CHAPTER III.
A Momentous Decision.
When Frank went home one of the servants told him that his fatherparticularly wished to see him in the library as soon as he came in. Hewent into the library, and found his father and mother both there andlooking rather serious.
"Sit down, Frank," said his father. "We have something to say to youabout which we wish you to think carefully before you decide. SirRichard Carleton has been here. He is not only a neighbour but a friendof mine, although as I do not go out much we seldom meet each other. Heis a widower with one son, a boy about your age. Do you know him?"
"Very slightly, sir."
"Well, this son of his, Dick Carleton, is very delicate; he has grownvery tall and beyond his strength, and the doctor says he must not besent to a public school. Now at home he has no boy companions, and he ismoping himself to death. Sir Richard says he takes no interest inanything; he won't ride or work, and if he goes on like this it will endin a serious illness. What his father wants to do is to arouse in himsome interest in his life, and to awake him out of the deadly apathy heis in at present. Sir Richard knows your healthy outdoor mode of life,and your fondness for Natural History and sport, and he thinks youmight, if you chose, be the means of making his boy take some interestin the same sort of thing, and if you did so you would in allprobability save his son's life. Now what he proposes is this: That youshould leave the Grammar School at Norwich, and that his son and youshould be placed under the tuition of our Rector until it is time to goto college. Your education would be as well attended to as at Norwich,and your mother and I could have no objection to the arrangement, but wewish you to decide for yourself."
Frank's decision was made at once. The life at the Grammar School wasvery jolly, with its cricket and football and the rowing matches on theriver, but if this new arrangement were carried out there would be farbetter opportunities of building and sailing the projected yacht, and ofsporting and naturalizing on the broads and rivers, so he at onceanswered--
"I shall be very willing to try it, sir; but Jimmy Brett must beincluded in the arrangement. I could not desert him, and he would bemiserable without me at school. It would never do to separate us now,father."
"Well, but do you think his grandmother can afford it? It will be moreexpensive than being at the Grammar School."
"Then I tell you what, father and mother: the Rector must only chargeJimmy the same as the Grammar School, and you must make up thedifference to him, and I will do with less pocket-money."
"You shall not make that sacrifice, darling," said Mrs. Merivale; "wewill put that all right, and I will go and see Mrs. Brett in themorning."
And so the matter was finally arranged, and that the boys might becomewell acquainted with each other, Dick Carleton was invited to stay atMr. Merivale's. But before he comes we will just go back a few hours andfollow merry Mary Merivale, as her brother called her, and her youngersister Florrie, on their search for pupae.