Tom, Dick and Harriet/Chapter 14

AM sorry to say that for something like a fortnight past Dick’s lessons had been suffering. He didn’t really intend that they should, but when one is studying the science of ice-yachting and at the same time superintending the building of a boat, one is likely to be pretty busy; and that was the case with Dick. There wasn’t time for ice-boat and lessons, too, and so he made the mistake of sacrificing the lessons. And very soon he wished he hadn’t.

The weather held clear and bitterly cold, and on Monday the Boreas was once more flying up and down the river. There was a light breeze, but enough to make the boat show plenty of speed to leeward. Harry had her first sail that afternoon and enjoyed it immensely. Dick was careful to run no risk of capsizing and kept a safe distance from rough ice. They ran down to Silver Cove in a series of long reaches and then came back up the river before the wind. Off Coleville they sighted Joe Thurston’s boat, but its skipper refused to come out and try conclusions, although the Boreas hovered tantalizingly about for some time. The red boat hugged the shore closely and finally snuggled up against the Hammond landing and dropped her sails. Although Dick was anxious to race he was not altogether sorry to have the opportunity deferred, for with Harry aboard he would not have wanted to let the Boreas out to full speed. But he made up his mind that to-morrow afternoon he would run over to Coleville and make Thurston race with him. But there’s never any knowing what twenty-four hours will bring forth.

At breakfast the next morning Dick’s name was among those mentioned by the Doctor and Dick was one of a half dozen boys required to pay visits to the Doctor’s office at noon. Dick went out of the dining hall feeling rather uneasy and wishing that he had given more attention to his studies of late. Roy and Chub captured him outside and decoyed him into the study room. They were both looking preternaturally solemn, and Chub insisted on wringing his hand silently.

“Of course you can come back next year,” said Roy. “It isn’t likely he will fire you for good.”

“That’s so,” said Chub. “Might as well look on the bright side of it. And if you try you can study at home enough to keep up with your class. Of course there’s the disgrace of it, but—well, you can live that down in time.”

“Of course you can,” Roy assured him, evidently striving to be cheerful in the face of adversity. “But we’ll miss you, Dick, like anything.”

“You bet we will,” Chub said. “And—er—you won’t want to take the ice-boat home with you, I suppose. So I’ll take charge of it for you, old man.”

“We both will,” added Roy. “Anything to oblige a friend.”

Dick listened with a sheepish smile on his face.

“Go ahead,” he said, “and have a good time. I don’t mind. Children must be amused.”

“Ah, don’t let it harden you,” pleaded Chub. “Face it like a man and live it down. After all, there are worse things in life—”

But Dick’s patience was at an end and Chub’s philosophizing was cut short by the sudden necessity of defending himself against Dick’s onslaught. A minute later Mr. Cobb, passing through the corridor, put his head in at the door long enough to remark:

“Boys! No fooling in the study room, remember!”

The three disentangled themselves, panting and puffing, and proceeded to repair their attire. Chub, with one end of his collar pointing toward his ear, observed the torn button-hole out of the corner of his eye and turned severely to Dick.

“I just hope he does fire you, you big Western brute! Look what you’ve done to my collar.”

“Go and borrow one of Sid’s,” suggested Roy with a laugh.

“Well, we’re even,” Dick answered unruffledly. “My suspenders are busted.”

After the final morning recitation Dick turned his steps toward the office. Of course there was no question of being expelled, but nevertheless he was anxious to know what awaited him. There were two boys ahead of him and he had to wait in the library for almost half an hour, and, naturally enough, that wasn’t pleasant. But finally the suspense ended and he found himself facing the Doctor.

“Somes, I hear from Mr. Buckman and Mr. Cobb that you have been doing very poorly in your studies of late, and my own observations bear out their report. What’s the trouble?”

Dick was silent, searching for a reply that would be at once truthful and not too self-incriminating.

“Maybe we made a mistake in putting you in the Second Senior Class. I was in doubt about the advisability of it at the time, you will remember. Perhaps you had better drop back a class. Does that appeal to you?”

“No, sir,” Dick answered with emphasis.

“But if the lessons are too hard for you?”

“They’re not, sir.”

“They’re not? Well, that’s a refreshing thing to hear, Somes. I’ve just been talking to several other boys and had begun to think that we were driving the students too hard here. Then you don’t find the lessons too difficult?”

“No, sir.”

“Then may I ask again what the trouble is? If they are not too difficult why can’t you learn them?”

“I can, sir,” answered Dick after a moment’s pause. “I—haven’t been studying very hard lately. I’m sorry, sir.”

“So am I. Because you are wasting your time, and you are wasting our time. When you came here you told me that you would abide by the rules and be diligent. Didn’t you, Somes?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Exactly. And you haven’t been doing it. For some two weeks or so you have been coming into class with your lessons half prepared. You haven’t kept your part of the agreement, my boy. Supposing I were to tell you that an agreement broken by one of the parties becomes void? You realize what that would mean?”

“Yes, sir,” replied Dick troubledly.

There followed a moment of silence during which the Doctor, leaning back in his chair and rolling his pen between his fingers, studied Dick attentively. Then:

“I believe you have lately bought some sort of an ice-boat, Somes. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir. I got it Saturday.”

“Hum! Rather an expensive luxury for a boy of your age, it seems to me. Do you think that your father would approve of your buying it if he knew?”

“Yes, sir. He lets me buy what I like.”

“I see. How long have you been negotiating for this boat?”

“I—I ordered it about two weeks ago.”

“Rather a coincidence that, don’t you think, Somes? It looks to me as though that ice-boat explained matters. What do you think?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What do you mean by ‘Yes, sir’?”

“I guess it does explain. I was so—so busy thinking about it, sir, that I didn’t have time to study much,” answered Dick honestly.

“Have you sailed it yet?”

“I was out Saturday and yesterday, sir.”

“Like it, do you?”

“Yes, sir, very much.”

The Doctor was silent a moment. Then, smiling slightly, he asked:

“Do you know what I am considering, Somes?”

“I think so, sir. You’re going to take the boat away, I guess.”

“Not exactly. I couldn’t absolutely take it away from you, for it is, of course, your property. But I could forbid you to use it while at my school. You understand that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, what I am going to do is to forbid you to use it again until you have caught up with your lessons. How long that will be depends on you. Does that sound unjust to you?”

Dick studied his hands attentively.

“Recollect, please, that you came here first of all to study, to work. A certain amount of play is very necessary, but when play interferes with work it is time to call a halt. That appears to be what has happened in your case, Somes. You have allowed yourself to get far behind in your lessons. It can’t go on, you know. You’ve got to turn over a new leaf if you want to stay here at Ferry Hill. You acknowledged yourself that you can learn your lessons, and so I must insist that you do so. This ice-boat seems to have proved a disturbing element. So I propose to eliminate it for a while, until, in fact, you have shown that you mean to keep your part of our agreement. Do you think I am unjust?”

Dick gave over examining his hands and looked at the Doctor.

“No, sir,” he answered. “I guess you’re—pretty white.”

The Doctor bent his head to conceal the smile that trembled about his mouth. Then:

“Well, that’s the way it stands then. Catch up with your studies and you can go back to the ice-boat. But until then—leave it strictly alone and try to forget about it. That’s all, I think. Good morning, Somes.”

“Thank you, sir. Good morning.”

Dick found Chub after dinner and pulled him into a corner of the corridor.

“Easy now,” Chub protested. “This is the last clean collar I’ve got!”

“Never mind your collar,” said Dick. “What I want you to do is to sail the Boreas down to Johnson’s this afternoon and tell him to look after her for me until I call. Do you think you can do it?”

“Sail it? Of course I can,” said Chub. “But what—what’s the matter? Has the Doctor been acting up?”

Dick told what had passed in the office, and at four o’clock Chub and the Boreas passed down the river. Dick, from the study room window, watched them go and then turned with a sigh to his books.

For the next week or so Dick studied desperately; even Roy and Chub, who knew what he was capable of in the way of concentration, were surprised at the zeal he displayed. All their efforts to entice him out of the library or the study room in the afternoons went for naught and in the end they were invariably forced to take their departure without him, leaving him alone in his glory and often to the undisputed possession of the room. Day after day of bright, cold weather came and passed, days with crisp winds which would have brought joy to the heart of the ice-yachtsman. Harry was very indignant at her father’s action and confided to Roy and Chub that she had scolded him severely.

“I guess he felt pretty much ashamed of himself,” laughed Roy. “Is he going to apologize to Dick?”

“N—no, he was very unreasonable,” answered Harry. “He said he guessed things would have to stand the way they were.”

“You’ll have to manage him better than that,” Roy said with a shake of his head. “Your authority is in danger, Harry.”

Saturday evening Dick took a brief vacation from study and there was a meeting of the F. H. S. I. S. in the barn. But nothing was accomplished, although ways and means were discussed for some time and all sorts of schemes for raising the money were advanced.

“If only Ferry Hill had turned out a few dozen millionaires,” mourned Chub. “Every school ought to graduate a millionaire a year.”

“Maybe some of the Ferry Hill grads are millionaires,” said Dick thoughtfully. “If we only had a list of them we might be able to find out.”

“I thought millionaires didn’t go to school,” said Harry. “They’re self-made, aren’t they?”

“They always used to be,” Roy replied, “but I guess the new crop is different.”

“Yes, they’re degenerating,” Chub added. “It’s the same way with Presidents. It used to be that you couldn’t be President unless you had been a poor boy and had worked on a farm. But look at the Presidents nowadays! Just ordinary rich men! Why, most anybody can be President now!”

“There’s a chance for you, Chub,” suggested Roy. “You never split a rail in your life.”

“And I’m sure he never studied by the light of a log-fire,” laughed Dick.

“I think it’s beautiful about Abraham Lincoln,” said Harry wistfully. “I wish I had been born a poor boy so I could have done the way he did and been President of the United States, and had a birthday after I was dead, with flags and speeches and—and things!”

“I suppose if you were President,” said Chub, “you’d make Methuselah Secretary of State, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, and you could be Secretary of the Navy, and Dick, Secretary of War, and Roy—”

“Secretary of Agriculture,” Dick suggested.

“No, I’d make him my private secretary.”

“Roy always does have all the luck,” grieved Chub. “I’m mad; I resign from the cabinet!”

And with Chub’s resignation the meeting broke up.

On Wednesday Dick had made up his lost studies and the embargo on the Boreas was removed. And on the same day Harry sought him with tidings of a challenge from Joe Thurston.

“He told Grace—that’s his sister, you know—to tell me to tell you that he wanted to race you with his ice-boat. Its name is the Snowbird. Isn’t that a pretty name, Dick? And he wants to race to-morrow after school, and says he will meet you at the landing here at half-past three.”

“But I can’t get the Boreas up here by that time,” said Dick, “unless—” he paused and thought a moment. Then, “All right,” he said. “You tell his sister that I’ll be there, Harry.”

“But how can you get the boat?” she asked anxiously.

“I’ll go down in the morning before breakfast,” he answered. “Mr. Cobb will give me permission all right. Did he say how far he wanted to race?”

“No,” said Harry. “And, Dick, I suppose I couldn’t go with you, could I? I’d like to awfully.” But Dick shook his head.

“I’d be afraid to have you,” he answered. “I guess I’d better go alone; unless Thurston takes some one with him; if he does I’ll get Chub to go with me. You couldn’t kill Chub if you tried.”

“Do you think you can beat the Snowbird?”

“Well, I guess the north wind is faster than any old bird ever made,” laughed Dick. “But Thurston knows a heap more about sailing than I do, I suppose, and that ought to help him a lot. But I’ll do my best.”

“And, Dick, you must have a Ferry Hill flag on the mast!”

“That’s so, but I’ll have to borrow one somewhere. I don’t own one.”

“You shall have mine,” cried Harry. “It’s a lucky flag, Dick, and if you have it you just can’t help winning the race!”