Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/207

Rh that, during the day, he met Nat Poole several times, but not a word was exchanged.

"If he doesn't want to speak to me, I'm sure I don't want to speak to him," said Dave, in talking the matter over with Ben. "Perhaps he thinks himself too good."

"Let him go his own way, Dave. I shouldn't bother my head about him."

"Has he spoken to you?"

"Yes, but not in a very cordial manner. Each of us said, 'How do you do?' and that was all."

It was not long before it became apparent that Nat Poole and Gus Plum were growing very chummy. In the past the bully and Puffers had been close friends, but now Puffers was called away, to join his family, which had moved to the west.

"By the way," said Gus Plum, one day, when he and Poole and Macklin were in their dormitory alone. "As you come from Crumville you must have known Ben Basswood and Dave Porter."

"I knew Basswood pretty well, although he was not my style," answered the aristocratic youth. "Dave Porter I didn't want to know."

"Didn't want to know?" queried Macklin. "Didn't like him, I suppose. I don't like him myself."

"I want to know something of the people I associate with," went on Nat Poole, suggestively.