Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/117

Rh his family connections and it was only Roger who, at first, learned the truth. The senator's son was deeply interested in the story of how the country boy had been found near Crumville and taken to the poorhouse.

"I should think you would want to know all about yourself, Dave," said he. "For all you know, you may be the son of some rich person and a fortune may be awaiting you."

"No such luck for me, Roger," answered Dave, with a smile. "I am a poor boy, and that is all there is to it. Just the same, I'd like to know something about my parents, and whether or not they are alive."

"I'll help you look into the case some day," said the senator's son, little dreaming of what the future held in store on that point.

By the other boys it was imagined that Dave must be some relative of Oliver Wadsworth, and that the rich manufacturer was his guardian. Boy fashion, the majority asked no questions at all, but took Dave for "what he was worth," as it is commonly expressed.

There was one youth, however, who seemed to take a particular dislike to Dave at the very start, and this dislike increased as the days went by. This boy was Gus Plum, already mentioned as the bully of Oak Hall. Plum was the son of a millionaire patent-medicine manufacturer, and in his