to quell Bill and the +squinting boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He's going to butt in, of course," growled the +first named.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure. Feels his oats—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fellow with the squint said no more. The +handsome fellow, whose name seemed to be Barry +Gray, came down the aisle almost at once.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hullo, Bill Bronson," he said, with some +sharpness. "Up to your usual tricks?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It isn't any business of yours, Barry, what +Jack and I do," growled the yellow-haired boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll make it my business, then," said Barry +Gray, laughing. Then he turned directly to +Bobby and Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You kids going to Rockledge this term?" he asked.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, sir," said Bobby, quickly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry Gray was not as tall as Bill Bronson, and +perhaps not as old, but he evidently was not afraid +of either of the bullies.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Where are you from?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Clinton, sir," pronounced Bobby, again taking +the lead.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's your name—and your chum's?" asked Barry.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"My name is Bob Blake, and this is Fred Martin," +said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Glad to know you," said the older boy, shaking +hands with both of them, and even Fred began +to forgive him for calling them "kids."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ever been to school before?" asked Barry.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Not to boarding school," Fred said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come on up and I'll introduce you to the +other fellows. Don't mind Bill Bronson and Jack +Jinks, here," added Barry Gray, grinning at the +two retiring bullies. "If they bother you much, +come to me. I'm captain of the school this year, +and Dr. Raymond expects me to keep all of the +fellows straight. Being a captain is like being a +monitor. You understand!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, yes, sir," said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And you needn't 'sir' me so much," said the +kindly captain. "Come on, now—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby turned to ask permission of his father. +Barry at once saw that Mr. Blake was with the +chums from Clinton.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Who's this, Bob? Your father, or Fred's?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This is my father," said Bobby, politely.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The frank school captain stepped forward and +offered his hand. "Glad to meet you, Mr. Blake," +he said. "You trust the boys with me. I'll see +that they get in right with the other fellows, and +that they're not put upon too much."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm sure of it," said Mr. Blake, smiling. "I +shall feel better about leaving Bobby and Fred at +Rockledge, knowing that you will have an eye on +them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, you can be easy about them," said Captain +Gray who, despite his natural conceit, seemed a +very nice fellow. "Of course, they'll have to take +a few hard knocks, and the boys will 'run' them +some. But they sha'n't be hurt."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh!" muttered Fred. "I guess we can take +care of ourselves."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry looked down at him and grinned. "Yes, +I see you own red hair," he observed, and +Mr. Blake laughed outright.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred followed his chum and Barry Gray up the +aisle with rather a lagging step. He felt his own +importance considerably, and he did not see why +he should be as respectful as Bobby was to the +captain of Rockledge School.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In a very few minutes Master Martin felt better. +The other boys were a lot more friendly than +Bill Bronson and Jack Jinks, who the chums +learned later, were two of the most troublesome +boys at the school. Not many of the others liked +the bullies.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There were some fellows quite as young as +Bobby and Fred, but none of them were "greenies," +like the chums from Clinton.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure you'll have to be hazed!" explained a +fat, genial boy, named Perry Wise—called "Pee +Wee" because of his initials and his size. "Every +fellow has to, that comes to the school. But +Barrymore Gray won't let them go too far. He's a +nice fellow, he is."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I think he is fine," said Bobby, enthusiastically.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He's pretty fresh, I guess," grumbled Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We don't call the captain of the school fresh," +said Pee Wee. "He has a right to boss us. The +Doctor lets him. Next to the teachers, Barry's +got more to say about things in the school than +anybody else."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This did not please Master Martin much. He +wanted to be of some importance himself, and he +had never been used to giving in to other boys, +unless it was to Bobby Blake.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>However, there was so much to hear, and so +many new people to get acquainted with that Fred +had little time to worry about Barry Gray. The +chums found the time passing so quickly that they +were surprised when the train slowed down and +the brakeman shouted, "All out for Rockledge!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was no crowd of boys and no band. +Rockledge was a busy town, with oak-shaded +streets, great bowlders thrusting their heads out +of the vacant lots, and much blasting going on +where new cellars were being excavated.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was an electric car line through the middle +of High Street, which turned off at the shore +of the lake (they learned this afterward) and went +as far as Belden.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby and Fred, with Mr. Blake, took a car on +this line and crossed the railroad, finally +bringing up within sight of the grounds of Rockledge +School.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was not a large school, and there were only +four buildings, including the gate-keeper's cottage +where all of the outside servants slept. It had +once been a fine private estate, and Dr. Raymond +had made of it a most attractive and homelike +institution.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The doctor and his family, and his chief +assistant, lived in a handsome house connected with +the main building of the school by a long, roofed +portico. This last building was of brick and +sandstone, and held classrooms, dining-rooms, the +kitchen department in one end of the basement, +and a fine gymnasium in the other.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In the upper stories were a hall, two large +dormitories in each of which were beds for twenty +boys, and five small dormitories for two boys each. +The ten highest scholars occupied these small +rooms, and from them was chosen the captain of +the school each June.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The junior teachers slept in this big building, too.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There were beautiful lawns, fine shrubs, winding, +shaded walks, and a large campus on which +were a baseball diamond, a football field, and +courts for tennis, basket-ball, and other games.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>These facts Bobby and Fred gradually absorbed. +At first they were too round-eyed to appreciate +much but the fact that the place seemed +large, and that there positively was an immense +number of boys! Fifty boys seemed to have +swelled to a hundred and fifty—and they all stared +at the newcomers.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Blake went immediately to the doctor's +study, taking Bobby and Fred with him. +Dr. Raymond was a tall, big-boned man, wearing very +loose garments and a collar a full size too large. +The big doctor had bushy side-whiskers, and his +chin and lip were very closely shaved. He had +white, big teeth, and he showed them all when he +smiled.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>His eyes were kindly, and wrinkles appeared +around them when he smiled, in a most engaging +fashion. When he shook hands with Bobby and +Fred, some magnetic feeling passed from the big +man to the boys, so that the latter decided on the +instant that they liked Dr. Raymond!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Manly little fellows—both," said the doctor, +to Mr. Blake, as the two gentlemen walked toward +the big windows at the end of the room, leaving +Bobby and Fred marooned, like two castaway +sailors, on a desert isle of rug near the door.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The doctor's study was enormously long, with +a high ceiling, and lined with books, save where a +fireplace broke into the bookshelves on one side. +There was a very large flat-topped desk, too, +several deep chairs, and a number of smaller tables +at which the older boys sometimes did their lessons.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You'll find them just as full of fun and mischief +as a couple of chestnuts are of meat," said +Mr. Blake, with a chuckle. "But I don't think +there is a mean trait in either of them. My boy +has had, we think, rather a good influence over +Freddie Martin. The latter's red hair is apt to +get him into trouble."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I understand," said the doctor, nodding and +smiling. "I try to leave the boys much to +themselves in the matter of deportment. The bigger +boys are supposed to set the standard of morals, +and I am glad to say that I have never yet had +occasion to be sorry for beginning that way.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We run Rockledge School on honor, sir. +Every year—in June—we present to the boy who +earns it, a gold medal stating that for the past +year he has shown himself to be worthy of +distinction above his fellows in a strictly honorable +way.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This medal is not given for scholarship—yet +none but a fairly studious boy may earn it. It is +not given for deportment strictly—though no boy +who is not gentlemanly and of manly bearing and +action, can win it. The medal is not given for +mere popularity, for a boy may sometimes be +popular with his fellows, without having many of the +fundamental virtues of character which we hope +to see in our boys.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"The boy who won it last year, and is gone from +us now, stood ninth in his class only, and was not +much of an athlete—which latter tells mightily +among the boys themselves, you know. Yet my +teachers and myself, as well as the school, were +practically unanimous in the selection of Tommy +Wardwell as the recipient of the Medal of Honor."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The gentlemen talked some few minutes longer. +Then Mr. Blake came to bid Bobby and Fred +good-by. He shook hands gravely with his own son +and then took Fred's hand.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You've got some trouble, some fun, and a lot +of work before you, Master Fred," he said. "I +expect your father and mother will be anxiously +waiting for good reports about you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then he looked at Bobby again. That youngster +was having great difficulty in "holding in." His +father was going away—and going to a far +country. Thousands of miles would separate +them before they would meet again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You got anything to say to me, Bobs?" asked +'Mr. Blake, briskly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ye—yes, sir!" gasped Bobby. "I—I got to +kiss you before you go, Pa!" and he flung his arms +around Mr. Blake's neck and for a minute was a +baby again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He knew that Fred would think such a show of +emotion beneath him, and he saw the doctor +looking at him curiously. Just the same, Bobby Blake +was glad—oh, how glad!—many and many a time +thereafter that he had bade his father good-by in +just this way.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="getting-acquainted"><span class="large">CHAPTER XI</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">GETTING ACQUAINTED</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Pee Wee was the boy who first "took up" +the chums from Clinton. The fat boy sat +on the steps of the doctor's house, idly whistling +and twiddling his fingers when Bobby and Fred +came out. Perry Wise never stood when he could +sit, and never walked when he could stand, and +never ran when walking would get him to his goal +just as well. He was the picture of peace just now.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hello, fellows!" he said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hello!" returned Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Is the Old Doc goin' to let you stay?" grinned +the fat boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! why shouldn't he?" demanded Fred, +quick to take offense.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Cause you're so terrible green," chuckled Pee +Wee. "They let the sheep loose sometimes to +crop the lawn, and they might eat you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—you're too smart," said the abashed Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby only laughed. He was glad to have his +mind taken up by something beside the fact of his +father's going away.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say!" said Pee Wee, cordially. "Don't you +want to look over the place?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We'd be very glad to," admitted Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee made no effort to rise at first. He +merely bawled after another boy who was some +distance away:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hey, Purdy! Don't you want to beau the +greenhorns around?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred Martin doubled his fist again and scowled +at the placid fat boy, but Bobby warned him by a +shake of the head. The boy addressed, who was +smaller than Pee Wee, but who was well out of his +reach, turned and made a face at the fat boy, saying:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Do your own work, Fatty. Don't try to put +it off on me."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee was quite unmoved by this rough retort. +He looked around and hailed another lad:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Jimmy Ailshine! come on and show the newsies +all the lions, will you?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"For why?" demanded the boy addressed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—well—I have a stone bruise," explained +Pee Wee, hesitatingly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You must have it from sitting so much, then," +declared Jimmy, with a loud laugh. "You better +take them around yourself, or the captain will be +after you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You needn't show us about if it is very, very +painful," suggested Bobby, beginning to +understand the fat boy now.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Guess we can find our way around alone," +grunted Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw well! we won't row about it," said Pee +Wee, getting up slowly. "But that stone +bruise—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>However, the trouble in question seemed, later, +to be of a shifting nature, for first Pee Wee +favored his right foot and then his left.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It must be confessed that Perry Wise was a +very lazy boy, but he was a good natured one, and +when once the exploration party was started, he +played the part of show-master very well indeed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They went through the school rooms and up to +the dormitories first. In the second dormitory, +where the smaller boys slept, in a pair of twin +beds in one corner, Bobby and Fred were billeted.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And no pillow fights, or other ructions, after +'lights out,' unless you ask the captain first," +warned Pee Wee.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Seems to me this captain has a lot to say +around here," growled Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You bet he has. And what he says he means. +And it's not healthy for anybody to do a thing +when he says '</span><em class="italics">don't</em><span>.'"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why not?" queried Master Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee grinned. "You try it if you like," he +said. "Then you'll find out. Dr. Raymond says +experience is the surest, if not the best, teacher."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The dormitory was a big, light room, cheerfully +furnished, with a locker beside each bed for the +boy's clothes and personal possessions, and a +chair at the head of the bed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>That wall-space over the heads of the beds was +considered the private possession of each couple, +for the flaunting of banners, photographs, strings +of birds-eggs, shells, pine-cone frames, and a +hundred other objects of virtu dear to boyish hearts.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You see, we can hang up a lot of stuff, too, +when our trunks come," whispered Fred to Bobby, +pointing to the blank spaces over their beds, +lettered only with the names: "Blake" and "Martin."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You can see clear across the lake from the +window here," drawled Pee Wee, lolling on a sill.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The chums came to see. Lake Monatook was +spread before them—a beautiful, oval sheet of +water, with steep, wooded banks in the east, and +sloping yellow beaches of sand at the other end.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Where the Rockledge School stood, a steep sandstone +cliff dropped right down to a narrow beach, +more than fifty feet below. A strong, two-railed +fence guarded the brink of this cliff the entire +width of the school premises, save where the stairs +led down to the boat-house.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In the middle of the lake were several small +islands, likewise wooded. The lake was quite ten +miles long, and half as wide in its broadest part.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Across from Rockledge School was the village +of Belden. On a high bluff over there the new +boys saw several red brick buildings among the +trees.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's Belden School," explained Pee Wee. +"We have to beat them at football this fall. We +did them up at baseball in the spring. They're a +mean set of fellows anyway," added the fat boy. +"Once they came across here and stole all our +boats. We'll have to get square with them for +that, some time."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come on," said Fred, who had begun to enjoy +pushing the fat boy, now—knowing that he had +been set the task of showing them around—and +was determined to keep their guide up to the +mark. "We don't want to stay here till bedtime, +do we?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw-right," returned Pee Wee, with a groan. +"That's my bed next to yours, Blake. Mouser +Pryde is chummed on me this year. We call him +Mouser because he brought two white mice with +him to school when he first came.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Shiner and Harry Moore have the beds on +your other side. Shiner's the chap you saw down +stairs—Jimmy Ailshine. He's a good fellow, but +awfully lazy," remarked the fat boy, with a sigh.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What do you call yourself?" demanded Fred, +rather impolitely.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, </span><em class="italics">me</em><span>? I'm not well—honest. And that +stone bruise—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was then he began to favor the other foot, +and Bobby giggled. Pee Wee looked at him +solemnly. "What are you laughing at?" he asked.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby pointed out that the stone bruise seemed +to have shifted.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, well! it hurts so bad I feel it in both feet," +returned the fat boy, grinning. "Come on."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They went down to the gymnasium. It was a +dandy! Bobby and Fred saw that it was a whole +lot better than the one Mr. Priestly had for his +Boys' Club in the Church House at home.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then they inspected the outside courts, the ball +field, and the cinder track—which was an oval, on +the very verge of the cliff.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They met boys everywhere, and Pee Wee told +them the names of some of them, while a few of +about their own age stopped to speak to Bobby +and Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Jack Jinks and the yellow-haired youth, Bill +Bronson, came up to the trio of smaller boys as +they stood by the railing that defended the cliff's +brink.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"So you're showing the greenies around, are +you, Fatty?" proposed Jack. "Shown them the +stake where the Old Doctor ties up fresh kids and +gives them nine and thirty lashes if they as much +as whisper in class?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes," said Pee Wee, nodding. "And I +showed them the straps there where </span><em class="italics">you</em><span> were +tied up last term, Jinksey."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—smart, aren't you?" snarled the squint-eyed +boy, while Bill Bronson grinned.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This red-headed chap's going to be a favorite—I +can see that," said Bill, rolling the cap on +Fred's head with one hand, but pressing hard +enough to hurt.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let go of me!" cried Fred, hotly, jerking away.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't you get too presumptuous, sonny," +advised the yellow-haired youth. "There's lots of +chance for you to get into trouble here."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If I get into trouble with </span><em class="italics">you</em><span>," snapped Fred, +"it won't all be on one side."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Keep still, Fred!" said Bobby. "Let's come +on away," and he tugged at his chum's sleeve.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's a pretty fresh kid, too," said Jack, +eyeing Bobby with disfavor.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But the trio of younger boys withdrew. "Those +fellows," said Pee Wee, "are always picking on +fellows they think they can lick. If you don't +toady to them, they'll treat you awfully mean!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I won't toady to anybody—not even to that +captain," declared Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What! Barry Gray?" cried Pee Wee, in surprise.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes. I don't like him—much," confessed the +belligerent Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You'll be dreadfully lonesome, then," chuckled +the fat boy. "For 'most every fellow in the +school likes Barry. He's captain of the baseball +team, and center in the football team. He can do +anything, Barry can. And the Old Doctor thinks +he is about right. He was next choice after +Tommy Wardwell last year for the Medal of +Honor, and he'll likely get it this year."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's the Medal of Honor?" asked Fred, curiously.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee grinned. "It's something that no +red-headed boy ever won," he declared, mysteriously.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="in-the-dormitory"><span class="large">CHAPTER XII</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">IN THE DORMITORY</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>By supper time Bobby and Fred knew ten +boys to speak to—without counting Jack Jinks, +Bill Bronson, and the school captain, Barrymore +Gray. The latter they did not see at all again +until they beheld him sitting at the doctor's right +hand at the head of the "upper table," as they +soon learned to call the one around which the head +scholars and the assistant master sat with +Dr. Raymond. The junior teachers sat at the heads +of the other tables and kept order.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Rockledge was divided into the Upper School +and the Lower School. Bobby and Fred would +of course be in the Lower, but just how they +would be placed in classes they would not know +until the real business of the school opened on Monday.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The supper was plentiful, but plain. Bobby +missed Meena's sweet cakes and hot tea-biscuit, +and Fred whispered that there was hayseed in +the strawberry jam, so he knew it was not "home made."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee sat across the table from them and ate +steadily, showing beyond peradventure that his +plumpness arose from a very natural cause!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Until eight o'clock the boys were allowed to +frolic outside as they wished, no tasks being set +them as yet. Bobby noticed that one of the junior +teachers was always within sight, while Captain +Barry Gray, and some of the older fellows, were +grouped on the main steps of the dormitory +building, swapping vacation experiences.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby noticed that Barry was always very well +dressed—indeed, richly dressed, beside many of +the boys—so he made up his mind that the school +captain must come from a wealthy home.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bill Bronson jingled money in his pockets and +wore a handsome gold watch and a diamond pin in +his tie. Most of the smaller boys, however, were +no better dressed than Bobby and Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Taken altogether, the boys who appeared at the +supper table were a bright and interesting looking +crowd. Bobby was sure he was going to be happy +here, and Fred was already on terms of intimacy +with half a dozen of the chaps about their own age.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys from Clinton chanced to be the only +new ones to enter Rockledge this semester. +There was usually a long waiting list, but +Mr. Martin's influence had gained Bobby the chance +to attend with Fred, because the two boys were +chums.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Before they left the supper table the doctor +arose and walked down the line of smaller tables +and shook hands with each boy, called him by +name, and welcomed him again to the school.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>To some he said a word of warning, but all in a +cheerful way that took the sting out of the +admonition. He evidently knew the failings of each boy, +and had studied their characters carefully.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>When he came to Bobby and Fred he placed a +hand on each boy's shoulder and said, so that all +the school could hear:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Our two new friends. I hope all of you will +welcome them kindly. Make them feel at home."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This was before the evening run outside. +Bobby and Fred were taken into a noisy game of +"relievo," and the great clock in the tower +chiming eight was all that brought the fun to a close.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The students filed into the library and general +study-room on the first floor of the main building. +For an hour every night the boys were allowed to +read or play quiet games here. It was a cheerful, +bright room, with rugs on the floor, and pretty +hangings, and comfortable chairs. Although one +of the teachers was always present, there was a +feeling of freedom among the boys, and they could +talk or read, as they pleased—just so they were +not noisy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>When nine struck in the tower, they filed +upstairs to bed. There was plenty of time to +undress and prepare for bed before the half hour +struck. Bobby and Fred found that the older +boys in the small rooms were allowed to remain up +a half hour longer than those occupying the big +dormitories.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Captain Gray came in and advised the small +boys to lay their clothing carefully on their chairs +as they removed the garments.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Part of the fire drill, you know," he said, +cheerfully. "Coat and vest over the back of the +chair. Pants folded nicely and laid across the +back, too. Here, Pee Wee! None of that! +Shake out your stockings and hang them on the +chair-round. Shoes each side of the chair as you +take them off—right and left. That's it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He walked up and down between the rows of +beds. He told Bobby and Fred just how to +distribute the remainder of their garments so that +they would be easily at hand if there came an alarm.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Of course, there's no danger, and there are +plenty of fire escapes and all that," said the big +boy, cheerfully. "But the Old Doctor insists +upon our being ready for any emergency. Some +night you'll be waked up by the fire bell and find +drill is called. Want to be ready for it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then he glanced again at Fred's chair. "Hi, +Ginger!" he said. "Put your boots straight. +Your left one's on your right side, and vice versa."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a good deal of fun at Fred's expense +when Barry had gone. "Hi, Ginger!" resounded +from all parts of the room; Fred Martin had won +a distinctive nickname on the spot, and he didn't +like it much.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I knew I shouldn't like that big fellow," he +confessed to Bobby. "And I'll lick some of these +kids yet, if they keep on calling me Ginger."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, you won't," declared Bobby. "You know +you won't. They all have nicknames, too. Yours +is no worse than 'Pee Wee,' or 'Shiner,' or 'Buck,' +or 'Skeets.' They'll stick me with one yet."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But 'Ginger'—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, stop your kicking," advised his chum. +"It won't get you anywhere."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was still a buzz of voices as the twenty +boys finished getting ready for bed. The door +opened and Bill Bronson and Jack Jinks, from +their room across the hall, looked in.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sleep with an eye open, you kids," Bill ordered, +in a shrill whisper. "Something doing by +and by."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, what, Bill?" cried Purdy, near the door.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Somebody's got to ride the goat," chuckled +the squint-eyed boy, looking over his chum's +shoulder.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>At that several of the others looked at Bobby +and Fred, and chuckled. The two Clinton boys +did not hear this by-play. Bill and his chum +looked over at the newcomers with wide grins.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Just at this moment Bobby was completely +ready for bed and he dropped upon his knees +before his chair at the head of the bed and +proceeded to say his prayers as he always did at +home. Fred, after a moment's hesitation, +followed suit.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Instantly a hush fell upon the room. The boys +who had been gabbling together stopped because +they saw the facial expression of those boys +grouped at the doorway. Everybody turned to +look at the corner occupied by the chums from +Clinton.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The silence was but for a moment. Then Bill +laughed and took one long stride to the nearest +bed. He snatched up a pillow and sent it with +unerring aim and considerable force at the back +of Bobby's head.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The pillow reached its mark, and Bobby jumped. +But he did not rise until his prayer was +completed. A second pillow came his way, while Jack +and some of the other spectators laughed immoderately.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred Martin jumped up with an angry exclamation. +Perhaps he did not finish his prayer at all. +He grabbed one of the pillows which had struck +his chum and made for Bill Bronson at the other +end of the room.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You big bully!" he exclaimed, all the rage +which he had bottled up that day boiling over in +an instant, "You big bully! Can't you leave a +peaceable fellow alone?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He slammed the yellow-haired youth over the +head, and struck him so hard that the pillow-case +burst and the feathers began to fly. Bill uttered +a roar of rage, and tried to seize him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't, Fred! Stop! Stop!" called Bobby, +from the other end of the room.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred Martin had gone too far to stop now. He +expected to take a thrashing for his boldness, but +meanwhile he was filling Bronson's eyes and +mouth with feathers.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Jack Jinks put out his foot and tripped the +smaller boy up. Fred fell with Bill on top of +him. The bigger boy began to use his fists.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No fair! Let him up, Bill!" cried two or three.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Shut up!" ordered Jack, putting his back +against the closed door. "You kids that holler +will get all that's coming to you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby came running up the room to help his +chum, and at just that instant the door knob was +turned and the door was burst in, sending Jack +sliding half way across the room.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Cheese it!" squealed Pee Wee, jumping into +bed with his trousers on.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But it was only Barry Gray who appeared.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hello! Can't keep quiet the first night, eh?" +demanded the captain. "What you doing in here, +Jack?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then he saw Bill Bronson on top of the struggling +Fred. Bill had got in one savage punch and +there was blood flowing from Fred's nose upon the +burst pillow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Captain Gray seized Bill by the back of his +collar and with both hands jerked him to his feet. +Bill squealed like a rat, thinking the Old Doctor +himself had come to Fred's rescue.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ow! Ow! Ouch!" he squealed. "Aw—</span><em class="italics">you</em><span>! +Let me alone, Barry Gray. This isn't any of your +business."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right. I'll pass it up to the teachers if +you say so," snapped the captain.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—well—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hold on!" commanded Barry, stepping in +front of Jack who was sneaking out of the room +"</span><em class="italics">You're</em><span> in this, too."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, I'm not," said Jack.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You were holding the door," said Barry. +"Stop here till we hear what's the trouble."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Half a dozen shrill voices tried to tell him at +once. But Barry pointed at Fred. "</span><em class="italics">You</em><span> tell," +he said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I hit him with the pillow," growled Fred, +ungraciously enough.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry glanced down the room toward Fred's +bed. "It isn't your pillow," he said. "Did he +shuck the pillow at you first?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No," said Fred, determined not to "snitch."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But Howell Purdy didn't feel that way about it. +He said to the captain:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Bill Bronson began it. He fired a couple of +pillows at Bobby Blake when Bobby was saying +his prayers. Then Fred went for him."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry looked from Fred's flushed and bloody +face to Bobby's pale one. He said nothing for a +moment to either of them, but turned on Bill Bronson.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You know the rules. You had no business in +this dormitory—neither you nor Jack."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I suppose you'll tell on us," snarled Bill. +"Of course! I knew what a tattle-tale you'd be +just as soon as the Old Doc appointed you captain +last June. He did it so that he'd be sure to have +somebody to run to him with every little thing."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Maybe," returned Barry, flushing. "But he +doesn't call it a little thing for two boys to fight in +a dormitory."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yah!" snarled Bill.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Give me a fair chance and I'll fight him +anywhere!" declared the belligerent Fred, sopping +the blood with a handkerchief that Bobby had +brought him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You are one plucky kid," said Barry, quickly. +"But if there has got to be a fight, it must be +between two fellows more evenly matched. I leave +it to the room: Is a fight fair between Bronson +and Martin!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No!" cried the boys in chorus.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But Bill Bronson started the fight, so he ought +to be accommodated," Captain Gray said. "Isn't +that right?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Some of the boys giggled. Fred muttered: +"Let me fight him. I'm not afraid."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If Bill doesn't want me to go to the Doctor +with this, he'll have to abide by my decision, won't +he?" proceeded Barry, his eyes twinkling.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure!" cried the crowd, led by Pee Wee, now +delighted by what they saw was coming.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, you're too fresh," grumbled the bully.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's not the question," said Barry. "Do +you agree?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"To what?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"To have me set the punishment for this infraction +of the rules, instead of putting it up to the Old +Doctor?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You, too, Jack?" demanded Barry of the +squinting fellow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes," muttered the latter.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right. Then I announce that as Bill wants +to fight, he shall be accommodated. Jack is a +good match for him. Isn't that so, boys?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a storm of giggling. The two bullies +looked at each other and grinned. The idea of +them fighting each other was preposterous—or, so +it seemed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And for fear," said the captain, his eyes +twinkling, "that they won't play fair, if they are +matched in a regular fight, we'll make it a 'poguey +fight' to-morrow morning at nine—in the gym. +Now, you two fellows run to your rooms—and +show up at nine in the gym, or I'll come after +you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He drove the bullies out of the room before him, +and then went himself. There was a subdued +whispering and giggling all over the dormitory.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's a 'poguey fight'?" demanded Bobby, +of Pee Wee, in some alarm.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fat boy was rocking himself to and fro on +the bed in huge delight, and could scarcely answer +for laughing.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You wait and see," he finally chuckled, "It's +more fun than the Kilkenny cats!"</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="the-poguey-fight"><span class="large">CHAPTER XIII</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">THE POGUEY FIGHT</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Fred staunched his bleeding nose at the basin +in the corner, and then exchanged pillows with +Howell Purdy. Fred slept on the burst one.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll get into trouble anyway over this," Fred +growled in Bobby's ear. "I wish I could have hit +that mean bully just once with something hard."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby hadn't the heart to scold. Fred had +attacked a much bigger boy than himself just +because that bully had flung a pillow at Fred's +chum. That was the impulsive way of Fred +Martin. Bobby knew that his chum was going to have +a hard row to hoe here at Rockledge, unless he +learned to control his temper.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby Blake had some difficulty in getting to +sleep that night—and that was not usually the +case with him. The plan of Bill and Jack to haze +the two newcomers to Rockledge had evidently +been stopped. The dormitory was not disturbed +until morning, save that once in the night Pee Wee +had a nightmare and groaned and fought, until +the next fellow to him punched him and woke him up.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wow!" said the fat boy, "I thought I was up +in a balloon and they wanted to put me out instead +of dropping sandbags."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't eat so much at supper; then you won't +dream such stuff," growled Mouser Pryde, punching +his pillow and settling down again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The rising bell at half past six got everybody +but Pee Wee out of bed. Mouser pulled off the +bed clothes, but that did not start the fat boy, and +finally, when the others were half dressed, Mouser +tiptoed over from the basins with a glass of water, +and let the drops trickle down, one by one, upon +Perry's fat neck.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ow! ow! ouch!" bawled Pee Wee. "Something's +sprung a leak. Let me up before I drown!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He struck the floor before he was half awake +and landed in his bare feet upon a set of "jacks" +that Shiner had conveniently dropped on the rug.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ow! what are these things? Wow! I'll bet I +can't walk at all now."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They hurt worse than the stone bruise, eh?" +asked Bobby, grinning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"These fellows are always playing jokes on +me," grumbled Pee Wee. "And I never do a +living thing to hurt them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fat boy </span><em class="italics">was</em><span> a tempting subject for a joke, +and he probably was the butt more often than +anybody else.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>While they were dressing, Fred almost got in +a fight with Shiner because the latter called him +"Ginger." Bobby took his chum aside.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, Fred, that name's bound to stick," he +said. "What's the use of getting mad at it? +They all like you; no use in making enemies. +Take it laughingly."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's because of Smartie Gray," grumbled +Fred. "</span><em class="italics">He</em><span> called me 'Ginger' first."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That isn't as bad as 'Bricktop'," suggested +Bobby, smiling. "You ought to be glad it's no +worse. I expect they'll find a nickname for me +pretty soon, that will be a corker!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>At seven the bell rang again and they all +marched down to breakfast. Bill Bronson and +Jack Jinks scowled at Bobby and Fred on the +stairs, but the captain was near and they did not +say a word to the chums.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Before the boys separated, the first master, +Mr. Leith, said:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Young gentlemen: Doctor Raymond will see +you all in the hall at eleven. Nobody is to be out +of bounds this morning. Be prompt at eleven, +remember. You are excused."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby thought Mr. Leith a very grim and +serious gentleman indeed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>As the smaller boys scurried out of the hall to +the porch, they found a steady stream of boys +going down the basement steps to the gymnasium. +Howell Purdy and Shiner were set, one on either +side of the doorway, where they whispered to those +who passed:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Poguey fight in the gym at nine. Don't +forget the poguey fight."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What </span><em class="italics">is</em><span> that, Shiner?" asked Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You don't want to miss it," grinned Shiner. +"You and your chum are at the bottom of it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But we're not going to fight," declared Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. But Bill and Jack are. No fear!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby and Fred did not go down into the basement +at once. There was still an hour before the +time set by Captain Gray, the evening before, for +the mysterious "poguey fight." Nobody whom +the chums asked would tell them any particulars.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I expect I'll get into trouble over bloodying +that pillow," said Fred. "What shall I tell them +if they ask me?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say your nose bled," returned Bobby. "If +they ask you </span><em class="italics">how</em><span> it came to bleed, that's another +question."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, that's the question I'm afraid of."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wouldn't you tell on that Bill Bronson?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. The other boys would say I snitched. I +hate him, but I won't snitch on him," declared Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Maybe nobody will ask you. And Barry Gray +will take your side."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I don't want him to take my side," growled +Fred. "He's a big fellow, too, and expects to be +toadied to."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You're making a mistake about him, I think," +said Bobby, mildly. He knew it was no use to +argue the matter with his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They walked out across the campus to the +railing that bordered the edge of the bluff. They +were standing there looking across the beautiful +lake, and talking, when there was a sudden +scrimmage over on one of the tennis courts.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hello! a fight!" exclaimed Fred, with lively +interest.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Pshaw!" said Bobby, with some disgust. +"You're always looking for a fight!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm not either! What do you call that?" +denied and demanded Fred in the same breath.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It's the captain," said Bobby, slowly. "And +some of the big fellows—I know! they're dragging +Bill Bronson and Jack Jinks away to the gym. +There's going to be something doing—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Just then Pee Wee appeared at the corner of +the main building and yodled for the Clinton boys, +beckoning them across the campus with excited +gestures.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come o-o-on!" bawled the fat boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred grabbed Bobby's hand and started +running. The chums were at the gym steps almost +as quickly as the big fellows and their captives.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You let me alone, Barry Gray!" yelled Bill, +as he was shoved down the steps. "I'll fix you for +this."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Thanks, Billy Bronson. I can do my own fixing. +You agreed to this, and you'll go through +with it," Barry said, firmly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"</span><em class="italics">I</em><span> didn't do a thing," Jack was urging.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ah! but you're going to," chuckled Barry, +who seemed to have answers ready for both objectors.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The bullies were dragged below. The smaller +boys followed. Every boy in the school was +waiting in the gymnasium, and no teacher—not even +the athletic instructor—was present.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Some of the boys had been at work on the bars, +or the ladder, or otherwise using the gymnastic +paraphernalia. They all gathered around in +interest to see what the big boys were going to do +with the bullies.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bill Bronson and his chum kicked and struggled +for a time. But there were enough to help Barry, +so that their struggles were useless. The bullies' +shoes were quickly removed, despite their kicking. +Then a sort of harness made of straps was buckled +around both boys under their arms. There was a +steel ring sewed into the crosspiece of each +harness at the back.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Somebody produced eight objects that looked +like huge boxing-gloves—only they were made of +cotton cloth stuffed with cotton-batting. One of +these clumsy things was strapped on each foot, +and another on each hand. The victims of the +joke were now unable to hurt any of their captors +when they struck out at them, and the crowd was +greatly amused as well as excited.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come on, now!" panted Barry. "Boost them +up here. Throw the rope over a couple of rungs +of the ladder, Max. That's it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The rope in question was a strong manilla, about +four feet long. At each end was a snap, such as is +spliced upon the ends of hitch-ropes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Two boys lifted each of the embarrassed prisoners, +and held them under the ladder. The snaps +were fastened in the rings back of their shoulders.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There they hung, kicking and sprawling. At +first Barry Gray and Max Bender, one of the other +big boys, held the victims.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Here you are now," said Captain Gray, +sternly. "You wanted to fight a fellow much +smaller than yourself last night, Bill; and you +agreed to take on a fellow nearer your size. +Here's Jack willing to accommodate you. Now, +go to it, you chaps, and may the best man win!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He and Max both stepped back, dragging their +prisoners with them, and then they let the two +helpless ones swing together.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Their heads bumped. Bill let out a roar and +tried to kick Max with one of his muffled feet. +In doing so his other foot caught Jack above the +knee.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Look out what you're doing—you chump!" +exclaimed Jack. "Keep still, can't you?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Keep still yourself," growled Bill, as his +gyrating friend collided with him again with some +force. He tried to push Jack away. At once the +latter put out his mittened hand and punched Bill +between the eyes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Look out what you're doing!" yelled Bill, +striking madly at his opponent.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In a moment they were at it! The poguey fight +was on. The two erstwhile chums swung over the +rungs of the horizontally laid ladder, like the +famous Kilkenny cats, punched and kicked and +batted at each other in a most ridiculous manner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They couldn't hurt each other very much, save +when they bumped heads, and that was not often. +But they grew madder every moment.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The spectators were delighted, and the harder +the combatants tried to strike each other, the +more ridiculous the whole thing appeared.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Why it was called "poguey" nobody seemed to +know, but Bobby discovered that it had long been +practiced at Rockledge School, and that usually +the two victims accepted the situation +philosophically and did not really get mad.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The two bullies, however, had never learned to +control their tempers. Besides, both considered +that the other was somewhat to blame for their +predicament.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The battle continued, fast and furious. Bill +Bronson's face was blazing. Jack Jinks' was +very ugly indeed to look at. If they could have +torn the gloves off their hands they would have +done so and struck each other with their bare +fists.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Suddenly Jack drew up his knee as they swung +together, and he caught Bill right in the belt. It +was a solid blow and the victim uttered a cry of +anger and pain. Captain Gray stepped forward +and stopped the two from swinging together again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Foul blow," he said, decidedly. "You know +the penalty well enough, Jack. When you're let +down, Bill's got the right to punch you with his +bare fist—if he likes."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And if he does, I'll hand him all he's looking +for," declared the squint-eyed youth, glaring at +the boy who had been his chief friend.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Do it, and you'll get what's coming to you!" +threatened Bill, just as angrily.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry winked at Max Bender. "Let's take +them down. I guess they won't be half so thick +hereafter—and then maybe some of the little +fellows will have a better time."</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="the-honor-medal"><span class="large">CHAPTER XIV</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">THE HONOR MEDAL</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Bill Bronson and Jack Jinks were released +from their harnesses, and the "pillows" +were taken off their feet and hands, they went +to opposite ends of the gymnasium and had +nothing to say to each other.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry did not mention the foul blow and its +punishment, and none of the smaller boys dared +speak of it. It was certain, however, that the +intimacy of the only two boys in the school inclined +to bully the smaller ones had taken a decided set +back.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fun of the "poguey fight" was not to end +so quickly, however. Some of the bigger boys +caught Pee Wee and Mouser Pryde, and fastened +them into the harness and put the mufflers on +their feet and hands.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fat boy and his chum made no decided +remonstrance, and when they were swung up, they +made an earnest endeavor to give the fellows +all the fun they were looking for. Their +gyrations certainly were amusing, and Bobby and +Fred laughed as loudly as any of the other boys.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But when the fat boy and Mouser were let down, +and Max and Barry grabbed the chums from Clinton, +for a moment, Fred was inclined to cut up rough.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, be a sport, Fred!" said Bobby, earnestly. +"If Pee Wee can stand it, </span><em class="italics">we</em><span> can."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>So Fred thought better of "getting mad" and +for a while the two friends swung in the air and +punched and kicked at each other to the delight of +the other boys. Bobby was very careful not to +anger the red-haired lad, and they came through +the poguey fight with smiling faces. It was borne +in upon Bobby's mind more and more that Fred +Martin was going to have difficulty in keeping out +of trouble in this new environment.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>At eleven o'clock the whole school filed up to +the hall on the second floor. None of the teachers +were present and there was some little confusion +and noise at first.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry stepped forward and held up a hand for +silence. "You fellows better take a tumble to +yourselves," he said calmly. "You want to show +the Doctor that you don't have to be watched all +the time. You all know—at least, all of you but +Bobby Blake and Fred Martin, and they are not +making the noise—that </span><em class="italics">this</em><span> isn't the place for +skylarking.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We had our fun downstairs. I hear the +Doctor coming now. Let's give him a Rockledge +cheer when he comes in and then—silence!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The door opened as he ceased speaking and the +tall, heavy-set principal with his quiet smile and +pleasant eyes peering through the thick lenses of +his glasses, appeared.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Captain Gray raised his hand again. The +roomful of boys sprang to their feet. Bobby +noted that many of them placed their left hands +upon the little blue and white enameled button +that they wore on the lapels of their coats, as they +shouted in unison:</span></p> +<blockquote> +<div> +<div class="line-block outermost"> +<div class="line"><span>"One, two, three—</span><em class="italics">boom</em><span>!</span></div> +<div class="line"><span>Boom—Z-z-z—ah!</span></div> +<div class="line"><span>Rockledge! Rockledge!</span></div> +<div class="line"><span>Sword and star!</span></div> +<div class="line"><span>Who's on top?</span></div> +<div class="line"><span>We sure are—</span></div> +<div class="line"><em class="italics">Rock</em><span>-ledge!"</span></div> +<div class="line"> </div> +</div> +</div> +</blockquote> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Bobby and Fred had both noticed the blue and +white buttons with the star and sword upon them, +but they did not know what they meant. Now +Bobby guessed that there was some society, or +inner circle at Rockledge School that they, as +newcomers, knew nothing about.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>All the boys did not belong to it. Pee Wee did +not wear a button, nor did many of the fellows +from their dormitory. Bill Bronson and Jack +Jinks did not possess the badge, either.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Meanwhile, Doctor Raymond, smiling and bowing, +approached the rostrum. Bobby—his mind +always on the alert—noted the little blue and +white spot against the dead black of the doctor's +coat.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, boys! I am extremely obliged to you, I +am sure," said the Doctor, bowing again. "I am +just as sensitive to compliments as the next +person. I hope you will always be as glad to see me +as you appear to be at this moment.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, I shall not detain you for long. You +know my little lectures have usually the saving +grace of brevity. We have come together once +more to face a year of study. Let us face it like +real men! Star and sword, my boys! The star +we are aiming for, and the Sword of Determination +will hew our way to the goal.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There! I will give you no homilies. There +are but two new boys with us this year—Robert +Blake and Frederick Martin. Give them a warm +welcome. They only do not understand about our +Medal of Honor."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He suddenly opened his large hand and displayed +in its palm a five-pointed gold star, at least +two inches across, and with a beautiful +blue-velvet background.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Here it is—all ready for the engraving. At +the close of the school year, this medal will be +presented to the one among you who has won it by +studiousness, good conduct, manliness and general +popularity.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It is not always the boy who sets out to win +the medal who really </span><em class="italics">does</em><span> win it. You, who are +older, know </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>. We teachers try not to influence +the opinion of the school in the choice of the +recipient of the Honor Medal.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"The winner must stand well in his classes, or +he cannot have the faculty vote. His deportment +must be good, or we teachers cannot vote for him. +But you boys yourselves must—after all—choose +the winner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There are fifty of you in Rockledge School. +You have each, individually, a better chance to +understand your neighbors' characters than +anybody else. You are quick to find out if there is +something </span><em class="italics">fine</em><span> in a lad's temper. You will soon +learn the one who restrains himself under +provocation, who bears insult, perhaps, with confidence +in his own uprightness; who keeps straight on +his way without turning aside because of any +temptation.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"</span><em class="italics">That</em><span> is the sort of a lad who will win this +Medal of Honor," concluded the Doctor, very +seriously. "Any boy—even the youngest—may +secure it. It does not have to go to the boy at the +top of his class, nor to the oldest boy in the school. +You little chaps stand just as good a chance for it +as Captain Gray," and he rested his hand upon +Barry Gray's shoulder for an instant as though +there was some secret understanding between him +and the captain of the school.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, I have talked enough. School will +begin in earnest on Monday. Remember, bounds +are as usual. You little fellows, see Barrymore, +or some of the masters, if you are not sure of a +thing. And remember that my office door is never +locked."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He went out quickly at the door behind the +platform. Somehow, the boys felt rather serious, +and there was no shouting or fooling as they filed +out and down the stairs to the open air.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! that was a handsome gold medal he +showed us," said Fred, with enthusiasm, to Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wasn't it?" returned his chum, with sparkling eyes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'd like to get that myself," admitted the +red-haired one.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Didn't I tell you, you'd have no chance at +</span><em class="italics">that</em><span>, Ginger?" chuckled Pee Wee's voice behind them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I see it," admitted Fred, without getting +angry. "But it would be fine to win it, just the +same."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>So Bobby thought. He remembered what his +mother had said to him on one occasion, and +wondered if it were possible for </span><em class="italics">him</em><span> to win the gold +medal and present it to her when she returned +from that far journey which she and his father +were soon to take.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"She certainly would be proud of me then," +thought Bobby Blake. "I guess she'd think after +</span><em class="italics">that</em><span>, it would be safe to leave me alone +anywhere—yes, sir! And I certainly would like to own +such a medal."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This set his mind to thinking upon the fact that +at daybreak the very next morning the ship on +which his parents had bought their stateroom +would sail from New York. They were already +on the train which would bear them to the coast.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>After they sailed it would be a long time before +he could even expect a picture post-card from +them—a month, at least. And </span><em class="italics">then</em><span>, they would +be thousands of miles away!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He slipped away from Fred and Pee Wee and +went into one of the schoolrooms. There was a +big globe there, and he timidly turned this around +and around until he found the pink splotch of +color which marked Brazil.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was the gaping mouth of the Amazon, +with the big island dividing it, and the river on +the south side, against which was the black dot +marking the city of Para—where his parents +would land.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He thought of all he had ever heard or been +taught about the Amazon—"that Mighty River." He +knew how the current of the vast stream met +the ocean tides and fought with them for supremacy. +He knew how the river overflowed its banks +in the rainy seasons and covered vast areas of +forest and plain.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The trader's station, to which his parents were +bound, was a thousand miles up the Amazon, and +then five hundred miles more up another river. +Why—why, if he fell ill, or anything—</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He never realized until this moment just what +it would mean to have his mother and father so +far away. It had been great fun to come to +Rockledge to school. He liked it here. He hoped he +would learn, and advance, and win his way with +both the boys and the teachers.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But to have a mother and father so many, many +miles away—especially to have a mother going +away from one just as fast as steam could take +her—</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby Blake put his arm on the big globe, and +laid his face against his jacket-sleeve. His +shoulders shook.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="getting-into-step"><span class="large">CHAPTER XV</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">GETTING INTO STEP</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>The routine of the school did not really +begin, as Dr. Raymond had said, until Monday +morning. Yet by that time Bobby Blake and Fred +Martin felt as though they were really old +members of the Rockledge Fifty.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They had learned many of the stock stories of +school—legends of great fights with the boys of +Belden School, or of mighty games at football or +baseball or some other sport, in which victory had +perched upon the banners of Rockledge.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The loyalty of boarding school boys is second +only to family feeling or patriotic love for one's +country. Bobby and Fred and the other boys of +Dormitory Two were just at that age when the +mind and heart are both most impressionable.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The new boys learned the school yell, or cheer, +which they had first heard given in eulogy of +Dr. Raymond. They thought it the finest yell they +had ever heard.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They were told about the Sword and Star, too. +It was indeed an honor to wear the little blue and +white button. One had to be at least one year at +Rockledge, to stand at a certain mark in +recitations, and to have a pretty clean record in +deportment, to gain entrance into the Order of the +Sword and Star.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was true that such chaps as Pee Wee, and the +Mouser, as well as Shiner and Howell Purdy, were +rather skeptical about the value of membership in +the school secret society. Dr. Raymond was a +member and that "looked bad" to those boys who +were out for fun. And "f-u-n" spelled—in their +minds—"mischief," and vice versa!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Those first few weeks of the new school year, +however, passed without any very wild outbreak +upon the part of either the merely mischievous, +like Pee Wee and his mates, or by the really +disturbing element (which was small) headed by +Billy Bronson and Jack Jinks.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Those two worthies had, after a time, joined +forces again; but they were not as good friends +and co-workers as they had been before the +poguey fight.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby and Fred really gave most of their +attention to studies. The school at Clinton had +been graded so differently from this preparatory +institution, that the chums had to work hard to +pick up in some studies, while they were well +advanced beyond their mates in others.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was inspired by Bobby's example to win +good marks for himself. Even the stern master, +Mr. Leith, who looked over the work of the smaller +boys fortnightly, commented favorably upon what +the chums had accomplished.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In play hours the Lower School kept together +for the most part. Here was where Fred +Martin's plans were proven smart. The baseball +outfit that he and Bobby had purchased with their +peep-show money was welcomed with great +approval by the boys of Number Two Dormitory.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby and Fred won their places on the Second +Nine at once. They played the First Dormitory +Nine on Saturday of the first week of school, and +won. Bobby's "fade-away," as Fred had prophesied, +puzzled the other nine's battery splendidly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The next Saturday the victorious nine played +against a team of town boys and again won. +Captain Gray then began to take notice of the +victorious nine. He coached them a little and then they +challenged a nine belonging to the Belden School +across the lake.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was after the first of October when this match +occurred, and the Rockledge boys went across in +their own boats. Although visiting a hostile +camp, the boys of Rockledge were very nicely +received by the older Belden boys. Naturally, the +home team had the crowd with them, but Bobby +held the enemy down to ten hits and only six runs, +and the Rockledge nine won by two runs.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Although their hosts remained polite to the +visitors, Bobby and Fred saw very plainly that the +rivalry between the two schools was deep-seated. +They heard Captain Gray and Max Bender talking +to some of the big fellows of Belden, and both +sides were boasting of what the rival football +teams would do to each other on Thanksgiving Day.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>On that day the Belden crowd would come over +to Rockledge, and from this time on, there was +little more baseball played by the Rockledge boys. +They were deeply interested in football.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In this game Bobby and Fred did not shine so +brightly, but they went into hard training with +the second junior team and under Captain Gray, +who coached the smaller boys as well as the first +team, learned a whole lot about football.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Meanwhile, not a word had come to Bobby from +his parents after they had sailed from New York. +He heard from Clinton every week, for Michael +Mulcahey painfully indited a scrawly letter to +him, enclosing sometimes a note from Meena. +Michael, having crossed from Ireland in a sailing +ship years before, was considered by Bobby a +marvel of sea-lore. One time he wrote:</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>"DERE BOBBY:—</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>"It ain't nawthin alarmin that we don't here +yet from Mistur Blake an his good lady an so I +tell Meena whos got the face ache most of the time +now and is just as good compny as a mad cat. +She's rayfused to marry me agin, an I do be +thinkin thats struck in an worries her face a lot. +Howsomever 'tis about your feyther and mother +Id write to cheer you up a bit. I well remember +the long passage we made from the Ould Sod when +I kem to this counthry. Twas head winds we had, +an its like head winds that has held the big ship +back thats takin Mistur Blake an his good lady to +these Brazils. An tis a mortal far ways they do +be goin. Mistur Martin says the offices in New +York hav had no wareless telegraf despatches +(what iver they be) from the ship since she was +off Hattie Ross—an whoever she is I dunnaw. +But if she's like most females, she's cranky, an +that accounts for the delay.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Be good an ye'll be happy, aven if ye don't +have so much fun, from your friend and well +wisher, rayspectfully,</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> +</div> +<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>"MICHAEL MULCAHEY."</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>This letter—and similar epistles—cheered +Bobby some, and Mr. Martin wrote him a jolly +little note, enclosed in a longer letter to Fred. +But Bobby could not help feeling worried +about the silence of his parents, especially at +night.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>When he knelt to say his prayers (and most of +the other boys in Dormitory Two did likewise), +he remembered what his mother had said about +her praying for him at the same time every +evening, and sometimes he had to squeeze his eyes +shut tight to keep back the tears.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>That the time on board the great steamship +going south to the Tropics, and the time in New +England was vastly different, did not enter +Bobby's mind. It just seemed to him as though +his mother was very near him indeed as he knelt +before his chair.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>For a sturdy, busy boy, however, there was not +much time for worriment. Every day there was +something new; one could not be lonesome at +Rockledge.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys went from their beds to breakfast, +from their meals to work in the schoolroom, from +their lessons to play—a continual round of activities.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The athletic instruction interested the chums +from Clinton immensely, and until the real cool +weather set in, the boys of the school enjoyed +swimming in the lake every day.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Dr. Raymond hoped that, before long, he would +be able to build a gymnasium with a swimming +pool in a special building by itself. This was +something to look forward to, however.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>All aquatic sports did not stop when the frost +came. There were plenty of boats belonging to +the school—from light, flat-bottomed skiffs which +the little fellows could not possibly tip over, to a +fine eight-oared shell manned by the bigger boys. +In this they raced the Belden School every June +before Commencement.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Wednesday and Saturday afternoons were holidays, +but without special permission the boys of +the Lower School could not go out of bounds. On +Saturdays the bigger boys went to town if they +so desired, or took long tramps through the woods, +or rowed to the upper end of the lake.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>If the smaller fellows wanted to go out of +bounds, usually a teacher went with them. There +was a picnic of the Lower School on one of the +islands in the lake, however, that Bobby and Fred +were not likely to forget for a long time.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee and Mouser got it up. They first got +permission to take a cold dinner on Saturday and +row to the island. There was a farmer whose +land joined the school property on the east. +From him they obtained several dozen ears of late +greencorn—nubbins, but sweet as sugar—and +some new potatoes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They were excused from lessons that day at +eleven—all but Pee Wee himself. He had been +lazy, as usual, and was behind in his work. It +looked, for a time, as though the picnic had to be +delayed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But urged on by the others, Bobby faced Mr. Carrin, +who had Pee Wee's class in history, and +begged the fat boy off.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"</span><em class="italics">Do</em><span> let him do the extra work to-night, sir, +after supper," begged Bobby. "We were going +to have such a nice time, and Pee—I mean +Perry—got the picnic up, and—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It is a pity that Perry cannot spend a little of +his mind and effort on his lessons," said Mr. Carrin, +with a smile.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, sir. I know, sir," said Bobby, eagerly, +"but he doesn't seem to be able to think of two +things at once."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I guess that is right," chuckled Mr. Carrin, +who was a much more pleasant gentleman than +Mr. Leith. "Tell him he may go, but I shall +expect a perfect recitation on Monday morning, first +thing."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh!" growled Pee Wee, who had overheard +some of this. "I'm glad enough to get off, Bobby +Blake. But you needn't have told him I was +weak-minded."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby grinned at him. "What do you care if +you </span><em class="italics">are</em><span> a little bit crazy? And I didn't tell him +anything new. He was on to it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The crowd rowed off in three boats. There +were seventeen of them. They went to the upper +island, which was the biggest, in an hour and a +half, and as soon as they landed they set to work +to build a fire and make the picnic dinner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Of course, they were too hungry to wait until +the potatoes were baked, but as soon as the light +wood had burned down to ashes and coals, they +thrust the potatoes under the bed of the fire to +bake slowly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Meanwhile they ate the sandwiches and cake +they had brought from school, and each boy cut +a stick, on the end of which he stuck an ear of +corn. These ears they roasted in the flames.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Of course, they were scorched a little, but they +had butter and pepper and salt with which to +dress the corn and it </span><em class="italics">did</em><span> taste mighty nice!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And there's pretty near a bushel of the potatoes," +said Fred, happily. "After the fire dies +down again, we can rake them out and eat them. +There's a big dab of butter left and plenty of salt +and pepper. Crickey! I could eat a peck of them +myself."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We ought to have brought more potatoes and +corn along," suggested Pee Wee, licking his +fingers, "and hidden the stuff here somewhere. +Then we could come another day and have a bake +like this."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! the corn wouldn't be much good," Bobby said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" yelled Fred, suddenly. "I +have it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Gee! you must have it bad," responded +Mouser. "What kind of a battlecry </span><em class="italics">is</em><span> that?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say!" went on Fred, without paying the least +attention to Mouser's question, "I've got the +dandy idea."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let's have it?" proposed Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let's build a shack, or a cabin, or something, +up there in the thick trees. Nobody would ever +see it from the lake. Then we can bring things +over to furnish it—on the sly, you know—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why on the sly?" demanded his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—well—if the other fellows knew it, they'd +come and bust it up, wouldn't they?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Not our fellows," declared Shiner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But you bet the kids from Belden would," +urged Pee Wee.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We could keep still about it, I s'pose," admitted Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, then!" returned Fred. "Now, we'd fit +it up, and store stuff in it for winter—nuts, and +popcorn, and 'taters, and turnips—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You can't bake turnips," objected Howell Purdy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well! they're good raw, aren't they?" demanded +the eager Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It's a great old scheme," declared Jimmy +Ailshine, otherwise "Shiner." "Let's get at it at +once. Skeets Brody has his ax. Come on!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And the excited boys trooped away from the +beach and left the potatoes under the coals of the +campfire to finish cooking.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="hot-potatoes"><span class="large">CHAPTER XVI</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">HOT POTATOES</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Bobby and Fred had already become leaders +to a degree, with the boys of their own age at +Rockledge School. This suggestion of the +red-haired one about building a hut was accepted with +enthusiasm by the fifteen others in the present +crowd.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They trooped up into the thick grove that +crowned the summit of the rocky island. Bobby +and Fred had been on many camping expeditions +at home, along the banks of Plunkit Creek. They +wasted no time in discussing </span><em class="italics">how</em><span> they should build +a shelter with the materials at hand.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Leave it to us, and we'll go ahead and show +you how to make a nice shack," promised Bobby, +when the others began to gabble as to how it +should be done.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Good idea!" cried Pee Wee. "Let's elect +Bobby Blake, captain.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And Fred Martin, lieutenant," said Shiner. +"They both know what to do and we don't."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This was agreed to without a word of objection +from any of the fifteen. Bobby took charge at once.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Here are four trees," he announced, pointing +to four that stood almost in a square, some twelve +feet apart, and with nothing but saplings in the +square made by them. "These will be our posts. +First we want to clean out all the small trees and +brush inside these big trees, and for some feet +around the outside—so we can work."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wish we had more axes," said Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We all have knives. Those with knives can +cut off the smaller brush. Skeets is really our +only woodsman. Come on, Skeets, and let's find +four good trees for the cross-timbers."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They were all soon very busy. Bobby did little +but show the others what to do and make measurements +with a piece of fishline. Fred gave his +attention to cutting spruce boughs for walls and roof.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Skeets cut the four trees needed, they were +measured and notched at the ends and then lifted +into place—each end in a crotch of the low +branching trees Bobby had selected for the corner +posts of the hut.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The roof would not be exactly flat, for one +crotch was somewhat higher than the others, but +the four timbers lay firm, being lashed together +with black-birch withes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Soon the other boys began to bring the spruce +boughs; but first Bobby laid several good sized +saplings across the string-pieces, to strengthen +the roof.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They worked so hard and with such enthusiasm +that they really forgot the potatoes under the +bonfire. In two hours a heavy roofing of boughs lay +upon the poles, and the boys could all stand up +under it and be sheltered.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Suddenly Fred exclaimed: "Crickey! Let's +see if those potatoes are done. I'm as hungry as +a hound right now."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This set them all on a run. It does not take +much to put an edge on a boy's appetite. Just +the suggestion of the potatoes was enough.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"First at the fire!" yelled Howell Purdy, as he +hurried down through the grove, and over the +rocks.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Bet you I make it first!" declared Shiner, +vigorously following the leader.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was a stampede. With whoops and shouts +the seventeen scrambled down the descent to the +shore.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Suddenly they halted. Shiner and Howell, who +had been wrestling to put each other behind, +looked, too. There was a crowd of boys around +their campfire on the shore.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Who are they?" demanded Bobby, in amazement.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! they're raking out our potatoes!" gasped +Fred Martin.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They're Beldenites!" declared Pee Wee, panting, +and on the high ground behind. "There's +their boats. And there's half as many more of +them as there are of </span><em class="italics">us</em><span>."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I don't care if they're two to one!" cried Fred +in anger. "Those are our potatoes."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Suppose they beat us and take away our +boats?" demanded Howell Purdy, falling back. +"You know—those Belden fellows can fight."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well! can't </span><em class="italics">we</em><span>?" demanded Fred Martin, +panting and doubling his fists. "What are +we—babies?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We won't fight—yet," put in Bobby, calmly. +"Perhaps they don't realize that that is our fire +and our potatoes."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What'll we do?" asked Pee Wee, by no means +anxious to advance.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come on," said Bobby; feeling dreadfully +shaken inside, but too proud to show it. "Let's +talk to them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Better get some clubs and </span><em class="italics">go</em><span> for them," +growled Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. They haven't clubs," declared Bobby. +"Let's not start any fight."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He and Shiner and Mouser proceeded along the +beach. They saw the Belden fellows scrambling +for the hot potatoes, and shouting and skylarking.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's Larry Cronk—that fellow with the +curly hair. Don't you remember, Bobby? He +pitched for their club when we went over to beat +them that day."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I remember. And that's their first baseman—Ben +Allen." Then Bobby raised his voice so +the Belden crowd could hear him: "I say! that's +our fire and those are our potatoes. We were +just coming down to get them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Is that so?" sneered Larry Cronk, standing +up and laughing at the Rockledge boys. "Well, +you came too late—do you see?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll throw a rock at him!" growled the +belligerent Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Keep still!" commanded Bobby. Then to the +Beldenites he said: "That's not fair—or honest. +Those are our potatoes—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Larry swung back his arm, and poised one of +the potatoes. The next moment he flung it with +all his force at Bobby. The latter just escaped it +by dodging.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Mean thing!" yelled Fred, and he picked up a +stone on the instant (there were plenty of pebbles +on the beach) and flung it at the Belden's captain.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's right! let's drive them off!" cried Pee +Wee, from the rear.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred's stone was flung true and Larry Cronk +received it in the shoulder. He yelled and +dodged, and at once the Belden boys let go a +flight of </span><em class="italics">hot potatoes</em><span>!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The potatoes burst wherever they struck—and +not a few of them landed upon the boys who had +hoped to feast upon the tubers. This was adding +insult to injury, and the Rockledge boys were +greatly enraged.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They're spoiling all our 'taters!" cried Pee +Wee—almost wailing, in fact. "There! there's +another busted."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He had turned just in time to get the potato in +the back instead of in the chest. Mouser and +Howell were jumping about and rubbing their +cheeks. The hot potatoes burned as well as stung, +and although they were mealy enough to fly all +about when they burst—like miniature bombs—when +flung by a vigorous arm, they hurt more than +a little.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Rockledge crowd broke before the flight of +hot potatoes, and seemed about to run back to +the woods. But Bobby and Fred could not stand </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hold on, fellows!" yelled Fred. "We can +lick those chaps—I know we can! Get some +stones! They can't hurt more than hot potatoes."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby did not delay in joining in the return +fusillade of stones. Some of the pebbles landed +heavily. Although outnumbering the Rockledge +boys by considerable, the Belden crowd began to +retreat toward its boats.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come on! push them!" yelled Fred, running ahead.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The others, thus encouraged, ran after him. +They reached their own boats and felt safe, then. +The Beldens could not get their craft away from +them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>At the fire there were a lot of the potatoes +scattered about and trampled into the sand. Pee Wee +began yelling:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Use the stones! use the stones! Don't fling +those potatoes—we want them!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This brought about some laughter, and the +Rockledge boys did not throw their missiles so +viciously thereafter. The Beldens had gotten +enough, anyway. Two of them were nursing bad +bruises on their heads, and were crying. Bobby +was glad the battle was so soon over, for he was +afraid somebody would be seriously hurt.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Belden youngsters scrambled into their +boats and pushed off from the island, while the +Rockledge boys collected all the potatoes they +could find, that had not burst, and enjoyed their +delayed feast with the sauce of having won it by +force of arms.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They did not finish the hut on the island that +day, but agreed to come back to complete it the +next half holiday—if they could gain permission.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="lost-at-sea"><span class="large">CHAPTER XVII</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">LOST AT SEA</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>And then there came an unhappy time indeed +for Bobby Blake. In the back of his mind, for +weeks, had been the uncertainty about his father +and mother. Now that uncertainty suddenly +developed into a great and lingering horror—a +horror from which not even the elasticity of youth +could easily rebound.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>One morning Dr. Raymond sent a note into +Mr. Carrin's school. Had not Bobby been so busy at +his work, he would have seen the pale faced teacher +grow still more pallid, and look at him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Carrin arose and walked up and down the +room. The boys soon discovered that he was not +watching them. Occasionally he stole a glance at +Bobby, but he noticed no other boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then, without saying another word, he went +out, and in a minute came back with Barry Gray. +Barry looked startled himself, and very serious. +He stood in the doorway and said:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Blake! Doctor Raymond wants you in his +office. You are to come with me."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby got up quickly, and with a suddenly +beating heart. He believed he must have done +something to bring down upon his head the wrath of +the good Doctor. He could not imagine what it +was, but he was frightened.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>You see, Bobby had gotten it into his head that +possibly he </span><em class="italics">might</em><span> have a chance at the Medal of +Honor. He was trying to be an exemplary +scholar for that reason—and because he knew it +would delight his absent father and mother, if he +gained such an honor.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Now, this sudden and unexpected call shocked +him. Fred grabbed his hand secretly as he passed +his seat and squeezed it. Bobby knew that his +chum, thoughtless as Fred usually was, appreciated +his present feelings.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>When he reached the door, his own face was +aflame. He knew all the boys of the Lower School +were looking at him. Mr. Carrin, too, seemed to +be staring at Bobby in a strange way.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry put his arm across the smaller boy's +shoulder just as soon as the classroom door +closed behind them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Buck up, old man!" he said, with a funny +choke in his voice. "Things are never so hard as +they seem at first. And there's such a lot of +uncertainty about such reports—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What reports, sir?" asked Bobby, breathlessly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Didn't Carrin tell you a </span><em class="italics">thing</em><span>?" gasped +Barry, stopping short.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No! What have I done? What's Doctor +Raymond going to do with me?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why, you poor little kid!" ejaculated the big +boy, grabbing Bobby tightly again. "You +mustn't be afraid of the Old Doc. He wouldn't +hurt a fly. And you're not in bad with him—don't +think it!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But what is the matter, then?" demanded Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It's your folks, Bob," blurted out Barry. +"There's uncertain news about them—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They're not sick—not </span><em class="italics">dead</em><span>?" cried Bobby, +shaking all over.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, no! Of course not," returned Barry, +heartily. "Nothing as bad as that."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What is it, then?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why, it's only a shipwreck, or something like +that. Of course they've been rescued; folks +always are, you know. And they'll have lots of +adventures to write you about."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby was speechless. His pretty, delicate +mother </span><em class="italics">shipwrecked</em><span>! Of course, his father would +save her, but she might get wet and catch cold; +that was the first thought that took form in his +mind.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"News has come about the big ship they sailed +away on," Barry Gray went on, cheerfully. +"Another ship has found part of the deckworks +of your father's steamship, all scorched and +burned. There must have been a fire at sea."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, don't you s'pose they could put the fire +out with so much water around?" asked Bobby, +seriously.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's right!" exclaimed Barry. "But perhaps +the machinery was hurt, so the ship couldn't +be made to go. There wasn't any sails to her, of +course."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I see," said Bobby, gravely, nodding.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"So they had to take to the boats. You know +how it is: Women and children first! The +sailors are always so brave. And the officers stand +by to the last—and if the ship sinks, the captain +always goes down with her, standing on the +quarter deck, with the flags flying. You've read about +it, Bobby!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure!" choked Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Of course there are always boats enough for +the passengers—and life-rafts. And they float +about for a while and are either picked up by +other ships, or the natives row out in their canoes +and save them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes!" gasped Bobby, letting out the great fear +at his heart. "But—but suppose she should get +cold? You know she has a weak throat. The +doctor always tells her to look out for +bron—bron-</span><em class="italics">skeeters</em><span>, or somethin' like that."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"</span><em class="italics">Who</em><span> has bronchitis?" demanded Barry, rather +puzzled.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"My mother."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! don't you know it's a warm climate down +there? Sure! It's in the Tropics. No chance of +catching cold—not at all."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh!" murmured Bobby, and he felt somewhat +relieved.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And they've been picked up by some ship +bound around the world, maybe—that is why you +haven't heard from them. You won't hear till +they touch at some port clear across the world, +from which they can send mail.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Or perhaps," said the comforting captain, +"they have gone to some tropic island, where +boats don't often touch. And the sailors will +build shelters for the passengers against the +coming of the rainy season, and then a boat-load of +volunteers will hike out looking for a civilized +port, and it will be months and months before +help comes to the island.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Meanwhile," said the imaginative youngster, +his eyes glowing and his cheek flushed, "your +mother and the other ladies will get well and +strong, and all brown like Indians. And the men +will have to dress in goat-skins, for their clothes +will wear out, and they'll learn to make fire by +rubbing two sticks together, and they'll have fights +with jaguars—But no!" exclaimed the big boy, +suddenly; "of course, there will be no harmful +creatures on an </span><em class="italics">island</em><span>.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! I guess they're having fun all right. +Don't you worry, Bobby."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They halted at the doctor's door, and Barry +rapped. The voice of the big principal told them +to "Enter!" and the bigger boy pushed open the +door.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Here he is, sir," said Barry, winking fast over +the head of the smaller boy at Dr. Raymond. +"I have just been telling him what a jolly good +time his folks are likely having right now. It +must be </span><em class="italics">so</em><span> interesting to be shipwrecked."</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="the-bloody-corner"><span class="large">CHAPTER XVIII</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">THE BLOODY CORNER</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>The news went over the school at noon, of +course, and most of the smaller boys eyed Bobby +Blake askance. The boy himself seemed walking +in a kind of cloud; his mind was stunned, and +it was lucky that Dr. Raymond had said to him, +kindly:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You are excused from recitations to-day, Robert."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The good doctor had spoken to him quite +cheerfully of the probable loss of the steamship on +which Mr. and Mrs. Blake had sailed from New +York. The principal seemed to have taken his +cue from Barrymore Gray.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>To tell the truth, what Barry had said cheered +Bobby more than anything else. Even Fred +Martin was a trifle depressing. Fred wanted to +give him his share in the bats and mask and other +baseball paraphernalia, and turn over to him, in +fact, most of his personal property, likely to be +dear to a boy's heart.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This was the red-haired boy's way of showing +sympathy. But it did not help much.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The roseate picture Barry had drawn of the +shipwreck stuck in Bobby's mind. He was very +glad his mother could not take cold down there, +even if she got her feet wet.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>For several days the other boys were very +gentle with Bobby. It did not make Bobby feel +very comfortable, but he knew they meant it +kindly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Soon, however, their awkwardness wore off, and +they were as rough and friendly as ever, and he +liked it better. Deep in his heart he kept +thinking all the time of his parents, and the +possibilities arising out of the wreck of the steamship. +Outwardly he was much the same as ever.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Only one thing Bobby Blake desired now more +than before. He longed—oh! how he </span><em class="italics">did</em><span> +long—to win the Medal of Honor. If his parents were +shipwrecked, and there was any suffering for +them in it, it seemed to Bobby that if he won the +Honor Medal at Rockledge School, that fact would +alleviate their misery, wherever they were!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Yet there was nothing of the mollycoddle about +Bobby. Fun appealed to him just as strongly as +it ever did to any ten year old boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There were certain set rules of Rockledge +School that he would not break and that he kept +Fred from breaking.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There's no fun in getting caught and held up +to the whole school as dishonorable," he told +Fred. "We're expected to keep in bounds. We +know the bounds well enough. And if we want to +go out of them, we have only to ask, and give a +good reason, to get permission to go farther."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, they treat us as if we were a lot of +babies," growled Fred Martin.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They do nothing of the kind," Bobby replied. +"Doctor Raymond treats us as though we were +gentlemen. He trusts to our </span><em class="italics">honor</em><span>. I wouldn't +disappoint him for a farm!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We-ell!" sighed Fred. "I suppose you're +right, Bobby. I—I almost wish he didn't treat +us just this way. There'd be some fun in busting +up the old rules!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And that was where Dr. Raymond showed his +wisdom. He knew how to manage boys with the +least amount of friction.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Weeks passed, full of work and play, and no +further news came of the lost steamship on which +Mr. and Mrs. Blake had sailed for Brazil. The +wreckage had been sighted off the Orinoco, and +the name of the steamship was plain upon the +wreck. But it might have drifted a long way after +the catastrophe. Just </span><em class="italics">where</em><span> the ship had been +burned, nobody could guess.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>No boat from her, no word from her captain or +crew, came to the owners in New York. She had +been a freight boat, carrying on that trip scarcely +a score of passengers.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Much of this Bobby did not hear, or understand. +He clung like a limpet to the imaginative idea of +a shipwreck that Barrymore Gray had drawn for +him. And it was well that this was so.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Thanksgiving came and went. The Belden +school came over in the forenoon to Rockledge +and its football team was nicely thrashed by the +Rockledge eleven. The Lower School went +almost mad with delight; and Fred Martin and +Larry Cronk, the Belden boy, came almost to +blows on the campus.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Neither of the Lower Schools had forgotten the +hot potato fight on the island. Ere this, Bobby +and his friends had completed their camp and had +begun to furnish it, but they hoped the youngsters +from Belden would learn nothing about the hideout.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>One thing pleased Bobby and Fred immensely +at Thanksgiving. A big box came to them from +Clinton. In it were all sorts of good things made +by Meena and Mrs. Martin, fall apples and pears +picked by Michael Mulcahey, candy from Mr. Martin's +store, and gifts from Fred's sisters and +smaller brothers.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Second Dormitory had a great feast after +hours one night, of which even Captain Gray +knew nothing. Bill Bronson and Jack Jinks got +onto it, and the small boys had to bribe the two +bullies with some of the choicest of their stores. +Nevertheless, the midnight feast went off very +smoothly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There were a few more cases for the medical +attendant to see to at Rockledge School after +Thanksgiving than usual. The midnight feast +coming so soon after the big Thanksgiving dinner, +played havoc in the ranks of the smaller boys.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee had what Bobby declared to be "internal, +or civil war," and went to the hospital in +Dr. Raymond's house for three days. He came +out wan and interesting looking, declaring that he +had lost pounds of flesh! But he proceeded to get +his avoirdupois back again very promptly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was a full week before the school was back +on its usual working basis—and the midwinter +holidays only a month away. The teachers +spurred the lazy scholars, and helped the dull +ones, and out of this pushing in classes arose the +trouble that became a very serious affair indeed +for both Fred Martin and Bobby Blake.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was not always bright in arithmetic. One +morning he made a ridiculous blunder, and the +whole class laughed at him. Mr. Carrin reprimanded +Fred for his inattention, and as they filed +out for recreation before dinner, Sparrow +Bangs—named so because he had a whole cage-full of +tame sparrows down at the gatekeeper's +cottage—made fun of the red-haired boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred had been angered by the teacher's +sharpness. Now he turned on Sparrow in a terrible +passion.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's that you say? I'll give you a punch +you'll remember."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, no you won't!" returned Sparrow. +"And I'll say it again, Ginger! You've no time +to play catch—you'll have to study the +multiplication table, like Mr. Carrin said."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred rushed at the teasing lad, but Pee Wee and +Howell Purdy came between them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Cheese it!" said the fat boy. "You two +fellows want to get into trouble? Right under the +schoolroom windows, too!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, he's got to stop nagging me," cried +Fred, very red, and puffing very hard.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Who are you, Ginger, that I should be so +awfully careful of?" sneered Sparrow. "You're +not so much!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll show you—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Stop it! stop it, Fred!" advised Bobby, +catching his chum by the arm. "Come on, I want to +throw you a few fast ones. We mustn't get out +of practice, even if we </span><em class="italics">can't</em><span> play a regular game +until next spring."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There he goes!" cried Sparrow. "His boss +takes him away. Great lad, that Ginger is. +Afraid to say his soul's his own. Bobby Blake +just bosses him around—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was all over, then! Fred flung off Bobby's +hand and rushed at his tormentor. Smack! his +fist shot into Sparrow's face.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Half a dozen of the boys then got between the +antagonists.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You want to get us all into trouble?" growled +Mouser, one of those who held Fred Martin. +"Cut it out. If you've got to fight, there's the +'bloody corner.' Do it right."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The chums had heard of "the bloody corner," +but since their appearance at Rockledge School +there had been no real pugilistic encounter +between any of their mates.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Down in the far corner of the grounds—oh! a +long way from the buildings—behind a tall hedge +of hemlock, there had once been a toolshed. It +had been removed and the corner was just a heap +of soft sand. No matter how hard the frost was, +this sand did not freeze.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And here, from time immemorial, had been +arranged the school fights. Whether the good +Doctor was aware that in this arena was fought out +such feuds as could not be otherwise settled, +nobody knew. Usually the fights were arranged by +the older fellows, and the captain of the school +was supposed to be present and see fair play.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It spoke well for Barrymore Gray that thus far +under his régime, not a fight had occurred in +"bloody corner."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The belligerents—Fred and Sparrow—were +separated for the time, but as Bobby and his friend +started to run to dinner when the big gong rang, +Shiner stopped them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hey, Ginger," said he. "Are you game to +fight Sparrow?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'm going to fight him," declared the red-haired +boy, showing his teeth. "He can't get out of it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! he's not trying to," said Shiner. "In +fact, he told me to put it up to you. He wants to +knock your head off."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He'll have a fine time trying it," declared +Fred, hotly. "I'll show him—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, drop it!" begged Bobby. "You don't +want to fight Sparrow—and he doesn't want to +fight you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Better keep out of this, Bobby Blake," +advised Shiner, importantly. "Sparrow says +Fred's afraid, anyway—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll show him!" cried the maddened red-haired boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Bluffing's all right," sneered Shiner. "But +will you </span><em class="italics">fight</em><span>?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Give me a chance!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw-right. We'll put it up to the captain and +you and Sparrow can get together down in the +corner."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"With gloves? and have Barry Gray boss it? +No, I won't," declared the pugnacious Fred. +"Sparrow's trying to get out of it. I'll box him +in the gym. But if he's got the pluck of a flea, +he'll come down to the corner with his bare +fists—and you and Bobby here are enough to see fair +play."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Whew!" whistled Shiner, his eyes dancing. +"Do you mean it?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You'll find out that I do," threatened Fred, +wagging his head.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You sha'n't fight that way, Fred!" cried +Bobby. "The School won't stand for it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You mean that bully, Barry Gray, won't stand +for it. He always wants to boss."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You game to see them through, Bobby?" demanded +Shiner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If you don't want to come with me, I'll get +Pee Wee," growled Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No," said Bobby, in great trouble. "If you +mean to fight Sparrow, of course I'm going to +stand by you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And keep your mouth shut about it?" snapped +Shiner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Bobby's no snitch," exclaimed Fred, hotly. +"If we're caught, it won't be because either +Bobby or I tell."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Nuff said," declared Shiner, shortly. "I'll +see Sparrow again and put it up to him. We'll +find a time when nobody else will be around. Be +ready," and Shiner went off whistling, evidently +feeling his importance in the matter.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby felt pretty badly. He did not want to see +Fred fight at all. And he certainly did not want +him to meet Sparrow Bangs in this way. A sparring +match was one thing, but a fist fight, deliberately +arranged, and held in secret, was an entirely +different matter.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You can't do it!" he said to Fred, greatly +disturbed. "Dr. Raymond might send you home."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I don't care if I'm sent home twice!" +exclaimed the hotheaded Fred. "I am going to +thrash that fellow, or he'll thrash </span><em class="italics">me</em><span>."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby wanted to shake Fred—he could have hit +his chum himself! And yet—he couldn't desert +him. They had come here to this school, +strangers. They had agreed to stand by each other, +through thick and thin—of course without a word +being said about it! Boys do not talk about their +friendships like girls.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>If Fred were wrong, Bobby could be angry with +him, but he could not desert him. If his chum +intended to fight Sparrow Bangs in this +disgraceful way, Bobby would "second" him—of course +he would!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>If Dr. Raymond should hear of it and suspend +them both from school, it could not be helped. He +knew very well that he was running a risk of +losing all chance for the Medal of Honor; yet he +would stick to his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He was unhappy that night—very, very +unhappy. Fred and he said little when they were +alone. Shiner came to him and whispered, at +bedtime, that there would be a chance to "pull +off" the fight the next noontime after dinner. +They could cut the mid-day study hour to do it, +without being caught.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Beyond his determination to stand by Fred, +right or wrong, Bobby wanted his chum—as long +as he </span><em class="italics">would</em><span> fight—to win! He advised him in the +morning:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, Fred, eat a good breakfast—a </span><em class="italics">big</em><span> breakfast. +But you're going to go light on dinner."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I know," grunted the red-haired one.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't drink much water at dinner time, +either. If you think you'll be tempted too much, +keep out of the dining-room."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No," growled Fred. "They'll think I'm afraid."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right. But eat lightly," urged Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>For once something was going on in the Lower +School that the whole crowd of boys was not "on +to." Shiner and Sparrow had been as mum as +Fred and Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The two combatants did not even scowl at each +other; they kept apart. They did not want any +of the other boys to suspect.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Howell Purdy asked Bobby if "Ginger wasn't +going to knock Sparrow's head off?" and Bobby +dodged the question adroitly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It seemed to Bobby as though that forenoon +would never come to an end. At half past eleven +the Lower School was let out. Bobby took Fred +into the gymnasium and they put on the gloves +together for a little practice.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>With the experience they had had before, and +the instruction of the Rockledge athletic teacher, +for boys of their size, Bobby and Fred were quite +proficient in the so-called manly art.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Sparring, as a game like baseball or tennis, is +splendid exercise and good training for mind and +temper. It may, or may not, lead to fisticuffs +among boys. Certainly boys who spar together +in a gymnasium are much less likely to have rude +fights as the outgrowth of sudden temper. They +respect each other's prowess too much.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was careful at dinner. As soon as they +could, he and Bobby slipped out, and made their +way to the distant corner, and by a roundabout +way so that they could not be seen. Five minutes +later Sparrow and Jimmy Ailshine appeared.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="the-result"><span class="large">CHAPTER XIX</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">THE RESULT</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Just who would have won in that battle +between Fred Martin and Sparrow Bangs remains +one of the unsolved mysteries of Rockledge School.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was never finished. The quartette of boys +had made one mistake. They should have taken a +fifth youngster into their confidence and set him +on watch.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Leith, the head master under Dr. Raymond, +always took a constitutional around the grounds +after the midday meal. Not often did he cross +the campus, for he was not a man given to spying +upon his young charges.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But this day the campus seemed to be deserted. +It was a cold day, and most of the boys had +remained indoors to take advantage of the hour of +study before afternoon lessons.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He came down the railing that defended the +cliff's edge, and he heard, as he approached the +notorious "bloody corner," boyish voices.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's it, Sparrow! Hit him again!" +shrieked one voice.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let him hit me—I'll give him as good as he +sends!" spoke up another voice.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was the instant sound of blows interchanged. +The teacher could not doubt what was going on.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Boys! boys! how dare you fight?" he +demanded, and strode toward the hedge of hemlock +trees, his coattails flapping behind him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fight had not continued long. Both boys +had removed their coats and vests and caps. +They were hard at it indeed when Mr. Leith's +voice smote upon their ears.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Cheese it!" gasped Shiner. "Leith's onto us!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>With the fear of being apprehended in all their +minds, the four boys sprang for the underbrush, +on the other side of the corner. They knew which +way the teacher was coming.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The two belligerents had picked up their +discarded clothing, but as they got under cover Fred +gasped:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>! I've dropped my cap."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Keep on!" exclaimed Bobby. "I'll get it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He was so earnest to shield his chum from the +result of his wrong doing, that he forgot his own +danger. If Fred's cap were found, Mr. Leith +would know it, and Fred would be called upon to +explain.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby darted back while the other boys scudded +through the bushes. He saw the cap on the +ground just inside the open space. He sprawled +all over it, grabbed it up, and then was stricken +motionless and dumb by the voice of the master +who stepped into view:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Robert! What does this mean?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby shook all over, but he stuffed the cap into +the breast of his jacket.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Robert, stand up!" commanded the teacher.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby did so. He looked timidly across at the +gentleman. Certainly Mr. Leith was a very stern +looking man!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come here, Robert," said Mr. Leith.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby crossed the sandlot at a slow crawl. Mr. Leith +cleared his throat, removing his eyeglasses +to wipe them. On the instant, as the boy reached +the fence, he flung Fred's cap through the rails +and out over the edge of the cliff. It disappeared +like a shot.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What was that, sir?" demanded Mr. Leith, +putting on the eyeglasses and looking at Bobby +again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boy hesitated. The gentleman repeated:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What was it? I saw you throw something away."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It—it was a cap," said Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"A cap? Not your own cap?" exclaimed the +teacher, in surprise. "You have your own cap on."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, sir. Not my own cap," admitted Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Whose cap was it, then?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby was silent. He looked up at Mr. Leith +pleadingly. That gentleman knew well enough +what was in the boy's mind. He, too, understood +boys pretty well, but he did not believe in +handling them just as the old Doctor did.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Do you hear me, young man?" he asked, +harshly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, sir."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why do you not answer me?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby wanted to cry out and plead with him. +Mr. Leith had no </span><em class="italics">right</em><span> to ask such a question! +That is the way the boy looked at it. The teacher +was tempting him to do the meanest thing in a +boy's catalog of sins.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He was asking Bobby to </span><em class="italics">snitch</em><span>!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I—I can't tell you, sir," stammered the boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You mean you are determined not to tell me?" +repeated Mr. Leith.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby was silent, but still looked straight into +his face. No frown could make Bobby Blake drop +his eyes in shame.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Two boys were fighting here just now," said +the teacher, slowly and sternly. "Isn't that so?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, sir," said Bobby, quietly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Barrymore Gray was not here?" asked the +other, sharply.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, no, sir. Barry knew nothing about it, +sir," cried Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ah! Indeed? Then this fight was a strictly +private affair?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby looked miserable, but said nothing.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"How many boys were here?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby wagged his head negatively. "I—I can't +tell you, sir."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Nor the names of the boys who fought?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, sir."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You know who they are?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, yes, sir."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And you refuse to tell me?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I—I can't tell!" gasped Bobby, both hands +clutched tightly upon the breast of his jacket. It +seemed to him as though the teacher must see the +pounding of his heart.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Robert," said Mr. Leith, "I do not like such +actions as this. I will not allow a boy to refuse +me answers to perfectly proper questions. Go to +your class-room. You must not go to the +gymnasium, nor out of doors at all, until I bid you. +When you are not in classes, remain in your dormitory.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I am disappointed in you, Robert. You have +shown yourself to be a studious boy heretofore +and not a ruffian."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, sir—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Silence! You may not have been one of the +boys fighting; but you were aiding and abetting +a ruffianly encounter between two of your +schoolmates. It cannot be overlooked.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I had hopes of you, Robert. We all had. +Dr. Raymond himself had commended your course +since you came to Rockledge. But no boy who +wishes to stand in the honor class can break the +rules of the school and then refuse to stand the +full punishment for his act."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, Mr. Leith!" cried Bobby, brokenly. "I +am not trying to get out of anything. Truly I'm +not! Punish me all you want to, sir, but </span><em class="italics">don't</em><span> +ask me to tell on the other boys. I can't do that."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We shall see, Robert," said the teacher, +grimly. "Return to your class-room."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Now began a very terrible time for Bobby +Blake—or so it seemed to the heartsick boy. He +held a secret that he could not speak of, and his +refusal to reveal it broke down his chances of +gaining that Honor Medal on which he had set his +hopes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Of course, it never entered his mind for a +moment that he </span><em class="italics">could</em><span> tell—even though the other +boys did not realize what he had been through with +Mr. Leith, and what his punishment was.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred and Sparrow, made friends by the emergency, +with Jimmy Ailshine, waited for Bobby in a +secure hiding place known to all four; but Bobby +did not come. When they got back to the classroom +at half past one, Bobby was there ahead of them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>His face was very red; he may have been crying, +but Fred could not tell. The latter slipped a +brief note to him:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Did he catch you?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby nodded, but did not write back. Fred, +after a while, slipped over another written +question:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Where's my cap?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This time Bobby replied: "At the foot of +the cliff. He doesn't know any of you. Keep +still."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Good old sport, Bobby," quoth Fred to Sparrow, +when recitations were over and they filed +out. "Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>! that was a soaker you gave +me on the jaw. It's sore yet."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I believe I'm going to have a black eye," +revealed Sparrow, with pride.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They went off together, inseparable friends for +the time being. Bobby remained behind, taking +his books into the big study.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Leith did not speak to him again. In fact, +nobody came near him before supper. When the +boys came in, giggling and talking, just as unable +as usual to settle down quietly to the meal until +an adult eye was turned threateningly upon them, +Bobby entered, too, but with such a lump in his +throat that he felt that he could scarcely swallow +a mouthful.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Nobody noticed his condition but Pee Wee, and +he only to seize upon the pudding that Bobby +could not touch. "You act as if you had the +mumps and couldn't swallow," whispered the fat +boy. "But what you can't eat I'll get rid of for +you, Bobby."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Three wistful days passed. Bobby remained +indoors, and the boys knew that he was being +punished. Only three knew what for, and they did +not know how much.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Good old scout, Bobby!" said Shiner, clapping +him on the shoulder. "Wild horses wouldn't get +anything out of you, eh!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred began to eye his chum askance. Thoughtless +as the red-haired one usually was, he began to +worry.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then Mr. Leith called Bobby to him again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Will you tell me who was fighting down there +at the corner?" he asked.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Please—please do not ask me, sir!" begged +the boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ahem! you are still stubborn, are you!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ye—yes, sir," said Bobby, not knowing what +else to say.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Very well. I shall keep you indoors no longer. +I see that gentle means will not cure </span><em class="italics">your</em><span> trouble. +At the last, I should have been tempted to keep the +matter to myself and give you a chance for the +medal. But I see leniency is wasted upon you.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You may have your freedom, Robert. Nothing +you can do now will wipe out the fact that you +have deliberately refused to answer my questions. +That is all."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">And Bobby Blake forgot the Doctor's office door +was unlocked!</em></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He accepted the punishment of Mr. Leith as +final. He knew he had lost all chance of winning +the Medal of Honor. Young as he was, it seemed +to him as though his punishment was almost too +great for him to bear!</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="on-the-brink-of-war"><span class="large">CHAPTER XX</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">ON THE BRINK OF WAR</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>To everybody else, affairs at Rockledge School +seemed to go on as ever. There were hard +lessons, and easy lessons (the former predominating, +the boys thought) and there were many, many +good times as the season advanced.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Monatook Lake froze completely over. At first +the boys were not allowed upon it; but when +a team of horses, hitched to a pung, had been +driven from shore to shore—from the edge of +Rockledge town to Belden—word was given from +the teachers' desks that skating on the lake within +so many yards of the boathouse, would be allowed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The gate-keeper set stakes, to which little red +flags were attached, at the corners of the +ice-bounds, and for a few days, at least, the +Rockledge boys were satisfied with the restrictions.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They saw the Belden boys skating on their side +of the lake, too, and other boys, from the two +villages, who did not go to either school, skated where +they pleased.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>On half holidays bounds were released, but if +the boys wished to skate the length of the lake a +teacher went along. Owing to the feeling +between the boys of the two schools, Dr. Raymond +did not even test the Lower School with Barry +Gray for monitor.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby, of course, entered into all these sports. +Even Fred thought that his chum's punishment +had ended, and likely enough the red-haired boy +had forgotten all about his interrupted fight with +Sparrow Bangs.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred and Sparrow were the best of friends. +To tell the truth, Bobby Blake was somewhat +gloomy these days—he was not as much fun as +usual.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred put it down to the fact of the mystery +regarding Mr. and Mrs. Blake. Of course, a fellow +could not be very jolly when he did not know for +sure whether his father and mother were dead or +alive!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>However, Fred did not see how he could help +his chum. He did his best to liven Bobby up; but +was not very successful at it. It did really seem +to Fred as though Bobby "gloomed about" +altogether too much.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It's all right for a fellow to feel badly about +his folks," said Ginger to Sparrow, who had +become his confidant for the time being, "but you +can't get him out of his grouch."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He's trying to be too good," scoffed Sparrow. +"I bet he's aiming to get the medal."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" ejaculated Fred. "That +would be great!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Pshaw! he can't get it. No Lower School boy +ever got it. I expect Barry Gray will be medal +man </span><em class="italics">this</em><span> year."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He won't get </span><em class="italics">my</em><span> vote," declared Fred, +shaking his head.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why not, Ginger?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was used to this nickname now, and did +not get mad at it, but he shook his head, and said:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Just for </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>. Barry nicknamed me. He's +too fresh."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, pshaw! you're prejudiced," laughed Sparrow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>None of the boys realized what the matter was +with Bobby. And he would not tell Fred that he +had anything to do with forming the cloud under +which Bobby suffered.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The silence of his father and mother—the +uncertainty about them—</span><em class="italics">did</em><span> trouble Bobby +continually. Yet he had a deep-seated hope that all +would come out right about them. Barry Gray's +comforting words regarding the shipwreck had +fired his imagination.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The thought, however, that no matter how well +he stood in his classes, or how high his marks of +deportment were, he could not win the Medal of +Honor, disturbed the boy's mind.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Christmas week came. Bobby and Fred had +intended to go home to Clinton for the short +holiday, but the very day the term closed a great +snowstorm set in. It snowed so heavily the first +night that the railroads were blocked. Dr. Raymond +would not let any of the boys leave the +school, save two or three who lived near and whose +people came for them in sleighs.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The good doctor telegraphed to the parents of +his boys instead, and great preparations were +made for a dinner and celebration at the school +which would make the boys forget their disappointment.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Presents could arrive by express, too, by New +Year's, and Dr. Raymond said that the actual +distribution of gifts at Rockledge would be advanced +one week. New Year's should be celebrated like +Christmas.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The two and a half days' snow covered the lake +two feet deep on a level. The ice had been more +than a foot thick when it began to snow. In fact, +the Rockledge and Belden icemen had been getting +ready to cut, but would now have to put it over +until after New Year's, because of the scarcity of +labor.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was no danger on the ice. There was not +one airhole anywhere between the shore-fronts of +the two schools—a stretch of nearly four miles of +level, glistening snow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys of the Rockledge Lower School had +had much fun, on half holidays, up the lake at the +island where the winter camp had been built; but +that was a long way to go over the snow. Nobody +had ever tried snowshoeing and skiing, and the +authorities at the school rather frowned upon +these sports. However, the field of snow between +the bluffs on which the rival schools were built +was a vast temptation for a hundred active boys.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a snowball skirmish between the +larger boys of the two schools the very first day +after the storm ceased. Captain Gray and his +crowd had met a bunch of Beldenites ("Bedlamites," +the Rockledge boys called their rivals) near +the first island—a little, rocky cone, now a snowy +mound, and with only a few trees upon it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fight had been fast and furious as long as +it lasted, but it was rather a good-natured one, +after all. Finally Captain Gray and the captain +of the Belden School met for a few minutes' +conversation. In that few minutes a challenge was +given and accepted. Unless the teachers +interfered, it was arranged to have a general snow +battle between the schools.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Free from lessons, and with most of the +ordinary rules relaxed, Captain Gray could plan a +coup that the enemy would not possibly expect. +It had been agreed that the coming battle should +be fought near the island, which was about in the +middle of the lake between the two schools.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>That night, after supper, Captain Gray picked +a dozen boys to help him—and not all big boys, +for Bobby and Fred were among them—and they +slipped out of the house.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We'll get the bulge on those Bedlamites," +chuckled the captain. "Come on, now. Run!" +and he set off in the lead.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He would not tell what was afoot, but every boy +was excited enough to follow and obey.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They crossed the campus and went down the +long flight of stairs to the boathouse. The cold +was so intense, and the wind had blown so hard +while it was snowing, that they crunched along +right on top of the drifts, and the walking was +easy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was no moon, but the stars gave them +light enough. Besides, it is never really dark +when the snow covers the ground.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The twelve boys speeded across the white +expanse. Bobby and Fred were proud that they +had been chosen by the bigger fellows to take part +in this mysterious adventure.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Captain Gray insisted upon several snow-shovels +being brought along, and as soon as they +reached the island, he put them all to work. The +idea was to fortify the islet and hold it against +the expected attack next day of the Belden School.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"This will be a surprise to them," declared +Gray, proudly. "I saw right off that whichever +side could get this island and hold it, would have +an advantage.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Building breastworks down on the pond is all +right, but from this height we can throw snowballs +right into any breastworks that those fellows +can build.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"A bunch of us will come out here to-morrow +morning with our breakfasts in our hands (I've +fixed it all up with Mary, the cook) and we'll hold +this island till the crowd on both sides gets here."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Two hours' work under the direction of Barry +turned the island (which was barely ten yards +long) into a veritable fort. Within that time, the +twelve boys had built the fortress, partly of +bowlders that had been well placed by Nature, +and pieced out the rock buttresses with thick +walls of snow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The party got back to school just before the +retiring bell rang, and escaped a scolding only +because the rules were relaxed for the holidays. +In the cold, chilly dawn, half a dozen of the boys +of Dormitory Two were awakened by the bigger +fellows. Bobby and Fred were among them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, crickey!" gaped Fred, burrowing in the +pillow. "I don't want to get up now."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby was out of bed in a moment. "Come +along! It's going to be fun, Fred," he said.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was lazy. He burrowed deeper. In +about thirty seconds a large, juicy snowball, +scooped off the window sill by Max Bender, was +thrown into the back of Fred Martin's neck.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yee-ow!" yelled the startled Ginger, and rose +up to fight back. The big boy ran, however, +chuckling, and all Fred could do was to dress, +grumblingly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All these big fellows are fresh," he confided +to Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I wonder what </span><em class="italics">we'll</em><span> be when we are as big as +they are, and boss the school?" returned his more +thoughtful chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>That feazed Fred a little. By and by—as he +finished his dressing—he admitted:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, Bobby, I'd never thought of that!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The guard thus called to duty by Captain Gray +gathered, shivering, in the kitchen. Good natured +Mary had risen an hour earlier than usual and +made a big can of coffee, and there were +sandwiches and doughnuts.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Worth getting up early for, that's sure," +announced Fred, becoming more content. "Won't +Pee Wee be sore because he's not in this?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They marched away with shovels and sleds. +Overnight the smaller boys had made a lot of +snowballs and they had been packed in boxes and +put on the sleds. But before the early procession +started, Barry examined all the boxes, and finding +that somebody had made "soakers," he dumped +them out.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let me catch any of you boys icing the +ammunition, and I'll tend to you," he promised, +angrily.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, those Bedlamites busted Frankie Doane's +head open with a soaker last winter," complained +Sparrow Bangs.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We won't be mean just because they've been," +declared Captain Gray. "You see that you're not +guilty, Sparrow."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Gosh!" muttered Fred, in Sparrow's ear, +"don't that sound just like Bobby?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You bet! They're a pair. Guess Bobby's a +copy-cat. He's following in Barry's 'feet-prints.'"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't you say that!" flamed up Ginger, at +once. "Bobby has </span><em class="italics">always</em><span> been like that. He's +the fairest chap that ever was. If anybody's the +copy-cat, it's old Captain Gray!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Neither of the boys in question beard this, and +it was just as well perhaps that they didn't.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was scarcely daylight when the party reached +the island. They did not see a Belden boy +stirring on the farther bank of the lake. After +setting the tasks to be done by these guards, Barry +went back to the school, leaving Max Bender in +charge of the fortress.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Max was rather a lazy fellow, and he always +let the smaller boys do his work—if they would +agree. He was good natured enough about it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He sat down in a sheltered place, and had Bobby +and Fred cut the under branches of the firs for +firewood, and they soon had a nice little fire going.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This might attract the attention of the enemy +to the fort, but Max did not care for that.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You boys keep on making snowballs. You'll +have to make them outside the fort—down on the +ice, there, and then you can draw them in on the +sleds. Get busy now."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What are </span><em class="italics">you</em><span> going to do?" demanded Ginger +Martin, rather perkily.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Never you mind, youngster," returned Max. +"You never read of the officers in authority +getting on the firing line, do you? I've got to stay +up here and keep watch, and plan the defense of +the island."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, crickey!" exclaimed Ginger, scornfully. +"You're a regular Napoleon—</span><em class="italics">not</em><span>!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And it was a fact that, had the younger boys +holding the fort depended upon Bender's watchfulness, +the Beldenites would have been upon them +unannounced.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Naturally the boys making snowballs did so on +the side of the island facing Rockledge School. +The island hid from them the Belden side of the +lake.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But suddenly Bobby, who had dragged in a +heavy sled load of snowballs, and was packing +them securely in a pile behind an upper +fortification, chanced to stand up to stretch his limbs and +looked over the breastwork.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, look here!" he yelled. "Here's the +Bedlamites right onto us!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And it was true. The captain of the rival +school had seen what the Rockledge boys were +about—or he had suspected it, seeing the smoke +of Max Bender's fire.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He had brought out his whole crew, and the +vanguard of Belden boys was now but a few yards +from the shore of the snow-covered and embattled +island. They were making the attack in silence, +and hoped to take the garrison of the fort by surprise.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="give-and-take"><span class="large">CHAPTER XXI</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">GIVE AND TAKE</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Bobby was scared at first by his sudden +discovery. Here the Belden boys were coming on +the rush, and there was only a handful of +Rockledge boys—ten in all—at the island, to stand the +unexpected charge.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Hi Letterblair, the captain of the Belden School, +was at the head of the charging column. He and +eight of the biggest boys of Belden were very near +the island already.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Directly in the rear of the vanguard were a +dozen smaller boys with schoolbook bags over +their shoulders. Bobby knew by the bulky +appearance of these receptacles, that they were full +of snowballs.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Some distance behind were the rest of the +Belden boys, dragging sleds heaped with +ammunition. The entire force of the enemy was +approaching.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby wheeled about, even before he cried out, +save for that first exclamation of surprise, to +look at the Rockledge shore. There was not +another Rockledge boy in sight save those at the +island.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's the matter!" lazily demanded Max +Bender, warming his hands over the tiny blaze.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Look! Look!" repeated Bobby, turning to +point again. "Here they come!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Here </span><em class="italics">who</em><span> come?" asked Bender, jumping up.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He shuffled up to the place where Bobby stood. +One look he gave and then vented his amazement +in a long whistle.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"My goodness!" he muttered. "They've got +us beaten before we even begin."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aren't we going to fight?" demanded Bobby, +with energy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What! fight the whole bunch—just us few?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Of course. We've got the island—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And a fat time we'd have trying to keep it," +grunted Max.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why, you're a quitter!" exclaimed the smaller +boy, under his breath. He whirled and waved his +hands to the boys below, busy making snowballs. +"Get up here, fellows—in a hurry!" he cried. +"Here come the Bedlamites."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" was Ginger Martin's +response, and the red head came on the run. A +fight was meat and drink to Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The other boys hurried up the slope, too. +Bobby yelled to them to bring in the sleds and all +the ammunition.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In making the fortress the evening before, and +in rolling "snow bombs" to fling down upon the +heads of the enemy should they get to close +quarters, the island itself had been for the most part +swept clean of snow. The bulwarks of the +fortress were as tall as most of the boys defending it +at the present moment.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We're going to get licked," muttered Max +Bender again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Sparrow grinned at Ginger. "I always +believed Bender was a softie," he whispered. +Ginger nodded, but he looked at Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We've </span><em class="italics">got</em><span> to hold on here till Captain Gray +gets over with reinforcements," the boy from +Clinton was saying, eagerly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure we have!" agreed most of the ten, in +chorus.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And the way to do it is not to let those Belden +fellows see how few in numbers we are," said +Bobby, thoughtfully. "We have heaps of +ammunition. We'll beat them off till Captain Gray +comes."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We can't do it," declared Max Bender, with +conviction.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred turned on him with his face as well as his +hair aflame: "You're a healthy lieutenant, you +are!" he snarled. "Why didn't Captain Gray +leave a baby in command? Come on! you can +fling snowballs, can't you, like Bobby says?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well—But these fellers will surround the +island and then they'll get us," croaked Max.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Sparrow laughed sneeringly. It was Bobby +who replied.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If you propose to run, you start now before +the fight begins," he said, gravely. "Then they'll +think we're sending a messenger for reënforcements, +not that one of our side is a coward and +is running away."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hurrah!" yelled Sparrow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" exclaimed Ginger. "Now +he's got it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Max Bender was actually pale. He was scared +to fight and he was scared to run! In truth his +position was pitiable.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But Bobby Blake gave the big fellow very little +attention. The other boys just naturally looked +to Bobby to lead them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Don't show yourselves, fellows, if you can help +it. Don't throw too quickly; we don't want to +waste ammunition. Let's all line up along here +now, and one of us peek over and give the word +to fire—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll do that!" cried the excited Mouser Pryde.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes you will!" sneered Fred. "I'd like to +see you. Bobby's bossing this."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's right!" exclaimed Sparrow, generously. +"If this big simpleton, Bender, won't take +the lead, let Bobby do it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure! let Bobby do it!" shouted the others.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby, his eyes flashing, his cheeks red with +excitement, did not argue the point. Of course +he wanted to lead—what boy would not?</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Besides, he believed they could hold the +Beldenites off until reinforcements came. Max Bender +stood beside him, packing a snowball tighter, and +said nothing. Bobby jumped up and looked over +the high parapet. It was almost two feet across +at the top, and lots thicker at the bottom. The +inside was cut straight up and down, but outside +it sloped.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby could stand upon a rock and see over the +top of the wall. Hi Letterblair and his crowd was +now quite near. When Bobby popped up Hi saw +the Rockledge boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hurrah!" yelled the Belden leader. "Come +on, fellows! Charge!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let's fire at them, Bobby!" gasped Fred, +fairly dancing up and down in his eagerness.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. They're too far away yet. Hold your fire."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Till we see the whites of their eyes—just like +Bunker Hill!" exclaimed Sparrow Bangs.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They'll hammer the life out of us if they get +up here," grumbled Max.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby turned on him suddenly. Big as Bender +was, he was doing all he could to scare the rest of +the garrison.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You be still!" commanded Bobby. "If you +won't fight, run; but if you stay with us, you keep +your mouth shut and throw snowballs as hard as +you can!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And actually, big as he was, the pale faced Max +did not reply!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby whirled back to look over the parapet. +His eyes danced and he was so excited that he +could scarcely keep still.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now!" he cried. "Up and at them! Fire +three each, and then drop down. And take +aim—</span><em class="italics">do</em><span> take aim!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Most of the boys obeyed him. The snowballs +flew in a shower upon the advancing enemy. +With the advantage of their position, the +Rockledge boys pelted the on-comers well.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Belden's leader brought up his whole force +before he attempted to reply to the fusillade. +Letterblair knew that they would have to get nearer +to pelt their missiles at the garrison with any +precision.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Behind the wall of snow and rock, Bobby said:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, three more snowballs. Get ready!" Each +boy could hold two missiles in his left hand +while he threw the third. The idea was to get in +the fusillade and then drop out of sight before the +enemy could return the compliment.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All ready?" cried Bobby again. "Come on, +now! Let them have it!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Up jumped the nine youngsters and saw that Hi +Letterblair and his crew was now very near the +island.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Shoot!" yelled the captain of the Belden boys.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They were at a disadvantage, however. They +had to throw up, while the Rockledge garrison +threw down.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The missiles from the island-fortress descended +upon the charging enemy with considerable force. +Before the Beldens could return the fire, Bobby +and his crowd dropped out of sight again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Beldens cheered. Bobby popped up, saw +that they were still advancing, and gave the order +for another volley.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"At them again!" he shouted.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was yelling his battle-cry like a crazy boy, +and Shiner and Sparrow were scarcely less +excited. In the midst of one of Fred's vociferous +shouts, </span><em class="italics">slam</em><span> came a snowball right into his mouth!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! oh! that was a soaker!" cried Sparrow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was hopping mad. He wanted to keep +on firing at the enemy when Bobby gave the +command to dip down for another supply of ammunition.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Obey the captain!" bawled Howell Purdy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Get ready!" called Bobby, steadily. "Don't +throw so wild. They are getting too near for +comfort."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They'll just give us </span><em class="italics">fits</em><span> when they get up +here," murmured the shaking Max.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I never </span><em class="italics">did</em><span> see such a lump of uselessness," +grumbled Mouser. "Did you, Bobby?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come on!" shouted the young leader of the +defenders. "Give them as good as they +send—and take what they send us laughing."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Rockledge boys popped up again. Their +last volley had stopped the Belden boys. Some +of the youngsters had run away with the ammunition. +Hi Letterblair had halted his party to make +new snowballs.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Give it to them!" shouted Bobby, and down +upon the attacking party hurtled another +well-aimed volley.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They drove the besiegers back several yards, +but now Hi Letterblair saw that there was but a +small garrison on the island. He saw only boys +from the Rockledge Lower School, and it was +evident that Captain Gray was not present.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He called a council of war, and soon the Belden +party began to spread out and quickly surrounded +the island. Bobby and his crowd were completely +hemmed in.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What did I tell you?" whined Max Bender. +"Now we </span><em class="italics">can't</em><span> get away at all."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You had your chance to go," Bobby said, +with scorn. "We can beat the whole crowd off—for +awhile, at least. We have plenty of snowballs."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But there's not much snow to make any +more," said Howell Purdy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We should worry!" exclaimed Sparrow. +"We'll throw them just as fast as we can, as +long as they last."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No use in trying to throw so far," advised +Bobby. "We have the advantage of them, +anyway. They have to throw higher than we do."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Soon a shower of snowballs was flung at every +head which appeared above the ramparts. Nor +could Bobby and his friends remain in hiding all +the time. If they did so, the Beldens would soon +charge and rout them by the weight of superior +numbers.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was only by returning the enemy's fire with +vigor and precision that the Rockledge boys held +the fort at all. Hi Letterblair had ten or a dozen +big boys massed to make a charge; Bobby could +see that.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Therefore the young leader of the defending +party urged his followers to concentrate their +attack upon the captain of the Belden School.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Keep them off! we've </span><em class="italics">got</em><span> to keep them off till +Captain Gray gets here," panted Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hurrah! here they come!" yelled one of the +smaller boys, suddenly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby shot a glance toward the Rockledge +shore. Indeed, there they did come! With +Captain Gray and the school flag at their head, the +bulk of the Rockledge boys were coming across +the snow-covered lake towards the island.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Keep still! don't wake them up!" begged +Bobby, before anybody else could cheer. "If the +Bedlamites don't know they're coming till they +get here—why, all the better."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The appearance of reënforcements put pluck +into Max Bender. He began to hurl snowballs +with more precision and with more force. He +became very active. Hi Letterblair's crew of big +boys charged only half heartedly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys behind the ramparts almost smothered +them before the attacking party got upon the +island. They had chosen the easiest ascent, but +only one of the attackers reached the snow-wall.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Instantly half a dozen hands reached for this +plucky enemy, and it was Max who hauled him +over into the fort and sat on him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Hurrah! we've got a prisoner!" yelled Howell +Purdy, dancing up and down.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What'll we do with him, Bobby?" demanded Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! </span><em class="italics">I</em><span> captured him," grumbled Max. "I +guess I'll do what I please with him."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"While we're fooling with that fellow, the +others will get up here," declared Shiner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come on! here they come!" shouted Bobby, +who was ever on the watch.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The second charge of Hi and his cohorts was +resultless to either party. And then, almost +immediately, Captain Gray and the rest of the +Rockledge boys came upon the Beldens.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Hi Letterblair ordered his party to face about, +and brought up the smaller boys from the other +side of the island. At once the garrison of the +fort leaped upon the ramparts and drove down a +withering fire upon the enemy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Thus held between two fires, the Beldenites +were driven back around the island, and out of +shot from the fortress. Captain Gray ordered his +army to spread out and hold them at bay.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They had dragged out from the shore thousands +of snowballs. The Rockledge party had ammunition +enough to last for hours, both in the fort and +on the sleds.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Captain Gray hurried into the fort. Max had +let the prisoner up and the boys were all dancing +about excitedly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You fellows did fine!" cried Barry Gray, his +eyes shining. "Max! you're all right! You held +them off in fine shape."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They gave us a hard rub, Barry," said the big +fellow, coolly. "And I yanked this chap inside +when they charged."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>His statement was perfectly correct—as far as +it went; but for Max to accept praise for the +defense of the fort struck most of the smaller boys +dumb. Not Fred Martin, however.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well I never!" gasped the red-haired boy. +"Will you listen to </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>? Talk about the brass +cheek of him!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's the matter with you, Ginger?" +demanded Max, scowling.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! do you think you can get away with it?" +shouted Fred. "</span><em class="italics">You</em><span> getting thanked for +holding this island? Why, Barry," he cried, turning +on the captain, with blazing eyes, "that big +simpleton wanted to give up the fort and run away +when he saw the Bedlamites coming. Yes he did! +I'll leave it to Sparrow and the rest of the boys."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Sparrow shouldered his way to the front. +"That's right, captain," he said. "Max was +having a fit of shivers here, and wouldn't give orders. +Bobby fought us."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure he did!" cried Shiner and Howell Purdy +together. "It was Bobby who did it. We'd have +been whipped, if it hadn't been for Bobby."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well, did I say he </span><em class="italics">didn't</em><span> do his share?" +snarled Max Bender, the wind all taken out of his +sails. "I—I had a headache, anyway. And I +</span><em class="italics">did</em><span> grab this fellow prisoner."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He looked around for the boy in question. But +while they had been arguing, the Belden boy had +slipped out of the fort and made his escape.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="what-bobby-said"><span class="large">CHAPTER XXII</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">WHAT BOBBY SAID</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>The battle between the Rockledge and the +Belden Schools continued furiously until noon. The +former had the advantage because of their +entrenchments on the island, but Hi Letterblair was +not a bad general, and Barry and his helpers were +often put to it to hold the enemy in check.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>At one time when the Rockledge troops made a +sally, four of them were captured and were held +prisoners for an hour. Then they were rescued, +Bobby and Fred being of the rescuing party.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Altogether the snow-battle was carried on in +good temper, but there could not help being some +rough work, especially when it came to hand-to-hand +encounters.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred Martin and Ben Allen, one of the Lower +School boys on the other side of the lake, had a +short and vigorous fist fight in one scrimmage, +and the captains put them out of the battle and +sent them back to their respective schools in disgrace.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Noon came and an armistice was declared until +the next morning at nine o'clock. It was agreed +that the battle should begin just as it left off—with +Rockledge holding the island against Belden.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The masters of both schools had begun to take +an interest in the snow fight and that afternoon +Dr. Raymond gave a pleasant talk to his boys in +the big study, on the science of battle formation +and military maneuvers.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys were interested. Captain Gray tried +to put into execution in the next forenoon's +fighting some of the advice the Old Doctor had given +them. But Hi Letterblair had been advised by +his instructors, too.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The teachers from both schools walked over to +the island to watch the fight. It was a less +rough-and-tumble affair than that of the previous day's +battle, and in the end Rockledge lost the fort and +island to the enemy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Time was called, and both sides retired to renew +the battle on the third morning. Captain Gray +instructed his followers just what to do, and, at +the beginning of the third morning's attack, +Rockledge had recovered the fort, and captured half +the Belden School in less than an hour!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was great fun, and the boys learned to keep +their tempers better as the fighting continued on +more scientific lines. A storm came on and +spoiled the fun, however, for the rest of the week.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Captain Gray came to Bobby and said: +"You're all right! I've been getting the facts +about that fight you put up at the island, holding +off the Belden crowd, and it was smart of you.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I thought Max Bender had more gumption in +him. But he's a big bluff. Well! we won't talk +about him. But I've told the Old Doctor what +you did—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I didn't do any more than the other fellows," +said Bobby, rather sheepishly. "They all put up +a good fight."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure! But they all say you did it—you kept +them at it, and told them what to do. And Hi +Letterblair says he'd have taken the fort right +then, if it hadn't been for you. Oh, you can't +escape the credit for it, old chap!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby knew that, although the boys might praise +him, and even the Old Doctor himself might be his +friend, there was one member of the faculty who +did not approve of him. Mr. Leith seldom spoke +to him, save when it was necessary in class-room.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>New Year's Day came, and the presents from +home were given out in the big hall after breakfast. +It was a time of great hilarity and fun; but Bobby +had hard work to keep back the tears when there +were put into his hands presents addressed in his +mother's and his father's writing—presents +prepared far back in the summer before they had +gone on that fatal voyage, and left in the care of +Mrs. Martin.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Michael Mulcahey and Meena had not forgotten +the boy, either. Their little presents breathed of +love and friendship. Meena had a tender place +in her heart for Bobby, after all. Michael wrote +that she had refused to marry him on Christmas +day, for the seven hundred and fifteenth time!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was hard work by this time for Bobby Blake +to believe that Gray's imaginary shipwreck was +the real truth. Surely, if his parents were alive, +some word must come from them.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The owners of the steamship that had been lost +had never heard from any survivor. The newspapers +had ceased to speak of the affair. It had +become one of the many marine mysteries recorded +within the last few years.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"S'pose you shouldn't ever hear about them +till you grew up, Bobby?" suggested Fred, with +awe. "They'd come home, and find you grown +up and living in the same house, and—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I wouldn't be living there," declared Bobby, +choking back that big lump that </span><em class="italics">would</em><span> rise in his +throat.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Where'd you be?" demanded Fred, in wonder.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"When I'm big enough, I'll go off and look for +them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You will? Way down to Brazil?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'd search all over South America. Maybe +some bad tribe of natives has them. I'll find and +rescue them," said Bobby, nodding his head.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Scubbity-</span><em class="italics">yow</em><span>!" cried the ever enthusiastic +Fred. "That'll be great. I'll go with you, and +we'll hide in the jungle, and catch a native and +make him show us the way to the village where the +captives are held.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Crickey, Bobby! you'd make out you were a +magician, and you'd have a storage battery, and +things, and you'd show them blackies more magic +than they ever saw before, and they'll kill their +old medicine man and make you chief of the tribe.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And then we can get into the temple where +your folks are held prisoners, and release them. +We'll all get out through the secret passage and +take enough gold and precious stones with us to +load a donkey, and come home as rich as mud! +Say! it's a great idea."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well! what do you think of </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>?" was +Bobby's comment. "You must have been reading +some of Sparrow's story-papers."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! they're jolly good stories."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wait till the Old Doctor catches him at it," +said Bobby. "Those are just foolish stories. +Nothing ever really happens like it says in those +stories."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—well," said Fred, grinning, "it would be +great if they </span><em class="italics">did</em><span> happen, wouldn't it?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Lessons began right after New Year again, and +it seemed harder than ever to buckle down to +them because of the fun that week between +Christmas and the first of the year.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wish it would be vacation all the time," +grumbled Pee Wee, who had spent several days in +bed because of the way he had abused his stomach.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Goodness, Pee Wee!" exclaimed Bobby. "If +every day was a holiday, you'd be sick all the +time."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No I wouldn't," returned the fat boy, who had +figured the thing all out. "If we had holiday +dinners every day, I'd get used to them and wouldn't +get sick. See?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Although Bobby had concluded that he had no +chance at all for the Medal of Honor, he tried to +stand as well as he could in his classes, and never +again did Mr. Leith, or anybody else, catch him in +an infraction of the rules of the school.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Not that he refused to go in for any legitimate +fun, but he kept out of mischief, and did his best +to keep his chum and the other boys of the Lower +School out of trouble, too.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>After that first snow-ball fight with Belden at +the island, Bobby Blake became quite an influence +among the smaller boys of Rockledge. The story +of his taking charge of the defense of the island, +after the defection of Max Bender, was common +property, although Bobby himself would never +discuss the matter.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Off and on, there was both snow and ice for two +months following the great battle, but the boys +had only the two half holidays a week in which to +play on the frozen lake.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>By and by the lake became unsafe, too, and, +after a time came the spring thaw, the ice went +out, and the boys could get into the boats again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Every morning when he got up, Bobby ran to +the window first of all and sniffed the moist, sweet +air. Spring was on the way. And spring sets +the blood to coursing more swiftly in the veins of +every healthy boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>For two months the boys of the Second Dormitory +had not seen their camp in the woods on the +larger island at the other end of Lake Monatook. +When it was whispered around that there was a +chance for a trip there the next Saturday, all were +agreed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby and Pee Wee were the committee to +"rustle up" the necessities for a feast at the camp. +No potatoes and corn this time of year; the school +commissary department had to be approached.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>No boy in the school, save Barry Gray himself, +had more influence with Mary, the head cook, than +Bobby Blake. Like the other servants about +Rockledge, the good woman knew all about the loss +of Bobby's parents at sea. Besides that, he was +always polite and friendly, and never mischievously +tried to raid the pantry.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee's influence lay in his inordinate love +for sweet cakes and the like, for which he was +always willing to spend his pocket-money. Many +of the fat boy's dimes and quarters reached +Mary's palm for "bites" between meals.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It chanced to be a good day with Mary, and the +committee of two got the promise of a big hamper +of good things for the first picnic of the year. +Bobby had refused to be one of those who asked +for the privilege of going up the lake. He knew +that the request would have to be made to +Mr. Carrin or Mr. Leith, and neither of them, he +feared, were favorably inclined to him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The permission was granted, however, and the +crowd of nearly twenty boys raced down to the +boathouse immediately after they were released +from study at eleven o'clock on Saturday morning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They had three boats, four boys at the oars in +each. Some of the big fellows were going to get +out the shells and begin practicing for the June +regatta, but Bobby and his friends were eager to +see their old camp.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If those Bedlamites haven't found it and +busted the camp all up," grumbled Pee Wee, +pulling at an oar. "'Member how they pelted us +with hot potatoes that time?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I hope they'll keep on their own side of the +lake this spring," said Mouser.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I expect they have as much right at the islands +as we have," ventured Bobby. "Only it ought to +be 'first come, first served.'"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We'll serve them out nicely, if they bother us +this spring," grunted Fred, who was likewise pulling.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We'll beat them as we did in the snowball +fight," cried Shiner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If we can spell 'able,'" laughed Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, we'll spell it all right, won't we, +Ginger?" demanded Sparrow Bangs.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Let me at them—that's all," boasted Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>When they got to the upper island, there was +nobody there. They pulled their boats ashore +and went up into the wood. There was the shack +they had built the previous fall, almost as good as +new.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Of course, the roof was rotting and wet, but it +was pretty dry inside and they patched up the +walls and roof in a little while.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then they built a fire, made cocoa, opened a can +of condensed milk, and spread out the sandwiches +and pie that Mary had furnished. In the midst +of the picnic, a chunk of sod popped right into the +tin cup out of which Pee Wee was drinking.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh! who did that?" demanded the fat boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In a moment a big sod came slap into the fire, +and scattered the burning brands. Then followed +a fusillade from the woods on two sides of the camp!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"The Bedlamites! I see that Larry Cronk!" +yelled Howell Purdy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The feast was spoiled. The boys from the rival +school had pulled up a lot of soft, wet turf, and +they bombarded the boys from Rockledge nicely.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was an uneven fight at first, for the picnickers +had been totally unprepared for such an attack.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Nobody wanted to run, however, and Bobby and +Sparrow stemmed the tide of defeat with pine-cones, +until their mates could cut clubs and come +to close quarters.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Rockledge boys were driven out of their +camp. With great hilarity, Larry Cronk and his +mates held the camp, and drove off their +antagonists every time they attacked.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They're too many for us," growled Fred, +when the Rockledge crew finally retired. +"Why! there are four boatloads of them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I tell you," whispered Shiner, "let's get back +at them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Crickey! we've been back at them enough," +complained Pee Wee. "I'm beaten black and +blue. And look at our clothes—all mud! We'll +hear about this, when we get back to the school."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In fact, it was a sorrowful and angry group +that went down to the boats. These were on one +side of the island, while those belonging to the +Belden boys were beached on the other side.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Shiner had whispered his bright idea to Bobby +and some of the others. Bobby was a little slow +to accept it, but finally was convinced. The +Beldens were watching them from the summit of the +rocks.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Only one of the Rockledge boats was pushed +into the water. Bobby, Shiner, Sparrow and +Skeets Brody got in and took up the oars. They +rowed away around the island.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Meanwhile the other boys collected a lot of +pebbles as though they proposed to attack the +Beldenites again. This would have been foolish, +however, for the enemy had much the better position.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The two gangs were not above threats shouted +to each other and make-believe dashes from either +side. With volleys of stones and sod they kept up +the interest in the fight for half an hour.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then suddenly there came a shriek from some +boy left on the other side of the island as a +sentinel. He came flying, yelling his distress.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Into the boats, boys!" Fred Martin +commanded. "Bobby's got them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They pushed off the two remaining boats and +jumped in. At that moment the absent Rockledge +boat appeared around the end of the island, and +strung behind it, in one, two, three, four order +were the boats belonging to the Belden boys. The +latter were marooned.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We've beaten them this time!" yelled Howell +Purdy, with delight.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You bet!" agreed Pee Wee. "We've been +more'n a year getting them fixed just right. +'Member, Ginger, I told you and Bobby how those +Bedlamites stole </span><em class="italics">all</em><span> our boats once? How about +it now?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was great hilarity indeed. The boys +from Rockledge manned the Belden boats and the +whole flotilla pulled toward the south shore. At +this place the lake was quite five miles wide and +the island was in the middle. So the pull was +quite arduous.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Besides, the wind had come up and there was a +threatening black cloud mounting the sky. Soon +thunder began to mutter in the distance, and the +lightning tinged the lower edge of this cloud.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The first heavy thunder shower of the season +was approaching.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>As they rowed to the mainland, the Rockledge +boys could see their enemies standing disconsolately +on the shore, and wistfully looking after +their boats.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They'll get a nice soaking," declared Shiner. +"Oh! maybe I'm not glad!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"So am I," said Fred. "And we'll hide these +boats—eh?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure," agreed Sparrow Bangs. "I know a +dandy place right down at the edge of Monckton's +farm. They wouldn't find them in a week of +Sundays in the mouth of that creek."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The rain had begun to fall before the boys +reached the shore. It was a lashing, dashing rain, +with plenty of thunder and the sharpest kind of +lightning. Several of the Rockledge boys were +afraid of thunder and lightning, but they all took +shelter in an old tobacco barn—the farmers of the +Connecticut Valley raise a certain quality of +tobacco.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>For an hour the storm continued. Then the +thunder died away, and the rain ceased. By that +time it was almost dark, and the boys stood a good +chance of being belated for supper.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They hid the stolen boats and went home in +their own. As they rowed steadily down the edge +of the lake, they looked out across the darkening +water to the island, and did not see a spark of +light there.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Maybe they haven't a match," said Bobby, +suddenly, after a little silence.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I should hope not!" snapped Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Anyway, there's no dry wood after this rain," +said his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Good!" repeated the red-haired one.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They're going to have a mighty bad time," +ruminated Bobby. Fred only grunted, and Bobby +fell silent.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Just the same, there was a troublesome thought +in Bobby Blake's mind. He had little to say after +they got to the school, and remained silent all +through supper.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys had changed their clothes. The +clouds had blown away and it was a starlit evening. +They had their choice of playing outside for +a while, or going to the big study until retiring +hour.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I say," said Shiner, going about quickly +among the Second Dormitory lads, "Bobby wants +us all in the gym. Something doing."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Jimmy Ailshine was a good Mercury. He got +most of the boys who had been to the island +together, in five minutes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby looked dreadfully serious; Fred was +scowling; Sparrow looked as though he did not +know whether to laugh, or not.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Go on, Bobby!" advised Pee Wee, yawning. +"What's doing!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll tell you," shot in Bobby, without a +moment's hesitation. "We've done an awfully +mean thing, and we've got to undo it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's </span><em class="italics">that</em><span>?" demanded Howell Purdy, in +amazement.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What we did to those Bedlamites," said +Bobby, firmly. "We mustn't let them stay there +all night. Some of us have got to take their boats +back so that they can get ashore."</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="good-news-travels-slowly"><span class="large">CHAPTER XXIII</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">GOOD NEWS TRAVELS SLOWLY</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>The crowd of scatterbrained youngsters were +smitten speechless for the moment. They stared +at Bobby Blake, and then looked at each other +curiously. Pee Wee was the first to find his +voice.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, cheese it, Bobby!" he drawled. "You're +kidding us."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No. We've done a mean thing. We'll get +them into trouble over to their school—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Good enough!" cried Howell Purdy, in delight.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And maybe we'll get into trouble because of +it, too," went on Bobby, seriously. "But whether +we do, or we don't, we oughtn't to leave those +fellows over there on the island all night. It's a +mean trick."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! haven't they played many a mean trick +on us?" demanded Pee Wee, excitedly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That has nothing to do with it," said Bobby, +still seriously. "It's cold and wet on that island. +Maybe they are all soaking wet from the +rain-storm. Suppose they should get cold—all of +them—some of them—only </span><em class="italics">one</em><span> of them?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This was rather a grave way to put it. Bobby +was not much more thoughtful than other boys +of his age—and he not eleven; but the thing had +gripped him hard.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I tell you," he said, quietly, "if none of you +will go back with me, I'll go alone."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Shucks!" exclaimed Pee Wee, "you couldn't +row up there alone, Bobby Blake, let alone +tugging those four boats after you."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well! and he doesn't have to—see?" snapped +Fred Martin, dragging on his cap over his red +hair. "I guess </span><em class="italics">two</em><span> of us can do something." He +grinned rather sheepishly at Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Three," said Sparrow Bangs, briefly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Me, too," said the Mouser. "You can stay +home, if you want to, Pee Wee. </span><em class="italics">I'm</em><span> going."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh—very well!" groaned the fat boy. "You +can count me in."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And me! And me!" cried several.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In the end there were two boats full of +volunteers who left the Rockledge boathouse, known +only to the man who had charge of it, and rowed +up to Monckton's farm. There they dragged the +four Belden boats out of the mud, and towed them +across to the island.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was pretty dark, for there was no moon. The +marooned youngsters heard them coming and +began to shout, believing that it was a rescue party +from their own school.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby and Fred stood up and yelled to them +to come down to the shore for their boats. There +was a good deal of bandying talk, and the two +sets of boys said some sharp things to each other, +but they separated without a fight.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They'll tell, of course, and the Old Doctor +will make an investigation," said Fred, as they +pulled for home.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure!" groaned Shiner.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But it won't be so bad for us as it would have +been if we'd left them there for their own folks +to find, and kept their boats hid," Pee Wee +observed, with more thoughtfulness than he usually +showed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And the Belden boys will be a deal more +comfortable, eh?" chuckled Bobby.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There </span><em class="italics">was</em><span> an investigation. The Doctor +conducted it himself. He went "back to the year +one," as Barry Gray said, and considered all +the causes of the rivalry between the two schools, +and what each had done to the other.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The hot potato fight was taken into consideration, +as well as the fact that the Belden schoolboys +had once stolen every boat the Rockledge +boys possessed, and hidden them for a week.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Then he rendered his decision: No party of +boys without a teacher was to go to any of the +islands. None of the boys were to venture across +the lake to the Belden shore.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>These decisions were repeated by the head of +the Belden School, and from that time on there +was less friction between the two institutions.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But, meanwhile, Dr. Raymond had heard all +about Bobby Blake's action in the matter of the +return of the boats to the marooned boys. He +said nothing to Bobby about it, but he talked with +his assistants.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This, too, made Bobby more popular with his +mates. It had been the right thing to do, and, +after all, boys respect a boy who is willing to do +the right thing, even if it may make him +unpopular for the time being.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The popularity that Bobby was winning at +Rockledge School, however, was of a lasting kind. +If Bobby said a thing, he meant it. If he made a +promise, he stuck to it. He was no shirk, and no +"goody-goody," and it began to be whispered +around (goodness only knows how the story +started) that Bobby might have a chance for the +Medal of Honor if it was not for "Old Leith."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's Leith got it in for him for?" +demanded the hot-headed Fred Martin. "What's +Bobby ever done to him?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Something about Bobby's not giving away a +fight," said Pee Wee, who had got the news pretty +straight from a waitress, who had heard +Mr. Leith and Mr. Carrin talking about it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw, get out!" muttered Fred, rather abashed. +He suddenly remembered the fight he had started +with Sparrow.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Never was a Lower School boy yet that won +the medal," said How Purdy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But we'd all pull for him—wouldn't we?" +demanded Mouser. "I like Bob all right."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I do, too," said Skeets Brody. "He was the +only fellow that would stay in and play checkers +with me, when I had the sore throat."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He's done a lot of things for me," admitted +Howell. "I haven't forgotten them."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well!" sighed Pee Wee. "I couldn't count +the times Bobby's given me his pudding at supper."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I guess we all like him," Sparrow said. +"He's square as he can be. Old Leith hasn't +anything against him, I don't believe. It's just +his meanness."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No," said Pee Wee. "It's because Bobby +wouldn't tell on somebody. I put it up to Bobby +myself, and he got mad and told me to mind my +eye," and the fat boy grinned.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Well! it gets me," said Shiner. "There +haven't been many fights this year that Bobby +could have been in. And he's not quarrelsome."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred said nothing. He was thinking hard, and +from the expression on his face, it was apparent +that his thoughts were not of a pleasant nature.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby Blake certainly would have been +surprised, had he known how his mates were talking +about him. He went on his usual course now-a-days +without much thought for the Medal of +Honor.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Only, he did his best. For his absent mother's +and father's sake, he did his best.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Where were they? The question was with him +always. Deadened somewhat by time, the pain +of his loss smarted just the same. He seldom +mentioned the mystery, even to Fred. Nevertheless, +there was at least one time in every day +when he remembered it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He was as earnest in his prayers at night for +his parents' safety as ever he had been. He +believed that some time he should hear good news.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It is famous that bad news travels quickly, +while good news has leaden feet. It was so in +this case.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The spring advanced. Mr. and Mrs. Blake had +sailed from New York early in September, and +nine months had nearly gone since then. The +discovery of burned wreckage from the ship on +which they had sailed was all the news that had +ever come back to the United States regarding +it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There arrived in the port of Baltimore one day +a bluff-bowed, frowsy-looking old two-stick +schooner, with a tarnished figure-head under her +patched bowsprit, dirty sails, and a bottom +undoubtedly thick with barnacles.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>She was the </span><em class="italics">Ethelina</em><span>, and she loafed into her +dock as though she had never hurried within +the knowledge of her owners. One of her owners +stood upon her deck and gave orders—Captain +Adoniram Speed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>His crew was partly made up of South American +half-breeds, and the bulk of the crew of the +steamship on which the Blakes had sailed, so long +before, from New York.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The captain brought letters for various +people from a trading station far up a tributary of +the Amazon. Had not a sharp reporter, nosing +about for news on the Baltimore docks, gotten +into conversation with Captain Speed, it is likely +that the newspapers would never have obtained +the full story of the loss of the steamship in question.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>She had burned only a few hundred miles off +the mouth of the Amazon. It was rough weather +at the time and two of the boats' crews and most +of the passengers had lost their lives before the +</span><em class="italics">Ethelina</em><span> came loafing along and had taken the +remainder of the survivors aboard.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The </span><em class="italics">Ethelina</em><span> was bound for an up-river +station. She had no reason for touching at Para +or any other big city of Brazil. She kept right +on her course, and her course chanced to be the +route to be followed by Mr. and Mrs. Blake, who +were among the few passengers rescued.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The old hooker sailed up the Amazon, and +several hundred miles up the tributary on which was +situated the town of Samratam, which was the +Blakes' goal.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Blakes left letters for the captain of the +</span><em class="italics">Ethelina</em><span> to bring back to civilization. Captain +Speed had not considered it necessary to hurry +these letters along.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He had waited to bring them himself, to mail +at Baltimore. Good news surely had traveled +slowly in this case. Almost at the time the old +schooner was being warped into her dock at +Baltimore, Mr. and Mrs. Blake, in good health, +expected to leave Samratam for the United States!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The letters came in good time to Clinton, and +to Rockledge School. Dr. Raymond sat before his +great, flat-topped desk one warm May morning +staring at a letter written on thin notepaper, with +a packet of similar letters, wrapped in an +oiled-paper wrapper, before him on the desk.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Somehow his spectacles were clouded, and he +had to take them off and wipe them twice before +he could finish reading the business-like lines.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The second time he wiped the glasses and set +them astride his big nose, he saw a small figure +standing in the open doorway.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Ha! Robert!" he exclaimed.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, sir."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I sent for you, Robert," said the master of +Rockledge School, in a very gruff voice—gruffer +than usual, in fact.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, sir?" returned Bobby, timidly.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In spite of everything, he could not help being +more than a little frightened of Dr. Raymond. +He was so big, and he was so gruff when he spoke, +and he had such searching eyes—usually—when +he looked at one.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But stop! There was something entirely +different about Dr. Raymond's eyes on this occasion. +If Bobby Blake had not known that it was impossible, +he would have believed that there were tears +in the Doctor's eyes.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Robert," the gentleman said, finally, seeming +to have some difficulty in getting his words out. +"Robert, did you ever hear the old saying that 'no +news is good news'?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby had no answer. His lips opened. He +really </span><em class="italics">thought</em><span> he said "Yes, sir." But there was +such a roaring in his ears, and his heart suddenly +pounded so hard, that he could scarcely hear.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The furniture began to go around him in a sort +of stately dance—and the good doctor went with +the furniture! It was very curious. Bobby tried +to rub his eyes free of the water that welled up, +with his coat sleeves.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, Robert; 'no news is good news.' We +haven't heard for months from those whom we +wished to hear from. But always I have told you +to keep up heart—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby could stand no more. He flung himself +forward, around the corner of the great desk. +He grabbed at the Doctor's coatsleeve before he +could swim away from him again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"My mother! my father! You've heard—?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"They're all right, Robert! they're all right!" +exclaimed the Doctor—and did his voice break +strangely as he said it? "There, there, my boy! +They're safe as can be and here's a whole packet +of letters for you from them. Don't cry, my boy—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But Bobby wasn't crying. It seemed to him +that he never should cry again.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Tell me!" he gasped, still clinging to the +Doctor's arm. "Did—did she get her feet wet? Or +is she all right? She didn't get the—the +bron-skeeters, did she? Father was always afraid of +that, if she got cold."</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="red-hair-stands-for-more-than-temper"><span class="large">CHAPTER XXIV</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">RED HAIR STANDS FOR MORE THAN TEMPER</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>June had come. The regatta on Monatook +Lake was but a few days away; Commencement +followed. Even the boys of the Lower School +were working hard to make up lost lessons these days.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Captain Gray was to graduate, and with him +Max Bender and five of the other big boys. +There would be at least seven new scholars to +come to Rockledge the next September, for there +were never less than fifty boys at the school +and—as has been said—Dr. Raymond always had a +waiting list.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Leith devoted most of his time to the older +boys; but every fortnight, at least, he went over +the reports of the entire school. He was a stiff +and stern master, but he considered himself just. +For that reason he called Bobby Blake to his +desk one day and said:</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Robert, I am sorry there is a serious fault +marked against you. In recitations you have +done better than any boy in the Lower School +and better than most in the Upper. But I do not +like a stubborn boy; we can none of us—we +teachers, I mean—excuse such a fault as that. I hear +good reports of you in every direction, and your +name has been mentioned among the few who +stand a chance of winning the Medal of Honor.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It is a most serious matter for a boy to +refuse to answer proper questions put to him by +those who have him in charge. You must learn +this </span><em class="italics">now</em><span>. To obey is your duty. Do you realize +that?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, sir," said Bobby in a low tone, and +swallowing hard. "I understand, sir."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>What he understood was that, if he had been +willing to tell on his chum, and Shiner, and +Sparrow, he might have won the medal. </span><em class="italics">But he could +not do that</em><span>!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He had never thought of taking the matter up +with Dr. Raymond. An older boy—Captain +Gray, for instance—might have gone to the +Doctor and stated his side of the case. But Bobby +did not question for a moment the right of +Mr. Leith to put in that report against him.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It was pretty hard for the boy to bear. He +wanted so much to write his parents that he had +won the distinction of the gold medal Dr. Raymond +had shown them on that first day of school. +The Lower School was solid for Bobby and +many of the older lads admired the pluck and +good humor of the boy from Clinton. His +strongest partisans were Fred Martin and Sparrow +Bangs, who admired him so much because he was +so different from themselves, perhaps.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee was Bobby's staunch champion, too. +The fat boy boldly declared his admiration for +the Clinton boy in any company.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"There isn't another boy like him," Pee Wee +said in gymnasium one day, when Bobby was +absent. "Say! there's not one of you big fellows +but what he's done a favor for—and more than +once. I say—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Come! you needn't froth at the mouth over +it," growled Max Bender.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! </span><em class="italics">you</em><span> haven't anything to say against +Bobby," declared Pee Wee.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I know I haven't," returned Max, red to his +ears. "I'd vote for him right now. Barry can't +get the medal anyway.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He doesn't stand well enough in Latin and +physics for one thing," pursued Max. "He +knows it. Barry's a good fellow, and the Old +Doc. is proud of him, I reckon; but he never was +a bone for work."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee was inspired by this statement to +"root" all the harder for Bobby Blake.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He can get it, I know!" the fat boy kept +saying. "There isn't another boy in the school +stands as good a chance."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"But if Mr. Leith is bound not to vote for him, +what chance is there for Bobby? Tell me that, +now?" demanded Fred Martin.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What's Old Leith got against him?" asked +one of the other boys.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, it's that fight," said Pee Wee, with a side +glance at Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You've said that before," Skeets Brody observed. +"I don't know about any fight Bobby's +been in since he came here."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, </span><em class="italics">he</em><span> wasn't in it," returned Pee Wee.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred's face colored deeply. He waited his +chance and got the fat boy aside. "What's all +this about Bobby fighting?" he demanded. "You +know something more than you're telling."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"</span><em class="italics">You</em><span> know," said the fat boy.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"No, I don't!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Yes, you do; and Sparrow knows, and Shiner +knows—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That old thing!" exclaimed Fred. "Who +told you about it? And it happened months ago."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Old Leith doesn't forget easily. You and +Sparrow had a scrap, didn't you?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Who told you so?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Never you mind. I know you are as thick +as thieves now," grinned Pee Wee. "But there +was a time when you and Sparrow were going +to knock each other's heads off. Isn't that so?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Aw—it wasn't a fight," growled Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And Bobby was in it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What if he was?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Leith knows. He caught Bobby somehow. +And Bobby wouldn't tell on the rest of you," said +Pee Wee. "That's how he got in bad with Mr. Leith, +and it's what is going to keep him out of +winning that medal—yes, it is!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wow! I didn't know it was like that," gasped +the red-haired boy. "Bobby ran back for my +cap. I remember now. I thought Leith only +punished him by keeping him shut in for three days."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! that's the </span><em class="italics">how</em><span> of it, is it?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"He never said a word about it," declared +Fred, gulping. "He's never peeped that Old +Leith was holding it up against him."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I know," declared Pee Wee, nodding. "He +tried to make Bobby tell on you fellows, and Bobby +wouldn't. So that busted up his chance of +getting the medal."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Why!" murmured Fred, "he's been working +just as hard for it all the time."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fat boy seemed to have a little better +appreciation of Bobby's character than his own chum. +"Why!" he said. "I reckon Bobby would do his +best anyway. He's that kind of a fellow."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred went to the dressing room and slowly got +out of his gymnasium suit and stood under the +shower. He was puzzled and disturbed. It was +not his way to think very deeply.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But red hair stands for something besides a +quick temper. Such hair usually belongs to a +warm heart. Fred, if thoughtless, was as loyal +to his chum as Damon was to Pythias, and all +boys have read the story of those famous friends.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred had taken it for granted that Bobby's +punishment, on that long-past occasion, was +completed when he had remained indoors at +Mr. Leith's command. Fred did not suppose it had +gone farther.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby had never said a word. Of course, he +</span><em class="italics">would not</em><span> have! that was Bobby's way.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>It smote Fred Martin hard that if Bobby lost +his chance to win the medal, it would be partly +his fault. And Bobby had tried to keep him out +of the fight with Sparrow, in the first place!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fight had not done him, or Sparrow, or +Shiner, a bit of harm. He and Sparrow had been +the best of friends ever since that day in the +"bloody corner"! But poor Bobby—</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It's a mean shame," Fred muttered to himself. +"Old Leith's not fair. What business has +he got holding that against Bobby! He's +punishing Bobby for </span><em class="italics">our</em><span> sins. It's a shame!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Thinking about it, or talking about it, was not +going to help his chum in the least. Fred had +been a little afraid that some of the reports that +had gone home to his father would call forth from +Mr. Martin sharp criticism. He knew he did not +stand any too well in his own classes, and in deportment.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He had not been caught in any great fault. +However, if Mr. Leith knew that he had been +fighting that day in the corner, it would mean a +big, black smear on his report for the year. +That was just as sure as could be.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And Dad said if I didn't show up good this +year, he'd take me into the store and make me +run errands, and send me back to public school," +thought Master Fred.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Gracious! that would leave Bobby here alone. +Not to come back to Rockledge next fall—"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The red-haired boy could not bear to think of +such a calamity. It was certainly most awful to +contemplate.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He got into his clothing and wandered out of +the gymnasium. Nobody chanced to speak to him +and he stood on the school steps for some minutes +turning a very hard problem over in his mind.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And then a thought, like a keen-bladed rapier, +stabbed Fred right in his most vulnerable +point—his conscience!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What does it matter if Bobby </span><em class="italics">does</em><span> appear +cheerful? </span><em class="italics">You're wrong</em><span>!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh, crickey!" groaned the red-haired boy, +and he turned square around and climbed the +steps. With dragging footsteps he made his way +to Mr. Leith's class-room, where he knew he +should find the master correcting examination +papers.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Pee Wee, having gotten hold of one end of +the thread, unraveled the whole piece in short +order. He soon had the truth out of Sparrow and +Shiner about the long-forgotten fight in "bloody +corner."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The fat boy was something more than a gossip, +however. He, whose mind seemed usually interested +mainly in food, proved that he could think +of something else.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>He wasted little time on the Lower School but +it was not long before every other boy at +Rockledge knew how Bobby had pluckily—and +silently—suffered for the wrong three other boys had +done.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Pee Wee knew that the threat of the loss of +the medal had hung over Bobby all the time. +He—and the other boys, too—knew that Bobby's +record was otherwise clean.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Vote for Bobby Blake—he's all right!" +became the rallying cry all over the school, and +even Captain Gray took it up.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You know, fellows," he said to his particular +chums, "I haven't a ghost of a show for the +medal. I'd like to get it, but your votes wouldn't +win it for me. And I declare! beside Bobby, I +don't think I deserve it."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys had a chance to express their +individual opinion about the winner of the medal by +secret ballot, several days before the actual vote +was taken. In this way the teachers learned just +who was most popular with the boys at large.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>A slip was given each boy in class, on which +was printed "First Choice," "Second Choice," +"Third Choice." Every fellow in the Lower +School wrote Bobby's name against each choice!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And when the teachers, Mr. Leith and Mr. Carrin, +came to count the votes from the other boys, +Bobby's name predominated by a good majority. +There were still some faithful to Barry Gray, and +one or two other boys were named for the medal; +but on every slip save two, Bobby's name appeared +as either first, second, or third choice. Those two +particular slips did not have Barry Gray's name +on them, either, and the astute teachers recognized +the handwriting of Bill Bronson and Jack Jinks!</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>If, after this first ballot, there were names +voted for, whose owners could not possibly win +the medal, because of their standing with the +teachers, the fact was to be made known by the +Doctor. The whole school waited, most anxiously, +for Dr. Raymond's decision in this case.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The regatta came in between. That was the +great sporting event of the spring between the +two schools which faced each other on opposite +sides of Lake Monatook.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There were two-oared races, four-oared races, +and then the big race of the day—the trial of speed +between the eight-oared shells. The Rockledge +boys thought Captain Gray and the others, in +their white jerseys with a crimson "R" on each +side, were "a pretty nifty crew," when they +entered their boat and pushed out to the starter's +place.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Belden crew had rowed over from their +side of the lake. The course was laid on the +Rockledge side and was two miles in length—a +mile straight away, then round the post and +return to the starting point.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The younger boys forgot all other things and +rooted for Gray and his crew with all the strength +of their lungs. They were massed on a part of +the bluff where they could see the whole race, +and their friends and parents and the townspeople +were on hand in force to add to the excitement +of the occasion.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Clinton was too far away for Mr. and Mrs. Martin +to come to the closing exercises of the +school. Mr. Martin could not leave his store +long enough for that, and there were too many +children at home for Fred's mother to leave for +over night.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The chums got warm letters from them, and +there were presents for both Fred and Bobby. +When the latter saw his mother's handwriting on +his package, and knew that she had thought of +this time so long ahead, and prepared for it, he +was more touched than he had been by the Christmas +presents that had reached him from the same +source.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Fred was rather woebegone these last few days. +"Wow! wait till Dad sees my report," he said, +hopelessly. "He'll be sorry he sent me this watch +and chain."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Nevertheless, both lads wore their watches very +proudly. They were just what they had longed +for, and although the timepieces were not very +valuable, they were good, practical instruments.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The boys held them now, as they watched the +racing shells, and came pretty close to knowing +by how many seconds the Rockledge crew beat the +Belden, when the shells raced down to the +starter's boat.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was an extra supper that night. Mary +baked an enormous cake, with candles on it, and +the date of the winning of the boat race traced +in pink frosting. This was set down in the +middle of the upper table, and Captain Gray had the +honor of cutting it. A good-sized piece was sent +around to each boy, and Gray was called on for a +speech.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The handsome, well-dressed lad was not afraid +to speak in public. He was a bit forward but +goodhearted. Yet perhaps the Doctor was just +as well suited that Barrymore Gray should not +be in line for the Medal of Honor.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a certain conceit about his +character which had always troubled the good doctor; +yet Barry had carried off the duties of his +captaincy with success.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Frank Durrock was appointed captain for the +coming year, and </span><em class="italics">he</em><span> was called on for a speech, +too, having rowed bow in the winning shell. +Frank was another sort of a boy. He could only +nod his thanks and sit down in confusion.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The youngsters cheered Barry and laughed at +Frank; yet they all liked the latter pretty well, too.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The Doctor himself covered Frank Durrock's +confusion by making a little speech. His last +words were: "And now, boys, to-morrow we +decide upon the winner of the Medal of Honor. All +electioneering must cease to-night, you know. +Be prepared to-morrow to settle for yourselves +who is the most popular candidate. You are dismissed."</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst" id="the-winner"><span class="large">CHAPTER XXV</span></p> +<p class="center pnext"><span class="medium">THE WINNER</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> +</div> +<p class="pfirst"><span>Pee Wee was so full of tickle that he was not +sleepy! His father and mother had been up for +the regatta, and were staying at the Rockledge +Hotel until the school closed for the year.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Wise was a rich man and he could afford +to do about anything that Pee Wee wanted him +to do. There was something now on Pee Wee's +mind and, as Fred said, "he'd have to get it out +of his system or he couldn't go to sleep."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wait till the other boys are asleep," whispered +the fat boy. "I'm going to keep pinching +Mouser so he'll keep awake. You fellows pinch +each other."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The beds of Bobby and Fred, and Pee Wee and +Mouser Pryde, were side by side. It rather +tickled Bobby and Fred to think they should keep +each other awake in the way the fat boy suggested; +but that he carried it out in Mouser's case was +very evident from the occasional grunts and +objections from the latter.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The chums from Clinton kept themselves awake +by asking each other riddles, and telling stories. +Fred had one "giggly" joke that went as +follows: "Say, Bobby, do you know they're going +to close the public library down town?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"What for?" demanded his chum.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Just then Pee Wee's shrill whisper reached +them: "Cheese it! Come here, fellows. I have +something to tell you—honest!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The dormitory was quite silent, save for the +four boys in the corner. Fred slipped out of bed +and Bobby followed him. Pee Wee and Mouser +were sitting up in their own beds.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now listen," whispered the fat boy. "Just +as soon as school's out, my folks are going to Bass +Cove. We go there every summer. It's a dandy +place—you bet!"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"All right. We've heard about that before," +said Mouser, yawning. "You might let a fellow +go to sleep and wait till morning to tell us your +chestnuts."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I've a good mind not to tell </span><em class="italics">you</em><span> at all," +grunted Pee Wee.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say! you're not telling any of us very fast," +whispered Fred, giving the fat boy a poke. "Get +busy! some of the others will wake up."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I'll tell you," whispered Perry Wise, earnestly. +"I have the grandest father! He says I +can have you three down to Bass Cove, if your +folks will let you come. What do you know about +</span><em class="italics">that</em><span>?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Oh—fine!" gasped Fred, when he could get his +breath.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>All three of the boys had heard about that +summer place. Pee Wee was never weary of talking +about it.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Sure he'll let us come?" demanded Mouser, +wide awake on the instant.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"That's what I said. I've been asking him in +my letters. And he saw you to-day—and mother, +too—and he said 'yes.' He liked you all—'specially +Bobby—and he says you all can come."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Say!" gasped Fred. "That'll be great. +Won't it, Bobby?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"I should say," admitted his chum. "And I +was wondering what would become of me before +my folks got home again."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"We'll go clamming, and crabbing, and fishing, +and sailing—oh, crickey!" gasped Fred, with his +head under the bedclothes, "what won't we do?"</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It will be great," admitted Bobby, with a sigh +of longing. "I just hope your folks will let us go."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>This hope was realized, as my readers may +learn if they meet Bobby and Fred in the next +volume of this series, entitled: "Bobby Blake at +Bass Cove; Or, The Hunt for the Motor Boat </span><em class="italics">Gem</em><span>."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The four giggled, and whispered, and talked +the matter over for another hour before they could +close their eyes. The outlook for the summer +vacation was first in their mind, too, when they +awoke in the morning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>But this was an important day at Rockledge +School. Even the expected pleasures of a +summer at Bass Cove must be put temporarily in the +background.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>In the afternoon the graduating exercises were +to be held—called at Rockledge "the commencement +exercises." In the evening the boys entertained +socially all their friends and relatives who +could or would come to the school.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was something else—something that +loomed almost as big to some of them as the +graduation of the seven head boys.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>After breakfast the whole school filed up to the +big hall. It was a serious occasion, and even +Fred Martin was not "cutting up" this morning, +and was one of those who most solemnly reached +their seats.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>All the teachers were sitting on the platform +with Dr. Raymond. The old captain of the school, +and the new captain, each stood at a door in the +back of the room to see that nobody slipped out, +and to collect ballots when the time came.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, boys," said the good Doctor, rising +and smiling at the fifty. "This is a serious +occasion yet it is a happy one, too. It should be +happy for you all, because your teachers have +found among you at least one boy who is worthy +of the high honor of receiving the medal," and +he displayed the gold star as he had on that first +day, nine months before.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It is happy for us on the platform," and he +made a little bow to the gentlemen with him, +"because you have found one among you whom so +many seem to admire. And we know what you +admire him for.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It is unhappily impossible for every boy voted +for to win the medal. That is understood. Not +alone must he be popular with you all, but he +must have stood high in every study and in his +deportment as well. Several of those voted for +the other day in the informal balloting by the +school, cannot possibly receive the approval of +myself and the other masters.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Master Gray, unfortunately, is not eligible; +neither is Masters Durrock, Converse, or Spelt. +There is no dishonor attached to the records of +these boys, but there are other reasons—reasons +connected with their standing in class—that make +it impossible for us teachers to agree on either +of these names.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Now, boys, on the ballot now handed around, +you will have but one choice. And it looks as +though your choice had already been indicated. +Let me assure you that, if that is so, your +teachers are, one and all, in favor of your choice."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was a murmur of approval—almost a +cheer—when the doctor had done speaking. Lots +of the boys turned to smile at Bobby. He +suddenly found himself very red in the face. Fred +looked delighted. Pee Wee could scarcely keep +in his seat.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Barry Gray and Frank Durrock passed the +papers swiftly, and gathered them again in a few +minutes. That the school was almost unanimous +could not be doubted.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Mr. Leith and Mr. Carrin counted the slips. +There was a bunch of them on one side of the +table and only a few on the other side. The +doctor rose, smiling with satisfaction.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"My dear boys!" he said, ringingly. "It is a +joy to me to find you so nearly unanimous. And +you have chosen the boy of whom, above all others, +we approve.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Robert Blake! stand up."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><em class="italics">Then</em><span> they cheered. It was impossible to +silence the Lower School, at least, for fully three +minutes. Bobby stood, blushing and trembling +during this "unseemly riot."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Robert," said Dr. Raymond, quietly, at last, +"you have been a good boy here, and an +exceptionally faithful scholar. I have watched your +course for the year with interest. You have won +out under circumstances that were most trying.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You boys have a code of morals of your own. +I know it. 'Thou Shalt Not Tell Tales' seems +greater to you than any other commandment. +And I confess I do not uphold the tale-bearer.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"If a boy does wrong, he should tell on himself. +</span><em class="italics">That</em><span> is being honorable. Especially if he +knows that because of his wrong-doing any other +fellow is suffering.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"You all know that Robert bore a burden of +punishment for months which he did not really +deserve. There is another among you, however—and +I'm proud of him!" and the doctor flashed +a single glance toward Fred Martin's red hair +and red face, "who came forward when he +understood, and did his all to remove the black mark +from Robert's record.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"It makes me happy to know that I have such +boys as these in Rockledge School. I do not +believe there are fifty boys anywhere—in any +school—any finer than </span><em class="italics">my</em><span> boys," declared the Doctor, +with growing enthusiasm.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"And I have never presented the Medal of +Honor to any of my boys with greater pride than +I shall feel when I pin this star upon Robert +Blake's coat this afternoon."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>The school cheered again. Even Mr. Leith +smiled at the enthusiasm displayed by the +youngsters. They formed in line, Barry and Frank +Durrock lifted Bobby to their shoulders, and the +procession marched down stairs and out, and +around the campus.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>Bobby felt terribly disturbed. It seemed to +him as though his ears would never stop burning.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>They made too much of it. He was delighted +that he could tell his mother and father of his +success, and show them the gold star. But he +could not see just how he had won it, nor how +he had won the boys' enthusiastic approval.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>There was another honor for him, too. He was +selected as one of the new members of the school +secret order—The Sword and Star. </span><em class="italics">That</em><span> went +with the winning of the medal without question.</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Wow!" sighed Pee Wee, "he can hit as hard +as any fellow in the Lower School, when he boxes. +And he's good fun, and is not afraid to get into +a game of fun, even if the teachers scowl on it +a little."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>"Huh! I guess not," grunted Fred. "That's +right about Bobby. He's not afraid of </span><em class="italics">any</em><span>thing. +That is, he's not afraid to do anything that isn't +mean."</span></p> +<p class="pnext"><span>And that being a most just expression of his +character, we will say good-by for the present to +Bobby Blake and his friends.</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> +</div> +<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">THE END</span></p> +<div class="vspace" style="height: 6em"> +</div> +<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> +<div class="backmatter"> +</div> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39799 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |