I HARD TIMES FOR JOEL
"Come on, Pepper." One of the boys rushed down the dormitory hall,giving a bang on Joel's door as he passed.
"All right," said Joel a bit crossly, "I'm coming."
"Last bell," came back on the wind.
Joel threw his tennis racket on the bed, and scowled. Just then a flaxenhead peeped in, and two big eyes stared at him.
"Ugh!"--Joel took one look--"off with you, Jenkins." Jenkins withdrew atonce.
Joel jumped up and slammed the door hard, whirled around in vexation,sprang over and thrust the tennis racket under the bed, seized adog-eared book, and plunged off, taking the precaution, despite hishurry, to shut the door fast behind him.
Jenkins stole out of his room three doors beyond, and as the hall wasalmost deserted about this hour, so many boys being in recitation, hehad nothing to do but tiptoe down to Joel's room and go softly in.
"Hullo!" A voice behind made him skip.
"Oh, Berry,"--it was a tone of relief,--"it's you."
"Um," said Berry, "what's up now, Jenk?" He tossed back his head, whilea smile of delight ran all over his face.
"Hush--come here." Jenk had him now within Joel's room and the doorshut. "We'll have fun with the beggar now."
"Who--Dave?"
"Dave? No. Who wants to haul him over?" cried Jenk in scorn. "You are aflat, Berry, if you think that."
"Well, you are a flat, if you think to tackle Joe," declared Berry withthe air and tone of one who knows. "Better let him alone, after what yougot last term."
"Well, I ain't going to let him alone," declared Jenk angrily, andflushing all up to his shock of light hair; "and I gave him quite asgood as he gave me, I'd have you know, Tom Beresford."
"Hoh, hoh!" Tom gave a howl of derision, and slapped his knee in puredelight. "Tell that to the marines, sonny," he said.
"Hush--old Fox will hear you. Be still, can't you?"--twitching hisjacket--"and stop your noise."
"I can't help it; you say such very funny things," said Beresford,wiping his eyes.
"Well, anyway, I'm going to pay him up this term," declared Jenkinsdecidedly. He was rushing around the small room; the corners devoted toDavid being neatness itself, which couldn't truthfully be said of Joel'squarters. "I'm after his new tennis racket. Where in thunder is it?"tossing up the motley array of balls, dumb-bells, and such treasures,that showed on their surface they belonged to no one but Joel.
"Great Scott!" Tom cried with sudden interest, and coming out of hisamusement. "You won't find it."
"Saw him looking at it just now, before he went to class," criedJenkins, plunging around the room. "Where is the thing?" he fumed.
Berry gave a few swift, bird-like glances around the room, then dartedover to the end of one of the small beds, leaned down, and picked outfrom underneath the article in question.
"Oh! give it to me," cried Jenk, flying at him, and possessing himselfof the treasure; "it's mine; I told you of it."
"Isn't it a beauty!" declared Berry, his eyes very big and longing.
"Ha, ha--ain't it? Well, Joe won't see this in one spell."
Jenkins gave it a swing over his head, then batted his knee with it.
"What are you going to do, Jenk?" demanded Berry, presently, when hecould get his mind off from the racket itself.
"Do? Ha, ha! Who says I can't pay the beggar back?" grinned Jenk,hopping all over the room, and knocking into things generally.
"Hush--hush," warned Berry, plunging after him; "here's old Fox," whichbrought both boys up breathless in the middle of the floor.
"She's gone by"--a long breath of relief; "and there she goes down thestairs," finished Berry.
"Sure?" Not daring to breathe, but clutching the racket tightly, andwith one eye on Berry, Jenk cried again in a loud whisper, "Sure,Berry?"
"As if any one could mistake the flap of those slipper-heels on thestairs!" said Berry scornfully.
"Well, look out of the window," suggested Jenk suddenly. "She'll goacross the yard, maybe."
So Berry dashed to the window, and gave one look. "There she sails witha bottle in her hand, going over to South" (the other dormitory acrossthe yard). "Most likely Jones has the colic again. Good! Now thatdisposes finely of old Fox," which brought him back to the subject inhand, the disposal of Joel's racket.
"Give me that," he said, hurrying over to Jenkins.
"No, you don't," said that individual; "and I must be lively before oldFox gets back." With that, he rushed out of the room.
"If you don't give me that racket, I'll tell on you," cried Beresford ina passion, flying after him.
"Hush!" Jenk turned on him suddenly, and gripped him fast. "See here,"he cried in a suppressed tone, and curbing his anger as best he could,"you don't want Joe to go into that match, this afternoon, with thisracket." He shook it with eager, angry fingers.
"No," said Berry without stopping to think, "I don't."
"Well, then, you better keep still, and hold your tongue," advised Jenkangrily.
"Well, what are you going to do with it?"
"None of your----" what, he didn't say, for just then a boy flew out ofhis room, to tear down the long hall. He had his back to them, and therewas no time to skip back into Jenkins' own room, for the two had alreadypassed it. One wild second, and Jenkins thrust the racket into thedepths of the housemaid's closet close at hand, under somecleaning-cloths on a shelf. Then he stuck his hands in his pockets.
"Hullo!" The boy who was rushing along, suddenly turned, to see himwhistling.
"Oh Jenk, is that you? See here, where's your Caesar?"
"Don't know--gone up the spout," said Jenkins carelessly, and keepingwell in front of Beresford.
"Well, who has one? You haven't, Berry?" He turned to Tom anxiously.
"Not on your life he hasn't," Jenk answered for him.
"Botheration!" ejaculated the boy. "I've fifty lines to do, else I'mshut in from the game. And Simmons has run off with my book."
"Try Joe Pepper's room; he's in math recitation," said Jenk suddenly."He has one, Toppy."
"You're a brick." Toppy flew down the hall, and bolted into Joel's room.
"Holy Moses, what luck! He'll prowl for an hour over Joe's duds. Comeon." Jenk had his head in the cupboard, and his fingers almost on theracket, when Toppy's voice rang dismally down the hall: "Joe must havetaken it."
Jenk pulled his fingers out, and had the door fast, and was quite turnedaway from the dangerous locality. "Well, I don't know what you'll do,Toppy," he said, controlling his dismay enough to speak. "Run down andskin through the fellows' rooms on first floor. Oh, good gracious!" hegroaned, "it's all up with getting it now," as a swarm of boys cametumbling over the stairs.
So he mixed with them, laughing and talking, and Berry melted offsomewhere. And no one had time to think a syllable of anything but thegreat game of tennis to be called at two o'clock, between the twodivisions of Dr. Marks' boys. Some of the team of the St. Andrew'sSchool, a well-known set of fellows at this sport and terribly hard tobeat, were going to be visitors. So there was unusual excitement.
"What's up, Pepper?" A howl that rose above every other sort of din thatwas then in progress, came from Joel's room.
"He's been in here!" Joel plunged out of the doorway, tossing his black,curly locks, that were always his bane, his eyes flashing dangerously."Say, where's Jenk? He's been in my room," he cried, doubling up hissmall fists.
"What is it?" cried Jenkins, making as if just coming up the stairs."What's all the row about?"
"You've been in my room," shouted Joel in a loud, insistent voice, "andtaken my----" The rest was lost in a babel of voices.
"What? What's gone, Joe?" They all crowded into the small space, andswarmed all over the room.
"My racket," yelled Joel wrathfully. "Jenk has got it; he better give itup. Quick now." He pushed up the sleeves of his tennis shirt, andsquared off, glaring at them all, but making the best of his way overtoward Jenk.
That individual
, when he saw him coming, thought it better to get behindsome intervening boys. Everybody huddled against everybody else, and itwas impossible to get at the truth.
"See here now, Mother Fox will be after us all if you don't hush up,"called one boy. "I guess she's coming," which had the desired effect.All the voices died down except Joel's.
"I don't care," said Joel wrathfully. "I wish she would come. Jenk hasgot my racket. He saw me with it before I ran to math; and now it'sgone." All eyes turned to Jenkins.
"Is that so?" A half-dozen hands pushed him into the centre of thegroup. "Then you've got to give him fits, Pepper."
"I'm going to," announced Joel, pushing up his sleeves higher yet,"until he tells where it is. Come on, Jenk." He tossed his head like ayoung lion, and squared off.
"I haven't your old racket," declared Jenk, a white line beginning tocome around his mouth. It wasn't pleasant to see his reckoning quite sonear.
"Then you know where it is," declared Joel.
"And give it to the beggar," cried several of the boys, with whomJenkins was by no means a favorite.
"Give it to him worse than you did last term, Joe," called some one onthe edge of the circle closing around the two.
"I'm going to," nodded Joel, every nerve in his body tingling to begin."Come on, Jenk, if you won't tell where you've put my racket."
"He's afraid," said the boy who had advised the more severe pommelling,"old 'fraid-cat!"
Jenkins, his knees knocking together miserably, but with a wild rage inhis heart at these words, struck out blindly to meet Joel's sturdylittle fists, and to find his Waterloo.
In the midst of the din and confusion that this encounter produced,steps that could never by any possibility be mistaken for those of aschoolboy struck upon their ears.
The circle of spectators flew wide, and before Joel and Jenkins realizedwhat was coming, a good two dozen hands were laid on their collars, andthey were dragged apart, and hauled into separate rooms, the rest of theboys scattering successfully. Tom Beresford fled with the rest, and thelong hall was cleared.
"Boys!" the voice of the matron, Mrs. Fox, rang down the deserted, longhall, as she looked up from the stairway. "Humph! they are quiet enoughnow." She gave a restful sigh, and went down again. Jones and his colicwere just so much extra on a terribly busy day.
"What did you fellows touch me for?" roared Joel, lifting a bloody nose.In his own room, Jenkins was in that state that recognizes anyinterruption as a blessing.
"Old Fox would have caught you, if we hadn't rushed you both," cried theboys.
Tom Beresford worked his way up to say close to Joel's ear, "Don'tspeak, get into your room; I'll tell you where it is," then melted offto the outer circle of boys.
Joel looked up, gave a little nod, then broke away from the boys, anddashed to Jenkins' door.
"See here,"--he flung the words out,--"you've got to finish sometimewhen Mrs. Fox isn't round."
Jenkins, who was under the impression that he had had quite enough, wasmade to say, "All right;" something in the boys' faces making it seemimperative that he should do so.
Quite pleased, Joel withdrew as suddenly as he had come.
Meanwhile, up the stairs, two at a time, came Davie, singing at thememory of the special commendation given by his instructor in therecitation just over; and secretly David's heart bounded with a wildhope of taking home a prize in classics for Mamsie!
"Everything's just beautiful this term!" he hummed to himself. And then,in a breathing space he was in his room, and there, well drawn behindthe door, was a boy with big eyes. "_Hush_" he warned.
"What's the matter?" asked David in astonishment, "and where's Joel?"
"Oh, don't speak his name; he's in disgrace. Oh, it's perfectly awful!"The boy huddled up in a heap, and tried to shut the door.
"Who?" cried David, not believing his ears.
"Joel--oh dear! it's perfectly awful!"
"Stop saying it's perfectly awful, Bates, and tell me what's thematter." Davie felt faintish, and sat down on the shoe-box.
Bates shut the door with a clap, and then came to stand over him,letting the whole information out with a rush.
"He's pitched into Jenk--and they've had a fight--and they're allblood--and the old Fox almost got 'em both." Then he shut his mouthsuddenly, the whole being told.
Davie put both hands to his head. For a minute everything turned darkaround him. Then he thought of Mamsie. "Oh dear me!" he said, coming to.
"How I wish he'd had it all out with that beggar!" exploded Bateslongingly.
David didn't say anything, being just then without words. At thisinstant Joel rushed in with his bloody nose, and a torn sleeve whereJenk in his desperation had gripped it fast.
"Oh Joel!" screamed Davie at sight of him, and springing from hisshoe-box. "Are you hurt? Oh Joey!"
"Phoo! that's nothing," said Joel, running over to the wash-basin, andplunging his head in, to come up bright and smiling. "See, Dave, I'm allright," he announced, his black eyes shining. "But he's a mean beggar tosteal my new racket," he concluded angrily.
"To steal your new racket that Grandpapa sent you!" echoed David. "Ohdear me! who has taken it? Oh Joel!"
"That beggar Jenkins," exploded Joel. "But I'm to know where it is."Just then the door opened cautiously, enough to admit a head. "Don'tspeak, Pepper, but come."
Joel flung down the towel, and pranced to the door.
"No one else," said the boy to whom the head belonged.
"Not me?" asked David longingly. "Can't I come?"
"No--no one but Joe." Joel rushed over the sill tumultuously, desertingDavid and the Bates boy.
"Don't speak a single word," said the boy out in the hall, putting hismouth close to Joel's ear, "but move lively."
No need to tell him so. In a minute they were both before thehousemaid's closet.
"Feel under," whispered the boy, with a sharp eye down the length of thehall.
Joel's brown hands pawed among the cleaning-cloths and brushes, bringingup in a trice the racket, Grandpapa's gift, to flourish it high.
"Take care; keep it down," said the boy in a hurried whisper.
"Oh, oh!" cried Joel, hanging to it in a transport.
"Um," the boy nodded. "Hush, be still. Now skip for your room."
"Beresford," said Joel, his black eyes shining as he paused a breathingspace before rushing back to Davie, the new racket gripped fast, "if Idon't pay Jenk for this!"
"Do." Tom grinned all over his face in great delight; "you'll be apublic benefactor," and he softly beat his hands together.