CHAPTER XI
TOM IDEALIZES WORKING CLOTHES
After the reunion at Fenton the high school boys enjoyed manydays of "hiking" and of all-around good times, yet nothing happenedin that interval that requires especial chronicling.
Nor in that time did Dick & Co. hear any more of Reuben Hinman,as they were now some distance from Fenton.
"We'll make Ashbury to-night," Dick announced one morning. "We'llgo about two miles past the town, halt there for two or threedays' rest, and then---back to good old Gridley for ours."
"Gridley's all right. Fine old town," Tom declared. "But asfor me, I wish we didn't have to go back there for another twomonths, instead of feeling that we have to be there in a fortnightfrom now."
"This has been a great hike," Dick agreed, "and a fortnight oflife of a kind that has had nothing but joy in it. Yet we'vethe years ahead to think of, haven't we?"
"What has that got to do with going back to Gridley?" demandedDanny Grin.
"Well, what are we going to the high school for?" questioned DickPrescott.
"I'm going because the folks send me," Dan declared. "Can't helpmyself."
"Don't you want to get anywhere in life?"
"I suppose I do," Dalzell assented half dubiously.
"Danny boy, I'm ashamed of you," Dick exclaimed, though his eyeswere smiling. "Are you content, Dan, to grow up and use yourfine muscles in performing the duties of a day laborer?"
"Not exactly," Dan answered.
"You'd rather be president of a big railroad company?"
"Yes, if I had to choose between the two jobs."
"Then perhaps you can get a glimmering of why you're in high school,"Dick went on. "When you compare the railway president and thelaborer, the difference between them lies a good deal in the differencein their natural abilities. Yet a lot depends, too, upon thedifference in their training. You don't find many college graduateswielding the pick and shovel for a living, nor many high schoolgraduates doing so, either. By the way, Dan, what are you goingto do in life?"
Dalzell shook his head.
"Then within the next year you had better go after the problemand make your decision hard and fast. Fasten your gaze on somethingin life that you want, and then don't stop traveling until youget it, and it's all yours! A boy of seventeen, without an ideaof what he intends to do in life has already turned down the lanethat leads to the junk heap. Get out of that road, Danny!"
"What are you going to do in life yourself?" challenged Danny Grin.
"I'm going to West Point if there's any possible chance of mywinning the nomination from our home district. There's a vacancyto be competed for next spring."
"Some smarter boy may win it away from you," Danny Grin retorted.
"He'll have to hustle, then," Dick rejoined, his eyes flashing.
"But suppose you do lose the nomination and can't go to WestPoint---what will you do then?"
"I have plans, in case I can't get to West Point," Prescott answeredquietly. "However, as yet I won't admit the defeat of my WestPoint ambition."
"I'd try for West Point myself, if it weren't for Dick being inthe way," Greg declared. "But I never could get past Dick inan exam."
"If you want it, come on and try," begged Dick. "Our Congressmangives the nomination to the boy in the district who can standup best under an exam. Go in and try for it, Greg! Work likea horse when high school opens. You might get it."
"And take it away from you?" blurted Holmes.
"If you can get it from me, you ought to do it, Holmesy. Thebest men are needed in every walk of life. I'll promise, inadvance, not to be 'sore' if you can win it away from me."
"Yes! I'd try all winter," scoffed Greg, "and then in the endsome sad-eyed fellow from a back-country village would bob upand win it away from us both."
"Let the sad-eyed fellow have it, if he is the better man," Dickagreed heartily. "But fear of defeat isn't going to hold me back.Don't let it stop you, either, Greg!"
"It's going to be Annapolis for mine---the United States NavalAcademy and a commission in the United States Navy!" Darry declared,his eyes snapping.
"I'd rather like that, too," Danny Grin declared.
"Then go after it," urged Dick Prescott. "Get some real planin your mind of what you're going to do in life, and then followthat plan, night and day, until you either win or drop from exhaustion."
"Wouldn't I be a funny-looking lamb in a midshipman's uniform?"queried Dalzell blinking fast.
"No funnier looking than any of the rest of us," Dick retorted."Now, Tom isn't talking much, but we all know what he's goingto do, for he has already been working at it. He has been studyingsurveying, for he means to make a great civil engineer of himselfone of these days."
"And I'm going into the game with him," declared Hazelton.
"That's because you've always had Tom about to tell you what todo, and to keep you from butting your head into things in thedark," jeered Danny Grin. "Hazy, you're going to become an engineerjust because you shiver at the thought of trying to do anythingin life without having old Tommy Long-legs to advise you whento wash your face or come in out of the rain."
"Harry is a pretty bright surveyor already," Tom declared. "Hehas been keeping mum about it, but Harry can go out into the countrywith a transit and run up the field notes for a map about as handilyas the next kid in his teens."
"I should think you'd like the Army or the Navy, Tom," mused Dalzellaloud.
"Nothing doing," Reade retorted. "I want to be one of the bigand active men of the world, who do big things. I want to mapout the wilderness. I want to dam the raging flood and drivethe new railroad across the desert. I want to construct. I wantto work day and night when the big deeds are to be done. That'swhy I wouldn't care for the Army or Navy; it's too idle a life."
"An idle life!" exclaimed Dick and Dave in the same breath.
"Yes," Tom went on dryly. "Did you ever see an Army or a Navyofficer?"
"I've seen several of them," Dick replied, "and have talked withsome of them."
"Same here," added Darrin.
"Did you see the officers in uniform?" Reade pressed.
"Yes, of course-----" said Prescott.
"Their uniforms were nice and neat, weren't they?" Tom asked.
"Of course," Prescott answered.
"Then that was because your Army or Navy officers hadn't beendoing any hard work that would ruffle the neatness of their uniforms,"finished Tom triumphantly, "and there you are! I can dress upon Sundays or holidays, but on the work days, when I'm a civilengineer, I want to wear clothes that show that I'm not afraidto tackle the rough and hard things of life."
"Then you might join Dan in being a day laborer," teased Dicklaughingly.
"Oh, no! I want to use my brain along with my muscles, and that'swhy I'm going to be a civil engineer."
"Army a Navy officers may have had an easy time of it once," Davewent on warmly, but times have changed. Our fighting men, to-day,are obliged to hustle all the time to keep up with the march andprogress of science. I asked an Army officer, once, what he didin his spare time. He looked at me rather queerly, then replied,'I sleep.'"
"He was lazy as well as offensively neat, then," laughed Tom."As for me, I enjoy my old clothes, and that is one of the reasonswhy I'm having so much fun out of this trip. I don't have todress up!"
"You'd feel first rate if you could be dressed up for a few hours,go into a hotel dining room, have a good meal and then slip intoa ballroom for a dance," laughed Prescott.
"Bosh!" flared Tom. "I'm no dandy, and all I want is to be aman."
"How do you stand, Harry?" grinned Dave Darrin. "Do you agreewith Tom that dirt is the best stuff with which to decorate one'sclothing?"
"I never said that," broke in Tom hotly. "I'm as ready for abath and clean clothing as any of you. I like to wear oldclothes---not soiled ones!"
"If anyone happens to overhear us talking," laughed Hazy, "he'llthink tha
t we're all planning to take up prize fighting as ourwork in life."
"I don't like to hear the officers of the Army and Navy scoffedat as a lot of idling, time-wasting dandies," Darry asserted.
"And I don't like to be accused of liking dirt on my clothes,just because I am going to be a civil engineer," Tom explainedin a milder voice.
An ideal bit of green forest, at the edge of a limpid lake, appealedto Dick & Co. as the noon stopping place.
"I've a good mind to fish," remarked Danny Grin.
"Go ahead, if you want to," Dick assented, "but we've got a lotof fresh meat that we simply must cook this noon, for it may notkeep until night."
"It would take you an hour or more, even though the fish bit readily,to catch enough fish to feed this little multitude," Tom remarked.
"I don't want to wait that long for my meal to-day."
"I don't believe I want to wait, either," Dalzell agreed, andgave up the idea of fishing.
Luncheon went on in record time that morning. It was not laterthan half-past eleven o'clock when they sat down to the meal,and but a few minutes past noon when the dishes were stacked up,ready to be washed.
"Whizz-zz!" whistled Dave, as the sounds made by a swiftly drivenautomobile reached their ears. "Someone is hurrying to get hisnoon meal. Just hear that old spurt wagon throb!"
The boys sat some hundred feet in from the highway. The automobiledid not interest them much until-----
Bang!
Then the car stopped with a scraping sound.
"Gracious!" exclaimed Danny Grin, jumping up at the sound of theexplosion. Then he sat down once more, looking sheepish.
"Give up the Annapolis bee, Danny boy," laughed Tom. "That wasnothing but a tire blowing out. If you got into the Navy, anda fourteen-inch gun went off when you weren't expecting it, you'dbe half way to the planet Neptune before your comrades could callyou back."
"How easily we make light of other people's troubles," mused Prescott.
"What makes you say that?" asked Darrin.
"Why, for instance, that party down in the road has been stoppedby a blown-out tire. Probably they were in a hurry to get somewhere,too. Now, they're delayed perhaps a half an hour, but it doesn'tgive us a flicker of concern."
"It interests me, anyway," Reade announced, rising. "Anythingin the mechanical line does. It may even be that the man drivingthat car doesn't know just how to put on a new tire. I'm goingto saunter down and see."
Five members of Dick & Co. didn't take the trouble even to glancekeenly at the halted car.
Tom took a dozen steps, then suddenly shouted back:
"Fellows, your indifference will vanish, now. Look who's here!"