CHAPTER XXIX.
LETTERS HOME FROM THE BOYS.--DICK LEE'S FIRST GRIEF.
There was a large number of new scholars assembled in the "great room"of Grantley Academy on the first Monday morning of that "fall term."There were also many who had been there before, but the new-comers werein the majority. There were boys from the village, boys from thesurrounding country, and boys from even farther away than the southernshore of Long Island; and they were of many kinds and ages. The youngestmay have been "under twelve," and entitled to ride in a street-car athalf-price; and several of the very older ones had already cast theirfirst vote as grown-up men.
Counting them all, and adding those who were to make their appearanceduring the week, they made a little army of nearly two hundred. Therewas also a young ladies' department, with about a hundred pupils; andthere was quite as great a variety among them as among their younggentlemen fellow-students.
The class-rooms assigned to the lady teachers and their several gradesof learners were all on the northern side of the academy building. Therewas a large wing there that belonged to them, and they only met the boysface to face in the "great room" during morning exercises. Even those ofthem who lived or boarded in the southern half of the village foundtheir way across the green, coming and going, under the shade of themost northerly row of trees.
As to the "great room" itself, there had been much trouble about thename of it. Dr. Brandegee called it "the lecture-room," and he did agreat deal towards making it so. There were those who tried to say"chapel" when they spoke of it; but so many others refused to know whatplace they were speaking of, that they had to give it up. "Hall" wouldnot fit, because it was square; and the boys generally rejected thedoctor's name because of unpleasant-ideas connected with the word"lecture." So it came to be "the great room," and no more; and a greatthing it was for Dick Lee to find himself sitting on one of the frontseats of it, with his friends all in line at his right, waiting theirturn with him to be "classified," and sent about their business.
Dr. Brandegee made wonderfully rapid work of it; and his severalassistants seemed to know exactly what to do.
"The fact is," said Ford, the first chance he had to speak to Dab, "I'vebeen studying that man. He's taught school before."
"Guess he knows how, too. And I ain't afraid about Dick Lee, now I'veseen the rest. He can go right ahead of some of them."
"They'll bounce him if he does. Tell you what, Dab, if you and I want tobe popular here, we'd better wear our old clothes every day but Sunday."
"And miss about half the questions that come to us. Dick won't be sharpenough for that."
"He says he's going to write a letter home tonight. Made him turn paletoo."
Those first letters home!
Ford's was a matter of course, and Frank Harley had had some practicealready; but Dab Kinzer had never tried such a thing before, and DickLee would not come to anybody else for instructions. Neither would hepermit anybody, not even "Captain Dab," to see his letter after it waswritten.
"I's been mighty partikler 'bout de pronounciation," he said to himself,"specially in wot I wrote to Mr. Morris, but I'd like to see dem allread dem letters. Guess dar'll be a high time at our house."
It would be a long while before Frank Harley's epistle would reach theeyes that were anxiously waiting for it, but there were indeed "hightimes" in those three houses on the Long-Island shore.
Old Bill Lee was obliged to trust largely to the greater learning of hiswife, but he chuckled over every word he managed to pick out, as if hehad pulled in a twenty-pound bluefish; and the signature at the bottomaffected him somewhat as if he had captured a small whale.
"Sho! De boy!" said Glorianna. "He's doin' fust-rate. Dar ain't anoderyoung gen'lman at dat ar' 'cad'my jes' like him. Onless it's young Mr.Kinzer. I hasn't a word to say 'gin him or Mr. Foster, or dat ar' youngmish'nayry."
"Glorianna," said Bill doubtfully, "do you s'pose Dick did all datwritin' his own self?"
"Sho! Course he did! Don't I know his hand-writin'? Ain't he my ownblessed boy? Guess he did, and I's goin' ober to show it to Mrs. Kinzer.It'll do her good to hear from de 'cad'my."
So it did; for Dick's letter to his mother, like the shorter one he sentto Ham Morris, was largely made up of complimentary remarks concerningDabney Kinzer.
When Glorianna knocked at the kitchen door of the Morris mansion,however, it was opened by "the help;" and she might have lost her errandif Mrs. Kinzer had not happened to hear her voice. It is just possibleit was pitched somewhat higher than usual that morning.
"Glorianna? Is that you? Come right in. We've some letters from theboys. Something in them about Dick that you'll be glad to hear."
"Sho! De boy! Course dey all had to say somet'ing 'bout him! I's jes'like to know wot 'tis, dough."
In she went, but more than the Kinzer family were gathered in thesitting-room.
Mrs. Foster and Annie had brought Jenny Walters with them, and Ham wasthere, and all the rest; and they all sat still as mice while Gloriannalistened to Dab's account, and Ford's, of the journey to Grantley, andthe arrival, and the examination, and their boarding-house.
There was not a word of complaint anywhere; and it did seem as if HamMorris was right when he said,--
"We've hit it this time, Mrs. Foster. I think I ought to write to Mr.Hart, and thank him for his recommendation."
"Just as you please, Hamilton," said Mrs. Kinzer; "but this is theirvery first week, you know."
"Guess dey won't fool Dick much, anyhow," said the radiant Glorianna."But wot's dat 'bout de corn-shellin'?"
"That's all right," said Ham. "Shelling corn won't hurt him. Gladthere's plenty of it. Mother Kinzer, you and Miranda must try thatrecipe Dab sent for the new pudding."
"New pudding, indeed! Why, she doesn't put in half eggs enough. But I'mglad she's a good cook. We'll have that pudding for dinner this veryday."
"So will we," said Mrs. Foster.
"Miss Kinzer," said Dick's mother, "jes' won't you show me how to makedat puddin'? I's like to know jes' wot dey eat at de 'cad'my."
It was a great comfort to know that the boys were so well satisfied; butthere was her usual good sense in Mrs. Kinzer's suggestion about itsbeing the very first week.
There are never any more such letters as "first letters," nor any otherweeks like the first. The fact that there were so many boys together,all old acquaintances, shut out any such thing as loneliness, and it wasnot time to be homesick. All that week was really spent in "gettingsettled," and there did not seem to be more than a day or so of it.Saturday came around again somewhere in the place commonly taken byWednesday, and surprised them all.
They had all been busy enough, but Dick Lee had never in all his lifefound so little spare time on his hands.
"It's no use, Cap'n Dab," he remarked on Friday: "we can't eat up all decorn I've shelled, not if we has johnnycake from now till nex' summer."
Dab was looking a little thoughtful at that moment.
"Ford," he said slowly, "has she missed a day yet?"
"A corn day? No."
"Or a meal?"
"No, I said I'd cut a notch on my slate first time she did, and it's allsmooth yet."
He held it up as he spoke; and Frank remarked,--
"Yes, smooth enough on that side; but you've nicked it all down on theother, end to end. What's that for?"
"That? Oh! that's quite another thing. I'm keeping tally of Joe and Fuz.Every time one of 'em asks a question about our boarding-house, or Mrs.Myers, or Almira, or' little Dr. Brandegee, I nick it down. Got to quitpretty soon, or buy another slate."
"They've kind o' kept away from us," said Dab. "They're in only one ofmy classes, but they're in three of yours."
"Ain't in any ob mine," said Dick; "but Dr. Brandegee says he'll promoteme soon."
Dick's tongue always began to work better, the moment he mentioned theacademy-principal.
"I don't mind their keeping away from us," said Frank.
"Nor I
," said Ford.
At that moment they reached their own gate, and Dick darted forward inresponse to an imaginary call from Mrs. Myers.
Ford went on,--
"They can keep away all they please, but they won't do it long. They'rebound on mischief of some kind."
"To us?" asked Frank.
"Well, yes; but it'll light on Richard Lee first. He won't say a word tous about it, but they've bothered him."
"I'll ask him," said Dab, in whose face a flush was rising. "They mustlet Dick alone."
"They won't, then. And there's plenty of others just like 'em. They'regetting together in a kind of a flock these last two or three days. Someof 'em are pretty big ones."
"Boys," exclaimed Frank, "how about our boxing lessons?"
"Guess we haven't forgotten 'em all in one week," said Ford. "I wasthinking about to-morrow."
So were they all; and they held a council-of-war about it, in their ownroom, before supper. The result was, that, by a unanimous vote, thatSaturday was to be devoted to the catching of fish, rather than toplaying ball, or any thing else that would bring them into immediatecontact with Joe and Fuz.
They had all brought their fishing-tackle with them, as a matter ofcourse; plenty of worms for bait were to be dug in the garden; and DabKinzer had learned, by careful inquiry, that both bait and tackle couldbe used to good purpose in the waters of "Green Pond," and sundry othersmall bits of lakes, miles and miles away among the hills to the northof Grantley.
"We'll have a grand time," he said, "and it'll do us all good. No crabs,though. Wonder if those fresh-water fish bite like ours down in thebay."
"Some do, and some don't," said Ford. "I've caught 'em."
It did not occur to him now, however, that he could probably teach Dab;and they all obeyed the supper-bell.
There were three kinds of corn-cake on the table, but the boys werethinking of something more important; and Dab hardly received his firstcup of tea before he remarked,--
"We're all going a-fishing to-morrow, Mrs. Myers; but we may get home intime for supper. Can you spare Dick?"
"What, on Saturday? The very day I need him most? Three loads of wood'llbe over from the farm to-night."
Dick had been in the kitchen, and had advanced as far as the door whileDab was speaking.
"Wood?" he muttered to himself. "Guess I know wot dat means. T'ree loadob wood, an' no fishin'! It's jes' awful!"
"Now, Mrs. Myers," said Ford, "if you knew what a fisherman Dick is! Hemight bring you home a load of them."
"I am sorry," said Mrs. Myers, with more of firmness and less of smilethan they had ever seen on her face before. "I have no objection to therest of you going. You may do as you please about that, but I must keepRichard at his work."
"I am particularly well pleased to learn that you have no objection toour going," remarked Ford, with extreme politeness, and Dabney added,--
"It does me good too. We'll take Dick with us some other time. Mrs.Myers, if you will have breakfast pretty early I'll be much obliged toyou."
Even Almira had never seen Dabney look quite so tall as he did at thatmoment.