Dave Porter and his Classmates/Chapter 16
CHAPTER XVI
SOMETHING ABOUT LESSONS
At Oakdale the two students ran into Phil, who had come to town earlier, to see about a pair of skating shoes. They told their chum of what they had learned, and the shipowner's son agreed that the Gee Eyes ought in some way to punish the offenders.
"I just met two friends," went on Phil. "I stopped at the candy store for some chocolates and ran into Mary Feversham and Vera Rockwell. Vera wanted to know how you were, Dave," and Phil grinned.
"I trust you told her I was very sick, Phil," was Dave's quick reply.
"I did—I said you were crying your eyes out for another sight of her," and then Phil dodged, to escape a blow Dave playfully aimed at his head.
The boys procured the articles for which they had come, and then took a stroll through the town. At one store an auction sale was in progress and here they met the two girls Phil had mentioned. Both were dressed in fur coats, with dainty fur caps to match, and both looked very sweet.
"We watched them selling some bric-a-brac," said Mary. "It was real fun. A beautiful statue of Apollo went for two dollars—just think of it!"
"Might get one of those statues to replace the broken one," said Ben to Dave.
"Oh, did somebody break a statue?" cried Vera.
"Yes,—and there was quite an exciting time doing it," said Phil. "Dave was the hero of the occasion."
"Oh, tell me about it, Mr. Porter!" And Vera bent her eyes full upon Dave.
"Oh, it didn't amount to much," answered Dave.
"But please tell me, won't you?" pleaded Vera.
Then both girls teased him, until at last he related some of the particulars of the encounter with Job Haskers. Mary and Vera were deeply interested, Vera especially.
"I am glad you did not give in to him," said Vera. "I like a boy who can stand up for his rights."
"You can trust Dave to do that," said Ben. "He doesn't take water for anybody."
"Oh, come now, Ben" murmured Dave.
"I believe Mr. Basswood," said Vera. "I hope Mr. Porter always does stick up for himself. I never liked a boy or a man—or a girl either—who was cowardly."
After that the boys and girls listened to the auctioneer for several minutes. Then Phil suggested soda to Mary Feversham, and all of the party walked over to a corner drug store, where hot chocolate was to be had, and there Phil and Dave treated.
The crowd was in the act of drinking the beverage, and Dave had just handed Vera her glass, when, glancing toward the doorway, he saw Link Merwell and a strange young man standing there. Link started and stared rudely at the girls. Then he whispered something to his companion, and both turned from the drug store and disappeared up the street.
"Did you see them?" whispered Dave to Phil.
"I saw somebody look in and walk away. Who was it?"
"Link Merwell and a stranger."
"Humph! I suppose Merwell didn't want to come in while we were here," murmured the shipowner's son. And there the subject was dropped. Little did Dave dream of what was to be the result of Link Merwell's unexpected appearance while he was in the company of Vera Rockwell.
The boys did not have much time to spend in town, and soon they bade the girls good-by and hurried back to Oak Hall. It was plain to be 154 DAVE PORTER AND HIS CLASSMATES seen that Phil thought the trip an extra pleasant one.
"No use in talking; Mary Feversham is all right," he said to Dave, enthusiastically. " Finest girl I ever ran across."
"Phil, I'm afraid you're smitten," answered Dave, with a laugh. "You'll be dreaming about her next."
"Perhaps—I don't care if I do," was the reply, which showed that Phil was pretty far "gone" indeed. "But say," he went on, suddenly. "Talking about dreaming, I want to tell you something. Do you remember how Shadow Hamilton used to walk in his sleep?"
"I don't think anybody is liable to forget it," answered Dave, thinking of Shadow's theft, during his sleep-walking, of Doctor Clay's valuable collection of rare postage stamps as related in a previous volume of this series.
"Shadow is at it again—although not so bad as before."
"How do you know?" asked Ben.
"Because the other night I woke up and heard him getting something out of his trunk. He was at the trunk about ten minutes and then went to bed again. In the morning I asked him about it and he declared positively that he hadn't gotten up at all. He was much disturbed over what I told him."
"Maybe you were only dreaming," suggested Dave.
"No, I wasn't—I was as wide awake as I am now."
"It would be too bad if Shadow got to sleep-walking again," said Dave. "We'll have to watch him a little. We don't want him to get into trouble."
During the next two weeks Dave found but little time for recreation. A test in two studies was in progress, and he made up his mind to pass with flying colors. He went in for a regular "grind," as Roger expressed it, and was at his books fully as much as was Polly Vane; indeed, the two often studied together.
"Come on out for a skate—it may be the last of the season," said the senator's son, one afternoon, but Dave shook his head.
"Can't do it, Roger—I've got my Latin to do, and four of those problems in geometry,—and some German."
"Oh, bother the lessons! Can't you let the geometry and the German slide?"
"Oh, I've made up my mind to get not less than ninety per cent. in the test this week."
"Then you won't really come?" Roger lingered in the doorway as he spoke.
"Not to-day. Have you got that geometry?"
"No—I thought I might do it this evening."
"What about the German?"
"Oh, perhaps I'll do that, too. I don't care much for the German, anyway."
"But you ought to study your lesson, now you have taken it up, Roger."
There was a minute of silence, and Dave turned to his text-books and papers and began to write. Roger drummed on the door and heaved a deep sigh. The ice on the river was growing soft—in a few days skating might be a thing of the past.
"It seems to me you don't care for skating as much as you did, Dave," he said, presently.
"Oh, yes, I do, Roger; but I'm not going to think about it while I have studying to do. I can't forget that, after all is said and done, I am here to get a good education, and that both my father and Mr. Wadsworth expect me to make the most of my opportunities."
Dave returned again to his books and papers and another silence followed. Then the senator's son came in, hung up his skates in the closet, and got out his own schoolbooks and papers.
"Well, if we've got to grind, I suppose it is up to me to do my share," he remarked, with another sigh. "But that ice"
"Don't do it on my account, Roger."
"Yes, but, Dave, I can't stand it to see you grinding alone—when I know I ought to grind too. My father wants me to get a good education, too. So here goes," and then Roger began to study just as hard as Dave and Polly. Then Phil came in, and Shadow, and seeing the condition of affairs, went at it like the rest. Dave's example certainly carried a wonderful influence with it, even though the youth himself did not fully realize it.
"This fifth problem in geometry is a corker," observed Shadow, presently. "If the gable of a house is fourteen feet long on one side, and the angle at the top is one of forty degrees, and the other side is but eleven feet long, how"
"Don't say a word, I've been working on that for half an hour," said Phil. "Tried it this noon, after dinner, and couldn't get it."
"It's very easy," answered Polly.
"Have you got it, Dave?" asked Roger.
"Yes, but I didn't find it so easy."
"Guess I'll climb up some gable and measure it," said Shadow. He began suddenly to grin. "That puts me in mind of a story. Once a college professor"
"Don't!" begged Polly. "I have some figures in my head I don't wish to lose!"
"Then nail 'em down," answered the story-teller of the school, calmly. "This college professor was paying a visit to some lumbermen and he was trying to convince one old tree-chopper of the value of an education. Says he, 'Now, look at it. You don't know how to measure a plank accurately.' 'Don't I, though?' says the lumberman. 'No, you don't, and I can prove it,' says the professor. 'Now, supposing you had a plank twenty feet long and one foot wide at one end and running up evenly to two feet wide at the other end. Where would you saw that plank crosswise so that one end would contain as much wood as the other? You can't do that problem and I know it, because you never studied higher mathematics.' 'That's dead easy,' says the old lumberman. 'I don't even need a pencil to figger it out,' says he. 'Jest balance thet plank on a bit of stick, an' cut her where she balances!' And then the college professor didn't have anything more to say, for he made out the lumberman was a hopeless case." And at this tale all the boys present snickered.
"Shadow would have a job climbing up on a gable to measure it," said Phil. "I'd rather do it on paper." Then Polly Vane and Dave gave Shadow some points as to how the problem should be worked out.
In some way Link Merwell and Nat Poole got an inkling of the fact that it was known they had done all in their power to break up the initiation ceremonies of the Gee Eyes, and, not to be cornered, both of the boys did all they could to keep out of the reach of their fellow-students. But the Gee Eyes did not forget, and at a special meeting of the club it was voted to give both Poole and Merwell "the cold shoulder" until something more definite could be done. By "the cold shoulder" was meant that no member of the club was to associate with Poole or Merwell or speak to them unless required to do so during school sessions. Outside of the schoolrooms they were to be as utterly ignored as though they did not exist.
"I think that will bring Nat Poole to terms, without going further," said Roger. "He hates to be left to himself—I've noticed that many times."
"Well, it may have that effect on Nat," answered Dave. "But I think it will only make Merwell more savage," and in this surmise he was correct.
The tests proved a severe strain on many of the boys, and Dave was glad when they were over. What the standing of each student was would not be known until later.
"Now I'd like to go skating," said he to Roger, but this could not be, for warm weather had set in and the ice and snow were rapidly passing away. That night it rained, and this made everything outside very sloppy.
Dave went to bed early, for he was tired out. He slept soundly for several hours and then awoke with a start, for something had brushed his face. He sat up, and was just in time to see a form gliding from the dormitory.
"Hello! what can that mean?" he murmured to himself, and then he sprang up. "Guess I'll investigate." And then, putting on a pair of slippers and donning a long overcoat that was handy, he made after the person who had just disappeared.