THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 WUJLIAM P. WRKDQi

 
 The Captain of the School
 
 The 
 
 Captain of the School 
 
 By 
 EDITH ROBINSON 
 
 Author of "A Loyal Little Maid," " Penhallow Tales," etc. 
 
 Illustrated by 
 ALICE BARBER STEPHENS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, tf COMPANY 
 1901
 
 Copyright, 1901, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 October, 1901 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRESS JOHN WILSON 
 AND SON CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
 
 TS 
 
 List of Illustrations 
 
 " It was Dick, and as with one impulse they fell upon him " 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 " 'Turnovers for the crowd ! Any root-beer that didn't come 
 
 over in the Mayflower ? ' " Page 23 
 
 " 'It's a petition from the girls,' he explained" . " 81 
 
 " ' I never meant to ask you to pay, Bobby ' " " 138 
 
 " ' I want to tell you about your little friend '"...." 205
 
 The Captain of the School 
 
 CHAPTER ONE 
 
 | OMING here on a visit, Colonel Jerome, who goes 
 around everywhere, and is the nephew of the 
 Secretary of the Interior 1 " gasped Chris. 
 
 " I don't care if he goes around like a top and is the 
 Interior itself 1 " rejoined Nan, tartly, more for the sake 
 of opposition than because she felt disposed to make 
 light of the threatened crisis. 
 
 " If our mishaps and shortcomings were only dignified, 
 or even tragic, instead of paltry and ridiculous, it would 
 not be so bad," sighed Lou. 
 
 "I wonder how many Indians he's killed," observed 
 Bobby, with sanguine interest. 
 
 " Tee-hee 1 " added Betty, whose usual tribute to any 
 family discussion was giggles or tears, in inverse pro 
 priety to the occasion. 
 
 Silence followed the chorus of dismay as each gazed 
 at its cause, the letter with the Montana postmark, 
 drooping in Chris's hands. 
 
 The " big brother," who in the years on the Western 
 
 ranch had become little more than a name to the home 
 
 i
 
 2 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 circle, was coming East in the early spring, and would be 
 accompanied by Colonel Jerome, the commander at the 
 neighboring military station and his best friend. It was 
 the latter announcement that had dashed the cup of joy 
 with bitterness, and changed joyous anticipation to some 
 thing like consternation. 
 
 "As Dick remembers our home, we could have re 
 ceived any guest without qualms; but think of the 
 mortification of letting a man like Colonel Jerome into 
 the secrets of our wretched makeshifts and short 
 comings," sighed Chris. 
 
 " When people once begin running down hill, there is 
 a moral momentum that accelerates their speed till they 
 land in splinters and tatters at the bottom," added Nan, 
 with her usual gloomy philosophy. 
 
 " Think of the student lamp, with its chronic habit of 
 bubbling and sizzling, now sinking into meditation and 
 dulness, and then blazing up into a perfect fury of 
 illumination," began Lou, who, notwithstanding her own 
 unruffled calm of mind and demeanor, had a habit of 
 making bad matters worse, of ferreting out the worst 
 possibilities of a situation, that at tunes drove her 
 family to the verge of distraction. " Consider the carpet 
 pieced out with that of another pattern, the cracked and 
 mended, nicked and missing china, the fragmentary 
 table linen, the door-bell that remains in the hand of the 
 dismayed caller, the damaged arm of the sitting-room sofa 
 that thunders to the floor at the least unwary touch." 
 
 " I '11 kick it off for a salute when I see him coming,"
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 3 
 
 proffered Bobby. " He '11 think it 's the cannon's bloody 
 roar." 
 
 Betty's giggle, checked by the frowns of the family, 
 subsided into a whimper, that presently developed into 
 sobs, as Bobby began to paint in lively colors the pre 
 sumable appearance of Colonel Jerome, in wampum and 
 war-paint, armed with bowie and six-shooter, and his 
 habit of lassoing children who talked too much in the 
 presence of their elders. 
 
 " But we '11 do our best by Dick's pard," he added. 
 " He shall have our one trustworthy chair, the solitary 
 cup that boasts a handle, the napkin kept sacred for 
 company; we will place him where he can feast his 
 eyes on the one good breadth of carpet, and will give 
 Betty timely instruction not to giggle if his martial 
 glance wanders from headquarters." 
 
 " I 'm going to sit up as late as Lou does every single 
 night Colonel Jerome is here," announced Betty, the 
 first to perceive a glimpse of the silver lining of the 
 portentous cloud. 
 
 "You would contribute more to the pleasing effect 
 of our hospitality by observing the proper occasion 
 for giggles and tears," suggested Bobby. " Now mind, 
 Betty," he went on authoritatively, "when I kick you 
 under the table so you are to laugh, and when I 
 wink like this you must cry." He accompanied 
 these instructions by practical illustrations that pro 
 duced a prolonged howl and a rubbing of the shins 
 on Betty's part, and a hobgoblin contortion of coun-
 
 4 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 tenance that would have made gravity difficult in the 
 presence of the most august. 
 
 " And you 'd better not bring those old mud hens you 
 shoot into the sitting-room, and you needn't clean your 
 bicycle in the dining-room and leave all the greasy rags 
 on the sideboard," retorted Betty. 
 
 "Do be quiet, Betty," said Nan, sharply. "If you 
 had any bringing up, you would not be so ready to 
 talk on every occasion. If Colonel Jerome comes, I 
 hope you will remember that children are to be seen 
 and not heard and that it isn't absolutely necessary 
 they should be seen, either." 
 
 "Betty is my charge," retorted Chris. "While you 
 are polishing up the family manners, you 'd better leave 
 off that big apron if you can bring yourself to part 
 with it for five minutes and that hideous black 
 sweeping-cap that makes you look like the hangman's 
 victim, and don't be so much in the clouds as to for 
 get to order dinner!" an allusion to a bygone epi 
 sode that was a stock weapon in her warfare with 
 Nan, and which never failed of effect. "And don't 
 have rice pudding for dinner more than seven times 
 a week," she added with personal rancor. 
 
 "And don't you be so elegant and finicky as to 
 think of nothing but your clothes, and talk to Colonel 
 Jerome the gossip you get out of the society columns 
 of the Sunday newspapers, as though you'd been at 
 every function of the past week when you don't even 
 know the people by sight I " answered Nan, breathlessly.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 5 
 
 " And Lou is to put a bridle on her tongue, and not 
 say any of Punch's things that had better be left 
 unsaid," added Bobby. 
 
 "We cannot make up to Dick for that which he 
 has truly lost," said Chris, presently, in a softened 
 tone; and with the words the frowning faces grew 
 thoughtful and the ill humor that had settled about 
 the breakfast-table seemed to melt away. 
 
 "We can at least try to make Dick's home-coming 
 pleasant, and welcome his friend as as she would have 
 done," said Nan, with a little choke in her voice. 
 
 "She would just have made the best of things, and 
 been so sweet and lovely that nobody would have 
 thought of the gone-to-pieces aspect of everything, 
 within and without," added Lou, partially forgetful 
 of her usual rQle. 
 
 "We're snobs for caring, anyway; and if Colonel 
 Jerome is an officer and gentleman, he'll see what 
 good fellows we are, and not mind a rap that we, 
 the descendants of Governor Thomas Dudley, are living 
 on our name and traditions," said Bobby, energetically. 
 
 " Listen 1 " said Nan, to whom in her exalted moods 
 no glass mountain was impossible of ascent, " this house 
 must be made presentable between now and Easter. 
 Much can be done in six months." 
 
 "It might as well be six years!" responded Chris, 
 partly from a confirmed habit of disagreeing with Nan, 
 and partly because of an eminently practical nature. 
 "Or perhaps, you think that china and glass and
 
 6 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 table linen are to be provided with the words, ' Little 
 table, spread yourself I ' " she added crushingly. 
 
 Nan unwontedly let the gauntlet lie unheeded. 
 
 "We will earn all the money we can this winter. 
 We will go without the new gowns we planned. We 
 will not make any Christmas presents except, of course, 
 to Betty," she added, as her little sister's brow clouded. 
 
 " I don't want any presents, either, if the rest of you 
 aren't going to have any," declared Betty, stoutly. 
 "And I'll save all my money, too, to have things 
 nice and pretty for Dick and Colonel Jerome." 
 
 " Things will be wearing out all the tune," observed 
 Lou, thoughtfully. 
 
 "I'll try and make my hens understand the situa 
 tion," said Bobby, cheerfully. "I'll declaim the Dec 
 laration of Independence and ' Horatius ' to them, and 
 see if it won't stir them up to patriotism and love 
 of martial glory." 
 
 Each of the others had her private income, scanty 
 though it was. That of Chris was derived from the 
 sale of embroideries; Nan's from brush and pencil. 
 Lou's pocket money was supplied by a small legacy 
 left by the aunt for whom she was named. Betty's 
 purse was filled from the rag-bag and a sheep on Dick's 
 ranch, the sum brought by its fleece being regularly 
 forwarded every shearing-tune. To judge by the tone 
 in which she referred to "my sheep," one might have 
 supposed Betty the owner of all the flocks that grazed 
 in the valleys of Montana.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 1 
 
 "As though we hadn't pinched and scraped already 
 to the last turn of the screw, to the verge of the 
 impossible," sighed Chris. But even in the uncom 
 promising words ky the admission that another turn 
 of the screw might be accomplished, the impossible 
 achieved. 
 
 The circle of youthful faces grew grave as the sacri 
 fices that would be required to compass the desired end 
 arose before them. How could Chris dispense with the 
 dainty boots and gloves that no ingenuity of needle or of 
 "making over" could provide? Nan had a thousand 
 ungratified wants, from a Dresden cup and saucer to art 
 instruction abroad. Lou's ever-present longing was for 
 a new hat when it was not for a bonnet. " Which, 
 hat or bonnet?" was Lou's life problem. 
 
 To be the most popular boy in Holbrook entailed 
 expenses that would have borne heavily upon a better 
 filled purse than Bobby's. The most serious item in 
 Betty's private expenditure was the purchase of a 
 certain confection known as a " jaw-breaker." This at 
 tractively named delicacy consisted of a granite slab in 
 which were embedded fossils that in prehistoric times 
 had been walnuts. In one respect, however, Betty's 
 favorite dainty was richly worth its modest price, for 
 a single "jaw-breaker" might have been warranted a 
 supply for the soundest teeth, the most tireless jaws, 
 for a good twelvemonth. 
 
 "She would not have thought it a sacrifice," said 
 Chris, in the tone that now and again gave a glimpse,
 
 8 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 faint and transitory though it was, of another nature 
 beneath the girlish aspirations and petty strivings that 
 dominated the present. 
 
 With the words, tacit consent seemed to be given by 
 each and all that the effort should be made, the sacrifices 
 consummated. For the voice that had somehow made 
 itself heard above the loudest chorus would not greet 
 Dick's home-coming. The face that had smiled from 
 the head of the table would not turn fondly upon the 
 boy who held the inalienable place of eldest born. The 
 laugh that had chimed so readily, in its softer key, with 
 the seldom silent mirth of the noisy brood, Dick would 
 never hear again. 
 
 A glance at the tall old-fashioned clock in the corner 
 warned Bobby of the approaching school hour, and the 
 family conclave was broken up. 
 
 Time was when the Dudleys held their heads as high 
 as did any of their neighbors. If they still did so, it 
 was from the consciousness of past glories and of innate 
 worth rather than from the present possession of worldly 
 advantages. The fine old Colonial mansion, notwith 
 standing its crying need of paint and repairs, was still 
 the show place of Holbrook. The roofs of the grapery 
 and hot-house had long ago fallen in. What had been 
 the rose garden, planted by old Governor Dudley him 
 self, was now a thorny labyrinth, with here and there 
 an abortive blossom to testify to former beauties. Of 
 the rare shrubs and trees set out by successive genera 
 tions there remained only the Judas tree, whose trunk,
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 9 
 
 describing a right angle midway of its growth, afforded 
 an admirable seat, by sitting close, for the entire present 
 family. 
 
 By unreckoned expenditure, and a mania for specu 
 lation, Paul Dudley had speedily reduced a competence 
 to an income that ill-sufficed for the growing needs of 
 a large family. A mortgage was laid upon the old 
 house ; the estate, with the exception of the garden and 
 lawn, was cut up into building lots ; opposite, a stately 
 mansion, with stables and conservatories, arose to mock 
 the ruins of the old Dudley mansion. Having got his 
 affairs into inextricable confusion, Mr. Dudley charac 
 teristically died. 
 
 Chris and Nan were not yet in long gowns, the 
 younger children were still in the nursery, when the 
 day came on which they were indeed left alone. 
 
 When it was known that they intended living, as 
 heretofore, in the home that had been theirs for gener 
 ations, relatives and friends held up their hands an 
 attitude which is more natural to most people than to 
 hold them out and exclaimed, "It is not proper. 
 They should have with them a Female Relative I " But 
 one and all of the young people, whether wisely or no, 
 scouted the phantasm of a chaperone as not only a highly 
 disagreeable concession to conventionality, but unneces 
 sary to their own condition. The two elder girls divided 
 the domestic cares between them; Lou's part in the 
 household economy was purely ornamental. 
 
 Chris was now eighteen. Long ago, Lou, in the
 
 10 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 satisfaction of her golden hair and blue eyes, had said, 
 "Chris, you can be good. I am a pretty little girl." 
 To which her sister answered thoughtfully, "No, I am 
 not pretty; but I can be fascinating." And that reply 
 still embodied the elder girl's attitude at the age when 
 the question of beauty is usually the paramount one 
 in a girl's life. With practical wisdom, too, Chris made 
 the most of the good points which in her impartial 
 self-appraisal she knew were hers. Her eyes might be 
 small of size and nondescript of color, her abundant dark 
 hair amenable only to painstaking care; the beautiful 
 full curves of her lips, perfect teeth, and a graceful 
 figure might fairly be set on the other side of the 
 account. 
 
 Nan was a year younger than Chris. As she would 
 have been satisfied, for her own portion, with nothing 
 less than the form and features of the Medicean Venus, 
 she could see no beauty in her own honest brown eyes, 
 nor in the silky hair, of curiously contrasted shades, 
 that was always slipping from its confinement, partly 
 by reason of its own weight and partly because its owner 
 was too careless of her personal appearance to take time 
 to secure it properly. Regret for the past, hurry in the 
 present, and an inveterate habit of borrowing trouble 
 for the future, combined with near-sighted vision to 
 give two little wrinkles between Nan's brows that at 
 times deepened to a frown with which she regarded all 
 humanity. 
 
 Lou had the good looks of the family, her sisters were
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 11 
 
 wont to aver, unchecked by Bobby's indignant assertion 
 of his own symmetry of form and feature. Into Lou's 
 lap, too, had fallen such rare plums of good fortune 
 as had been vouchsafed the young Dudleys. Besides 
 the legacy, she had once been invited to the mountains 
 for a week, by an old friend of the family, which gave 
 her a certain prestige in the home circle, as one who had 
 travelled. Having attended school at such times and 
 seasons as seemed good to her, the preceding June she 
 had packed up her books and declared her education 
 finished. 
 
 Nature, aided by devotion to athletic sports, had given 
 Bobby a breadth of shoulder and depth of chest that 
 gallantly matched his height, so that the designation 
 "our little brother" was one of affection and contradis 
 tinction rather than of fact. Bobby's eyes were always 
 twinkling with the fun their owner made for himself and 
 everybody else, and a mop of curly brown hair, of the 
 season's fashionable length, seemed to promise immunity 
 in the most hotly contested football match. Bobby was 
 just entering his last year at the High School. He had 
 returned, over night, from a summer's camping-out in 
 the Kangeley Lakes in company with Harry Luce and 
 Jack Burnham, his chosen friends. 
 
 After Bobby came a gap in the regularly descending 
 scale of ages, and the ranks were closed by ten-year- 
 old Betty, plump and rosy, with wide-open gray eyes 
 and thick brown hair, smoothly braided into a pigtail. 
 Her straight hair was the one cross of Betty's life. A
 
 12 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 salient feature of her individuality was her boots. She 
 never walked in them; she kicked and jumped and 
 stamped and pounded. As with the Psalmist, who 
 " was young and then was old," Betty's boots knew no 
 intermediate stage of decay. They were new, with a 
 nerve-rending creak; and they were old and full of 
 holes. Their owner cherished a secret conviction that 
 the Brownies in whom she had firm faith came by night 
 and danced in them; but she had never succeeded in 
 lying awake long enough to witness this unrighteous 
 proceeding. Betty's relations with the rest of the family 
 were somewhat complicated. She regarded Lou as her 
 equal and playfellow, who " put on airs " when she refused 
 to climb trees and promenade the tops of fences, or 
 to become a member of the juvenile "Nine" lately 
 organized in the neighborhood. For Chris she enter 
 tained the most unbounded admiration, regarding her 
 as the very model of young ladyhood, whose words and 
 acts were to be blindly imitated on every occasion. As 
 both Chris and Nan looked upon Betty's bringing up 
 as her especial affair, and as their ideas upon this subject, 
 as upon every other, were diametrically opposed, the 
 proper behavior of their little sister was a frequent 
 source of strife between them, often fomented by Betty 
 herself, who was not slow to perceive that she was sure 
 to be upheld by Chris in whatever course was frowned 
 upon by Nan. It was also Bobby's self-imposed task 
 to see that his little sister trod the straight and narrow 
 path of decorous young maidenhood. Betty settled
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 13 
 
 the vexed question of her education by growing up 
 exactly as she pleased. 
 
 A few hours after the discussion at the breakfast- 
 table, the elder girls were assembled in the sitting-room. 
 The big mending-basket was by Chris's side. Lou was 
 engaged in trimming a bonnet ; Nan, floury and dishev 
 elled from certain gala preparations in the kitchen, rested 
 from her labors in the springless depths of the old sofa. 
 
 " There go Miss Courtenay and Miss Herbert 1 " 
 exclaimed Chris. The younger girls crowded to the 
 window. 
 
 " What a lovely hat I " ejaculated Lou, making sundry 
 mental memoranda, as she scrutinized Miss Herbert's 
 tailor-made array. " I might use your old turban, Nan, 
 to make one like it." 
 
 " You might, if you could find it," returned her sister, 
 with the promptitude born of past exigencies, for Lou's 
 ideas of meum and tuum, when millinery was in question, 
 were none too rigidly defined, and she sometimes took an 
 unfair advantage of Nan's heedlessness to possess herself 
 of stray plumes or forgotten ribbons. In times of espe 
 cial stress Nan had even felt it advisable to take her hat 
 to bed with her. 
 
 "Miss Herbert is awfully good form, but she lacks 
 Miss Courtenay's charm, whatever that is," said Chris, 
 critically. 
 
 "Is she pretty?" queried the cook, subsiding with 
 unwonted meekness into the background, at Chris's 
 sharp remonstance.
 
 14 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " If you would wear glasses, you could see for your 
 self that she is very handsome," was the tart reply, for 
 Chris's equanimity was always disturbed by any ripple 
 of social stir, however remote, that reached her lonely 
 strand. Besides, Nan, detesting the formalities of social 
 intercourse, and cherishing a grudge against the people 
 who had possessed themselves of "our land," had de 
 clined to accompany her sister in the call enjoined by 
 etiquette upon their neighbor's guest. 
 
 " The trouble with Miss Herbert is that she is a little 
 too nice to be interesting," went on Chris, whose busk 
 and buckram, carefully adjusted for society, or donned 
 as armor in her warfare with Nan, was generally laid 
 aside in the abandon of the home circle. " She pauses 
 before every remark, to arrange its syntax and give you 
 time to reflect what a fool you made of yourself by your 
 last one. Holbrook will be gayer than ever this winter, 
 there will be so many congratulatory teas and things," 
 added the girl, wistfully. 
 
 "Who told you she and Mr. Louis Courtenay were 
 engaged?" queried Lou; for Chris, despite her social 
 isolation, contrived to be conversant with all the current 
 gossip, and even to assume an air of authority upon it. 
 
 "Everybody says so," she answered, with her most 
 positive air. "They came home on the same boat; the 
 deck of an ocean steamer is a place where people al 
 ways get engaged," she added, with the easy allusion of 
 one who has " crossed " many times. 
 
 " How did she dare fall in love with him ? " said Nan,
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 15 
 
 thoughtfully. " He is n't real. He is too perfect to be 
 flesh and blood. Some day that well-groomed phantasm 
 will vanish, like the false and fair Florimel, and leave 
 only his girdle, or, more appropriately, his suspenders, 
 behind. I don't believe his own mother ever calls 
 him Louis." 
 
 " As Mrs. Courtenay never calls anybody or anything 
 by its right name, it is quite as probable that she ad 
 dresses him as Joseph," suggested Chris. "If I were 
 Mrs. Courtenay, I think I could spend my tune more 
 profitably than in guessing Biblical conundrums, fond 
 ling that wretched poodle, and going to town to hunt 
 for 'remnants.' There isn't even the crumpled rose- 
 leaf in the Courtenays' life," the girl went on discon 
 tentedly ; " Miss Meg would not wear that serene smiling 
 face, if she knew anything of the petty vexations that 
 beset other people ! " Chris jerked her needle so sharply 
 as to break the thread with which she was sewing up a 
 jagged rent in Betty's frock. " I do wish Betty would 
 take pattern by that ladylike little Maud Courtenay," 
 she added, as a loud " Ul-la-loo-oo 1 " from without an 
 nounced their little sister's return from school.
 
 16 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER TWO 
 
 BOBBY was known throughout Holbrook as the 
 champion at tennis and golf. He was stroke on 
 the Holbrook crew in the interscholastic boat-races, 
 he had been on the staff of the Snark the school 
 journal since his entrance to the school, and this year 
 was to be its editor-in-chief. For the preceding twelve 
 months he had adorned the position of captain of the foot 
 ball team, an office never before held by a member of 
 the Middle Class, and was pointed out to adoring 
 Juniors as the fellow who on the first day of practice 
 had dodged past half of the first Eleven and scored a 
 touchdown, and who made the prettiest tackles ever 
 seen on the field. But what were any or all of these 
 distinctions compared to that of being Captain of the 
 School, with rank proclaimed to the nether world by 
 a glittering uniform, a sword dangling by his side and 
 frequently getting between his legs and a decoration 
 on his cap that held the eye of the beholder like unto 
 the rising sun! 
 
 When "the slate" was made up at the caucus held 
 just before the close of school, no other name than 
 Bobby's was even thought of for the position. So, 
 with mind at ease regarding his coming honor, and 
 no important work being done in the school-room until
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 17 
 
 the classes were organized, Bobby had lingered in 
 the Maine Woods with Lucy at whose expense he 
 was enjoying himself while Jack Burnham had re 
 turned to be present at the formal election of officers, 
 now a week ago. 
 
 "Bobby!" 
 
 As the word was passed from one to another, the 
 boys scattered about the school yard gave the Hoi- 
 brook yell with a vigor that caused Mr. Shattuck, at 
 an upper window, to glance anxiously at the panes. 
 A handshaking and back-pounding ensued that bid 
 fair to demolish the object of its welcome. Bobby's 
 voice and laugh were heard above the others as question 
 and exclamation tumbled one upon another, no one 
 pausing for response, till Bobby, whose eyes had been 
 roving hither and thither throughout the merry hubbub, 
 asked, 
 
 "Where's Jack?" adding absently, "What's that 
 about going West, Larry ? Who 's going West ? " 
 
 A sudden recollection of something forgotten in the 
 moment's excitement seemed to sweep over the boys and 
 hold their speech. Lucy's high-pitched voice, from the 
 edge of the crowd, broke the silence. 
 
 " Bobby I say, Bobby I The fellows have gone and 
 elected Jack Burnham Captain!" 
 
 The sense of the words was too incredible for Bobby 
 to grasp, and his friend's name was all that reached his 
 understanding. Where was Jack ? Why was not Jack 
 at hand to greet him ? He gave the call with which he 
 
 2
 
 18 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 and his chum were wont to signal each other, repeated 
 it again and once again. Jack could not be within 
 hearing, for when, before, had that far-carrying yodel 
 failed of its answer? 
 
 "Where's Jack what's happened to Jack?" he 
 questioned blankly. 
 
 The boys were looking at one another in an odd, 
 questioning way. It was not even a vague conception 
 of something wrong in the situation that held their 
 speech, but merely a general feeling of embarrassment ; 
 each waited for his neighbor to speak. For the first 
 time Bobby noticed that Taffy Dabney wore the straps 
 of first lieutenant, and that Larry Lyman's sleeve bore 
 the chevron of second sergeant. 
 
 " You did n't go by * the slate ' ? " he queried with a 
 surprise that seemed to surprise his fellows. "What 
 made you change it?" 
 
 There was still no answer. 
 
 "Who are the other officers?" asked Bobby, with 
 growing indignation that he, the acknowledged leader of 
 the school, should have been ignored in this incom 
 prehensible rearrangement. 
 
 "Lucy is first sergeant, and Peddy Seaton second 
 lieutenant," voluntered Taffy Dabney, at last. 
 
 "And what have you done about Jack?" thundered 
 Bobby, turning upon the last speaker. " Who told you 
 you could be first lieutenant ? If Jack has been left out 
 in this precious muddle, you can get another Captain ! " 
 Bobby's clinched fists, as he confronted Taffy, looked so
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 19 
 
 ominously like business that the new-made lieutenant 
 backed into the crowd, now on tiptoe with excitement. 
 
 " Here 's Jack 1 " shouted Lucy, from the background. 
 
 There was an audible sigh of relief as the boys fell 
 back to make way for the new-comer, who presently 
 found himself, seemingly without his own volition, in 
 the centre of the circle, face to face with Bobby. 
 
 Jack Burnham wore the uniform of Captain 1 
 
 For the space of a few seconds Bobby stood silent and 
 motionless ; the glittering epaulets, the burnished sword, 
 the insignia on the cap, seemed to be burning themselves 
 into his brain. In some way not yet understood, but 
 which would doubtless readily be explained, Jack had 
 been elected Captain in his place. In Bobby's mind was 
 no distrust of his friend ; only a vague wonder that Jack 
 did not speak and clear up the situation. 
 
 The crowd now included nearly every boy in the 
 school. The girls were on the outskirts of the excited 
 throng. The later arrivals, inquiring "What's the 
 row?" without receiving any answer, were struggling 
 to get near the chief actors in the scene. Lucy succeeded 
 in thrusting and wriggling himself forward, till, red as a 
 little turkey-cock, he stood by Bobby's side, confronting 
 Jack Burnham. In moments of excitement, stammering 
 got the better of little Lucy's powers of speech. 
 
 " You you you cheat 1 You you li I " 
 
 A heavy hand was kid upon his shoulder. 
 
 " Quit 1 " said Bobby, sternly. 
 
 " I won't quit 1 " sputtered Lucy, trying to wriggle
 
 20 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 out of the iron grip and gesticulating frantically at the 
 Captain. Bobby made only partial sense of the inco 
 herent storming. Lucy was always mixing things up; 
 but really, his present tempest was too idiotic to be 
 worth noticing ; Bobby laughed and relaxing his grasp of 
 his little henchman, gave him a good-natured shove. 
 
 " Lucy, you make me tired," he said. 
 
 " Jack Burnham told the fellows you were going out 
 West and so they put him in Captain instead of you," 
 shouted Lucy, without punctuation, but forgetting to 
 stammer. 
 
 Still Bobby refused credence to so monstrous a state 
 ment. Only from Jack's lips would he receive corrob- 
 oration of such a yarn, and from him it was impossible. 
 He turned, still half laughing, to his friend. 
 
 For the space of a few seconds he stood silent and 
 motionless. Jack's face was deathly pale; his lips were 
 quivering, his knees knocking together. The very un 
 expectedness of the revelation, that at the first shock 
 stunned him, now sharpened Bobby's wits, and the whole 
 situation was bare before him. 
 
 He had been tricked by his own familiar friend. Jack 
 Burnham was indeed a cheat and a liar. 
 
 Bobby's hands clenched ; he took a step forward. He 
 did not know what held him from knocking Jack down 
 and shouting the truth to the waiting crowd. The wild 
 anger that surged through his brain rang in his ears 
 and blinded him; a curious sensation of nausea almost 
 overcame him.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 21 
 
 " A new election, a new election ! " shouted Lucy, 
 capering about and gesticulating wildly. 
 
 Bobby's whirling brain re-echoed the words. A new 
 election would infallibly make him Captain, and as 
 inevitably send Jack Burnham to Coventry. How terri 
 ble a fate that would be to Jack, none knew so well as 
 his friend. The crowd hung, breathless, on Bobby's 
 word. 
 
 Unseen by any but Bobby, a look of piteous appeal 
 had come into the eyes that were shifting before his own 
 direct, scornful gaze. Bobby's hand relaxed. The word 
 upon his lips was stifled. Somewhere, somehow, out of 
 the reserve forces of his nature, was born his resolution, 
 and quick upon it he acted. 
 
 " I am going out West," he said calmly. 
 
 The boys gave vent to their pent-up excitement in a 
 rousing cheer, repeated and reiterated, and winding up 
 with the Holbrook yell. There was no exhilaration in 
 their voices. It was merely that something had dropped 
 out of their throats and they had to yell. 
 
 Lucy took no part in the ensuing hubbub of exclama 
 tion and question. " Oh, Bobby, don't go ! What '11 
 the football team do? Who'U be editor? Who'll be 
 Captain of the Canoe Club? Who'll be Captain of the 
 Nine? We'll lose the tennis cup and the golf cup. 
 Wow, wow, wow ! " While a feebler chorus on the out 
 side of the crowd echoed, " Who '11 lead the German ? 
 Who'll dance the two-step?" 
 
 " I 'm going as soon as I hear from Dick. I 've been
 
 22 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 thinking of out West for ever so long. I thought I 'd 
 drop around and see you fellows to-day. I shall have 
 my hands full, the next week or two, getting my outfit 
 together. I say, Lucy, quit ! " for Lucy was pounding 
 Bobby's back in excess of emotion. "You have a fist 
 like a trip-hammer." 
 
 "I'm going with you," cried Lucy. "I have some 
 money in the bank, and I '11 get a revolver and a horse 
 and Western toggery. I'm almost as good a shot as 
 you and don't scare worth a cent." His eyes sparkled 
 as this happy solution of the question arose before him. 
 
 " You will do nothing of the sort," returned Bobby, 
 crushingly. "You will stay at home and learn your 
 lessons and grow up a respectable member of society. 
 Besides, you would be homesick on the plains. There 
 would be nobody for you to be smitten on but Indian 
 squaws, who are old and ugly and smoke-dried, and 
 gobble up little boys who run away from home." 
 
 Unobserved, Jack Burnham had stolen from the crowd. 
 
 At recess, Bobby, in the highest spirits, proposed a 
 farewell "treat," and the horde of hungry schoolboys 
 started on a raid upon the "Empire Emporium," an 
 establishment that catered chiefly to the demands of the 
 boys, with a branch devoted to the tastes of younger 
 patrons. In the one dingy little window was displayed 
 the placard, " New and Original Novelties 1 " surmounting 
 a four-in-hand necktie of " Centennial " pattern, tintypes 
 of "Abraham Lincoln and his Family," and a few pe 
 riodicals whose dates were carefully concealed from
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 23 
 
 the public view. The signboard of the Emporium bore 
 the name " G. William; " but the proprietor a hollow- 
 chested, pink-eyed youth had been promptly rechris- 
 tened Griffith Bill, shortened for every-day use to Griff. 
 
 "Hi, Griff 1" 
 
 The shopkeeper grinned with vacuous delight as he 
 nearly doubled up under Bobby's thump on his back, and 
 hastened to obey the mandate, 
 
 " Turnovers for the crowd I Any root beer that did n't 
 come over in the Mayflower ? Griff, if you try to palm 
 off your stale goods on us this year, as you did last, we 
 shall transfer our custom to some other Emporium. 
 You 're getting rich too fast. We can't have any more 
 bloated aristocrats around here. Lucy is enough for one 
 community." 
 
 Lucy, after strolling about the shop, thrusting his 
 impertinent little nose into everything that aroused his 
 curiosity, and accompanying his investigations by a run 
 ning fire of tormenting comment, laid hold of a fish-horn 
 and proceeded to make such a din that several of his 
 mates wrested his possession from him. Then Bobby 
 seated him high upon an empty shelf, where Lucy sat 
 swinging his legs and whistling thoughtfully. Never 
 had Bobby's fun and laughter been more contagious! 
 At last, cakes and turnovers in hand, the boys rushed 
 from the shop, leaving Lucy on his perch. Speech was 
 a necessity with little Lucy, and he proceeded to pour 
 forth his pent-up feelings into the first channel that 
 offered itself.
 
 24 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 "Griff!" 
 
 " Hi ! " responded the shopkeeper, in a feeble, piping 
 imitation of Bobby's ringing tones. 
 
 " You should say, ' What, sir ? ' " said Lucy, reprov 
 ingly, pointing his forefinger at Griff's waistband, and 
 grinning with delight as the vacuous youth doubled up 
 under the occult influence of this demonstration. 
 
 " ' Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,' " 
 proclaimed Lucy. 
 
 " I did n't know it, I 'm sure " 
 
 " Sir," corrected Lucy, frowning. 
 
 "I'm, sir, sure," repeated Griff, apologetically. "I 
 haven't read the news. You see I have to get up 
 pretty early to deliver the morning papers, and then I 
 must open up here and be on hand to attend to trade. 
 I did see that the Queen of Holland was married, 
 though," he added, brightening. 
 
 "Are you a fool by force of circumstance, or were 
 you born so?" queried Lucy, with fair and feigned 
 solicitude. 
 
 "I don't know I guess I'll ask ma," quavered 
 Griff, -who always lost the few wits he had under these 
 scathing cross-examinations. 
 
 "I'm going to tell you something, Griff," went on 
 Lucy ; " only mind, if you blow " He slowly raised 
 his index finger, and the miserable youth collapsed as 
 though hinged in the middle. " Bobby is n't Captain, and 
 there's been some trick played, I 'm sure, though Bobby 
 pretends it's on the square. You didn't know that
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 25 
 
 Bobby had a brother out West, Griff, because you don't 
 know anything, and even that you 're not sure of." 
 
 " Bobby going out West 1 " 
 
 Griff's chin dropped, and a peculiarly vacant expres 
 sion came into his eyes, as though they were turned 
 inward. 
 
 " When you do that, you look more like an idiot 
 than ever," said Lucy. It was seldom, indeed, that 
 he was out of temper, but Bobby's theory that snubbing 
 was healthy for his valiant little henchman had failed, 
 that morning, to bear fruit. " Bobby did talk, when 
 we wore at Rangeley," he continued, "about going 
 West. It was one morning, in particular, after we 'd 
 been fishing. But I know he had no more real idea 
 of going, then, than either Jack or I. That was why 
 Jack was in such a precious hurry to get home, when 
 Bobby and I wanted to go up the Cupsuptic. By 
 cracky! " a mysterious adjuration used by Lucy when 
 laboring under the greatest excitement, "just you wait 
 till I get the cinch on Jack Burnham ! I '11 bet any 
 thing you like against your Emporium that Bobby never 
 said a word to Jack at Rangeley that I did n't hear." 
 
 " Oh, no 1 " Griff hastened to reassure his guest. 
 
 " If you mean anything by that, come on 1 " said Lucy, 
 doubling up his fists. 
 
 " Oh, but I did n't," answered the young shopkeeper, 
 in alarm. "I I never mean anything." 
 
 "Griff, I pity your family for having to live with 
 such a creature," sighed Lucy.
 
 26 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 "It was the way it was worked at the Chicago Con 
 vention," said Griff, with a puny effort to vindicate his 
 intelligence. " Jack Burnham was clever." 
 
 Lucy slid from his perch, and almost choking with 
 wrath, advanced upon Griff, who, retreating step by step, 
 brought up against the wall, where he stood with shak 
 ing knees, while Lucy gesticulated threateningly before 
 him. 
 
 " That 's what you call clever, is it ? It 's no wonder 
 that white folks won't go into politics." 
 
 "I I guess I wouldn't say anything," advised Griff. 
 " It 's generally best to let things go." 
 
 " Maybe it is for worms," retorted Lucy, " and that 
 is why they get trod on." 
 
 " If Bobby really goes West, I don't know what I 
 shall do," said Griff, drawing a rag from his pocket 
 and applying a corner to his red eyelids. "I know I 
 should should feel tur'ble." 
 
 " You would not feel * tur'ble,' " returned Lucy, with 
 decision. "There is no such word, and consequently 
 no such emotion, in the English language. I wish you 
 would pay more attention to your parts of speech, Griff," 
 he went on severely. "That new placard of yours is 
 really painful to the educated eye. * Look ! The Cheapest 
 in the World! And Come In.' If you will tell me 
 what that * And ' joins together it is a rule of rhetoric 
 that a conjunction should connect something I 'd 
 be eternally obliged. And your goods are not the 
 cheapest in the world. They are the dearest and
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 27 
 
 the worst. Besides," added Lucy, with flagrant dis 
 regard of his own strictures in the use of conjunctions, 
 " what is it to you whether Bobby goes or stays ? He 
 never notices you unless you are under his feet. You 
 couldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole." 
 
 And the shopkeeper looked miserably aware of the 
 truth of his tormentor's words. 
 
 After Lucy's departure, Griff took down his ledger 
 and gazed long and lovingly at the list of items on a 
 certain page. 
 
 " If Bobby does really go West," he thought, feeling 
 for his handkerchief again, " I '11 make him a present of 
 the receipted bill." 
 
 Bobby remained closeted with Mr. Shattuck for some 
 tune after the close of the session. It was no secret in 
 the school that he was prime favorite with the gentle, 
 kindly old man, who had presided over the education of 
 several generations of Holbrook schoolboys. When a 
 young man, Mr. Shattuck had taken his degree at the 
 bar, but being penniless, had accepted the position of 
 principal of the high school in his native town, hoping 
 to work his way gradually into the practice of his 
 legitimate profession. But tune went on, and one day 
 he made the discovery that he was past middle age, and 
 that something had stolen over his ambition, nay, his 
 very faculties. He had long ago ceased to attend the 
 Barristers' Club, of which he was once regarded as a 
 shining light, and had lost sight of his classmates, with 
 the exception of his former chum, Judge Luce, with
 
 28 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 whom he still spent an occasional evening of reminiscent 
 enjoyment. 
 
 "If you have fully made up your mind to go, God 
 bless you, Bobby," said the old man, " although I hoped 
 for another career for you. I have never had a pupil 
 who seemed to me so fitted, by every natural endowment, 
 for the Bar. I thought, too, that though active service 
 was forbidden me, I might be permitted to aid in fitting 
 out a substitute. My law library was considered, in its 
 day, a fine one." Only the tremor in Mr. Shattuck's 
 voice hinted of that dead ambition. 
 
 His sisters were awaiting Bobby on the piazza. Chris 
 was flourishing her mending, Nan brandishing her apron, 
 Lou waving the new bonnet, while Betty hopped wildly 
 about, getting into everybody's way. 
 
 "You'll look awfully swell in your uniform," cried 
 Chris. " You 're the tallest Captain the school ever had ; 
 I wish you'd cut your hair, a military clip is so 
 stunning 1 " 
 
 " Everybody voted for you, of course ? " queried Nan, 
 eagerly. 
 
 "I drilled you, Bobby. I think you ought to make 
 me aid," chimed in Lou. 
 
 "We've real 'lection cake for dessert, Bobby," an 
 nounced Betty. "It's a surprisement. I helped stone 
 the raisins. It has *H. H. S.' in pink curlicues, on 
 the roof. You '11 let me take a little teenty-tonty piece 
 to school, won't you, for Evangeline? She doesn't 
 have plum cake at her house."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 29 
 
 " I 'm not Captain," said Bobby, quietly, with one foot 
 on the stairs. 
 
 "Not Captain I Who is?" came in an amazed trio, 
 with the whimper, solo, "Ooo hoo! Then we 
 can't have any 'lection cake I "
 
 30 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER THREE 
 
 A NETWORK of strings traversed Bobby's room, some 
 apparently running wild, others connecting with 
 mysterious arrangements of blocks and pulleys, by which 
 Bobby, while in bed or at his labors at the desk, could 
 by a dexterous jerk bring down the window-curtain, 
 open the door, or cause a pillow, nicely balanced on its 
 lintel, to descend upon the head of the unwary visitor. 
 A string attached to a cracked dinner-bell was fastened 
 to the head-board of the bed, and running through a hole 
 in the floor, was secured in like manner in the room 
 below. Lou was afflicted with the nightly conviction 
 that the house was to be robbed, and that her room was 
 the objective point of the burglar's covetous desires. 
 Her last act, before going to bed, was to conceal her 
 hat or bonnet on the top shelf of the closet, behind 
 an artful array of boxes and bundles, being apparently 
 possessed by the idea that the burglar wanted it for his 
 wife. Then she sank to peaceful slumber, in undis 
 turbed reliance on her little brother's stalwart arm and 
 the weapon that reposed within its nightly grasp, a 
 policeman's billy without any lead in it, presumably 
 deemed efficacious for the moral force that might linger 
 about it ; and in happy ignorance of the fact that Bobby 
 had long ago removed the tongue of the bell, after being
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 31 
 
 aroused sundry times on false alarms by a discordant 
 ding dong in his ears. 
 
 Another string rang out of the window to enter, in a 
 house not far distant, the room occupied by Jack Burn- 
 ham. When some scheme of mutual interest required 
 attention in the early hours, one end of this string was 
 tied to the great toe of either boy, the plan being that 
 the one who awakened first was to arouse the other by a 
 vigorous pull at his end of the line. But however admi 
 rable in theory, the invention was not without its flaw in 
 practice ; for lulled into false security by the expectation 
 of being aroused in due season by a friendly tug at his 
 toe, both boys slept peacefully on till breakfast-time. 
 
 On one side of the room was a star formed by bats, 
 foils, a paddle, and a tennis racket. The remaining wall 
 space was covered with pictures of battles, executions, 
 and shipwrecks, cut from the illustrated newspapers, 
 and colored after a broad method, all Bobby's own, with 
 paints filched from Nan's studio. At one end of the 
 room was a bench piled high with bottles containing 
 mysterious compounds of divers colors and densities, 
 boxes of various sizes and unknown uses, coils of wire, 
 tangles of string, nails, screws, carpenters' tools, old 
 mustard cans, lumps of rosin, junks of tar, balls of clay, 
 several jack-knives, none with a complement of blades, 
 a jelly pot of flour paste with a silver tablespoon 
 imbedded in it, a collection of bugs, a preserve-jar im 
 prisoning a little green snake and an unwashed kettle 
 indifferently used to melt lead and to cook " pemmican,"
 
 32 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 concocted after an original recipe, when a course of 
 De Long and Nansen had inspired Bobby with ambition 
 to discover the North Pole. Although derided in the 
 home-circle, the " pemmican " would no doubt have been 
 devoured gladly by the gallant Arctic explorer in the 
 stage of starvation succeeding that in which he had 
 eaten his boots. Over this bench was a placard, in flar 
 ing letters, designed to ward off Chris's duster and 
 Betty's prying fingers, " Dynamite 111" 
 
 On the bureau was the photograph of a group of 
 boys, eleven in number, clad in knickerbockers, and in 
 sweaters emblazoned with a huge " H." A little fellow 
 with dark curly hair and eyes with an unmistakable 
 twinkle sat, Turk-fashion, in the foreground, with the 
 big ball clasped lovingly in both arms. Behind Lucy 
 was seated George Dabney, a fat boy with a solemn 
 face and bristly hair that, erecting itself over round eyes 
 and elevated eyebrows, gave him the appearance of 
 having just seen a ghost. On either side of Taffy 
 Dabney sat Frank Seaton, whose eyeglasses, stock of 
 general information, and an omnivorous habit of reading 
 had won for him the sobriquet of Pedagogue, shortened, 
 for convenience, to Peddy ; and Herbert Lyman, a pleas 
 ant-faced lad, commonly known as Larry, for no other ap 
 parent reason than because that was not his name. In 
 the background stood the big tackle, Wilbur or Hay ti 
 Richards, the evolution of whose nickname presented 
 a study in schoolboy philology, Wilbur, Wib, Web, 
 Cobweb, Cobby, Cuba, Hayti.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 33 
 
 Towering above the other members of the football 
 team, stood Bobby, with his arm linked in that of a 
 tall, slender lad with a delicate oval face and fair hair 
 cut straight across a handsome forehead; the mouth 
 was beautiful in its curves of almost girlish sensitive 
 ness, but the chin, though well moulded, receded too 
 much for character. About the room were other 
 photographs of the same boy in various attitudes, 
 but always arm in arm with Bobby, and always, as 
 though by some natural law of attraction and support, 
 leaning slightly toward the more stalwart lad. 
 
 Conspicuous on the bookshelf was the "Life of 
 Daniel Webster," a volume whose shabby covers and 
 well-worn leaves testified to the devotion with which 
 it had been read. Before the old-fashioned desk was a 
 chair, forever glorious in the eyes of its present owner 
 as having once belonged to the great " Expounder of the 
 Constitution," before his name was spoken beyond the 
 confines of a country village. It was a black-painted, 
 ugly little chair, incommodious of seat and disquieting 
 of motion, with short and stubbed rockers that might 
 well have taught the incipient statesman the instability 
 of human greatness. Somewhere in Bobby's mind, 
 never expressed, and but vaguely realized even by 
 himself, lay the thought that about the chair hovered 
 all the poetry and possibilities of a pre-eminent man 
 hood, as hi that obscure New Hampshire law office, 
 before Daniel Webster went forth to his great career. 
 
 Bobby's head had rested on his outstretched arms 
 
 3
 
 34 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 since twilight fell on the letter upon which he had 
 been laboriously engaged since his return from school. 
 
 " Robin, Robin 1 " called a voice at the door. 
 
 "Come in," responded Bobby, seizing his pen and 
 assuming a preoccupied air. 
 
 "How can I come hi when the door is locked?" 
 queried Lou, plaintively. "Or do you expect me to 
 enter like a witch, through the key-hole?" 
 
 The door was flung violently back. 
 
 "What do you want?" demanded Bobby, gruffly. 
 
 " Supper is ready. I thought you might be hungry," 
 hesitated Lou. "You didn't have any dinner, you 
 know; none of us would touch the cake, not even 
 Betty. We don't want to sit down at the table again 
 without you, Robin love." 
 
 Lou, who had tried to guard her lips from any 
 expression of ungrateful sympathy, at this unfortunate 
 slip turned to flee, followed by the response, made with 
 labored indifference, 
 
 " Did n't hear the supper-bell. I '11 be down in a jiff ! " 
 
 The others had learnt, ere this, who was Captain, from 
 Susie Grossman, Lou's most intimate friend, who had 
 been amongst the girls on the parade ground when the 
 exciting scene of the morning took place. 
 
 Bobby entered the dining-room almost as soon as Lou, 
 by way of a short cut over the baluster, with a jovial 
 greeting that deceived nobody, and with hair belabored 
 to such satin smoothness as to betray the fact that 
 emotion had recently set it on end. He bore his part
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 35 
 
 manfully, both in talking and eating, throughout the 
 meal, and when they were all assembled afterward in 
 the sitting-room, fell in with Chris's suggestion that 
 they play at capping poetry, a pastime which she 
 hated, but of which Bobby was inordinately fond. Then 
 Lou proposed a game of checkers, which generally 
 ended abruptly in a war of words, for Bobby was given 
 to holding long legal dissertations at every debatable 
 point, and Lou always insisted on her right to take 
 back any move that afterthought showed to be unadvis- 
 able. But on this occasion she yielded meekly to every 
 " No fair " from her opponent, and even allowed herself 
 to be ignominiously beaten. Betty neither cried nor 
 giggled, her only misdemeanor being to fasten round, 
 immovable eyes upon her brother, in the pleasing hope 
 of surprising him in tears. 
 
 Then Bobby and Nan declaimed in unison several 
 poems. Both performers despised sentiment, and always 
 selected for these elocutionary duets the most stirring 
 battle-pieces, rendered at the top of their lungs. The 
 entire family joined in "Ivry" with a solemn pause 
 after the line, 
 
 " ' And if my standard bearer fall ' " 
 
 Thomas Dudley, gentleman and soldier of fortune, 
 had fought under Henry of Navarre; and it was one 
 of the young Dudleys' most treasured shibboleths that 
 their ancestor was the very standard bearer alluded to 
 in the poem.
 
 36 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " Now let 's sing ' Captain John,' " said Lou, and stood 
 aghast. 
 
 Silence followed, till Bobby gallantly flung himself 
 into the breach; the others, one by one, joined in. 
 But when the chorus was reached, 
 
 " Vive le John, Vive le John, 
 Vive le Captain John 1 " 
 
 even boyish endurance faltered. 
 
 "I'm going to bed. Good-night," said Bobby, and 
 bolted. 
 
 He dropped into the chair that had been Daniel 
 Webster's, where he did all his work and thinking, and 
 whence were issued those challenges that had brought a 
 long series of glorious victories to the gallant Holbrook 
 Eleven. 
 
 Vaguely it seemed to the boy as though a challenge 
 against overwhelming odds had reached him from some 
 distant, unknown field, which must be played backed by 
 no gallant team, and stimulated by no plaudits from a 
 ring of enthusiastic spectators. 
 
 He read the unfinished letter on the desk again and 
 once again : 
 
 DEAB DICK, I have been thinking for some time that 
 I should like to come out to the ranch. I have not said 
 anything about it yet to the girls, beyond dropping a hint 
 now and then, that the wild and woolly West afforded a 
 better scope for my talents than these scenes of an effete 
 civilization. But they do not take kindly to the idea of
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 37 
 
 being left without a masculine protector. You need not 
 trouble yourself to answer this letter, as there would be no 
 time. I intend to start " 
 
 Slowly, very slowly, Bobby tore the letter to frag 
 ments, that, one by one, he dropped into the waste- 
 paper basket. 
 
 " It would n't be the square thing 1 " he thought. 
 "The girls have behaved like bricks. I can tell old 
 Shattuck and the fellows that Dick is coming home, 
 so they need n't think I 've backed down. I must 
 face it out somehow and not blow on Jack I"
 
 38 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 
 
 " TT THAT in the world is Betty doing?" demanded 
 V V Nan, fretfully. " She has been up and down 
 stairs a dozen times in the last ten minutes ! " A tre 
 mendous thump at every step announced some burden 
 in Betty's arms in her last ascent, and a prolonged giggle 
 apparently greeted some one above. 
 
 "Playing with Evangeline and Maud Courtenay," 
 answered Lou, who was hurrying to keep an engagement 
 with Susie Grossman. Chris was in town on one of 
 those afternoons of aimless wandering in which her 
 discontent sought solace, and to which she was wont 
 to refer as necessitated by "innumerable errands," with 
 the preoccupied air of one whose tune is amply en 
 grossed by social duties. Nan presently left the house 
 to sketch a certain favorite group of willows by the 
 river, and the children had full sway at home. 
 
 Since Colonel Jerome's approaching visit had become 
 the chief subject of family discussion, Betty had been 
 the self-appointed chairman of a committee of ways and 
 means for the proper entertainment of the expected 
 guest. Her first project was to supply the requisite 
 funds by writing a book. The title of the projected 
 volume was "The Young Housekeepers, or Life in 
 America."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 39 
 
 " Nice comprehensive title 1 " commented Bobby. 
 " Why don't you call it ' Girls, or Life in the World? ' " 
 
 The first chapter of this work, of indeterminate length, 
 was read to Chris, who responded with a warmth suffi 
 cient to have satisfied the requirements of any but a 
 budding author. 
 
 "I don't want you to say it's 'very good,' or 'very 
 prettily written,' " sobbed Betty ; " I want you to say, 
 * It 's perfectly splendid I ' ' 
 
 Literary aspirations thus nipped in the bud, the next 
 scheme was to paint a picture, of heroic size, of which 
 a public exhibition was to be given. The subject was 
 "The Day of Judgment;" the imagery of the "Book 
 of Revelation," as interpreted by the artist's imagina 
 tion, supplying the data. The Flood was also repre 
 sented, while, with magnificent disregard of anachronism, 
 a whale, with Jonah's legs disappearing into his interior, 
 disported in a lurid expanse of vermilion and scarlet 
 lake. Water naturally suggested a bridge, and as that 
 which spanned the Holbrook River was the only one 
 with which the artist was familiar, an electric car was 
 added to the composition. Unfortunately for the world 
 of art, Nan discovered the larceny of her best brushes 
 and most expensive paints, and Betty was left wailing 
 over her unfinished masterpiece. 
 
 The crushed author and artist descended to trade. 
 Molasses candy seemed to offer an easy and agreeable 
 road to the wealth that was denied loftier aims. Betty 
 and her chosen friend, Evangeline Bean, went into
 
 40 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 partnership, forgetting to turn off the spigot of the 
 molasses keg, to the unbounded disgust of Bobby, who 
 on his next visit to the furnace found himself ankle- 
 deep in a sticky morass. The two children set up shop 
 with a toy dining-table and two big rocking-chairs, near 
 a convenient gap in the hedge; without was displayed 
 the placard, "Merlassess Candy for Sail. Price One 
 Cent." 
 
 It was in the contract that if either partner wished 
 to regale herself from the stock, she should pay a penny 
 to the other member of the firm. Neither Betty nor 
 Evangeline could understand, when the financial basis 
 of operations was thus sound, why at the end of an hour 
 the candy had disappeared, and the entire assets of the 
 firm should consist of the original penny in Betty's 
 pocket. 
 
 Evangeline or, as her mother had preferred to 
 christen her, Evangeline Bean was a preternaturally 
 tall, thin girl with a shrill high-pitched voice, and not 
 over-clean wrists projecting from sleeves fringed with 
 soiled and tawdry lace. When she made her appearance 
 at school, there was a general disposition to avoid her. 
 It was not so much the fact that her mother was a 
 washerwoman that told against her in the estimation of 
 the Holbrook children little aristocrats, in unconscious 
 imitation of their elders, though they undoubtedly were 
 as her unabashed swagger in the face of the general 
 disfavor, her open disregard of rules, it was considered 
 ill-bred in the "Dudley Primary" to disobey one's
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 41 
 
 teacher, and a disagreeable trick of giving a "last 
 tag " to any one in her vicinity, with a violence that sent 
 the victim of her sport reeling. 
 
 But Betty Dudley, whom every one liked, and who 
 lived in the oldest house hi town, stood stoutly up for 
 the plebeian new-comer. She insisted that Evangeline 
 should be included in the games at recess; and if the 
 other little girls did not greet her politely when they 
 met, then " They need n't say ' Hullo I ' to me, either," 
 declared Betty. This valiant championship had its 
 effect, so that the present haughty fling of Evangeline's 
 skirts that always made one side of her frock appear 
 shorter than the other testified to a social status equal, 
 nay, superior to any in Holbrook. Particularly in her 
 relations with Betty, did Evangeline feel that the main 
 tenance of a proper dignity demanded the unfailing asser 
 tion of opinions diametrically opposed to any expressed 
 by her friend. 
 
 Maud Courtenay, on the contrary, yielded meekly to 
 Betty's sway, although their natural predilections were 
 at variance. Maud delighted in playing "keep house," 
 and in providing wardrobes, all in the latest fashion, 
 for a large and interesting family of children. Betty 
 had but one child, a rag baby whose lease of life was 
 nothing short of miraculous, considering the hair-breadth 
 escapes from Indians and shipwrecks, sharks and wolves, 
 in which, with her dauntless mamma, she had borne a 
 part. She had been flung as a sacrifice to heathen 
 crocodiles; she had felt the wheels of Juggernaut
 
 42 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 represented by a wheelbarrow pass over her tender 
 body, and had many times given up her life upon the 
 scaffold; Bobby's mechanical ingenuity of late having 
 taken a sanguinary form, and Milly was a wilh'ng victim 
 at least, so far as her mamma was concerned for 
 gallows or guillotine. If, on a rainy afternoon Betty 
 was beguiled into making a sorely needed garment for 
 this worse than orphaned child, the task was accom 
 plished by snipping a hole in a rag, slipping Milly's 
 head through, and girdling her with a bit of twine. 
 
 Philly Carr a fair-haired, dimpled little fellow, whose 
 mission in life seemed to be that of being petted and 
 " cuddled " completed the dramatic company that 
 Betty's tireless endeavor had now organized. Although 
 too young for a speaking part, Philly was an invaluable 
 member of the troupe, as he could be utilized as baby 
 or Puck, cherub, pappoose, or newsboy, as the exigencies 
 of the drama required. While the managerial staff, 
 consisting of Betty and Evangeline, consulted regarding 
 the preliminary arrangements, Philly pounded the floor 
 with a pair of Indian clubs surreptitiously obtained 
 from Bobby's room, and Maud tried the effect of the 
 various wardrobe properties upon her pretty face and 
 dainty figure, casting backward glances of intense satis 
 faction as she promenaded the room in Chris's best black 
 silk gown. A new idea presently seizing Philly, he 
 seated himself upon the trailing breadths, on which 
 improvised sledge Maud dragged him up and down 
 the room, to the speedy detriment of seams and gathers.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 43 
 
 "Those of the audience who want a chair must pay 
 two cents, while one cent should be the price for seats on 
 the floor," stated Betty. 
 
 "They'll all sit on the floor," retorted Evangeline. 
 " The floor is about as good as a chair, when the chair 
 has n't any legs or arms or back, and not much of any 
 seat," a proposition which, however incontrovertible in 
 the abstract, plainly called for contradiction in the special 
 instance. 
 
 " I thank you, if you please, Miss Bean ; but we have 
 plenty of chairs that have just as many legs as you 
 have," answered Betty, who, too generous to retort un 
 handsomely, sought by superior elegance of language 
 and manners to show Evangeline delicately, but un 
 mistakably, the difference in their social status; but, 
 unhappily, Betty's elegance frequently got in the way 
 of coherency. " Besides," she added, " we prefer to put 
 our old chairs in the attic, instead of in the drawing- 
 room for best, if you please, for company to come 
 down ker-splash on the floor," an allusion to a recent 
 catastrophe in the Bean drawing-room, which was also 
 dining-room and kitchen, that momentarily silenced 
 Evangeline. Betty was not slow to perceive and follow 
 up so unusual an advantage. 
 
 " I suppose you never heard of Colonel Jerome, Evan 
 geline ? " she inquired with pitying condescension. 
 
 " Who might he be ? " queried the guest, recovering 
 her poise. 
 
 " He is a friend of my brother's, who is coming all the
 
 44 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 way from Montana to visit us," explained Betty. " He 
 is the nephew of his uncle and owns the interior of the 
 earth." 
 
 " Is it there he lives ? " queried Evangeline, with 
 finely assumed interest. 
 
 " I guess if you knew all the gold and diamonds there 
 are inside of us, you 'd wish you knew him I " Betty's 
 imagination, fanned by Bobby's happy flight of fancy, 
 took fire from her own words, and she continued : " All 
 Colonel Jerome has to do when he wants money is to 
 take his knife and scrape away the earth and dig up 
 heaps of gold dollars. Perhaps you'll see him when 
 he comes down the street," she kindly held out the 
 hope. 
 
 " How will I know him from any other man ? " 
 questioned Evangeline, with a manifest sarcasm that 
 goaded Betty to higher flights of fancy. 
 
 " He is ten feet tall, and wears a buffalo robe over 
 his shoulders, and carries a tomahawk and a big club," 
 she described. As she spoke, she could actually see 
 her brother's friend, in his classic-Indian attire, strid 
 ing beneath the elms of quiet Holbrook. " He has 
 epaulets on his shoulders that make him invisible," 
 she went on, "and a sword a fairy gave him. When 
 the nindians see him coming, they run. But he steps 
 along after them, soft-gee-whiz, a mile a minute, 
 and cuts off every one of their heads and kills them 
 fatally dead. And then he shakes his big club at the 
 rest and laughs * Ha ha 1 "
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 45 
 
 " I think it 's wrong to kill the Indians, when they 
 welcomed Columbus so kindly to these shores," said 
 Evangeline, taking refuge in virtue and history. "I 
 presume likely that your brother has killed a good 
 many, too." 
 
 " I thank you, if you please, but if my brother kills the 
 nindians, my sister sends the loveliest bonnets to them," 
 returned Betty, letting drop no corner of her dignity. 
 
 "Hoi for mourning?" queried Evangeline, with a 
 show of reason. 
 
 " For morning and for evening," answered her friend, 
 loftily ; " she trims them for the oppyrah ! " 
 
 Lou had once lent her talent to St. Barnabas' annual 
 consignment to the Indians. An uprising in the neigh 
 borhood of Dick's ranch, that filled the home circle with 
 alarm, was ascribed by Bobby to the effect of this 
 millinery. 
 
 The utility man, who had been listening, open- 
 mouthed, to the description of the Dudleys' desirable 
 guest, rolled off his sledge with a howl of terror. " I 
 want marmar," he roared, running to the door as fast 
 as his fat little legs would carry him. 
 
 " Oh, no, Philly dear, the giant sha'n't get you I " 
 cried Betty, putting her arms around the little fellow. 
 " Besides, he 's a good giant, and he '11 give you a ride 
 on his shoulders." 
 
 " Want a wide now," lisped Philly, drying his tears. 
 
 " Evangeline and I will carry you round the room 
 in an easy-chair," proposed Betty.
 
 46 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 By the time the third round was completed, Philly 
 had forgotten his terror; his bearers, depositing him 
 in an old crib, fastened him in till such time as his 
 services should be required. 
 
 " I shall be Lady Katharine Douglas," began Maud. 
 " I choose this feather for my hair," displaying a dirty 
 yellow plume of which not much was left but the quill. 
 Lou could never bring herself to part with anything 
 in the way of feather or flower, although the treasured 
 " millinery-box " was little more than a euphemism for 
 rag-bag. "The lining of this quilt, with ink spots, 
 will look like ermine, and that cape will make a lovely 
 train." Maud eyed admiringly a mantle of bottle-green 
 moire antique that might have dated back to the days 
 of the Puritan founder of the house of Dudley. " Tliere 
 is a picture of Lady Katharine in the library at home," 
 she added. " Sometimes sister Meg sits and looks at it 
 without speaking." 
 
 "What did she do?" questioned Betty, who liked 
 to hear stories as well as to write them. 
 
 Maud had listened to the dauntless deed of brave, 
 beautiful Lady Katharine so many times that she could 
 repeat the tale almost in her sister's own words. 
 
 " King James of Scotland rode forth with a great 
 company to hold a feast at Perth," she began. " When 
 he reached the river, he was met by an old woman, who 
 warned him to go no farther ; * for,' said she, * 't is 
 known that upon a November eve a King of Scotland 
 shall be slain.'
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 47 
 
 " How 'd she know ? " queried Betty, practically. 
 
 " Witch," suggested Evangeline, succinctly. 
 
 " Sister Meg says there are no such people as witches," 
 returned Maud. 
 
 " The Bible says so," maintained Evangeline, taking 
 refuge again in virtue. " Besides, there 's * Old Sukey ' 1 " 
 
 " Old Sukey " was a personage who lived under the 
 cellar stairs at school, lying in wait to seize by the legs 
 and drag into captivity any unwary little boy or girl who 
 ventured into the basement after dark. No mortal eye 
 had ever beheld this uncanny old woman, but her exist 
 ence was an established fact in the minds of all the Hoi- 
 brook children, so that Evangeline's allusion was accepted 
 as indisputable evidence of the existence of witches. 
 
 "Don't you interrupt again!" commanded Betty; "it 
 isn't polite!" 
 
 "King James laughed the old woman's words to 
 scorn," Maud resumed. "He reached the castle in 
 safety ; as midnight drew near, the revelry waxed loud 
 and high, and none heard the tramp of mailed feet 
 in the courtyard, till all at once arose the cry, swelling 
 from a murmur to the loud, fierce demand, 
 
 "'The King, the King!' 
 
 "Traitors were hot upon .the track of King Jamie! 
 Even at that awful moment there were some who did 
 not lose their presence of mind. Behind the arras of 
 the banqueting-hall was a panel that opened into a 
 secret passage leading to the postern gate. The King 
 might thus escape if only a few minutes could be
 
 48 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 gained. Some of his friends rushed to secure the outer 
 door, but the traitors had been before them, and the bolt 
 was gone. 
 
 " Then Katharine Douglas ran to the door and lifting 
 her arm, placed it as a bar. The next moment blows, 
 hot and heavy, rained without upon the panels, but she 
 did not falter until her arm was broken and she fell, 
 senseless, to the floor. Then the traitors rushed in, but 
 the King was no longer there 1 " 
 
 "Didn't they get him?" questioned Betty, breath 
 lessly. 
 
 "Yes, they did, after all," answered Maud. "They 
 set off in pursuit, and overtook him before he had gone 
 very far." 
 
 "Pohl then what good did it do? Lady Katharine 
 had her pains for nothing," scoffed Evangeline. 
 
 "It's lovely to hear about, anyway," replied Betty, 
 " and it makes me wish I could do something splendid 
 for somebody, too 1 But there are n't any kings nowa 
 days, and all the doors have locks." 
 
 " I 'd rather have been the witch," commented Evange 
 line. "She had more sense than to give herself away 
 for nothing." 
 
 "I wonder which I 'd be?" pondered Maud. 
 
 "It'll make a splendiferous tableau, anyway," said 
 Betty, returning to business. " Philly can be the armed 
 traitors and drum outside the door." 
 
 " I can drum Peter Piper," called out the utility man, 
 enchanted with his r81e.
 
 THE CAPTAJN OF THE SCHOOL 49 
 
 "But they didn't know Peter Piper in Scotland," 
 objected Maud. 
 
 " It 's my house," returned the stage-manager, firmly. 
 " I don't care whether they knew Peter Piper in Scot 
 land or not; if they didn't, they'd oughter. When 
 people pay two cents for a show, they want their 
 money's worth. I 'm going to be the King. You can 
 kick on the door, Evangeline, but don't you come in till 
 I tell you to." 
 
 "If I'm going to do anything, I am going to do 
 it before folks," rebelled Evangeline. "You needn't 
 think you can poke us all into the entry and have the 
 stage to yourself, if it is your house, Betty Dudley! I 
 mean to be an angel. I '11 be dressed all in white, with 
 wings covered with red, white, and blue. We'll put 
 Philly to bed, and I shall be bending over him, singing, 
 'Angels ever bright and fair,'" warbled Evangeline, at 
 the highest pitch of her thin, nasal voice. 
 
 Philly, overhearing the allusion to the one event of 
 his little life of which he stood most in dread, succeeded 
 in scrambling out of the crib and made the best of his 
 way home. 
 
 Maud, tired of " dressing up," soon after slipped from 
 the room, and Betty and Evangeline, finding themselves 
 deserted by the rest of the troupe, decided that the 
 rehearsal should be considered at an end. 
 
 "Do you have ice-cream at your house?" queried 
 Evangeline. 
 
 "What do you s'posel" answered Betty, scornfully.
 
 50 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 "We have it 'most every day for dinner and supper. 
 We have chocolate and vanilla and strawberry; and 
 sometimes we freeze bananas and cherries in it. Oo, 
 oo ! " and she pursed her rosy little mouth into an 
 expression of ineffable rapture. 
 
 " Let 's make some now," suggested her friend. 
 
 " We have it so much I 'm sick of it," returned Betty. 
 " I '11 read you the ' Young Housekeepers,' instead." 
 
 "I guess you needn't," answered Evangeline, hastily. 
 " I think I '11 be going home now, since you don't dass 
 make ice-cream. Last tag ! " She held up two crossed 
 fingers in token that a return "tag " would be innocuous. 
 
 Betty's thirst for society rendered the threat of "go 
 ing home " an always potent one, while anything in the 
 nature of a " dare " would have been at any tune suffi 
 cient motive for her to risk her neck. 
 
 "Oh, well, Evangeline," said she, loftily, "if you 
 would like some ice-cream, I don't know but what 
 we '11 make it. We '11 take the freezer into the dining- 
 room, because it's pleasanter than the kitchen al 
 though I'm sure your kitchen is a beautiful room." 
 added Betty, hastily. "Your stove is always so nice 
 and shiny, and the clothes-horse is so kind of sociable. 
 It looks just like a screen." 
 
 After prolonged effort, the two children succeeded in 
 fitting together the several parts of the freezer. The ice 
 was then put into napkins and well pounded with the 
 pastry-pin. 
 
 " You must beat the eggs one at a time," announced
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 51 
 
 Bet'ty, with a confused recollection of seeing Nan at 
 work. 
 
 Evangeline followed these directions with so much 
 vigor that the cup into which the egg was dropped was 
 speedily shattered. 
 
 " Our only whole cup ! " wailed Betty, momentarily 
 forgetful of the family magnificence. "Put them in 
 whole ; eggs are eggs," she added philosophically. " I 
 didn't tell you to put in the shells, too, Evangeline 
 Bean." 
 
 " It slipped out of my fingers," explained Evangeline, 
 fishing unsuccessfully for the fragments. " Maybe you 'd 
 like to do some of the work yourself," she suggested, as 
 Betty, kneeling in a chair, with her elbows on the table, 
 continued to give forth her mandates. "Sugar and 
 plenty of it. You must keep turning all the tune, or it 
 will stick. Let me taste." 
 
 After the mixture had been tasted to the extent 
 of several liberal spoonfuls, Betty decreed that there 
 should be more sugar. Evangeline thought the con 
 trary. In the ensuing altercation over the sugar-bowl, 
 each child tugging in a contrary direction, the pretty 
 Wedgwood bowl parted. Evangeline fell over back 
 ward, with a wild clutch at the table-cloth, that brought 
 plates and glasses with her to the floor ; and Betty, in an 
 effectual effort to keep her balance, plunged both knees 
 through the seat of her chair. These mishaps put an 
 end to any further experiments in ice-cream making, par 
 ticularly when another peep into the can revealed the
 
 52 THE CAPTAIN- OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 fact that the specky, blotchy mixture was still liquid, 
 the necessity of adding salt to the ice being unknown to 
 either operator. 
 
 " A watched pot won't boil ; maybe a watched freezer 
 won't friz," suggested Betty. "Let's leave it and go 
 play 'I spy.' 
 
 Meanwhile a stream of dirty water, impregnated with 
 rust, continued to pour from the neglected bung-hole, 
 hopelessly staining tablecloth and carpet. The rest of 
 the family were assembled at the tea-table when Betty 
 appeared, her rosy little face rising like a flower from its 
 calyx, from out the Puritan collar that in moments of 
 its wearer's excitement always inverted itself. A chorus 
 arose like unto that which greeted " Little Golden Locks " 
 in the house of the " Three Bears." 
 
 " Who spoilt our only table-cloth and reduced our last 
 napkins to rags ? " demanded Chris. 
 
 " Who ruined the one good breadth of carpet on which 
 Colonel Jerome was to fix his gaze ? " queried Nan. 
 
 " Who smashed the last cup and broke the seat of the 
 only whole chair ? " questioned Lou. 
 
 The glow left "Little Golden Locks'" face as she 
 looked beseechingly from one to another of her sisters ; 
 her eyes began to fill. 
 
 "But it is not of the slightest consequence," assev 
 erated Bobby, politely. " It was merely an idle impulse 
 that led us to inquire. Life in the wigwam has, doubt 
 less, led Colonel Jerome to despise table-cloths and nap 
 kins, as evidences of an effete civilization. He will
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 53 
 
 prefer a tin dipper to a cup ; the thought that we have 
 no whole chair to offer him need not weigh upon our 
 souls. Colonel Jerome never sits down; he belongs to 
 the standing army." 
 
 "Wha-at?" 
 
 " Betty, be silent 1 " said Bobby, warningly. " To have 
 a joke explained is a blot that has never been upon our 
 'scutcheon."
 
 54 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 
 
 MRS. COURTENAY called this afternoon and 
 invited us, Nan and me, to a party to-mor 
 row evening," announced Chris, at the supper-table. 
 " It is just an impromptu little affair for Miss Herbert," 
 she added, in the off-hand manner of one to whom 
 "little affairs," formal or informal, were every-day 
 matters. 
 
 "Dear me, I must make a note in my engagement 
 book," observed Nan, caustically. 
 
 " Didn't she ask Lou and me, too ? " demanded Betty. 
 " I don't care, I call it mean 1 " she went on wrathfully, 
 as Chris responded sharply in the negative. " The longer 
 I grow older, the more I don't go out so much I " 
 
 " Betty," said Bobby, in a tone of gentle remonstrance, 
 " an eminent authority has stated that ' the Greek became 
 little and hungry and every man's errand-boy, all from 
 his spirit of competition and love of talk.' " 
 
 " My precious Robin 1 " ejaculated Lou, who if her 
 little brother had voiced sentiments of burglary, assault 
 and battery, and incendiarism, would have still beamed 
 fond approval. 
 
 " Mrs. Courtenay is a fat, waddlesome old lady," pro 
 nounced Betty. " Every tune she sees me she asks how
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 55 
 
 old I am, and if I like to slide on the cellar door. I 
 should think she 'd know by this time that I don't grow 
 a year a day, and I never slid on a cellar door in my 
 life 1 " After this ebullition of feeling Betty subsided 
 into unwonted silence, listening eagerly the while to the 
 discussion between her elders that followed. 
 
 " Mrs. Courtenay said that we were to be sure to come 
 early," said Chris. " I consider nine o'clock quite early 
 enough for any evening function," she added loftily. 
 
 "What shall you wear?" questioned Lou, with 
 interest. 
 
 " Betty spoilt my black silk gown just as I had re 
 modelled it," sighed Chris, her bright anticipations 
 momentarily clouded. " One always feels prepared to 
 go anywhere with a black silk dress in her wardrobe. 
 But no matter," she went on, in her usual happy way of 
 making the best of things ; " they are wearing so many 
 combinations and colors this winter that I can easily get 
 up something pretty and picturesque between now and 
 to-morrow night. You '11 go, won't you, Nan ? " she 
 added anxiously. " I 'm ashamed always to carry your 
 regrets." 
 
 "You haven't had to carry them but once, because 
 we 've never been asked anywhere before except to Mrs. 
 Carr's to tea," answered Nan, who was sadly given to 
 pricking the little bubbles of her sister's social aspira 
 tions. "And you didn't want to go there yourself, 
 either, because you said Mr. Carr always conversed with 
 you about St. Paul."
 
 56 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " ' There is a worthy kind of man, with cobwebs in his head, 
 Who lives in sweet communion with the ages that are dead,' " 
 
 assented Chris, merrily. 
 
 " Besides, I 've nothing to wear but year before last's 
 gown," continued Nan. " But I '11 help you," she added, 
 with a generosity whose root may have been the percep 
 tion that so handsome an offer would be a short and 
 easy way out of any fancied necessity of going to the 
 party herself. Chris gratefully accepted the proffered 
 assistance, and began planning how to evolve something 
 out of nothing. 
 
 Faithful to her promise, early the following morning, 
 Nan entered her sister's room, to find Chris busily 
 engaged in snipping at an old white corduroy coat of 
 Betty's infancy, somewhat to the indignation of its 
 whilom owner, who had claimed it for the rag-bag. 
 Lou was lovingly turning over the contents of the 
 millinery box, and Betty, having successfully begged 
 for a holiday, sat on the edge of the bed, a deeply inter 
 ested spectator of the gala preparations. 
 
 " I 'm making it like that," explained Chris, nodding to 
 a fashion book, open at a plate of an elaborate " picture " 
 gown supposed to represent the costume of a court 
 lady of the time of Sir Peter Lely. " Bobby's old green 
 velveteen knickerbockers will make the vest, and the 
 Marguerite pocket will hide the worn place on the front 
 breadth of the skirt, the old figured taffeta that 's been 
 hanging in the attic for the last fifty years, you know," 
 she concluded triumphantly.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 57 
 
 "Shall you wear pockets on your elbows, too?" in 
 quired Nan, with an air of polite interest. 
 
 " If you 've come to make fun, you 'd better go back 
 to your paints and mud-pies I " retorted Chris, sharply. 
 
 " I 've come to help," answered her sister, meekly, 
 chafing her nose with her thimble by way of penance. 
 " But just from weak-minded curiosity, would you allow 
 me to ask what you are going to do about sleeves, or 
 did n't Sir Peter like sleeves ? " For it was the weak 
 point in Chris's dressmaking that sleeves either failed 
 to enter into her calculations at all, or by periodical 
 fits of temporary insanity were cut both for one arm. 
 For a moment she looked nonplussed. Then came 
 inspiration. 
 
 " Betty, fetch me Great-Auntie's cape ! " she cried. 
 Betty, delighted to be of service, clattered up over the 
 stairs and down again, bringing the bottle-green moire 
 in which Lady Katharine might have defied the armed 
 traitors. " It 's a direct Providence," cried Chris, joy 
 ously, for the mantle proved a perfect match for the 
 velveteen, and spreading out its voluminous folds, she 
 added triumphantly, " There 's plenty of material for 
 those three big puffs," nodding to the banded balloon 
 sleeves of the picture. 
 
 Even Nan was forced to an admiring admission of her 
 sister's cleverness. 
 
 " Only, somehow," she added dubiously, " things look 
 so different on paper from what they do made up. 
 Your simple gowns are always a success, at least you
 
 58 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 look like a lady in them, even if they are threadbare; 
 but it requires a professional hand to fashion a gown 
 like that and not have it rag-tag. Home society and 
 home sympathy, although sometimes a little too pressing, 
 may be very sweet; but when it comes to home dress 
 making and home millinery, my vote is for Foreign 
 Manufacture and Free Trade." 
 
 But having thus freed her mind, she fell to work with 
 such hearty good-will as to assure efficient aid. The 
 slow-moving needle ill-suited Nan's impatient fingers ; 
 at the sewing-machine, however, she was in her element. 
 It was as though a whirlwind had taken possession, 
 when, with a vigorous turn of the wheel, and volts 
 of energy directed to the treadle, she set off on a breath 
 less race, unheedful of basting threads stitched in by the 
 way, and sublimely disregardful of the necessity of 
 fastening ends on a single-thread machine. But steadily 
 as the two girls worked, it was not till after a hasty tea 
 that the final stitch was taken, the last furbelow arranged, 
 and Chris viewed herself complacently in the mirror by 
 the somewhat uncertain light of the only lamp that 
 happened to be filled, the student lamp having subsided 
 into its phase of eclipse. In this twilight the image 
 was one to give satisfaction. A soft little yellow 
 feather in her hair harmonized admirably with the bunch 
 of chrysanthemums, her own flowers, that she hugged 
 to her breast closer than did ever the Spartan boy his 
 ill-gotten gains, for much piecing and patching of 
 the velveteen, that proved to be sadly worn about the
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 59 
 
 knees, had been necessary to insure the graceful folds 
 approved by Sir Peter. Her fan, an elaborate affair 
 of silk gauze, Watteau painting, and ivory sticks, a 
 birthday gift of long ago, would be surpassed by none 
 there, and her gloves, eked out to a suitable Length 
 by the addition of several " mousquetaire " wrists, col 
 lected from the family, did credit to her own ingenuity 
 and Nan's vigorous scrubbing with crayon rubber. 
 
 By an unusual exercise of self-restraint, Nan refrained 
 from criticism, Lou's encomiums were soul-warming, so 
 that Chris set off for her first grown-up party filled with 
 the pleasantest anticipations and the parting injunction 
 to Bobby to call for her in due season. 
 
 As she approached the opposite house, she noted with 
 momentary surprise that the drawing-room was not 
 so brilliantly illumined as one would have expected 
 for the occasion. Miss Meg came swiftly forward from 
 the library with cordial greeting. It was not till Chris 
 had thrown aside her " opera cloak " with airy noncha 
 lance, saying, in her most pronounced " society " manner, 
 " So good of you to remember us in this delightful way I " 
 that a sudden wave of doubt swept over her. Miss Meg's 
 attire was merely a pretty house-gown, and no buzz of 
 conversation was audible from library or drawing-room. 
 The thought whirled through the girl's brain, " Could 
 she have been mistaken in the evening. Was it later 
 than she supposed?" 
 
 As she beheld the elaborate gown, some fineness of 
 intuition, aided by the sudden look of dismay on Chris's
 
 60 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 face, may have given Miss Meg a clew to the situation, 
 for she said quickly, 
 
 "It was so good of you to come! I wanted Miss 
 Herbert to meet our neighbors ; there is so little oppor 
 tunity of getting acquainted in the crowd and rush of 
 a tea, you know, that I thought I would venture to 
 ask you and your sister to spend a quiet evening with 
 us." 
 
 Chris was hardly conscious of her reply, for at that 
 moment to the agonized realization of her blunder 
 was suddenly added the sight of her own reflection in 
 the wide hall mirror. What a fantastic figure it was, 
 as ridiculous as Betty, " dressed up " in cast-off finery I 
 Yet even at that awful moment the girl's self-possession 
 did not desert her, and giving smiling assent to Miss 
 Meg's query, "Shall we join the others?" she followed 
 her hostess to the library. 
 
 Upon its threshold a worse shock awaited her, and for 
 a moment she stood in a sort of nightmarish paralysis. 
 On the sofa sat Betty, very erect and very complacent, 
 in the evident consciousness of suitable and becoming 
 attire. What appeared to be the fleecy lining of an 
 old quilt, liberally splashed with ink, was draped 
 about her shoulders. An ostrich feather of which little 
 was left but the quill was stuck into her braid at the 
 nape of her neck, and depending loosely over her head, 
 vibrated with every movement. Her hands, encased 
 in an old pair of Bobby's white cotton drill gloves, 
 from which a twisted length of finger tips projected like
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 61 
 
 a fakir's nails, wafted to and fro a huge feather fan, 
 upon which was depicted a bird of Paradise embowered 
 in cabbage roses. 
 
 " What will they think of us ? " thought Chris, miser 
 ably, as, scarcely knowing what she said, she exchanged 
 greetings with the others. At the first opportunity she 
 made her way to the sofa. Betty's nonchalant air was 
 a study. 
 
 " Go home this instant 1 " whispered Chris, sternly. 
 "What do you mean by coming here like this, you 
 naughty girl?" 
 
 " I thought probably Mrs. Courtenay forgot to ask 
 me," answered Betty, in a strident whisper. "You 
 know she always disremembers how old I am. Oh, how 
 sweet you do look, Chrissy I " and Betty gazed into her 
 sister's face with a fervor of innocent admiration. " The 
 patch on your skirt doesn't show a bit, and nobody 
 would ever guess that your waist was just nothing but 
 Bobby's old knickerbockers, truly. My dress is like a 
 picture, too ; " and Betty nodded to a portrait over the 
 mantel to whose costume her own array did, indeed, 
 bear a sort of burlesque semblance. "When does the 
 party begin, Chrissy?" 
 
 Miss Herbert became absorbed in her needlework. 
 Grave Mr. Courtenay raised his newspaper to the level of 
 his eyebrows. Young Mr. Courtenay coughed slightly, 
 and Miss Meg arose, with the evident intention of coming 
 to the rescue of her hapless guest. Chris, with a rapid 
 change of base, made a last desperate appeal.
 
 62 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " Do go home, there 's a dear, and I '11 give you my 
 coral necklace," she pleaded. 
 
 " Will you truly, for my ownty donty ? " cried Betty 
 rapturously, at the top of her voice. " Oh, yes, I '11 
 go home just as soon as we have had the ice-cream 
 and snappers. Besides, you know, you told Bobby not 
 to come for us till quarter of twelve." 
 
 In the excitement of the munificent offer, Betty 
 jumped from the sofa and set one foot firmly on the train 
 of her sister's gown. Chris turned hastily, as Miss Meg 
 approached. Crick went Nan's careless stitching, and a 
 yard or more of the ruffles that had judiciously eked out 
 the scanty breadths lay upon the floor. Betty, left mis 
 tress of the field, giggled with the peculiar zest that an 
 accident always exerted upon her risibilities, and Miss 
 Meg went down on her knees with condolence and phis. 
 
 How the remainder of that dreadful evening passed, 
 Chris could not afterwards have told clearly. Miss 
 Meg's efforts at conversation fell, one after another, 
 to the ground. Miss Herbert palpably tried to reduce 
 her remarks to the level of the intelligence of this 
 shy, awkward girl, who seemed incapable of responding 
 even to the veriest commonplaces. What could her 
 friend have meant by telling her of those " three bright, 
 pretty girls and the dear, funny child across the way ? " 
 
 "The last resort for the stupid," thought Chris 
 bitterly, as young Mr. Courtenay produced some foreign 
 photographs, and with pleasant comment tried to interest 
 the guest.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 63 
 
 Meantime Betty, on the sofa, was watching her sister's 
 every movement, copying with ludicrous fidelity each 
 turn of Chris's head and wave of her fan, in such perfect 
 faith that she could not go astray with so faultless a 
 model, that every moment Chris grew more miserably 
 conscious that it was only by a supreme effort of good 
 breeding that her hosts were able to suppress their 
 laughter. 
 
 The appointed hour came and went; but Bobby did 
 not appear, and when at midnight Chris faltered that 
 she must go home, she had had a most delightful 
 evening, it was young Mr. Courtenay who escorted 
 her and Betty across the way, Chris silent with morti 
 fication, and Betty chattering in high glee as she clasped 
 their companion's hand. The elder girl's spirit had been 
 brought too low for her to utter a word of reproach, 
 and Betty went to bed supremely happy over her good 
 time. 
 
 On Chris's tardy appearance at the breakfast-table, she 
 was greeted by a shower of questions concerning the 
 previous evening. 
 
 " It is the strangest thing that I cannot go anywhere 
 without this entire family thinking they have the right 
 to know everything that was said, done, worn, and 
 eaten," she responded pettishly. 
 
 "Of course we expect it," answered Bobby, blandly. 
 " It was part of our charter of rights and liberties, drawn 
 up when we agreed to be a family, to have a free and 
 full statement of all the acts, thoughts, and intentions
 
 64 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 of every individual therein, to be delivered at the table, 
 in common council assembled. This unprecedented and 
 unwarrantable silence on your part conceals something 
 which it is our duty to fathom." 
 
 At this moment Betty entered the room, still beaming 
 with the recollection of last night's festivity. 
 
 " Did n't we have a be-you-tiful time, Chrissy ? " she 
 began. " Nobody wore gloves but Chrissy and me," she 
 went on, turning to her interested audience. "There 
 was nobody there but us. We had the party all to 
 ourselves, didn't we, Chrissy?" 
 
 The direct appeal was more than flesh and blood 
 could bear. 
 
 " It was very naughty of you to go, Betty," answered 
 Chris, sharply, "and I was greatly mortified at the 
 way you looked and behaved." 
 
 " And so was I mortified, too, at the way you looked 
 and behaved," retorted Betty, wrathfully. " You 
 dropped all to pieces, and Miss Meg had to pin you 
 together, and you stayed so long that Mrs. Courtenay 
 fell asleep in her chair and snored; and I don't care," 
 wailed Betty; "you're always telling me I mustn't 
 say ' What ? ' to everything, and you said it yourself 
 four times when Miss Herbert asked, * Were n't we 
 having fine weather ? ' ' 
 
 An expressive silence followed these revelations, suc 
 ceeded by a chorus of laughter. 
 
 " I hope I shall be as much of a success when I come 
 out," suggested Nan. " I told you the dress would be
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 65 
 
 ridiculous. You 'd better keep to the costumes of the 
 present century and not rely on Sir Peter for the 
 fashions." 
 
 " That you, hitherto regarded as the show member of 
 our family, should thus bring discredit upon your fond 
 and trusting little brother and sisters 1 " chimed in 
 Bobby. 
 
 " There were at least six pieces in the wrists of those 
 gloves. None of them matched," added Lou, reflectively. 
 " I thought I would n't tell you, last night, because it 
 might have made you sort of uncomfortable," she added, 
 with sisterly consideration. 
 
 " There never was such a family ! I 'm sure it 's 
 very unkind of you all," said Chris brokenly, push 
 ing her chair from the table. " It was a perfectly natural 
 mistake," she added, with a futile attempt at dignity. 
 " Mrs. Courtenay never gets anything straight, and how 
 was I to know that when she spoke of * company ' she 
 wasn't referring to a party at all, but only to Miss 
 Herbert?" 
 
 For a while Chris was exceedingly vulnerable to any 
 allusion to that unfortunate evening; but by degrees 
 she became less sensitive and even, at last, stonily indif 
 ferent, when Bobby offered excuse for his tardy appear 
 ance at the breakfast-table with the words, " A ball last 
 night given by some friends in the ' Beyond ' kept me 
 up beyond our usual primitive hour of retirement at 
 eight o'clock." Or prefacing his entrance into the room 
 by thrusting his head cautiously through a crack of the
 
 66 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 door, he would whisper, " Is there a party here ? One is 
 likely to stumble on a party, these dark nights, at any 
 corner ; " and slowly emerging into view in a robe 
 fashioned from a Navajo blanket and announcing, " My 
 picture dress ! " with a flourish of an imaginary toma 
 hawk, he would swoop upon Betty, who showed her 
 appreciation of her brother's humor by a torrent of 
 mingled tears and giggles. 
 
 But, undreamt of by Chris, a tune of wonderful 
 brightness was in store for her, and it was out of the 
 darkness of that memorable evening that it was to 
 dawn.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 67 
 
 CHAPTER SIX 
 
 " ^HOULDER arms. More snap. I saw you wink. 
 
 1<J Try that again. Don't breathe ! " 
 
 Lou, with Bobby's " soldier " cap on her pretty head, 
 went through the manual with the glibness of a drill- 
 sergeant, till " Parade Rest " was reached, the company 
 grounded arms and saluted. 
 
 " Very good, Robin. Colonel Jerome himself could n't 
 do it better," said Lou, approvingly. 
 
 "Officers don't carry guns," explained Bobby, pa 
 tiently. Not but what Lou, for a girl, was fairly con 
 versant with military tactics and had already proved 
 herself an efficient drill-master. 
 
 " More 's the pity," she responded equably. " I would 
 carry a gun if I were a brigadier-general, one of the 
 kind that shoots the enemy before he 's in sight, and no 
 fair shooting back." 
 
 "Let's go into the garden, and get some nuts for 
 the candy," suggested Bobby. 
 
 Sunday morning all of the family went decorously to 
 church. In the afternoon they followed the bent of 
 their individual inclinations. Chris was at the piano 
 warbling, with her head on one side, the fragment of 
 a sentimental ditty,
 
 68 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " Meet me to-night, dearest, down by the gate ; 
 Longingly, anxiously, for thee I wait " 
 
 Bobby had scoffingly supplied the remainder of the 
 quatrain, 
 
 " Hustle, because I have stood here a year, 
 Longing and anxious for you to appear ! " 
 
 Nan bent herself to the recovery of articles " lost or 
 missing" during the week, generally by reason of her 
 own carelessness or absent-mindedness, but which she 
 darkly hinted had disappeared by some one's connivance 
 or through some mysterious bogy agency. 
 
 " I would keep memoranda of the places where I put 
 things," she said despairingly, "only I should lose the 
 memoranda too." 
 
 " So you would," assented Chris, laughing. 
 
 "You needn't be so ready with your response," re 
 torted Nan, with unlooked-for acerbity. " One may 
 make a prayer, but nobody wants the clerk to say 
 Amen I ' " 
 
 Lou had been conjuring up a faithful imitation of 
 a bonnet seen during the morning service. Betty and 
 Evangeline were making molasses candy. 
 
 The squirrels had already possessed themselves of 
 the nuts, and Bobby and Lou, seating themselves in 
 the crotch of the Judas tree, watched the little crea 
 tures as they chased one another along the piazza or 
 over the lawn, in the happy immunity from harm that 
 had been theirs for generations. 
 
 " Lou, I have an awful lot of worries," began Bobby,
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 69 
 
 and ran his fingers through his hair. Every morning 
 could Bobby say, with Brutus, "This parting was 
 well made ! " But at the first mental perturbation the 
 rebellious locks were reduced to the bang despised by 
 their owner as " sissy," but regarded by Lou as the 
 most irresistible of her little brother's attractions. 
 
 "I hope it won't make your hair fall out, Robin 
 dear," she returned tenderly. "I couldn't love a bald 
 little brother." 
 
 " The fact is, Lou," Bobby went on, " I have not 
 a penny hi the world, and I am head over ears hi 
 debt, besides. I was under so many obligations that 
 the other day, when I treated, I cleaned out the Em 
 porium. But Griff can wait, and so can Lucy I owe 
 him a little jag, too. But I 'm in a regular fix about 
 the Snark. There is no doubt but what it has been 
 running down hill for some time. I've such a lot to 
 attend to, particularly now it 's football season, that I 've 
 had to leave a good deal of business to the assistant 
 editors. Taffy Dabney is business editor, you know. 
 He can work to beat the band when he 's fit, but after 
 he 's been stuffing with taffy and fudge, he 's good for 
 about as much as a bag of meal. He has a wheel in 
 his head, too, half the tune, and then the affairs 
 of the Snark get left. He doesn't go the rounds 
 after ads., he has n't canvassed the school for new sub 
 scriptions, or shown any enterprise in getting names 
 outside. His private credit, too, is n. g., and that has 
 reflected to a damaging extent on the paper. Last
 
 70 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 year he borrowed a little jag of Lucy, who always 
 has money to burn, then struck Hayti to pay Lucy; 
 and when Hayti went for him, got a lend from Jack, 
 till he'd gone through the class, the size of the loan 
 increasing with each fellow he struck, till his rotary- 
 debt amounted to a tidy lot. He 's working up the 
 Juniors now, and I think it's a beastly shame!" con 
 cluded Bobby, warmly. " Taffy 's smart there 's no 
 doubt of that and we thought we were doing a 
 good thing when we made him business editor, but 
 his methods are not o. k." 
 
 "Doesn't Lucy pull fair?" inquired Lou, sympa 
 thetically. "He's exchange editor, isn't he?" 
 
 " It 's Lucy who 's going to be the ruination of the 
 Snark" groaned Bobby. " He 's a smooth fellow all 
 right, except when girls are hi it, and then there's 
 no reckoning on him. Since he's been friends with 
 Susie Grossman, we've been brought to the verge of 
 bankruptcy. The public will not subscribe to a pe 
 riodical conducted on our present system." 
 
 The last number of the Snark had contained a 
 love story by Susie Grossman who wrote under the 
 nom de plume of " Psyche " that had been dragging 
 its slow length along since the journal had come 
 under its present management. A full-page poem 
 entitled " Drif ting or Sailing ? " moral enough to have 
 swamped all the Sunday-school literature in the land, 
 and several sonnets and "Monodies" considerately la 
 belled " Thoughts," also signed " Psyche." In addition,
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL Tl 
 
 there was an article on the planet Mars, adapted by the 
 exchange editor who dabbled lightly in astronomy 
 from a recent article in the Popular Science Monthly. 
 Into the meagre space that was left, was crowded the 
 news from the ball field, a few paragraphs concerning 
 the "Company," and a lively column headed "Per 
 sonal," the last-named department bringing on, regu 
 larly, a pitched battle between the editorial staff and 
 those honored by the journalistic notice. 
 
 " I wish the fellows would send more copy," Bobby 
 continued. " It 's no use telling them it 's their duty to 
 build up the paper, for the credit of the school. They 
 say the Snark isn't a credit, but a crying disgrace; 
 that all the other schools laugh at it, and it's only 
 fit for a Sunday-school kindergarten, and they won't 
 subscribe themselves, and are ashamed to ask their 
 relatives and friends to subscribe. You don't know 
 what an editor has to contend with! Besides, there 
 will never be room for live up-to-date articles as long 
 as Lucy is smitten on Susie Grossman. Look here ! " 
 
 The harassed editor turned his pockets inside out, and 
 disentangled several sheets of fashionable-hued paper from 
 out a mass of nutshells, pieces of string, football keys, 
 apple-cores, and "wobs" of linen, that had done duty, 
 indifferently, as handkerchiefs, towels, bicycle rags, and 
 bandages for bruised fingers. 
 
 " All this stuff is from ' Psyche,' or ' Pishy,' as Lucy 
 ignorantly calls her. I don't know why she should 
 have chosen such a pseudonym, for her appearance is
 
 72 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 less suggestive of the butterfly than of the grub. But 
 if she would only be more cheerful in her literary style, 
 I would overlook any extravagance in her conception of 
 the fitness of things. Here 's a * Requiem.' It begins, 
 
 ' Now wherefore this sorrow and sadness, 
 
 And wherefore this heart-rending moan ' 
 
 "I wrapped the bait in some of the copy the other 
 day, when we went fishing, and Lucy got mad and 
 said our contributor's articles should be treated with 
 more respect. But I think it was the worms who should 
 have kicked. Here 's another, called * Desolation,' 
 
 * Oh, cooing dove in yonder tree, 
 
 Had I your plumy wings of snow, 
 I 'd spread them wide and soar and flee 
 
 Beyond the reach of all below, 
 From care and strife and sorrow free.' 
 
 " I wish she would soar and flee to to Sirius, and 
 that Lucy would soar with her, and do his billing and 
 cooing hi another than the solar system," groaned the 
 editor. " Lucy calls that a * gem.' He actually ex 
 pressed that opinion in the editorial column I The 
 other fellows put it on me, and the exchanges have 
 all been asking for more 'gems.' Lucy is positively 
 so befogged by his love affairs that he takes all the 
 chaff as a genuine tribute to * PishyV genius, and is 
 more puffed up in his own conceit than ever. What 
 awaits us hi the near future if this sort of thing con 
 tinues, no fellow can say. If I beg Psyche to boil 
 down her productions, you 'd think I was referring to
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 73 
 
 her grandmother ; and if I venture to cut out a syllable 
 from her poems, some of the lines have as many feet 
 as a centipede, she won't dance with Lucy the next 
 recess, and then he comes down on me like a ton of 
 brick. If I don't read every article the instant it 
 is received, and clap it into the next issue, Susie cries 
 and Lucy says I 'm unfit for my responsible position. 
 When I 've been goaded to desperation and have re 
 jected a manuscript, he 's brought it back and said, ' Susie 
 is awfully cut up about this. We really must take it ! ' 
 I hate to say ' no ' to Lucy. Besides, I 'm under no end 
 of obligations to him. I never have to put my hand in 
 my pocket when he is around. Lucy has always treated 
 me very smooth 1 " 
 
 " Susie likes you better than Lucy," said Lou, not 
 as one betraying a confidence, but as admitting to a 
 precious secret. " She asked me, the other day, for 
 a lock of your hair. I think that one at present dang 
 ling into your right eye would make her happy for 
 life." 
 
 " Did you give it to her ? " demanded Bobby, fiercely. 
 
 " No, Robin love," answered his sister, soothingly. 
 " You have n't had your hair cut lately, you know," 
 she added. Something in her tone suggested the pos 
 sibility of having acceded to so eminently natural a re 
 quest had circumstances permitted, to which Bobby 
 responded rather than to the actual words, with a de 
 termination like unto that which Samson might have 
 displayed, had he foreseen the result of Delilah's wiles.
 
 74 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " I will never have my hair cut again 1 I will wear 
 it until it is long enough to tie up with a blue ribbon. 
 If I ever know of a single hair of mine being in the 
 possession of Susie Grossman, I I will scalp every 
 body hi Holbrook, so that her idiotic desires may not 
 be gratified," threatened Bobby, feeling that the way 
 was indeed dark when such pitfalls lurked in the very 
 sanctity of home. " Why does n't she transfer her 
 affections to Lucy, who is pining for them, and would 
 give her his whole poll if she wanted it?" 
 
 " I think Susie is lovely, " cried Lou, loyally anxious 
 to defend her friend, and considering " Psyche's " affec 
 tion, misplaced though it appeared to be, too natural for 
 reprehension. " She has written some lovely poetry 
 about you, too ; there 's something hi it about your 
 'wavy bronze hair.' By and by she is going to pub 
 lish a collection of her poems, and the one about you 
 is to be the first in the book." 
 
 " Does it begin with * Only ' ? " questioned Bobby, 
 desperately. 
 
 " Every verse," answered Lou, reassuringly. 
 
 Language failed him, and Bobby could only groan. 
 
 "The fellows in the City High School, whom we 
 licked out of sight in last year's match," he resumed 
 presently, " have been lying low ever since, to get square 
 with us. They have just got up an idiotic paper called 
 Cupid's Own, 'devoted to the h'Arts.' I suppose they 
 think they 're clever all right I " went on Bobby, in tones 
 of the deepest disgust. " Everybody hi town has been
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 75 
 
 asking me if I 've seen it. I would issue a big sup 
 plement, clean out all the stuff we have on hand and 
 cut the concern, but I can't do that as long as we are 
 in debt to the printer. Besides, the Snark is a school 
 affair. It wouldn't be the square thing to give it up 
 at present, and nobody would take the editorship while 
 matters are in this condition." 
 
 " Would n't Lucy help you out ? " suggested Lou. 
 
 " Lucy has been on the staff only this year," explained 
 her brother. " The debt has been accumulating for two 
 or three years ever since I've been editor, in fact. 
 You know I was chosen exchange editor hi the Junior 
 year. Peterson the printer has never dunned us ; 
 but he is hard up himself, I suppose, and now that 
 Lucy, whose dad has more rocks than any one in town, is 
 on the staff, he has been pressing for payment. It 
 is really a personal debt, you see, at least so far as Lucy 
 is concerned." 
 
 " I wish I could lend you some money, Robin dear," 
 said Lou, wistfully. " I have n't much, but you 'd be 
 welcome to it ; only you know we all agreed to save up 
 against Dick's return." 
 
 " You 're a dear, Lou," responded Bobby, warmly ; 
 " but of course that would n't do, now that we 're 
 all making common cause," with a magnificence 
 that took no heed of the gloomy state of his own 
 finances. " Nan generally had some spare cash on hand, 
 and was perfectly ready to lend it. Girls have n't so 
 much use for money as fellows. Of course, I always
 
 76 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 gave her my ' I. O. U.,' but in a day or two I would 
 find it under my plate at breakfast. But now she wants 
 every red, too. The hens have n't been laying lately, 
 either. They always do go on a strike when they know 
 I 'm hard up, the beasts 1 " 
 
 Bobby's hens were a Plymouth Rock breed, that 
 evidenced their Puritan ancestry by a narrowness and 
 obstinacy past belief. They never came to their meals 
 at the proper hours, preferred the chance pickings of 
 every kitchen door in the neighborhood to the good, 
 nutritious corn meal that was placed regularly before 
 them frequently followed up by the spoon with which 
 the mixture had been stirred, when Bobby was goaded 
 to desperation by their contumacy and laying their 
 eggs, when they condescended to lay any, in the most 
 hidden and inaccessible places. They displayed a reck 
 less disregard, too, for every canon of the poultry yard, 
 giving utterance to a piercing ' cut-cut-cutdahcut 1 ' 
 whenever vainglory prompted, absolutely conscienceless 
 as to the deceit thus practised, while the clarion call of 
 the leader of the brood, Miles Standish, was as likely 
 to sound at midnight as at morn. 
 
 " You see," concluded Bobby, shying a walnut shell at 
 Priscilla, who, with her head coquettishly on one side, was 
 giving vent to a cackle that might have signalized the 
 Roc's egg, " since we resolved to do the smooth thing 
 by Dick, I 've been kind of taking account of stock." 
 
 " I thought Jack Burnham was elected business editor 
 last June," said Lou, suddenly.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 77 
 
 " He was ; but he resigned at the beginning of this 
 term," answered Bobby, briefly. 
 
 " Susie told me that he had resigned from nearly 
 everything. What is he doing ? " Lou's interest in 
 school affairs had not ceased with leaving school. 
 
 She was watching Bobby narrowly. Burning with 
 curiosity though she was concerning the broken rela 
 tions of her little brother and his friend, this was the 
 first allusion to Jack Burnham that had crossed her lips 
 since the latter's election as Captain. 
 
 " How do I know ! " answered Bobby, impatiently. 
 " Girls are always asking fool questions I " 
 
 Lou flushed and opened her lips to retort ; but with 
 an unwonted effort of self-control, she held her peace 
 and said with apparent irrelevance, 
 
 " Never mind, my Robin. Some day you shall be 
 President of the United States I " 
 
 " I do not know that I am particularly anxious to be 
 President," returned Bobby, " as he was " in the 
 reverent tones in which he always referred to Daniel 
 Webster. " But I should like to stand in the place 
 of Thomas Dudley. I should like to write my name, 
 1 Robert Dudley, By the grace of G-od Governor of 
 Massachusetts ! ' 
 
 " Thomas Dudley, he," said Lou, in unconscious imi 
 tation of " Biglow Papers," " was an old Turk, and I 
 should n't want to have a little brother like him. He 
 wrote worse poetry than 'Pishy,' though he had sense 
 enough to keep it dark till after his death, or he would
 
 78 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 never have carried the gubernatorial campaign. For all 
 he was so aggravatingly polite, he made everybody 
 stand around for him in a way that makes me glad 
 he is very dead. And every single one of this family " 
 Lou had a way of referring to "this family," as 
 though she did not belong to it " is just exactly like 
 him, particularly Betty. Don't you remember how 
 old Nurse Ransom used to say," she concluded merrily, 
 " ' The Dudleys are the perlitest children, but the sot- 
 test! ' Let's go hi, or Betty and Evangeline will have 
 eaten all the candy."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 79 
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 
 
 meeting will come to order I" said Bobby, 
 with a thundering rap of the dumb-bell utilized 
 as a gavel, and an emphasis that betokened anticipation 
 of trouble in carrying out the motion. 
 
 The assistant editors, who had been lunging at each 
 other with foils, obeyed the chief's mandate by dropping, 
 the one on the bed, where he proceeded to make himself 
 comfortable amongst the pillows; the other into the 
 little black rocking-chair, whence he was unceremo 
 niously ejected by its owner. 
 
 " I say, Bobby, you ought n't to do that, you know," 
 remonstrated the exchange editor, sitting on the floor in 
 his favorite Turk fashion and rubbing his elbows. "I 
 mightn't recover from the shock for the rest of my 
 natural life. Anybody would think that that ramshackle 
 old chair was the * Siege Perilous.' " 
 
 "It will be for you, if you don't keep clear of it," 
 returned the editor-in-chief, who never permitted any one 
 but himself to occupy that throne of departed greatness. 
 
 " I never thought, myself, that the ' godlike Dan ' was 
 such very grand piano," asseverated Lucy. " It was his 
 looks that did the business for him, and the boom boom 
 of his voice. If I were as big as Mt. Washington, and 
 looked as though I meant to have the whole sidewalk to
 
 80 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 myself, people would clear the track for me," added 
 Lucy, in an injured tone, his diminutive stature being a 
 special grievance with him. "I really think, Bobby, 
 that Daniel Webster isn't a fit example for you. 
 You're altogether too much like him, as it is." 
 
 " Lucy, who ever heard of you ! " retorted Bobby. 
 "Daniel Webster would have walked over you without 
 seeing you." 
 
 " The trouble with him was that he was stuck on him 
 self," asserted Lucy, whose associations with that great 
 name were chiefly represented by black and blue spots. 
 " He always had his hand in somebody's pocket, and the 
 principal plank of his platform seemed to have been never 
 to do anything for himself that he could get another 
 fellow to do for him." 
 
 " Where did you feel the worst when you said that ? " 
 demanded Bobby. " Don't you know some more libellous 
 poetry about him ? " 
 
 In a recent literature lesson a pitched battle had 
 followed Lucy's recitation of " Ichabod," a selection 
 made with special reference to Bobby's hero-worship. 
 
 " ' When faith is lost, when honor dies, 
 The man is dead I ' ' 
 
 spouted Lucy, defiantly. 
 
 "Your looks will never get you votes," said Bobby, 
 witheringly ; " so, if you have set your heart on being 
 President, you'd better rely on your scholarship and 
 lovely manners."
 
 81 
 
 Lucy's rank was always the lowest in the class ; 
 he took the shaft in good part, however, merely sug 
 gesting that it was not the office of the editor-in-chief 
 to constitute himself the censor of his aids' private 
 affairs. 
 
 These preliminaries being settled, the staff of the 
 Snark proceeded to business. 
 
 " As this is the first regular meeting of the season, it 
 is important to get the policy of the paper well shaped 
 for the coming year," began Bobby. 
 
 " Yes, just you wait. I 've something awfully im 
 portant to say," began Lucy, who could never be 
 brought to use parliamentary language. He succeeded, 
 at last, in dragging from his pocket a huge sheet of 
 paper. "It's a petition from the girls," he explained; 
 "they've made me their advocate." 
 
 " Of course," assented Bobby, ironically ; while Taffy 
 turned on the pillow with the request that he be 
 awakened when all transactions relating to Lucy's love 
 affairs were concluded. 
 
 " It is illegal for a quorum to go to sleep," objected 
 Lucy ; and Bobby, who was a stickler for parliamentary 
 form, sustained the objection. 
 
 " Fire away ! " added the chief, momentarily forgetful 
 of the language of the occasion. 
 
 " The petition was drawn up by Miss Susie Grossman, 
 and you will please to observe its extreme beauty of 
 diction," began the girls' advocate, with much rustling 
 of paper and flourish of gesture. " I helped," he added 
 
 6
 
 82 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 modestly. "'Inasmuch as we, the girls of the Senior 
 Class of the Holbrook High School, constituting a por 
 tion of the school and of the community; and feeling, 
 therefore, that we represent to the public a part of 
 the sentiment ' ' 
 
 " All of it," interpolated the editor-in-chief . " Is there 
 much more in this line ? " he queried anxiously. 
 
 " Lots," answered Lucy. " Some of it is even lovelier." 
 
 " Any poetry ? " 
 
 "There are some beautiful verses at the end," an 
 swered the exchange editor, turning to the last of the 
 four closely written sheets, and keeping the intervening 
 pages suspiciously out of sight. " They begin, 
 
 * J T is not our choice 
 That this our voice ' " 
 
 " We could n't stand all that," said Bobby, decidedly. 
 " There seems to be considerable poetry scattered through 
 it, too," he added, eying suspiciously the broken lines 
 of the preceding pages, as Lucy unwarily turned the 
 sheet. " Boil it down and go ahead, but leave out all 
 the poetry." 
 
 " It is a pity that your talent for command should 
 be wasted in so limited a sphere," suggested Lucy. 
 " You should have enlisted as Admiral in the late 
 war." 
 
 "If I had enlisted as common seaman," returned 
 Bobby, composedly, " my distinguished merits would 
 have made me Admiral before we sighted Minot Ledge."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 83 
 
 Perhaps Lucy was conscious that the petition was 
 of too great length to subject to the patience of his 
 fellow editors, for he complied with his chief's mandate 
 without further self-assertion. 
 
 " The substance of it is," he said, " that the girls 
 think they ought to be represented on the paper. They 
 wish to present, as associate editor, Miss Susie Grossman, 
 long and favorably known to the public as ' Pishy,' the 
 author of some of the choicest contributions that have 
 appeared from time to time in our columns." At the 
 last words Lucy kept a wary eye on Bobby, who was 
 nervously fingering his gavel. " The conditions on 
 which Miss Grossman is willing to accept this onerous 
 position," he continued firmly, " are, firstly, that her name 
 should be on the cover " 
 
 " Would she be willing to have it first? " inquired 
 Bobby, with withering sarcasm. . 
 
 " I think she might possibly consent to have it 
 bracketed with yours," returned Lucy, mildly. 
 
 " Perhaps she would like to have inscribed beneath, 
 
 ' Two lovely berries moulded on one stem/ 
 or 
 
 ' Two souls with but a single thought, 
 Two hearts that beat as one,' 
 
 or even one of her own beautiful couplets," suggested 
 the editor-in-chief, grimly. 
 
 " Secondly," resumed Lucy, with the manner of one 
 who has heard nothing, " she expects to have all her
 
 84 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 own contributions accepted, without alterations or sug 
 gestion of boiling down ; and thirdly, to have the names 
 of all her friends on the free list. That 's all. We 
 really need another editor," Lucy went on earnestly, 
 " for the strictly literary department. That would leave 
 you free to devote yourself to the general management 
 of the paper, and to the outside interests that the public 
 unanimously confides to your care," concluded Lucy, 
 with a side glance at the petition. 
 
 There was a show of reason in these representations, 
 and Bobby answered seriously, 
 
 " We could n't accept her terms, Lucy ; she wants the 
 earth. It 's bad enough as it is. If you half read the 
 exchanges, you would see that every paper on the list 
 has some mean little fling at us. If the girls were 
 admitted to an active share in the management, they 
 would want a fashion department and love stories. 
 Anyway, I doubt if it would increase our circulation 
 to have a distinctively female department. Girls will 
 read boys' papers, but boys won't read girls' papers," 
 concluded Bobby, voicing an axiom of the sanctum with 
 the manner of one grown gray in feeling the pulse of 
 public sentiment. 
 
 " But we should enlarge the paper and so make room 
 for tl>3 new departments," urged Lucy, with a readiness 
 that betrayed the fact that some such proposition as that 
 now before the meeting had already been considered in 
 all its bearings. " My dad has promised me a new tele 
 scope if I 'd save up half the money to pay for it ; I 've
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 85 
 
 almost enough now, but I '11 use the cash, instead, to 
 pay the debts of the Snark if the staff is reorganized 
 in the manner proposed. Ah, now, do, Bobby," con 
 cluded Lucy, in his most wheedling tones. 
 
 It was a handsome offer. Nevertheless, its conditions 
 seemed too onerous for immediate acceptance, and after 
 some further discussion the decision was laid upon the 
 shelf for the next meeting. Taffy aroused himself, at 
 the demand of the chief, for a rendition of the business 
 affairs of the Snark. 
 
 "There are no new subscriptions, and a number of 
 our old subscribers have fallen off," he reported. 
 "Judge Luce, Dr. Burnham, my dad, and some of 
 the other old boys have sent in their dues, and that 
 is about all the money there is in the treasury. No new 
 ads. Griff asked for our first page, but he would only 
 give his note in payment, and insisted on writing the ad. 
 himself . It began, ' Rome's Chariot Races ! ' and went 
 on to say that they were nothing compared to the rush 
 of customers to his hencoop. Of course I would n't let 
 him have the space. The only other ad. is of Miss 
 Pettigrew's millinery shop. 
 
 "Then we offered a prize for the translation of 
 the verse hi Voltaire. You remember the story. The 
 entire stanza, as written, was innocent. But by acci 
 dent it was torn jaggedly across, and the fragment 
 that fell into the King's hands read like high treason. 
 Old Shattuck thought the double meaning couldn't 
 be rendered into English, and on the strength of his
 
 86 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 opinion we set up that five dollars ; but Peddy Seaton 
 sent in the translation the first thing. Here 't is, 
 
 ' With fearful crime the earth has shaken 
 
 Upon the throne the King firm holds his place. 
 
 In peaceful time love still to war shall waken, 
 The foe alone to fear is no disgrace.' 
 
 " There was n't enough money in the treasury to pay 
 the prize, and somehow those idiots on the Up-to-Date 
 got wind of the state of our finances, and in their last 
 number offered a prize of five cents for the most 
 sympathetic essay on that touching poem, ' Mary had a 
 little lamb,' adding a list of bankers who would make 
 themselves responsible for the amount. Peterson has 
 sent in his bill again with the note, 4 Kindly remit ; ' he 
 won't do the work for us much longer if something 
 is n't paid on his bill. I '11 tell you what, fellows," 
 concluded the business editor, "if this sort of thing 
 goes on much longer, there'll be nothing to do but 
 ask for an assignment. That 's no more than happens 
 every day on the * street ' ! " In the vocabulary Taffy 
 affected, "failure" was merely the obvious way of 
 denying one's financial obligations. 
 
 " No school paper has ever been known to fail," said 
 Bobby, soberly. " Ours is the oldest of them all. Judge 
 Luce himself was the founder and first editor. Be 
 sides, think how that sneaking Up-to-Date would crow 
 over our downfall 1 " 
 
 "You might offer premiums of a pound of tea, or 
 our new sewing-machine; or take Griff on as associate
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 87 
 
 editor," suggested Lucy, addressing impartially both 
 his associates. " My dad always used to read the Snark 
 the day of its issue," he went on, Bobby's words having 
 happily suggested a new line of attack ; " but the other 
 night he said, * My son,' " Judge Luce's stately manner 
 was faithfully rendered by his irreverent son, " ' it seems 
 to me that new life might be infused into your paper I ' 
 He has always said, mark you," added Lucy, with em 
 phasis, " our paper till lately ; now it is your paper 1 " 
 
 Bobby winced, and Lucy, perceiving his advantage, 
 wisely refrained from iteration. 
 
 " Let 's have some strawberry nectar," he suggested ; 
 " I '11 treat." 
 
 The editorial staff moved, unanimously, to accept, 
 and proceeded to adjourn without delay to Griff's to 
 carry out the resolve. 
 
 " Heave ahead, Admiral ; fleet 's under way I "
 
 88 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 
 
 UNFORTUNATELY for the interests of the Snark, 
 the private affairs of its business editor were at 
 as low an ebb as those of the journal. Even as a very 
 little boy, Taffy Dabney had had a mania for specu 
 lation, coupled with an aversion to work. He had 
 swapped jack-knives and kites, and made " corners " in 
 marbles and tops, before he was out of kilts ; he had 
 bought up the shabby dolls and baby-carriages of his 
 girl cousins at bargains, restored them to something like 
 their original glories by the exercise of a little paint, 
 calico and ingenuity, and resold them to their unsuspect>- 
 ing mammas at a handsome profit. Later, he let out 
 footballs and bats at usurious interest amongst the 
 small boys of his acquaintance, and had once set up 
 a lottery, with a bicycle for a prize, that for a time 
 caused great excitement in the neighborhood and a 
 general breakage of small banks. The scheme, unfortu 
 nately, came to an abrupt end through the interference 
 of the home authorities, by whom Taffy's business 
 acuteness was regarded with marked disfavor. 
 
 As he grew older, his heroes were the men who con 
 trolled the great " trusts ; " he watched the development of 
 " corners " with absorbed interest, and had a knowledge
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 89 
 
 of the stock market surprising in one of his years. In 
 Taffy's dreams of the future, he beheld himself a power 
 on " 'change," operating to the extent of millions, con 
 trolling legislatures and ruling vast monopolies to the 
 advantage of his own pocket, if not for that of the 
 public weal. An idea had of late been revolving in his 
 mind that would not only retrieve his damaged fortunes, 
 but leave him with a handsome base for future opera 
 tions. The following month the Holbrook Eleven was 
 to play its annual game with the City High School. 
 The tickets for the match were divided between the op 
 posing teams, and their sale always realized a handsome 
 sum for the respective treasuries. The girls, as well as 
 the boys, were heavy purchasers, and always appeared on 
 the great day with the school colors green and white 
 displayed in their shirt waists, bedecking their hats, and 
 flying in knots of ribbon from their button-holes. The 
 coming match promised to be of unusual interest, for 
 the City team was working hard to retrieve its disastrous 
 defeat of the preceding year, while the Holbrook boys, 
 goaded nearly to madness by the jibes of the Up-to-Date, 
 looked upon its Eleven as the champions who were to 
 avenge the accumulated insults of their rivals. 
 
 The rules regulating the sale of tickets restricted 
 the number sold to any one person. Taffy availed him 
 self, however, of an obvious evasion. The boys of the 
 Junior class those of the Middle and Senior having 
 grown wary from experience were readily induced, 
 under the charge of secrecy, to act as agents in buying
 
 90 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 tickets, either of the members of the team or at the 
 Emporium. Griff was too guileless to entertain any 
 suspicion from the unusual number of heavy purchasers 
 among the small boys. These services were recom 
 pensed by a broken-bladed jack-knife or a dilapidated 
 magic lantern, Taffy having found a large stock of 
 second-hand articles useful in his " deals ; " by means 
 of acquaintances in the city, he bought largely also 
 from the members of the opposing team. The latter 
 transaction would have been deemed "shady" in the 
 nomenclature of the " street," but Taffy had reached a 
 pitch of desperation when he would scarcely have hesi 
 tated at anything short of actual exposure. For these 
 transactions of course ready money was necessary, and 
 Taffy did not hesitate to make use of the trust funds in 
 his possession, that represented a larger sum than he 
 had given his associates to understand at the recent edi 
 torial meeting. Since he had been on the Snark, the busi 
 ness editor had found it convenient to borrow, from tune 
 to tune, small sums from its treasury, always intending, 
 of course, to replace them speedily. The first loan was 
 merely for a postal card ; many of the succeeding ones, 
 too, seemed insignificant ; but now, as he looked at the 
 astounding sum total of these trifling " accommodations," 
 his heart sank, and he felt that the success of his present 
 scheme was necessary to save him from absolute ruin. 
 Moreover his " rotary debt " had fallen into the hands of 
 one of the " kids " who was gifted with a peculiar power 
 of iteration. His dilation on the summer joys of " Cutty-
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 91 
 
 hunk Island " had won him the sobriquet of " Cutty." 
 To be met at every turn by a piping voice, demanding, 
 "Say, when are you going to pay me that money?" 
 might have goaded to desperation nerves more case- 
 hardened than Taffy's. 
 
 At last he was the possessor of fully three-fourths of 
 the tickets to the field ; and as he joyously reckoned up 
 the premium these would command, he felt that he 
 might await the issue of events with tranquillity. 
 
 Pending the football match, which, indeed, for the 
 time being was relegated to the background in public 
 interest, was another event, which promised this year to 
 be of special interest. As soon as the ice was fairly 
 broken, Holbrook River began to assume a lively appear 
 ance, and as the season advanced, every pleasant afternoon 
 and evening its tortuous course presented a lively scene. 
 The girls reciprocated the favors of the boatolub by 
 embroidering the Club initials on the boys' white boat 
 ing-flannels, and crocheting, in the Club colors, the 
 Tarn o'Shanters that were then the rage. 
 
 On Lucy's return from the Rangeleys, he had brought 
 with him a canoe that was the admiration and envy of 
 every boy in Holbrook. During the summer the three 
 boys had become experts hi the stroke in vogue among 
 the guides of northern Maine, that was in marked dis 
 tinction to that hitherto practised on the river. It 
 was the introduction of the "new stroke" that was 
 the special and growing interest of the approaching 
 occasion.
 
 92 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Under the leadership of Susie Grossman, the girls 
 had planned to present the winner of the race with 
 a silk flag, fringed with gold bullion, and surmounted 
 by a pennant embroidered with the Club monogram. 
 
 Judge Luce, Dr. Burnham, and Mr. Dabney were 
 to act as judges; three canoes were to take part 
 in the contest. Jack Burnham and Larry Lyman, in 
 the Kraken, held second place in the public favor to 
 the Viking, manned by Bobby and Lucy ; Hayti Richards 
 and Peddy Seaton, in the Wassergeist, completed the list 
 of contestants. 
 
 " He is n't wearing my cap 1 " exclaimed Susie Cross- 
 man, in tones of deep disappointment, as Bobby appeared 
 on the boat-house landing. 
 
 "He had thirteen sent him," responded Lou, pleas 
 antly; "he never wears anything but that old leather 
 jockey." So, from the outset, the leader of the girls was 
 in an ill humor with " contests." 
 
 With what his fellows termed " Bobby's own luck," 
 the Viking drew the lot for the best position. Owing 
 to the peculiarities of the channel, the rule was strictly 
 enjoined that the boats that elected to follow the race 
 should await the canoes at the " Bend," where the turning- 
 stake was placed, and preserve a stated distance between 
 them and the contestants on the home stretch. From 
 the start it was evident that the Viking was gaining 
 rapidly on its rivals, and when the stake was rounded 
 it was a canoe's length ahead. As the three canoes drew 
 near the boat-house, there was the usual silence that
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 93 
 
 accompanies the close of a race. Bobby put all his 
 muscle into a final spurt, that should send the Viking 
 triumphantly to the landing. Unfortunately he under 
 estimated his own great strength, and the fine spruce 
 paddle snapped in twain just above the blade! 
 
 Before the crowd had fairly taken in the significance 
 of the act, Bobby, alert to the necessity of relieving the 
 canoe of a dead weight, had kicked off his shoes and 
 jumped overboard. The thrust of his foot, slight though 
 it was, upset the equilibrium of the frail craft, and it 
 keeled over. Jack and Larry, perceiving their advan 
 tage, paddled steadily ahead, with set teeth, gaining with 
 every stroke on the hapless Viking. 
 
 But the game was not yet up. Quick as thought, 
 Lucy resorted to a trick learned from the Rangeley 
 guide. Stretching himself at full length in the canoe 
 and retaining a firm grasp of the paddle with his left 
 hand, with the right he gave the gunwale a dexterous 
 twitch, pulling the canoe over on himself. The light 
 craft turned a sort of somersault and righted itself with 
 out having shipped a drop of water ! Lucy calmly 
 resumed paddling, and the Viking glided up to the 
 landing amid the cheers and waving of handkerchiefs, 
 leaving little Lucy the hero of the minute. 
 
 With one foot on the float, and one hand extended 
 to take the coveted banner, Lucy turned abruptly from 
 his triumph. Those nearest saw that he turned deathly 
 pale, and an inexplicable fear communicated itself to the 
 crowd. The plaudits suddenly ceased, while on the
 
 94 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 balcony above was a threatened panic, as people stood on 
 chairs, or endeavored to force their way to the front, to 
 ascertain the cause of the evident alarm. 
 
 Bobby had not reappeared, only a few bubbles marking 
 the spot where he had jumped.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 95 
 
 CHAPTER NINE 
 
 IN a flash Lucy was swimming vigorously toward 
 the spot where Bobby had disappeared. Inter 
 minable as the time seemed to the waiting crowd, he soon 
 reappeared, puffing and blowing, and dragging Bobby by 
 the hair. Both boys were promptly pulled into one of 
 the boats that had hastened to the spot, and Dr. Burn- 
 ham was soon engaged in bringing the half-drowned boy 
 to consciousness ; his sisters hovered tearfully near, and 
 an anxious crowd waited without. It appeared that 
 below the spot where Bobby had jumped lay two huge 
 rocks, covered with a growth of rank river grass. Bobby 
 was well acquainted with the treacherous bed of the 
 stream, but one foot had unfortunately slipped into a 
 crevice between the boulders, and his struggles to free 
 himself had resulted only in the grass twining itself 
 more obstinately about his ankles. Scatterbrain though 
 Lucy was on every ordinary occasion, an emergency 
 invariably found him cool-headed and capable. He was 
 now working diligently under Dr. Burnham's directions. 
 Jack, who was not infrequently called into his father's 
 office to assist in some trifling operation, was pumping 
 Bobby's arm on the other side, his face white and drawn 
 with more than the shock of the occasion.
 
 96 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Bobby suddenly opened his eyes and met those of his 
 quondam friend. 
 
 " You played a dirty trick on me," said he, distinctly. 
 
 " I know I did," answered Jack, humbly. " But, oh, 
 Bobby, I did n't see you when our canoe went over you." 
 He shuddered, and covered his face with his hands. 
 "Don't give it away," he added, panic-stricken, for 
 Lucy had ceased his vigorous manipulations and was 
 eagerly listening. 
 
 Bobby's eyes opened again ; he spoke with returning 
 animation. 
 
 " You need n't be afraid I '11 peach 1 " he answered 
 scornfully. 
 
 The following day the Holbrook High School was 
 thrown Into consternation by the announcement on the 
 bulletin board that "Dudley will be unable to play 
 on the 20th, owing to a sprained ankle." Great was 
 the rejoicing when the news reached the camp of the 
 enemy. 
 
 " It 's like that sneak of a Blaisdell not to be willing 
 to postpone the match," said the disabled leader, as, 
 lying on the shabby old sofa in the sitting-room, he 
 consulted with his friends regarding the coming emer 
 gency. " I 'd go on as substitute, but Dr. Burnham says 
 I mustn't use my ankle for another week," making a 
 futile attempt to rise in flagrant disregard of the doctor's 
 orders. "We'll have to play 'em, but I hope they'll 
 get such a licking that the Up-to-Date will be in mourning 
 for the next year," concluded Bobby, with the feeling
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 97 
 
 with which Sheridan might have thought of "Win 
 chester, twenty miles away," and no gallant steed to 
 bear him thither. 
 
 " Cheer up ! It might be worse," said Larry, when 
 the council of war was at an end ; but gloom had settled 
 upon the countenances of all present, and was not to be 
 lightly lifted. 
 
 The situation was unquestionably dark. In the late 
 reorganization of the team, necessitated by Jack Burn- 
 ham's resignation, it was generally felt that its strength 
 was perceptibly weakened. Jack's place halfback 
 had been filled by Lucy, who made long twisting runs and 
 took full advantage of what interference was afforded him ; 
 but his agility and " sand " could not compensate for the 
 natural superiority of Jack, who was built for speed. 
 After long consultation, Peddy Seaton was promoted 
 from the second Eleven to fill Bobby's place, quarter 
 back, while Taffy, who had played fullback, was to 
 act as captain. Considerable doubt was felt as to the 
 wisdom of the last choice, but at such short notice it 
 seemed the best available. For so heavy a fellow, 
 Taffy was surprisingly lively ; he was acquainted with 
 the capabilities of the team, used his head well, when 
 clear, and could be relied on always with the one 
 contingency provided for to take advantage of every 
 technical point. The rest of the Eleven made him 
 swear, by all the adjurations held sacred by schoolboys, 
 and accompanied by threats of the severest penalties they 
 could invent, that he would abstain from candy till after 
 
 7
 
 98 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 the match. Taffy, for the nonce fully alive to the 
 responsibilities as well as to the honor of his position, 
 gave ready acquiescence. 
 
 But without Bobby, who in the direst straits had held 
 the team together and inspired them with a dash and 
 confidence that had never lost a field, who could reckon 
 on the result? 
 
 Lucy lingered behind the others. 
 
 "See here, Bobby," he blurted out, "I heard what 
 Jack Burnham said the other day ; of course I knew it 
 all along." 
 
 " Have you peached ? " demanded Bobby, fiercely. 
 
 "No, but, by cracky, I'm going to," vowed Lucy. 
 " I 've got the cinch on him and every fellow in school 
 is going to know the trick that was played." 
 
 " If you give Jack away, you '11 get the thunderingest 
 licking you ever came across," threatened Bobby. 
 "Whatever you say, I'll swear it's only one of your 
 stunts ; " and by way of emphasis, Bobby kicked off the 
 arm of the sofa, bringing Chris to the scene and putting 
 an end to Lucy's denunciations. 
 
 But from that hour Jack Burnham's life became a 
 burden to him. Before his fellows Lucy never neglected 
 a salute, accompanied by a thrust of his tongue into his 
 cheek and a significant wink at the resplendent visor 
 of the Captain's cap; while, when alone, the query, 
 " When are we going West ? " never failed to bring the 
 blood to Jack's cheeks. 
 
 In the world at large, interest in athletic sports was
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 99 
 
 chilled by the accident on the river. Susie Grossman 
 declared that "football was a horrid, brutal game, and 
 for her part, she did n't enjoy seeing people having their 
 arms and legs broken. She would as soon think of 
 going to a bull-fight I " Besides, of what interest was 
 the game when Bobby was not to play ? The beautiful 
 banner had been coldly handed to Lucy the following 
 day, but without the poem that was to have accompanied 
 its presentation. 
 
 The hour that was to have been that of Taffy's 
 triumph arrived. The announcement that tickets to the 
 match were to be obtained only at a premium resulted 
 in the intending purchaser, whose interest was already 
 lukewarm, refusing to buy. On the eve of the usually 
 great day Taffy found himself in the possession of a vast 
 number of unsold tickets, a depleted purse, and confronted 
 by the emptied treasury of the Snarlc. His hair arose 
 more stiffly than ever, and to reinforce his faltering 
 energies, he regaled himself on taffy to an alarming 
 extent, with the result of awaking the next morning 
 with a heavy head and a queer feeling in his stomach. 
 As the day wore on and all remedies failed, he realized 
 vaguely his unfitness for the work before him. There 
 seemed no alternative, however, but to take his place 
 in the field, and trust to luck and the play of the rest 
 of the team to win the game. 
 
 It was a dark November afternoon; the ground was 
 slippery with recent rains. A high wind had been blow 
 ing all the morning, that was momentarily increasing
 
 100 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 in violence. As the rival teams appeared on the field, 
 their respective friends cheered lustily. The Holbrook 
 Eleven lined up well, and the underlying uneasiness 
 as to whether the Captain would prove equal to his 
 position began to abate. Quiet followed, as the result 
 of the toss of the coin was anxiously awaited. Luck 
 was with the Holbrook team, and they won the right to 
 kick with the wind, now almost a gale. For the first 
 half both sides played a good steady game; neither 
 scored. When the whistle sounded, the ball was on 
 the twenty-yard line, in the enemy's territory. 
 
 The second half began. For some twenty minutes 
 neither side gained the advantage. Then the Hol 
 brook team, forcing the ball slowly but steadily down 
 the field, ran up against a stone wall on their oppo 
 nent's twenty-yard line, where they were held for two 
 downs and three yards to gain. The ball was quickly 
 passed to Taffy, but not kicking high enough, one of 
 the opposite side broke through and blocked the kick. 
 Falling on the ball, the City team got it on their twenty- 
 five-yard line. Lucy, who had been playing a strong 
 game, now displayed his usual coolness in an emergency, 
 and saved further loss by breaking through again and 
 again, stopping any gain. It was now Holbrook's ball. 
 
 Excitement was high, as only five minutes were left 
 to play. Both sides went at it with feverish energy. 
 At this juncture Lucy was given the ball. Following 
 his interference closely, he made a splendid gain of 
 twenty yards, which was greeted by roars of applause.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 101 
 
 The friends of the City team were evidently uneasy. 
 Five yards more, and the game was Holbrook'sl 
 
 Taffy conferred with the quarterback, who apparently 
 disapproved, but, being a good soldier, obeyed orders and 
 called off the signals. To the surprise of every one, the 
 ball was passed to the Captain, instead of to Lucy, who 
 had been making sure gains and in whom general con 
 fidence was felt. Taffy, already unnerved by the failure 
 of his kick, juggled the ball. Blaisdell, quarterback on 
 the City team, breaking through, seized the ball and 
 started down the field, with the Holbrook team trailing 
 behind. Even Lucy could not save the game now. 
 The ball was carried across the line, and a goal was 
 kicked. 
 
 The whistle sounded. 
 
 Unable to restrain himself, Lucy flung himself on the 
 ground behind the goal, and digging his fingers into the 
 mud, cried with mortification and rage. The City team 
 were wild with exultation. Their yell arose again and 
 again. Taffy slunk out of sight, and in silence and 
 gloom, like a funeral procession, the Holbrook Eleven 
 left the field. 
 
 The score was six to nothing.
 
 102 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER TEN 
 
 DOUBTLESS Betty's dire revelations aided to give 
 Miss Meg an understanding of the situation in 
 the old house across the way, for soon after the " party " 
 there was extended to Chris some of the very social 
 opportunities for which she had spent so many futile 
 hours longing. The festivities to which she was bidden 
 might properly have been enjoyed by a girl still in the 
 school room, but to Chris's dazzled vision they meant 
 "society," and her sparkling eyes and radiant manner 
 testified to a delight that may have repaid Miss Meg 
 for her kindly offices. It was now an invitation to 
 a Symphony rehearsal, or a matine'e at the theatre ; 
 then a fair that had enlisted the sympathies of the 
 fashionable world, followed by the reproduction of a 
 classic drama to which only the chosen few were ad 
 mitted. And all these favors were extended in a 
 manner to suggest that it was Chris who was confer 
 ring the pleasure rather than receiving it. 
 
 Then came a delightful tea at Mr. Archie Blake's 
 studio, at which Miss Meg presided. It was a very 
 dream of a studio, with Spanish tapestries, carved chests, 
 rare embroideries, and portions of shrines black with age, 
 that the young artist had accumulated in his wander 
 ings abroad. There were soft couches piled high with
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 103 
 
 cushions, and odd and beautiful bric-a-brac, and best of 
 all, a throng of pleasant, well-bred people. Chris had 
 never met so many people in her life before, although 
 none would have suspected the fact, as she dexterously 
 shuffled the jargon of those who affect art culture. 
 Young Mr. Courtenay, who was Mr. Blake's chosen 
 friend, went the rounds with his sister's young guest. 
 Somehow Chris, although always assailed with an un 
 easy desire to assert herself in his presence, did not 
 venture to chatter to him about "atmosphere," "color 
 scheme," or "perspective," or express her enthusiasm 
 over Monet and the " Japanese school. " 
 
 Miss Herbert had become absorbed in the holiday 
 preparations at St. Barnabas, and Miss Meg invited Chris 
 to accompany her in her Christmas shopping. Morn 
 ing after morning, the luxurious brougham, with its 
 rigid, fur-clad coachman, rolled up to the Dudleys' door, 
 and Chris was whirled away into fairyland. Miss Meg 
 had such a delightful way of appealing to one's taste! 
 Did her companion think that the Dresden coffee service 
 or the silver-mounted cardcase would be the more ac 
 ceptable gift for Miss Herbert? Would she prefer the 
 etching framed in white and gold or the quartered oak ; 
 and which would please Miss Benton better, one of Mr. 
 Blake's water-colors, or the choice edition of Balzac? 
 Then how charming it was to dally over their luncheon, 
 in some fashionable restaurant, where they were often 
 joined by a friend of Miss Meg's and Chris listened, 
 in happy bewilderment, to the swift, merry talk of every-
 
 104 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 thing that was going on within the charmed circle of 
 society. 
 
 But it was at home that the effect of these new in 
 fluences was most perceptible. Chris's ideas, naturally 
 projected upon a magnificent scale, expanded in this 
 congenial atmosphere like the djinn shut up in the 
 bottle in the Arabian Nights. The dollar that had 
 looked so large to her a few short weeks ago shrank 
 to the dimensions of a dime, and any mention by Nan 
 of household expenses was met either by a look of 
 blank indifference or by an impatient rejoinder. Then 
 it happened that about this time there were several 
 changes of servants in rapid succession, each of the 
 dynasty, besides displaying general idiocy, being pos 
 sessed of some individual mental aberration. Worn 
 to the verge of nervous exhaustion by their vagaries, 
 it was difficult for Nan to refrain from a sharp retort 
 when Chris would say, with lady-like annoyance, 
 
 " Really, I am afraid that Nora has n't been properly 
 trained," when their maid-of-all-work, after listening, 
 open-mouthed, to the chatter at the table, letting the 
 gravy meanwhile drip over the carpet, burst into up 
 roarious laughter at some pleasantry of Bobby's. " You 
 would never know that the Courtenays' butler heard a 
 word that was said before him. " 
 
 Chris had always been given, by way of " introducing 
 a little variety into the bill of fare," to culling recipes 
 from unauthorized sources, generally of the kind that 
 gives information of how to produce " a savory dish "
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 105 
 
 out of nothing and " a few bay leaves." Under the new 
 influences, and perhaps also under an increased pressure 
 in the domestic economy, these hints became of greater 
 frequency. 
 
 " Why can't we have some of this ? " she asked. " * A 
 few shalots, a seasoning bouquet, a little muscade ' ' 
 
 " What 's that ? " interrupted Nan. 
 
 "I should think you'd know; it's in all the cook 
 books," returned Chris. 
 
 " Oh, excuse me, I thought you took it from ' Alice 
 in Wonderland.' You'd better keep your wonderful 
 recipes to yourself till you feel like doing some of the 
 cooking," retorted Nan; and as she was the only one 
 of the family who possessed any culinary knowledge, 
 Chris withdrew, silenced but unconvinced, leaving her 
 sister irritated by the demands of an incomprehensible 
 ignorance. Nor was it easy to keep one's temper 
 when the elder girl, after a survey of the dinner- 
 table, would say, with an exasperating air of forbear 
 ance, as of one who was aware she had to deal with 
 dynamite, 
 
 " We had mutton yesterday. I should think it would 
 be possible by taking a little pains not to give us the 
 same dish every day in the week." 
 
 " Yes, and I 'm sick of boiled rice. Why can't we 
 have plum-pudding?" echoed Betty, taking the cue 
 as usual from her eldest sister. 
 
 "Because pudding requires eggs, and eggs are fifty 
 cents a dozen," answered Nan, sharply.
 
 106 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 "I do wish we were not forced to listen to these 
 miserable details at every meal," observed Chris, toying 
 elegantly with her spoon. "One never hears such 
 things mentioned at the Courtenays'." 
 
 Under the ever-present need of economy, or the im 
 mediate probability of a famine in India, or the collision 
 of a comet with the earth, or some other contingency 
 that Nan's fertile imagination was forever conjuring 
 up, there had been lately a surfeit of articles of " simple 
 and wholesome " diet, notably in the form of rice, which 
 all the family disliked, and for which Chris had a consti 
 tutional aversion. Bobby and Lou at last combined 
 forces and hid the rice-box in the latter's closet, where it 
 speedily attracted every mouse that rioted between the 
 walls, to Lou's retributive terror for many wakeful 
 nights. 
 
 A few days before Christmas, as the brougham rolled 
 on its homeward way, Miss Meg mentioned her intention 
 of giving a series of "At Homes," after the holidays. 
 She would like Chris's help. Might she rely on her 
 to "pour" at the first reception, and "assist" at the 
 succeeding ones? 
 
 Such an invitation meant nothing less than being 
 introduced to society under the most favorable auspices. 
 But quick on rapture followed consternation. "What 
 shall I wear?" thought the girl. 
 
 Her last winter's gown, sponged and pressed, and 
 freshened with new trimmings for which she had 
 spent her last dollar had not served her ill for the
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 107 
 
 small occasions which she had hitherto enjoyed. But 
 for the formal functions that Miss Courtenay's recep 
 tions would undoubtedly be, a new gown was absolutely 
 necessary. Its attainment seemed as far beyond possi 
 bility as a costume from Worth. 
 
 The common cause to which all had vowed themselves 
 Chris had easily put out of sight, in the preceding weeks, 
 by the reflection, "After Christmas I shall have the 
 embroidery money from the holiday sales," and it had 
 not disturbed her equanimity that in the pleasures 
 of the past few weeks there had been neither time nor 
 thought for needlework. 
 
 Miss Meg was quick to note and interpret the shadow 
 that crossed the girl's face. 
 
 " Nothing could be prettier than a simple white gown," 
 she said kindly. 
 
 Delicate as were her perceptions, it did not occur to 
 her that her companion might find it difficult to compass 
 even so modest an outlay as that suggested. Chris was 
 always dressed like a lady and her manner gave no hint 
 of any dearth in her home circumstances. 
 
 There arose before the girl a vision of herself in a 
 dainty white gown, dispensing graceful hospitality in the 
 Courtenay drawing-room. She forced back the tears 
 as she faltered, 
 
 " But I have never poured." 
 
 " Of course not ; it is your * come-out ' tea," answered 
 Miss Meg, promptly, and with a delightful assumption 
 that Chris understood the full measure of that which
 
 108 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 was offered. "I will trust you to acquit yourself 
 creditably," she added, and evidently looked upon the 
 matter as settled. 
 
 Was there no way must the gate of Paradise be 
 closed in her very face?
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 109 
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 
 
 "TT's all Colonel Jerome's fault I" exclaimed Nan. 
 
 A " Ever since his name was mentioned, the whole 
 household has been turned topsy-turvy. He looms in 
 my mind as the grim Visitor upon the Threshold, with 
 naming eyes, horns, and a forked tail, sent straight from 
 Hades with all the trials that individually are the most 
 burdensome to us, and infernally commissioned to goad 
 us into the virtues we most abhor." 
 
 "This is the Grossest family in the United States," 
 said Lou, even whose equable temper had suffered under 
 the spell of the coming Visitor. 
 
 " You 're the Grossest person in it," wailed Betty, 
 without much idea of what she was saying, but feeling 
 called upon to contribute to the stormy state of the 
 atmosphere, as she salted her porridge with tears, in 
 anticipation of losing her recess for tardiness, a 
 prospective calamity that did not, however, accelerate 
 her movements, always characterized by the utmost 
 deliberation. 
 
 " I do believe, if the house were on fire, you would n't 
 get out of it till you were ready," said Nan, whose 
 temper was already ruffled by Chris's strictures on her 
 housekeeping. The elder girl, who loved her bed, had 
 come down to the breakfast-table to find that Monday
 
 110 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 morning exigencies compelled her to the task of waiting 
 upon herself. Betty, having essayed to gulp down a 
 glass of water with her mouth full of toast, gasped and 
 coughed till she was red in the face. ' 
 
 " There now, you want me to suffochoke," she wailed. 
 "I needn't chokeocate myself to death even if it is 
 washing-day, need I, Chrissy?" 
 
 " If you did, there would be one torment the less in 
 the world," retorted Nan. 
 
 " Betty is my charge," said Chris, sharply. " I wish 
 you would remember that you have nothing to do 
 with her bringing up. Take your time, Betty, and 
 I will write you a note of excuse." 
 
 "You'll say it was disa voidable and that you don't 
 want me to be kept in at recess, because my constitution 
 requires fresh air at the same time as the other children," 
 stipulated Betty, who always insisted that these frequent 
 missives should be written on her sister's choicest billet 
 paper, with what she regarded as the utmost elegance of 
 diction, and with a scrupulous regard for commas and 
 semicolons, notwithstanding Chris's representations that 
 punctuation in letter-writing was out of fashion. 
 
 " Admirable bringing up I " commented Nan, as the 
 elder girl gave impatient compliance. 
 
 Until the approach of Christmas all of the family had 
 kept their vow to "abstain, renounce, refrain," with a 
 heroism worthy of the cause. But even adamant may 
 show the effect of the wear and tear of time, and as the 
 air grew frosty, and the whispers of holiday joys and
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 111 
 
 secrets were audible on every side, it was hard to feel 
 one's self shut out from the spirit of the season. In 
 previous years, no matter at how low an ebb their 
 private purses had been, Christmas had never passed 
 without an interchange of gifts, though there might be 
 only a ribbon for Chris, a pencil for Nan, the bonnet pin 
 that was always an acceptable present to Lou, a ball of 
 twine for Bobby, or the "jaw-breaker" esteemed by 
 Betty an appropriate offering for every occasion, from 
 a christening to a wedding. And the good-will and fun 
 that had accompanied the gifts made Christmas festive. 
 
 " At all events, let no one mock my dearth by giving 
 me a Christmas card," announced Nan. " I would much 
 rather have a postal card. And let it be known through 
 out the land that I refuse to accept any ' Lines ' with the 
 * n ' left out on the ' Holiness of Disappointment ' or 
 the * Elevating Effects of Poverty ' by Frances Ridley 
 Havergal." 
 
 Each member of the family, too, cherished the convic 
 tion that he or she had been singled out as the particular 
 victim of the spite of the coming " Visitor." Chris sat 
 a Peri at the gate of a social Paradise, and she might not 
 enter in; the pipers were piping unto her the latest 
 entrancing waltz and she might not dance. Nan, with 
 the anticipation of certain bills that would come in with 
 the new year, found her every-day worries particularly 
 burdensome; flour went up, the coal gave out unduly, 
 the sugar-scoop knelled against the bottom of the barrel, 
 and a threatened potato famine gave all the family
 
 112 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 a sudden inordinate appetite for a vegetable regarded 
 with general disfavor in the normal state of the market. 
 Even Lou, hitherto deemed invulnerable to worry, went 
 about with clouded brow. Her winter wardrobe had 
 been stored, as usual, under the apparent conviction that 
 all the moths and buffalo bugs in the United States had 
 entered into a confederacy to devour her clothes. But 
 camphor, mothballs, pepper, snuff, tar paper, and various 
 other " sure preventatives " had seemingly been regarded 
 as so many appetizing condiments for wool and fur. 
 None who knew Lou could ever forget the spectacle as 
 with monosyllabic tragedy, " Look ! " she held at arm's 
 length her beloved chinchilla muff and with a direful 
 shake sent the downy fur flying in every direction, even 
 as a dandelion puff is scattered by the ruthless wind. 
 If that cedar chest, whose boasted properties had 
 proved so frail, had contained the bones of poor suffo 
 cated Gi^gvra, or even her own, it could not have 
 held deeper woe for Lou. Even the feathers on her 
 bonnet took on a dejected droop, and the bow upon the 
 hat, which, to assuage her grief, she immediately set 
 about trimming, had no more the piquant set into which 
 her deft fingers were wont to fashion ribbon. 
 
 Bobby had soon thrown away the cane upon which he 
 hobbled after his mishap on the river ; but the disastrous 
 defeat on the ball field was a tragedy not to be lightly 
 cast aside, and his difficulties with the Snark increased. 
 The next issue of the Up-to-Date contained a paragraph 
 to the effect that " the rumor stating that the football
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 113 
 
 team of the Holbrook High School, as well as its official 
 organ, the Snark, had recently come under the manage 
 ment of the girls, appears to be well founded." Bobby 
 contemplated, for a period, calling out the editor of his 
 " esteemed contemporary " to single combat, but finally 
 contented himself, after sitting up till midnight seeking 
 inspiration from a volume of Webster's speeches, by 
 writing an editorial that should demolish his rival even 
 as the famous speech of his great Exemplar crushed 
 Haynes. Then Lucy was showing an unprecedented 
 contumacy in regard to Susie Grossman and her out 
 rageous demands. "Pishy's" contributions grew more 
 lachrymose and her verse had more halting feet, as 
 each new acceptance, " thanking her for the favor," in 
 the assistant editor's best handwriting, put a fresh leaf 
 into her laurel crown. 
 
 Of the real and appalling financial condition of the 
 Snarlc, Bobby had no conception. It had never occurred 
 to him to examine the accounts, and Taffy, at the 
 business meeting following the football match, readily 
 evaded the request of his easy-going chief for a report. 
 Bobby went on to point out, in vigorous language, that 
 it was the duty of the business editor to make the 
 rounds of the shops and offices in the city, soliciting 
 holiday advertisements. But Taffy was ill-tempered 
 under the continued strictures of his fellows at the 
 loss of the game, and their jibes at the result of his 
 "corner." Moreover the ever-present fear of his "de 
 falcation" being discovered, seemed likely to result
 
 114 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 in chronic biliousness. To his chief's peremptory lan 
 guage he retorted that Bobby "could do some of the 
 work himself, instead of being so precious fond of order 
 ing other fellows about." 
 
 So, after the "motion" had been duly proposed, 
 seconded, and carried, it remained a "resolve," to be 
 fulfilled on the day when the leopard should have 
 changed his spots and Taffy cast his sloth. 
 
 Everybody in Betty's class was asking, "What are 
 you going to have Christmas ? " and it was mortifying 
 to be unable to hint of the prospective contents of a 
 plethoric stocking, even though a haughty silence 
 might be construed to cover anticipations too large 
 to be lightly dwelt upon. Besides the personal disap 
 pointment, it seemed wicked to Betty not to have 
 Christmas presents. In particular did she covet a cer 
 tain article in the Emporium as a gift for Lou. This 
 was a box represented to hold dominoes, but from 
 which, at the unwary touch, a mouse sprang forth 
 with a terrifying squeak. Every day, after school, ac 
 companied by Evangeline, Betty entered the Emporium, 
 and standing on tiptoe before the counter, said, 
 
 " I am not thinking of making any purchases to-day, Mr. 
 G. William, but would you be so kind as to let me see the 
 article I am considering, I thank you, if you please ? " 
 
 Whereupon Griff would climb to the topmost shelf, 
 remove several boxes of stationery and bales of calico, 
 and set the simulated domino box before his courteous 
 customer. Betty, giggling with as much zest as though
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 115 
 
 she saw the toy for the first time, shot out the mouse at 
 Evangeline, and presently, with renewed thanks, left the 
 shop, leaving Griff to climb to the top shelf again and 
 replace the "article" in its appointed place. It was 
 on one of these visits that another customer was at 
 tracted by the toy. Griff looked inquiringly at Betty ; 
 the child's face fell. 
 
 " Happy to place anything to your credit, Miss 
 Dudley," said the shopkeeper, who showed his appreci 
 ation of Betty's politeness by always treating her " as 
 though she were grown up." 
 
 But with eyes brimming over, Betty shook her head 
 and hurried from the shop. 
 
 "Why didn't you get it?" queried her companion, 
 tantalizingly. 
 
 " I wish you to understand, Evangeline," said Betty, 
 in measured tones, " that I have plenty of income from my 
 sheep in Montana and the rag-bag," she was about to 
 add, but f eeling that the latter source of revenue reflected 
 less lustre upon her social status than the Western flocks, 
 held back the words. " I have another demand for my 
 money at present, I thank you, if you please." 
 
 "Aren't you going to buy any more jaw-breakers, 
 either ? " questioned Evangeline, who had always been a 
 greedy-eyed participant in the feast, when Betty, sur 
 rounded by half a dozen of her friends, seated herself on 
 the doorstep of the Emporium, and with the aid of a 
 rock and the exercise of all her strength pounded the 
 flinty delicacy into equable fragments.
 
 116 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " Not at present," answered Betty. "I I think so 
 much candy is not good for my constitution." As she 
 spoke, she cast a longing glance at the shop window; 
 but perhaps luckily for her resolution, her little purse 
 was at home. She had given up carrying it, of late, as 
 the surest way of not yielding to temptation. 
 
 " Ho, I don't believe you 're going to give any Christ 
 mas presents or have any, either," said Evangeline. 
 
 Betty's red face and unwonted silence betrayed the 
 fact that the nail had been hit on the head. 
 
 " I expect a bottle of white rose perfumery," continued 
 Evangeline. " Are n't you really going to have anything 
 in your stocking ? H'm, too bad ! " she added, with an 
 infuriating assumption of sympathy. 
 
 For the remaining tune before Christmas she pursued 
 Betty with that query, in season and out, alone and 
 before her mates, while she was not suffered to pass the 
 Emporium without a twitch of her skirt, and an insistent 
 " Look I " till Betty was goaded to the pitch of desper 
 ation that hesitates at nothing. 
 
 An unrivalled opportunity presently offered to rein 
 state herself, not only in her own self-esteem, but in 
 public opinion, as represented by Evangeline. It was 
 this expedient that proved the climax of the trials that 
 had already made the holiday season anything but a joy 
 ful period to the young Dudleys, and which was to prove 
 the final tug to the strain to which the individual endur 
 ance of Chris and Nan had already been subjected.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 117 
 
 CHAPTER TWELVE 
 
 IF Betty could not receive or give Christmas presents, 
 and the latter deprivation bore the more heavily upon 
 her, she would have the measles. Philly Carr was ill 
 with that interesting malady, and a surreptitious visit to 
 the rectory nursery had its speedy result in Betty's 
 supreme satisfaction, and the following letter, written 
 at the invalid's dictation : 
 
 DEAR EVANGELINE, I am very ill. Dr. Burnham does 
 not know when I can go to school again. Maybe I never 
 can. If I die, you may have my cornelian ring. If you 
 come to my funeral, Evangeline, you must be sure not to 
 giggle, and please don't cry on a handkerchief that has any 
 of that smelly perfumery on it, because I can't bear it. 
 Besides, my sister Chrissy says nobody but servant-girls 
 use smelly handkerchiefs, and you know you have never 
 been to a funeral at our house, so you must try to behave 
 properly, or I shall be very much mortified. 
 
 Of course you have never had the measles, either. I 
 have to lie abed in a dark room. It is very unagreeable. 
 The doctor says I must not use my eyes. I wish you a 
 Merry Christmas. I hope you will never have to go to bed 
 in the daytime. 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 
 BETTY BRADSTREET DUDLEY. 
 
 P. S. I hope you will never feel so miserable as I am. 
 P. S. I have lots of lemonade to drink, and Dr. Burnham 
 says I may have barley balls. They are ever so much nicer
 
 118 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 than jaw-breakers. I have saved some for you. I presume 
 you have never had any. My sister Chrissy sings to me, 
 and Nan tells me stories ; Lou makes paper dolls with the 
 loveliest hats and bonnets you ever saw, and Bobby lets me 
 cuddle his hares without telling me I 'm choking them to 
 death. 
 
 The last privilege represented an unlooked-for con 
 cession. Since Bobby had added four lovely fluffy Bel 
 gian hares to his list of pets, the task of keeping them 
 prisoners had proved almost too much for his energies. 
 "There go my hares," was the exclamation that cut 
 short conversation at almost any point, followed by an 
 exit through the nearest window. Betty was generally 
 to be seen tiptoeing away in the opposite direction ; the 
 little creatures' quivering noses, pressed against the bars 
 of the hutch, were interpreted by her as " queeking to 
 be let out," and her tender heart could not withstand 
 the entreaty. 
 
 The -entire family, indeed, vied with one another in 
 attentions to the complacent invalid, who, not very ill 
 at any time, made such rapid progress toward recovery 
 that in a few days she might safely have left her bed. 
 But Betty was by no means inclined to relinquish so 
 agreeable a position as that of the centre of attraction, 
 and as her nurses began to relax in their devotion, 
 she hit upon an expedient that should not only recall 
 their recalcitrant sympathies, but whereby she might 
 feel that she was enacting the pleasing role of invalid 
 with due fidelity to the originator of the part. Instead,
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 119 
 
 therefore, of hailing Dr. Burnham's permission to get up 
 with the expected rapture, she flatly refused to avail 
 herself of it at all, and proceeded to give a faithful 
 rendition of Philly Carr's plaintive manner of speech 
 and "cunning little ways." As the doctor had given 
 stringent caution regarding injury to the eyes, the 
 sway that Betty exercised at all times over the house 
 hold by reason of her easy tears was increased to high 
 handed tyranny. 
 
 " Me to tick, me to tick I " she moaned in every varia 
 tion of tone and inflection, listening the while to her 
 own accents with the most unbounded satisfaction. 
 
 She insisted upon having all her treasures piled upon 
 a chair by the bedside ; every morning, before dawn, she 
 pried open with a crooked hairpin the contents of the 
 little tin savings-bank in which she deposited her hoard, 
 and at the top of her voice, with the effect of awaking 
 every one in the house, counted the pennies, to see 
 how much interest had accumulated over night. At 
 last, after having apparently exhausted every ingenuity 
 of wearisome device, she demanded, in the frenzied tones 
 of a parent from whose fond arms her child has been 
 ruthlessly torn, her " de' Milly " metamorphosed from 
 " Old Mill." A search from attic to cellar by the entire 
 family, spurred by wailing accents from the sick-room, 
 resulted at last in the discovery of Milly in a mud- 
 puddle at the foot of the garden terrace, her lissome 
 body nearly reduced to paper pulp and her once fair 
 features run together in an indistinguishable blur of
 
 120 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 red and blue. It appeared that Betty's imagination had 
 recently been fired by "Marmion" and the fate of 
 Constance de Beverley. The tragedy was consummated 
 by utter forgetf ulness of her child's unhappy end. 
 
 Milly was put into the oven to be dried as speedily as 
 possible. She was taken out so shrunken and distorted 
 as to leave room for doubt as to which were her arms 
 or legs ; a new set of features was hastily sketched by 
 Nan and worked in red silk by Chris. It was scarcely 
 surprising, goaded as the fellow artists were by the insis 
 tent voice from the sick-room, irritating as the buzz of 
 a mosquito, that Nan's rendering of " beauty's matchless 
 eye" was all too literal, or that Chris's needle should 
 have wrought what was intended for a glowing smile 
 into a frenzied expression of distrust and anguish too 
 well justified, alas! Nor was it, perhaps, surprising 
 that when at last this transmogrified Milly was laid 
 in her parent's arms, it was only to be denied recogni 
 tion, and hurled across the room. 
 
 Betty had always had an insatiable appetite for 
 stories, and when she visited other little girls, they 
 frequently hid their books, knowing that if their play 
 mate once possessed herself of an interesting tale, she 
 was oblivious to everything else till it was read from 
 cover to cover. She had devoured all the books in 
 Bobby's library, " Mr. Midshipman Easy," " Westward 
 Ho," and " The Rose of Paradise " being as dear to 
 her as to their owner. She read Shakspeare, too, with 
 all the avidity of a bright, imaginative child, poring over
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 121 
 
 the plays, of course, only for the stories, but finding in 
 the high-sounding nomenclature and resonant lines the 
 delight known only to the fantasies of childhood. 
 
 But her special joy was a certain fat and dirty volume 
 of fairy tales that had been in the Dudley family for 
 generations, and which contained, among other dear and 
 forgotten stories, " Prince Percinet," " The Three Med 
 lars," and " The Invisible Prince," of which Betty never 
 wearied. She was at home in the entire realm of fairy lore, 
 and whenever she broke a lucky bone or found a four- 
 leaved clover, her wish was always for that boon of the 
 good fairies, a " wishing ring." The sly glance at her 
 hand revealing only the familiar cornelian band held real 
 disappointment, for with never lessening faith she 
 thought at each trial, " Perhaps this time a good fairy 
 will hear ! " 
 
 When Nan, whose reading was omnivorous, told her 
 a story, Betty always insisted that it should begin " Once 
 upon a time," no matter how well authenticated the date 
 of action ; while it must end " And they lived happy 
 ever after," though disaster dire had overtaken every 
 body in the tale ; no princess was to be regarded as truly 
 of the blood royal who had not "long and beautiful 
 curly golden hair that reached to her waist, and far be 
 low it ; " nor was any prince deemed worthy of the title 
 who was not " tall, fair, and handsome, and mounted on a 
 snow-white steed that galloped like the wind." A steed 
 Betty supposed to be something quite different from a 
 horse.
 
 122 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 But now her sole demand was for the nursery tale of 
 the " Three Little Pigs." 
 
 " Tell itty dirl about piggy-wiggy 1 " she lisped. 
 
 "'Oh, no, by the hair on my chinny chin chin,'" 
 wearily repeated Nan, who had been chosen the special 
 victim of this new infliction. No matter how slight the 
 variation, Betty was quick to note any departure from 
 the accepted version. 
 
 " De naughty wolf could n't get in 1 " 
 
 "No, he couldn't get in; the pig had locked the 
 door," assented Nan, with stifled wrath. 
 
 "You left out sumsin," said the listener, detecting 
 an attempt to abridge the narrative. 
 
 "Oh, do let me tell you something else I" implored 
 Nan. "I see the wolf and the pigs in my dreams. I 
 wake in the night, saying, 
 
 ' I '11 huff and I '11 puff, 
 And I '11 blow your house in I ' 
 
 I know a lovely story about a man called the 'Pied 
 Piper,' " she went on, in honeyed accents; " it begins, 
 
 'Rats! 
 
 They fought the dogs and killed the cats, 
 
 And bit the babies in the cradles, 
 
 And ate the cheeses out of the vat, 
 
 And licked the soups from the cook's own ladles.' " 
 
 With a wild whoop the audience vanished beneath 
 the bedclothes, whence issued the muffled words, 
 
 "Rats! Me so 'f'aid! Tell piggy-wig " came the 
 nagging voice, as Betty cautiously poked one eye from
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 123 
 
 beneath the coverlid. "Where's my handkercher ? " 
 she murmured huskily, as her sister showed signs of 
 rebellion. 
 
 Conquered, Nan began again, till another malign 
 prompting from the patient, 
 
 "Piggy-wig had long, booful turly dolden hair that 
 weached " 
 
 It was too much for mortal patience. Nan arose to 
 her full height. 
 
 " He had n't 1 " she screamed, and fled incontinently. 
 
 It was Bobby who brought on, at last, the dreaded 
 catastrophe. He had recently bartered his telephone for 
 a tiny alligator, with a mouth that curved gently into 
 a tail that gave the little reptile's only sign of life in 
 an occasional gentle wiggle. The alligator was in his 
 winter torpor, and must be given nothing to eat till 
 the spring, his former owner cautioned. 
 
 " See what I Ve brought you, Bettykins," said Bobby, 
 and laid this attractive pet by his sister's side. 
 
 There was a prolonged howl, and a frantic jump out 
 of bed. 
 
 "You don't mean to say," demanded Bobby, con 
 temptuously, "that you're scared of that tadpole?" 
 
 Betty had clambered upon a chair, and was drawing 
 her nightgown about her ankles. It was difficult to 
 distinguish the words amid the torrent of sobs, 
 
 " I 'm afraid he '11 eat me up ! " 
 
 Bobby snatched up the alligator, and giving the little 
 tropical exile the warmth it craved inside his shirt-sleeve,
 
 124 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 marched off to his den in high dudgeon at the reception 
 of his offering. 
 
 The shock of terrified surprise soon merged into that 
 of consuming curiosity, and the following morning 
 Betty decided to get up. Waiting till Bobby was safely 
 out of the way, she stole to her brother's room and had 
 the supreme satisfaction of cuddling the "dear little 
 baby alligator " to her heart's content. But alas 1 when 
 Bobby returned from school, it was to find that the little 
 tail had given its last wiggle in this mortal world and 
 that the smile was fixed forever in celestial curves. 
 Fragments of bread and meat near by rendered a post 
 mortem unnecessary. 
 
 Betty's grief at the untoward result of her kindness 
 was so overwhelming that Bobby, after the first wrathful 
 explosion, forbore reproaches. 
 
 " Never mind, Bettykins, you did n't know," he said 
 generously. "I dare say it would have been lonesome 
 here, all alone, for the little 'gator, and he would have 
 been homesick if he 'd lived to grow up. I '11 stuff him 
 and stand him on his hind legs, and put a tray in his 
 forepaws, and you shall have him for your very own I " 
 
 But Betty only sobbed a heart-broken refusal of this 
 handsome offer. 
 
 " We '11 have a nice little funeral, then," suggested 
 Bobby. " Let 's throw him into the river. He '11 feel 
 more at home there than if we buried him in the 
 garden." 
 
 Chris gave the mourners her fan box, into which the
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 125 
 
 little defunct fitted to a nicety, and Betty, taking a 
 mournful pleasure in the obsequies, cast the box from 
 the bridge, while Bobby repeated an impromptu epitaph, 
 thus refuting the dictum of his idol, that " no man can 
 be extemporaneous with the occasion," 
 
 " Floating down the Holbrook river, 
 
 With his tail stretched out behind, 
 And his head beneath the billows, 
 Steering straight before the wind ! "
 
 126 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 
 
 BOBBY was whistling "On the Banks of the 
 Wabash," as he tramped his homeward way in 
 the early darkness, his skates Lucy's Christmas gift 
 slung over his shoulder, and his blood still tingling 
 with the rollicking good tune on the river. As he 
 passed the Emporium, some vagrant impulse led him to 
 kick open the door and fling in a cheery, 
 
 "Hi, Griff 1" 
 
 There was no response. Bobby perceived that the 
 dim light came from the open door of the stove, before 
 which Griff was crouching, apparently oblivious of any 
 thing that might be going on about him. 
 
 " Griff Hi hullo I I say Griff, are you asleep ? " 
 announced the visitor. "Why don't you light up, in 
 stead of letting a fellow break his neck over your 
 truck?" he demanded indignantly, rubbing his shins, 
 which had come into violent contact with the coal-hod. 
 
 " Wait a moment," answered the shopkeeper, fumbling 
 for the match- safe, which was kept on the top shelf, 
 behind some bales of lining goods. Bobby meantime 
 seized the coal-hod, and poured its remaining contents 
 upon the handful of dying embers in the stove. 
 
 "It's colder than Greenland here," he grumbled. 
 "Why don't you keep your ranch decently warm ? "
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 127 
 
 " It 's it 's all the coal there is," answered Griff, 
 meekly, coughing behind his hand in a deprecatory man 
 ner. His voice was suspiciously hoarse; his eyes, as 
 seen hi the light of the flickering, ill-smelling lamp, 
 were red and swollen to a degree not to be accounted for 
 by even the heavy cold from which he was evidently 
 suffering. Bobby seized him unceremoniously by his 
 thin, shrunken shoulders, and twirled him around. 
 
 "Don't ee, Bobby," said the youth, blinking feebly 
 under the fixed gaze that confronted him. 
 
 " You 're blubbering," said Bobby. 
 
 It did not occur to him to offer sympathy for Griff's 
 trouble, whatever it might be; only the usual boyish 
 contempt for tears was modified, in the present instance, 
 by a vague feeling that anything idiotic or snivelling 
 might be expected of Griff. The charge was too pal 
 pably true for denial. Drawing a rag from his pocket, 
 Griff mopped his eyes, concluding by a dolorous blast 
 on his nose. 
 
 He was half a dozen years Bobby's senior, but he 
 could not remember the time when he was not afraid 
 even to express to another a contrary opinion. He 
 was too dull of wit and tame of spirit to resent, in 
 telling retort or the swift blow with which Bobby would 
 have answered an insult, the scoffs and jibes of his 
 school-boy patrons. Bobby, with the half-kindly, half- 
 contemptuous toleration of the very strong for the 
 weak, had taken no part in this persecution, and al 
 ways threw Griff a careless, pleasant word when the
 
 128 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 horde of school-boys took possession of the little 
 shop. 
 
 Bobby seemed to Griff like a being from another 
 sphere, whose handsome face and lordly bearing were 
 something to be wondered at and gloated over and 
 speechlessly adored. For Griff had never dared voice 
 his worship otherwise, perhaps, than by calling its 
 object Bobby when Lucy was not present; on those 
 occasions the endearing name was replaced by a quaver 
 ing " Mr. Captain Dudley." It was, however, happiness 
 enough to place before his idol turnovers and cream- 
 cakes galore, and to watch them disappear with the 
 celerity of a conjuror; while he was all alacrity and 
 smiles when Bobby "treated" the crowd, frequently 
 to the extent of exhausting the Emporium's stock of 
 comestibles. 
 
 When the heedless throng, their hands full of cates, 
 rushed from the shop, Griff stood at the window, strain 
 ing his eyes for a last glimpse of Bobby, racing up the 
 hill, always an easy length ahead of his mates. At 
 the top he turned his eager, flushed face and awaited 
 the oncoming of the others. Then shoulder to shoulder 
 with Jack Burnham, Bobby's voice and laugh rising 
 above the others, the merry squad tramped back to 
 school. 
 
 There was no one in all the world whom Griff had 
 envied as he did Jack Burnham. Merely to feel Bobby's 
 hand upon his shoulder would have given him a happi 
 ness beyond anything he had ever known. Vaguely it
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 129 
 
 seemed to the hapless youth that the mere touch would 
 infuse something into him that would transform his 
 very nature. The strongest emotion that had ever 
 stirred his feeble pulse was that of indignation on 
 the day when Lucy told him of Jack's "dirty trick." 
 That one singled out before all men by the gift of 
 Bobby's friendship could have shown himself unworthy 
 of such a boon was to Griff scarcely less than the fall 
 of the archangels. 
 
 " What 's struck you ? " demanded Bobby. 
 
 At the blunt words, and still more, the tone of sur 
 prise and curiosity and unbounded contempt, Griff, 
 covering his mouth with his fingers, gave a vacuous 
 little laugh, that suddenly ceased as he realized his 
 temerity at doing anything without permission. 
 
 " Lemme go, Bobby," he quavered. 
 
 " Not till you 've told me what 's up, " responded 
 Bobby, enforcing his mandate by a shake that may 
 have been intended to be gentle, but which made 
 Griff's teeth chatter and his knees knock together. 
 
 But the shopkeeper stood his ground with unpre 
 cedented tenacity. 
 
 " Le' go," he gasped, making a futile effort to wriggle 
 out of his captor's clutch. 
 
 " Tell me what you were howling about I " com 
 manded Bobby. 
 
 His finely developed head, set squarely on his shoul 
 ders, was thrown slightly back, as was his habit when 
 in earnest ; his deep-set eyes beneath their level brows 
 
 9
 
 130 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 held Griff's shuffling gaze. Yet it was less the master 
 ful accents, or even that iron grip on his shoulder to 
 which the cringing youth yielded, than the mere un 
 conscious domination of the strong nature over the 
 weak. 
 
 " Lucy Lu " he stammered. 
 
 " What has Lucy-lu been doing to you now ? " in 
 quired Bobby, mildly, but with a twinkle in his eyes 
 that nearly caused another collapse of his captive. 
 
 " It was about that notice in the show window," 
 quavered Griff. 
 
 Bobby's eyes strayed to the superb display of pop 
 guns, tin trumpets, and miniature flags, to which the 
 attention of the public was called by the flamboyant 
 placard, " Come, let us reason together." 
 
 " I know 't ain't just what folks expect for Christmas," 
 pleaded Griff, "but I hadn't spot cash to buy for the 
 holiday trade," he spoke with a pitiful assumption of 
 importance, "and the wholesalers wouldn't give me 
 credit. I thought I could make the things do that were 
 left over from Fourth of July. Advertising is the soul 
 of trade, and I did mean to work up a holiday boom. 
 But Taffy wouldn't print my advertisement it was a 
 fine one, sure to have brought a run of customers," 
 interpolated Griff, regretfully, " and just now Lucy- 
 lu came in and and said that that notice in the 
 window was from the Bible. He 's he 's been ask 
 ing me if I thought the author of the text was calling 
 the attention of Moses to the cheapness of things
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 131 
 
 in the gimcrack line. I I don't know what to 
 do oo!" 
 
 Bobby's solution of the question was simplicity itself. 
 
 " If Lucy-lu comes poking 'round again, kick him out 
 of the ranch." 
 
 "I I could n't," whimpered Griff, fearsomely 
 looking over his shoulder, as though he expected the 
 momentary appearance of the dread " Visitor " to whisk 
 him off to perdition. 
 
 "Why in thunder couldn't you? Lucy isn't up 
 to my shoulder," returned Bobby. "Even you might 
 lick him," added Lucy's friend, amiably unconscious 
 of the uncomplimentary inflection. 
 
 "He he pointed his finger at me," whimpered 
 Griff. 
 
 Bobby sank on the nearest seat and laughed till he 
 could laugh no more. 
 
 "Who'd have thought you were a greater fool than 
 you looked ? " he ejaculated at length, faintly. And Griff 
 did not even know that there was anything in the words 
 to call for resentment. 
 
 "I I can't expect to prosper in business when it 
 is n't my real calling. I 've always thought my vocation 
 was something quite different till " Griff glanced 
 at the placard and showed symptoms of breaking down 
 again. "No, if the ministry isn't my calling, either, 
 it does seem as though there was n't any place for me 
 anywhere in the world." 
 
 Bobby felt a faint stirring of pity for the blubbering
 
 132 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 youth, of the kind he would have felt for a starving 
 cat. But as he did not know just how to express his 
 good will, he merely gave the stove another shake, and 
 picked up the book over which Griff had been poring. 
 He dropped it as though it were one of the coals in 
 the now glowing bed of embers. 
 
 " The Bible I " he exclaimed. 
 
 The Bible was for church and Sundays. He would 
 have said, perhaps, if he had ever given the subject 
 a thought, that perhaps ministers and sick people and 
 old women read it on week-days ; but to find any one 
 absorbed in its pages to the same extent that he would 
 have felt himself in " Tom Brown " or " Westward Ho," 
 struck him as a development of human nature worthy 
 of a freak museum. 
 
 "I've kept it under the counter or in a drawer," 
 explained Griff, shamefacedly. " I suppose that it was 
 because some text was always running in my head 
 that I put that notice in the window. You see, Bobby," 
 he added solemnly, " I am the round man in the square 
 hole. I was intended for a minister." 
 
 "I I don't know that I ever heard you mention 
 it before," remarked Bobby, tentatively, fearful of in 
 ducing another flood of tears. 
 
 "That was why ma named me Griffith," continued 
 the youth, in a tone struggling between complacency 
 and grief. " It means ' One having great faith.' After 
 I gave up my hopes of the pulpit and got kind of dis 
 couraged, generally, I thought I had no right to the
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 133 
 
 beautiful name, and so called myself ' G. William,' till 
 Lucy made me tell him my full name." Griff was 
 speaking now under the necessity of a weak nature 
 for pouring itself forth into the first channel that 
 offered. The flood of confidences, once let loose, swept 
 irresistibly on. 
 
 " I never cared to play with the other boys in our 
 village. I hated rude, rough games, like football " 
 
 "H'm," remarked the stalwart Captain of the Hoi- 
 brook team. 
 
 " That is I well, it looks a good deal like fight 
 ing, you know," said Griff, in alarm. " My Sabbath- 
 school teacher always told me that fighting was a sin." 
 
 "Worse than a sin; it is a blunder," acquiesced 
 Bobby, in amiable rendering of the great Frenchman's 
 dictum, " when you are the fellow who will get licked." 
 
 "Mamma says I used to be the perfect image of a 
 little minister," Griff went on. " My hair was done 
 in a long curl on the top of my head ; and I had such a 
 sweet way, she says, of sitting with my hands folded so 
 the very image of the ' little Samuel.' " Griff rolled his 
 eyes ceilingward as the finishing touch to this affecting 
 picture, forgetting in his self-absorption the easily 
 excited risibilities of his auditor. Bobby, however, was 
 finding these revelations so entertaining that he was able 
 to exercise an unusual control over his facial muscles. 
 It would be nuts for the fellows. 
 
 " When I was five years old, my favorite book was 
 the * Memoirs of the Rev. Jedediah Mugridge,' by his
 
 134 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 sister, the saintly Martha Ann Mugridge," resumed 
 Griff. 
 
 " Who in thunder was he ? " inquired Bobby, with an 
 irrelevant thought of the well-worn volume of the " Life 
 of Daniel Webster." 
 
 " He went as missionary to the Sandwich Islands, and 
 there he passed away," sighed Griff. 
 
 "Did they eat him?" inquired Bobby, in animated 
 tones. 
 
 "He took cold, one day, going to Sabbath-school 
 without his overshoes. He was of a consumptive 
 tendency, like me." Griff spoke with an assumption 
 that pulmonary weakness and a call to the ministry 
 were identical. 
 
 " He was rather an ass, was n't he, to go off in that 
 style?", commented Bobby, his interest in the Rev. 
 Jedediah suddenly subsiding. 
 
 "I used to preach sermons to anybody who would 
 listen" 
 
 " Who in time would ? " interrupted his auditor, in 
 blank amazement. 
 
 It was curious, again, that just then there should have 
 come into his head his own fervid deliveries of Daniel 
 Webster's speeches to an enthusiastic home circle. 
 What did this wretched weakling know of ambition 
 of hero worship I 
 
 " Well, mamma," answered Griff. " She sewed for a 
 living, but contrived to lay up a little money each year, 
 so as to be able by and by to send me to the theological
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 135 
 
 seminary. It was about time for me to enter, when her eyes 
 gave out and she had to take all her savings for doctor's 
 bills and medicine. But she wanted me to be a minister 
 just the same. She said she could die happy after she 'd 
 heard me preach my first sermon. Then, just in the nick 
 of time, or so it seemed at first, an old lady who was 
 interested in the ' Society for the Propagation of Min 
 isters,' offered to pay my way through the theological 
 school." 
 
 " Old ladies should attend to their duties as grand 
 mothers, and not be so precious fond of sending into the 
 world to preach the Gospel chinless beings who say 
 * How ? ' " said Bobby, reflectively, and with no intention 
 of hurting any one's feelings. " Go ahead ! " 
 
 " Mamma said she could get along without my help," 
 continued Griff, "but I knew what that meant, 
 sitting up half the night, sewing, and living on 
 bread and tea. I thought and I thought, till my head 
 swam, my head swims kinder easy," he added apolo 
 getically. " Well, the end of it all was that I gave up 
 the idea of being a minister, and began to look about for 
 some way to support mamma and me. But there seemed 
 no room for me in our town. At last I heard of the 
 opening here, and by scraping together all our money, 
 I bought out this shop and good will. But I 'm clean 
 discouraged 1 " Griff fumbled at his handkerchief again 
 before he went on. "It's no use trying to keep my 
 head above water any longer. I Ve got to make a com 
 promise with my creditors. Only, I don't see how
 
 136 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 mamma and I are going to get along without the shop, 
 little as it brings in. I Ve been into the city nearly every 
 day, going the rounds of the stores and offices ; but I 'm 
 too old for errand-boy, and too young for a place in the 
 counting-room, even if I knew anything about book 
 keeping or could write a decent hand. I can't lift nor 
 carry and and somehow there seems something about 
 me that makes folks mad. There 's no room for me 
 anywhere in the world I " 
 
 Bobby looked at him speculatively. It was a kind of 
 revelation that there could be any one whose presence 
 did not carry its own welcome. 
 
 "What did they say?" queried the popular boy, 
 curiously. 
 
 " Sometimes all they said was, * No,' " answered the 
 boy for whom there was "no room." "But oftener 
 they told me to * get out,' or they 'd kick me out if I 
 showed up again. I made the mistake, once or twice, 
 of going to the same place a second time. Generally, 
 going out, I tripped over a bale of goods or the waste- 
 paper basket, and 'most always left the door open. Then 
 they swore," narrated Griff. There was no rancor in 
 his tone at the recollection of his treatment. Kicks and 
 cuffs were his birthright. " I took cold 'long o' going 
 without an overcoat and getting my feet wet, nights and 
 mornings, delivering papers." The accumulated weight 
 of his miseries was too much for Griff's slight remaining 
 self-control, and breaking down, he sobbed unrestrainedly. 
 
 " How did you get your feet wet, and why did you
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 137 
 
 go without your overcoat?" questioned Bobby. The 
 laughter was gone from his eyes now, the good-natured 
 scoffing from his voice. 
 
 " I have n't any overcoat, and my overshoes leaked so 
 that they were worse than none." 
 
 "You mustn't ask for an assignment,'' said Bobby, 
 after a prolonged pause. " We '11 give you a free ad. in 
 the Snark, I'll write it myself," he addsd quickly. 
 " Oh, by the by, I 'm owing you a little something ; 
 you'd better send in the bill. How much is it?" 
 
 "I don't know not much it isn't of the slightest 
 consequence," answered Griff, hastily. " Now don't ee 
 mind about that, Bobby. I can wait just as well as not. 
 I'd I'd rather." 
 
 " Get out your books," commanded Bobby. 
 
 Still mumbling a protest, the trembling youth obeyed. 
 
 "Now see what I owe you," said the masterful 
 voice. 
 
 Twice, thrice, Griff attempted to obey ; but the figures 
 swam before his eyes and each addition gave a different 
 sum. 
 
 " I can't," said he, at last, helplessly. 
 
 " Get out and let me," returned Bobby. 
 
 He glanced at the page before him and his look of 
 surprise changed to one of incredulity. Then he, too, 
 cast up the long rows of figures, again and once again, 
 and Griff watched the handsome, resolute face grow 
 white and set, and was too scared and abased and miser 
 able to utter a word.
 
 138 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " I had no idea it was so much," said Bobby, at last, 
 quietly. 
 
 "I never meant to ask you to pay, Bobby," faltered 
 Griff, wishing with all his wretched soul that he had 
 thrust the ledger into the fire before it had come to 
 his idol's view. "I I wish you 'd take it as a little 
 present." 
 
 " Do you think I 'd take that sort of a present, and 
 from you, you idiot ! " responded Bobby, without definite 
 intention of giving pain, but speaking out of his own sore 
 perturbation of mind. " There 's an ulster at home I 've 
 outgrown that will fit you. You must not go around 
 with the papers while you have that cold. I'll take 
 care of them for the present. The morning newspapers 
 come out on the six-o'clock train, don't they ? Oh, dry 
 up ! " he added impatiently, as Griff attempted an inco 
 herent jumble of protest and thanks. It was difficult to 
 refrain from kicking such an adorer. 
 
 In the worship of this cringing youth, who had gone 
 without proper food and clothing that he Bobby 
 might regale himself and his mates on pies and cake, 
 he felt vaguely that there was something equally 
 degrading to both giver and recipient. As he left the 
 shop, he thought that, after all, he would not tell Griff's 
 story to the fellows. 
 
 Immediately after supper he went to his own room, 
 but not to study; when he tried to fix his thoughts 
 upon the pages of " Iphigenie," instead of the German 
 text, rows of ominous figures danced before his eyes.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 139 
 
 At last he cast the book aside and gave himself up to 
 a study of his difficulties. 
 
 The most obvious solution was to apply to Lucy. 
 But though his friend under the circumstances was 
 too generous to make stipulations, Bobby felt that so 
 great an obligation would necessitate yielding the point 
 on which his little henchman had set his heart, and 
 admitting Susie Grossman to the editorship. That was 
 a concession hardly to be contemplated. Besides, the 
 afternoon's humiliating revelations had somehow placed 
 even Lucy's favors in a different light, and school-boy 
 honor revolted at the idea of borrowing money to pay 
 for treats. 
 
 He leaned back in the chair that had been Daniel 
 Webster's, and almost mechanically took down the 
 treasured " Life." But for the first time its pages 
 seemed to hold no inspiration, to be, indeed, as flat 
 and tame as the " Memoirs " of the Rev. Jedediah. 
 Besides, Bobby felt sure that the great "Expounder" 
 was never tormented by a girl who, if the situation 
 were paltered with, might write poetry about his hair! 
 Trivial, ridiculous though that consideration might 
 seem, it was an element in the problem that could not 
 be eliminated. 
 
 " Robin love," called Lou, " there 's a man downstairs 
 to see you. His name is Peterson."
 
 140 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
 
 " T HATE to bother you, Bobby," said the printer, with 
 
 JL genuine regret in his tones. " I 've been here two 
 or three times without finding you in." 
 
 The slip of paper he was twisting uneasily in his 
 hands told his errand. Bobby felt that he was being 
 baited in every direction. 
 
 " What do you think I generally do, afternoons, 
 sit at home and knit?" he inquired with unwonted 
 asperity. 
 
 " I 've done the work less for you than I would for 
 any one else," went on the man. " But times are hard 
 and there are always extra bills coming in with the New 
 Year. I haven't been able to work lately, either, 
 because of the grip. If you could make a partial pay 
 ment, it would be a real help, and the rest of the account 
 could stand awhile longer." 
 
 " I leave all the business affairs of the paper to Mr. 
 Dabney," explained Bobby, magnificently. " If you will 
 take the bill to him, he will no doubt make a satisfac 
 tory arrangement." 
 
 " I 've been to him again and again," returned the 
 printer, " but he keeps putting me off ; there has n't 
 been a cent paid me this year. I 've had to mortgage 
 the plant to get absolute necessities. My wife is sick
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 141 
 
 now, and the doctor has ordered food and medicine for 
 which I must have spot cash." 
 
 " It is all right," answered Bobby, reassuringly. " I 
 don't understand why the bill has not been settled, in 
 part, at least. But I will look into the matter without 
 delay. I promise you a partial payment within a week." 
 
 " Thank you, Bobby," answered Peterson, as grate 
 fully as though he had received a substantial favor. 
 " We all like to see you come into the office, and you 
 stick type first-rate for a beginner." 
 
 The following day Bobby lost no time in seeking his 
 subordinate. 
 
 "Why in thunder haven't you paid Peterson?" he 
 demanded in his most peremptory tones. 
 
 " How in thunder can I rake any money together 
 when nobody will read the rot you print?" retorted the 
 business editor, with equal emphasis. " Have you seen 
 the last number ? " 
 
 Bobby confessed that, being absorbed in the construc 
 tion of an ice-boat, he had relegated to the exchange 
 editor the duty of seeing the Snark through the 
 press. 
 
 " Look here, then I " Taffy flourished a copy of the 
 school journal in his chief's face. " Do you see that 
 stuff on the first page ? " 
 
 Bobby looked aghast at the editorial column. The 
 " leader " modelled on the " Reply to Haynes " had been 
 suppressed, and its place was filled with a poem by 
 " Psyche " commemorating the incident at the " Bend,"
 
 142 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 and dwelling, in the most tender language of the muse, 
 upon the hero's hair, as it lay in 
 
 ** Damp and clust'ring ringlets 
 On his wet and pallid brow ! " 
 
 " I '11 lick Lucy within an inch of his life ! " exclaimed 
 Bobby. " I never knew such an idiot. I wish I could 
 burn the whole edition. I suppose the papers have all 
 been sent?" he inquired anxiously. 
 
 " Every copy," answered Taffy, grimly. " Lucy took 
 care of that, too; he seems to have been under the 
 impression, lately, that he is the whole team." 
 
 " I shall never be able to live it down," declared 
 Bobby, after a gloomy silence. 
 
 " I should think not, indeed," assented the business 
 editor, with ill-timed cordiality. "Sweet pretty title, 
 is n't it ? ' The Hero ! ' Compares you to Marcus 
 Aurelius, jumping overboard to save your cause. I 
 think we shall probably need an extra edition. Orders 
 are pouring in from the City High." 
 
 Bobby read the poem through in rising wrath at his 
 perfidious associate. 
 
 "I'll kick him off the ranch," he vowed hotly. 
 "Something's got to be done about this account," he 
 went on, when he could withdraw his thoughts, even 
 momentarily, from Lucy's treachery. He produced 
 Peterson's bill. " How much money is there in the 
 treasury?" 
 
 " Not a red," answered the business editor, wrought to
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 143 
 
 a pitch of desperation by his chief's strictures and the 
 long-continued strain of anxiety and secrecy. It was an 
 actual relief to know that the crash was at hand. 
 
 " How 's that what 's become of the money paid in 
 by our regular subscribers and the old boys ? " queried 
 Bobby, sharply. 
 
 " I borrowed it a few weeks ago," replied Taffy, coolly. 
 " The fact is," he went on, struggling to maintain his 
 assertive attitude before the look of slow-dawning com 
 prehension on Bobby's face, " I thought I saw a chance 
 of making my pile. But things did n't come out as I 
 thought they would, and I was cleaned out. I had a 
 perfect right of course, as business manager, to make any 
 temporary use of the Snartts funds that I saw fit. The 
 law allows a director the use of ten per cent of the com 
 pany's funds ; if ten per cent, why not fifty or a hun 
 dred ? " argued Taffy. But somehow, with Bobby's eyes 
 fixed upon him, the argument was not so convincing as 
 it had been when he rehearsed it to himself, as he had 
 done many times within the past weeks. 
 
 " I believe that was the line of defence adopted by the 
 President of the Peveril Bank," returned Bobby, slowly. 
 Quick of understanding though he was on ordinary 
 occasions, he had not yet grasped the fact that the 
 business editor of the school journal had appropriated 
 its money to his own ends. 
 
 Taffy winced. His father was one of the directors of 
 the Peveril Bank, and he had heard expressed, daily, 
 emphatic opinions regarding its late President.
 
 144 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " Men do it on the * street,' every day, smart fellows, 
 too," he answered, striving to maintain his assured front. 
 
 "They sometimes wind up in State's Prison, as the 
 result of their ' smartness,' " suggested Bobby, quietly, 
 very quietly. 
 
 " Of course I mean to pay back the money sometime," 
 continued Taffy, misled by his chief's tone. After all, 
 Bobby's never-failing good-nature could be relied on not 
 to kick up a row. " Why don't you ask Lucy to pay 
 Peterson?" he asked. "We could rub along awhile 
 longer, if this crisis could be bridged." He spoke 
 with an assumption of business importance that was 
 inexpressibly irritating to the sorely galled temper of 
 the editor-in-chief. 
 
 Then the storm broke. 
 
 " We!" repeated Bobby, in a white rage. "How 
 dare you name yourself in the same breath with me ! 
 You know why I don't ask Lucy. Do you think it 's 
 pleasant to be made a laughing-stock of in this fashion ? 
 I 've put up with this sort of thing beyond all bounds of 
 decency and self-respect." 
 
 " You have, have you ? " shouted Taffy, in an equal 
 rage. " You 'd better look to home ! I don't know that 
 the Snark has any reason to be prouder of its chief than 
 of its assistant editors. It 's a blooming sight better to 
 borrow a little money on on good security" even 
 Taffy's assurance faltered " than to be always spong 
 ing on another fellow, and never paying your share of 
 treats I Oh, you're a puller, all right I"
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 145 
 
 The last words had hardly left Taffy's lips before 
 Bobby's fist shot out and the business editor was 
 sprawling on the ground. The succeeding interview 
 with Lucy resulted in a pitched battle, and Bobby 
 was left sole editor and manager of the bankrupt 
 Snark. 
 
 No one ventured, in his hearing, to allude directly to 
 the leading article in that month's issue, but for many 
 days Bobby had to endure admiring glances at his hair, 
 or to witness a clasp of the hands, accompanied by a 
 violent swaying to and fro, that may have been intended 
 to represent the throes of love, but which the fellows 
 assured him merely meant that they were cold. Once, 
 to be sure, as he threw off his cap after recess and an 
 unusually lively snowball scrimmage, Larry Lyman was 
 heard to murmur something that sounded like "damp 
 and clust'ring ringlets ; " but Larry explained that he 
 was merely trying to suppress a sneeze. 
 
 To the unbounded amazement of his sisters, Bobby 
 suddenly developed a mania for early rising that might 
 have called forth the encomiums of "Poor Richard" 
 himself, Bobby, from whose healthy slumbers it had 
 hitherto required the united efforts of the family to 
 arouse. Vouchsafing no explanation, he appeared every 
 morning at the breakfast-table with a rush of frosty air 
 and the appetite of a young Hercules. At any other 
 time this unusual behavior would have aroused com 
 ment and question, the home circle always resenting 
 anything that looked like an effort on the part of any of 
 
 10
 
 146 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 its members to conceal its private affairs, but just now 
 the others were too much absorbed in guarding their 
 own secrets to pay heed to those of another. 
 
 How he was to meet the obligations that seemed 
 piling up on every side was a question that appeared 
 to Bobby to admit of no solution. He sold his 
 skates to buy coal for the Emporium's depleted bin, 
 but that sum represented but a small part of his obli 
 gations. The awful figures on Griff's ledger were 
 constantly before his eyes ; the insulting epithet flung 
 at him by Taffy rang incessantly hi his ears. " Black 
 guard," to a man, was a word that could convey no more 
 degrading sense than to the boy did " puller." A partial 
 settlement of Peterson's bill must be made within the 
 week. But, worst of all, was the apparent certainty 
 that the Snark must be given up. What would Judge 
 Luce, Dr. Burnham, Mr. Dabney, and the other " old 
 boys " say, when they heard that the journal in which 
 they had retained almost the interest of their boyhood 
 had been run into the ground by the incapacity, perhaps 
 the dishonesty, of its present editor? For the school 
 paper to die a natural death would have been a severe 
 blow to the self-esteem of the editor-in-chief, but that it 
 should actually " fail," that the memory of that last 
 issue should live in Holbrook annals forever unre- 
 trieved, was a catastrophe that Bobby felt would 
 darken his entire future. He mentally writhed as he 
 thought of the columns of rhetoric with which its fail 
 ure would be commented on by the various school
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 147 
 
 exchanges, and pictured the editorial with which the 
 Up-to-Date would gloat over its rival's downfall I 
 
 The various expedients that occurred to him were 
 only to be successively rejected. To enlist in the 
 army or navy, to go out to Dick's ranch, were pro 
 jects that had their special allurements; even more 
 enticing was the thought of the " Klondike." What a 
 triumph it would be, after a twelvemonth or more of 
 exciting toil, with a few adventures with grizzly bears 
 and Indians thrown in, to return to Holbrook the hero 
 of the hour, pay off his debts, restore the old house and 
 grounds to their pristine glories, and show Taffy and 
 Lucy and Jack, that he was become a man, while 
 they were still little boys ! 
 
 But the next moment he turned away from the 
 attractive picture. 
 
 "I must stand by the girls; we've vowed a vow, 
 and the man of the family mustn't be the one to 
 break it ; " and though not for the world would Bobby 
 have betrayed his loyal affection, the thought was fol 
 lowed by another: "They're the nicest girls I know. 
 Of course I couldn't care for Susie Grossman, after 
 them! They never need to be told that the bell has 
 struck to laugh." 
 
 The most immediate question was the promised pay 
 ment to Peterson. To do Bobby justice, the thought of 
 " backing out " of his agreement to the printer by plead 
 ing the unexpectedness of the situation never entered 
 his mind. It was not now alone the onerous conditions
 
 148 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 of the loan that held him from an appeal to Lucy; 
 sooner than give any one cause to apply to him again 
 that stinging epithet of Taffy's, he felt that he would 
 have starved. Could it be that all the fellows had 
 been dubbing him " puller " ? 
 
 To be sure, he might state the situation to Judge 
 Luce, Mr. Dabney, and others. A subscription, headed 
 by a few such influential names, would soon restore 
 the Snark to solvency; Holbrook was always respon 
 sive to any appeal to its public spirit. Bobby even 
 went so far as to draw up a list of alumnse whose aid 
 could be relied upon ; but after staring thoughtfully at 
 the honored names for some minutes, he tore the paper 
 to bits. 
 
 " They 're not the fellows to cry baby to. I '11 go it 
 alone," he said, throwing back his head. 
 
 He had intended not to appeal to Nan, whose com 
 parative affluence had won her, in the home circle, the 
 appellation of " Mrs. Vanderbilt." But a little specious 
 reasoning readily convinced Bobby that his sister had 
 doubtless accumulated by this time a considerable sum 
 in the common cause, of which she could easily spare 
 him a portion. It was not " pulling " to borrow of 
 one's sister. Besides, he would repay the amount before 
 the arrival of the "Visitor." Struggling as Nan was 
 with her own worries, however, for the first time her 
 little brother's request for a loan was met by a sharp 
 rejoinder. But before Bobby reached the door, his sister 
 sprang after him.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 149 
 
 " I did n't mean it, Bobby, honor bright ! " she cried, 
 holding out the shabby little leather purse that held her 
 hoard. " There is n't much in it, but you 're welcome 
 to every cent, honest true ! " 
 
 " I don't care for it, thank you ! " Bobby flung back 
 the words haughtily, leaving Nan to return to her work 
 with a heavy burden of self-reproach added to the 
 weight of real responsibility and imaginary worries. 
 
 That others should give and Bobby receive was part 
 of the order of the universe. To have such an ar 
 rangement even momentarily suspended was a condition 
 to which Bobby could not readily adjust himself. From 
 his very cradle his sisters had vied with one another 
 in waiting upon him, and suffering the convenience of 
 the household to serve his pleasure. If one of them 
 chanced to cross his bonny humor, the others instantly 
 combined to soothe his grievance. Nan had worn her 
 shabby coat another winter that her little brother might 
 go to dancing-school, and Chris willingly had gone without 
 sorely needed boots and gloves herself that Bobby might 
 be duly provided for the cotillion. Lou would drop her 
 most inspired millinery to sew up a rent in a baseball 
 or darn a mitten, and had stayed at home to toil on the 
 sail for the new ice-boat, though she was longing to 
 enjoy the first fine skating of the whiter. Betty trotted 
 uncomplainingly up and down stairs all day, on trivial 
 errands of " his lordship," and relinquished her claim to 
 another helping of pudding if Bobby expressed a wish 
 for a third plateful. Even the substantial favors with
 
 150 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 which Lucy showered him were never regarded as 
 obligations. They were received in the spirit with 
 which a feudal baron might have taken the tribute of a 
 vassal, or Daniel Webster accepted the presents of his 
 adoring constituency of State Street bankers. 
 
 It was not till Friday that an expedient occurred to 
 Bobby that would enable him to meet at least part 
 of his obligation to Peterson. At recess, a notice ap 
 peared on the school bulletin board to the effect that 
 on the following afternoon an auction would be held 
 in the barn on the premises of R. Dudley. These ven- 
 dues were popular among the boys, although the 
 articles put up for sale were usually so damaged or 
 out of date as to call forth the derision of the bidders. 
 Refreshments, consisting of crackers and cheese, with 
 the accompaniment of sweet cider or ginger beer, aided 
 to make the occasion festive. 
 
 At three o'clock the next day a knot of small boys 
 stood before " R. Dudley's " barn door, inspecting with 
 surprise the list of articles to be disposed of " regard 
 less of sacrifice." 
 
 1. One bicycle. Best make, last year's model, fine 
 Russia saddle, bell, cyclometer, and lantern attached. 
 
 2. One half share of ice-boat. 
 
 3. Stationary naphtha engine. 
 
 4. Tennis racket and golf clubs. 
 
 5. Four Belgian hares. 
 
 6. Nine hens and a rooster, pure Plymouth Rock 
 breed.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 151 
 
 7. Miscellaneous lot. 
 
 The last item consisted chiefly of a collection of 
 minerals, ditto of beetles, ditto of butterflies, a micro 
 scope, a galvanic battery, a Kodak, and all the books 
 on the little bookshelf save one. The thought of 
 parting with various treasured articles had given Bobby 
 a pang; but the hope of securing even a temporary 
 relief from his difficulties afforded too much relief for 
 regret to find more than fleeting lodgment. 
 
 At the end of an hour the number of prospective 
 bidders had not increased; with a premonitory sinking 
 of the heart it dawned upon Bobby that the notice of 
 the auction had been posted too late for its proper dis 
 semination among the boys. In the ball season a 
 close watch was always kept upon the bulletin board, 
 but at present the chief notices were of articles lost or 
 found, or an occasional sale of old text-books. Yes 
 terday the boys had rushed off with hardly a glance 
 at the board, that they might lose no moment of the 
 precious skating. On former occasions, too, Bobby's 
 special friends would have circulated the news, but 
 unhappily haughty silence now prevailed between him 
 and Jack, Lucy and Taffy. 
 
 At last the auctioneer mounted the old meal-chest 
 that did duty as a rostrum. 
 
 "You see, gentlemen," began Bobby, with a brave 
 attempt at pleasantry, "a wheel that can easily make 
 a century run within a century. Warranted not to 
 pitch its owner into a ditch, or to collide with another
 
 152 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 wheel as long as it is left in the barn. I assure you, 
 gentlemen, there is no danger of this bicycle bolting 
 uphill with its owner, or coasting anywhere but down 
 hill. What is offered on this unusual wheel? Five 
 dollars, do I hear ? What ! only five dollars on a bicycle 
 that cost a hundred do you understand, gentlemen, a 
 wheel that cost a hundred! Do I hear another 
 offer ? " But the auctioneer's inquiring glance was met 
 only by blank faces. " Going going gone, to Larry 
 Lyman for five dollars 1 " 
 
 The naphtha engine was sold at a corresponding dis 
 count, and the half share in the ice-boat which had 
 been the envy of every boy in Holbrook went for a 
 trifling sum to Cutty, in whose hands it proved subse 
 quently a white elephant ; for the home authorities for 
 bade his using it in company with " that reckless Harry 
 Luce," after that ingenuous youth with false cordiality 
 had invited his new partner to a trip up the river, on 
 which the ice-boat attained the speed of the Empire 
 State Express. There was no bidding on the racket or 
 golf clubs, purchases out of season being rare among 
 the boys. Only a few insignificant items of the miscel 
 laneous lot were sold. The characters of the hens were 
 too well known to find purchasers, and the hares had 
 mysteriously disappeared. 
 
 Bobby's evidently engrossing business at the barn had 
 aroused Betty's curiosity, and tiptoeing thither, she 
 learnt what was about to take place. Without delay 
 she bundled the hares into her skirt, and scuttled back to
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 153 
 
 the house as fast as her fat little legs would carry her. 
 Betaking herself to the attic, she crouched beneath 
 the eaves, where she remained dinnerless throughout 
 the afternoon, her tears falling on the soft, furry heap in 
 her lap, while she whispered, with much of the feeling 
 that a tender-hearted abolitionist might have experienced 
 in the days of the Fugitive Slave Law, 
 
 " 'Sh, darlings, don't cry I I won't let them have you. 
 They sha'n't sell you. Betty '11 take care of you 1 " 
 
 After a brief consultation without, Larry Lyman and 
 Cutty re-entered the barn. 
 
 " See here, Bobby," said the former, in a shamefaced 
 way, " we don't want these things. I 'm speaking for 
 the lot of us. I offered five dollars on the wheel just 
 to start the bidding. I had no idea it would be knocked 
 down to me." 
 
 " Say, I don't want the ice-boat, either 1 " piped Cutty. 
 
 But Bobby put his hands behind him. 
 
 " The auction was on the square," said he. " If you 
 don't want the things, you can leave 'em. But I sha'n't 
 use them again." 
 
 And with that reply the boys were forced to be 
 content. 
 
 By " sprinting," Bobby reached the printer's shop just 
 as Peterson was putting up the shutters, and thrust the 
 money into his hands. 
 
 "Thank you, Bobby," said the man, gratefully; "I 
 knew you were all right." 
 
 That night Bobby actually heard the clock strike
 
 154 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 twice. He had merely deferred the day of reck 
 oning. The sum paid the printer was but a fraction 
 of the amount due him, and the figures on Griff's ledger 
 seemed to dance in letters of fire on the darkness. 
 
 Suddenly he sat bolt upright, with a whoop that 
 caused a frantic wagging of the tongueless bell at his 
 bedside. An idea had occurred to him that was at once 
 so simple, so practical, requiring no capital and involv 
 ing no risk, that he could only wonder that he had not 
 thought of it before. 
 
 " Who 's there ? " demanded a terrified but sleepy 
 voice from below. 
 
 "Do you think the burglar is going to send up his 
 card ? " called back Bobby, jeeringly.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 155 
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 
 
 ARRY one twenty twenty-seven," Nan added 
 breathlessly the long columns, a kind of men 
 tal arithmetic that was with her like running down hill. 
 She must keep pace with the accelerated momentum, 
 or she would lose her footing and go headlong. " Who 
 would think that all those horrid little items could count 
 to such a frightful sum ? " She gazed with rueful anti 
 cipation at the ominous pile of paper slips near by. 
 "However, I may as well know the worst. Bobby's 
 dentist bill, Betty's boot bill if she were a centipede, 
 it could n't cost more to keep her shod. Cleaning range, 
 new wash-tub, having clock repaired because Bobby 
 tried to wind it up by electricity oh dear, how much it 
 does cost to live, and how little the game is worth the 
 candle 1 " Nan's hand went involuntarily to her fore 
 head, as though by smoothing out the wrinkles she 
 could thereby remove their cause. Presently, with a long 
 breath, she resumed her calculations. 
 
 " If I took some of the money I 've saved toward the 
 interest on the mortgage but no, if I did that there 
 would be compound interest to worry about, and I can't 
 carry any further weight there. The butcher's account 
 must n't wait, either, and I ought to pay something on 
 the coal bill I sha'n't be able to settle the whole
 
 156 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 amount this month. Oh, why can't I do as Lou does, 
 and not worry, even if I do seem to be swallowed up 
 in debt? Besides, what's the use of trying to keep 
 things straight when everybody is pulling the other 
 way ? " " everybody " in this instance meaning Chris. 
 
 Nan pushed the pile of papers from her and went 
 to the window. The sky, an expanse of unbroken gray, 
 seemed to press upon the earth ; an early thaw had left 
 puddles here and there upon the sodden ground; the 
 remains of an occasional snow-drift were grimy with 
 the settled impurities of the atmosphere. There was 
 no more comfort to be found without, above or below, 
 than within ; but the girl remained at the window, lost in 
 a kind of leaden dream. 
 
 Why give herself away for nothing? Why not be 
 cannily wise, like the witch Betty was chattering about 
 the other day, and take heed that expenditure never out 
 stripped self-interest ? She was of too brave and of too 
 resolute a temper to think seriously of trying to shift to 
 another the burden that at times seemed too heavy for her 
 young shoulders ; but look which way she would, there 
 was only an endless vista of cooking and dish -washing 
 and worry. If there were only some one who cared, some 
 one who understood that behind the fretted brow, the 
 impatience of suggestion, the intolerance of criticism, 
 lay the thought for others that was often their very 
 cause. As she stood pressing her aching forehead 
 against the icy pane, the sorrow and bitter questioning 
 of years ago welled up within her heart, mingling with
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 157 
 
 the every-day worries, the thwarted ambition, and the 
 chafing against a contrary nature, till the girl hardly 
 knew what caused the tumult of angry baffled feeling, or 
 those pangs of intense loneliness that came and went 
 like flashes of inspiration defying analysis. 
 
 There was a knock at the door, and Chris entered. 
 
 "Here is the January money," she said abruptly, 
 placing a roll of bills on the desk. 
 
 The checks that represented the family income were 
 made out to the eldest girl, whose responsibility ended 
 with their endorsement. 
 
 "Why, did you go to the bank?" queried Nan, in 
 surprise. "I did not know the check had come." 
 
 "It came yesterday," answered her sister, her voice 
 trembling with some suppressed excitement. " You will 
 find the amount somewhat short, this quarter," she 
 added in a tone of would-be indifference. 
 
 "What has happened what do you mean?" cried 
 Nan, breathlessly. "The bank failed somebody em 
 bezzled tariff?" she stammered. Then, a vague sus 
 picion entering her mind as she caught sight of the 
 expression, at once defiant and self-exculpatory, tri 
 umphant and ashamed, on her sister's face, she cried, 
 "What have you done, Chris Dudley?" 
 
 "I needed a new gown," answered Chris, trying to 
 speak easily ; but her tone outstripped her intention and 
 was fairly aggressive. " It was all very well when I was 
 a child to dress simply and inexpensively, but now that 
 I am * out ' my wardrobe must be considered a necessary
 
 158 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 part of the family expenditure. I have been very 
 economical, however, and may not require anything 
 more immediately," she added superbly. 
 
 Nan snatched up the roll of bills and counted its con 
 tents again, taking painstaking care that no two bills 
 adhered. She whispered the sum it marked an awful 
 deficit to herself, her mind reverting to the bills 
 over which she had been poring. The blood seemed 
 to have settled in her veins, and a curious dumbness held 
 her speech as she turned a white, appealing face to 
 her sister. 
 
 " What are you glaring at me in that stony, purblind 
 way for?" snapped Chris. 
 
 "A cat may look at a king," responded Nan slowly, 
 perhaps too dumfounded to formulate original speech. 
 
 "You are looking at me more as a cat looks at a 
 mouse," retorted the other girl. " I am the eldest, and 
 have a perfect right to do as I please with the money," 
 she added, her tones growing sharper, as she realized 
 that in spite of herself she was assuming an apologetic 
 attitude. 
 
 " Yes, yes," whispered Nan, hoarsely, hardly conscious 
 of what she was saying. 
 
 "If you were capable of managing the house as it 
 should be done, there would be no need of this everlasting 
 talk about economy," went on Chris, goaded by that 
 uncalled-for need of defending her action to yet sharper 
 speech. " The trouble is you 're always jealous if you 're 
 not number one, and you don't like to see me having
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 159 
 
 a good time. You ought to strain every nerve to get me 
 a suitable wardrobe for my first season." 
 
 Nan put her hand involuntarily to her brow, as though 
 there were some danger of the overstrained nerves snap 
 ping asunder. There was just the tiny grain of truth in 
 Chris's last words that stung her to speech. In a sudden 
 tempest of fury she turned upon her sister. 
 
 " If you want to know what I think of you, I '11 tell 
 you," she cried. " You 've done the most abominable 
 thing I ever heard of I You 've no more right to that 
 money, when we're owing all that," with a compre 
 hensive sweep of her arm over the paper-strewn 
 desk, "than though you'd picked Miss Courtenay's 
 pocket. You 're a thief, that 's what you are, Chris 
 Dudley!" 
 
 Chris, for once silenced, not less by her sister's words 
 than by the expression in Nan's honest eyes, slammed 
 the door behind her. She proceeded to nurse her out 
 raged feelings in the privacy of her own room, and to 
 such good purpose that when Bobby queried, at dinner, 
 " Where 's Nan ? " she was ready with the answer, given 
 in good faith, 
 
 " Sulking in her room." 
 
 " What 's up ? " queried Bobby. 
 
 " General unpleasantness, that 's all. It 's bad enough 
 to be poor, it is for us all," said Chris, in a large- 
 hearted way, " but I don't see the use of making the 
 entire family miserable, in addition, because we can't 
 have all the things we 'd like," she concluded, with the
 
 160 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 air of one setting a worthy example in the matter of 
 bearing one's burdens cheerfully. 
 
 " We won't mind, will we, Chrissy, if Nan is cross ? " 
 said Betty, trying, as usual, to comfort her eldest sister. 
 " We '11 have plum-pudding every day and give all the 
 rice to the hens I " 
 
 " If I catch you feeding them again, it '11 be the worse 
 for you," said Bobby, with an unusual display of temper ; 
 for an autopsy, revealing crops filled with dry rice, had 
 too readily explained the cause of the recent mysterious 
 deaths of Priscilk and Mrs. Peregrine White. 
 
 " I dare say Nan does mean to try hard to manage, and 
 you must not ask for too many things, Betty," said 
 Chris. " But I am the head of the table, and Nan takes 
 too much upon herself when she thinks that hers is the 
 only voice in family matters." To which Bobby and 
 Lou, knowing nothing of the real cause of the disagree 
 ment and accustomed to Nan's usual disposition over 
 the monthly accounts, gave easy assent. 
 
 A few days before this episode, Chris had said tenta 
 tively, 
 
 " Do you think there will be any money left over, 
 next month?" and Nan had answered with a hateful 
 laugh, 
 
 " A few loose thousands I I was wondering whether 
 I would better invest them in ' Calumet and Hecla ' or 
 ' Union and Pacific ' bonds." 
 
 Chris, who had had some vague idea of telling her 
 sister the situation, held back the words. Nan always
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 161 
 
 laughed at her social aspirations. Then came the 
 thought that the money for the coveted gown lay within 
 her reach. The idea of appropriating the sum from the 
 household funds, at first repulsed, returned again and 
 again, and by and by found harborage. When the 
 check came, her plans were made. 
 
 Saying nothing to the others, she took the early train 
 to the city. The bank was first visited. She had never 
 cashed a check before, and as the cashier pushed the 
 money across the counter, an intoxicating sense of 
 wealth and power came over her. She looked at the 
 throng on the busy street with a pleasant sense of being 
 lifted high above the necessities that were driving these 
 people to their daily toil. Instead of going to the 
 department store where she had intended making her 
 purchases, she turned her steps toward the more exclu 
 sive shop patronized by Miss Courtenay. When the 
 clerk, recognizing the young lady who had accompanied 
 one of his best customers, took out for her inspection 
 a choice fabric, "the latest style and our own importa 
 tion, madam," Chris, after examining the texture and 
 looking at the shimmering folds, came to a swift de 
 cision. She could see that even the accustomed clerk 
 looked respectfully at the roll of bills from which she 
 took one with three figures on it. The die was 
 cast. There was no trace of hesitation in her mind, 
 no comparison of qualities or prices, in her subsequent 
 purchases. 
 
 A shabbily dressed little girl, probably a dressmaker's 
 
 11
 
 162 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 apprentice, was at the ribbon counter, as Chris ap 
 proached. She was evidently overburdened with the 
 responsibility of her errand, and possibly nervous with 
 the sense of passing time. As she looked hesitatingly 
 at a roll of ribbon of a glaringly dissonant shade from 
 the pattern she was trying to match, she found herself 
 suddenly thrust aside; not with aggressive rudeness, 
 but with the calm assertion of accustomed wealth and 
 fashion. The clerk, his attention distracted by the 
 clear, decided tones of the new-comer, mistook the 
 flurried gesture of the little errand-girl for assent, and 
 asked sharply, 
 
 " How much ten yards ? " 
 
 The child gave faltering assent, and received her 
 parcel with brimming eyes, perhaps with the con 
 sciousness that her blunder had cost her a week's 
 wages. At the lace department Chris also bought 
 largely. On her return home she spent a happy hour 
 in looking over her purchases and studying the pages 
 of the latest fashion magazines. 
 
 In the days that followed, intoxicated by the realiza 
 tion of her fondest dreams, "Chris's eyes were held. 
 Nan, always in extremes, not only refused to hold any 
 communication with her sister, but allowed her resent 
 ment to overflow toward the rest of the family. Find 
 ing that Chris's representation of their quarrel was 
 accepted by the others without question, mingled pride 
 and an indignant sense of injustice stung her to silence 
 in her own defence. While sternly attentive to duty, in
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 163 
 
 the time not occupied by household labors she shut her 
 self up in her studio, and by dint of assiduous attention 
 kept her wrath at boiling point. 
 
 Hitherto the quarrels between the two elder girls had 
 always ended, insensibly, in the reassertion of sisterly 
 affection; or some trivial circumstance had aroused 
 mutual interest or laughter, and the cloud had forthwith 
 vanished. But never before had the cause of the differ 
 ence been so serious, or the subsequent ill feeling so 
 deep and bitter. Under its spell the merry fellowship 
 of the table vanished, Chris turned more and more for 
 satisfaction to the great house over the way, while Nan, 
 seeing her sister's unalloyed enjoyment of the fruits 
 of unrighteousness, resolved that neither time nor cir 
 cumstance should ever induce her to forgive. 
 
 Chris set off for the first " At Home " in radiant spirits. 
 The pleasing knowledge that the new gown was a 
 success, together with the excitement of the occasion, 
 gave a flush to her cheeks and a sparkle to her eyes, 
 so that when Lou said in tones of pleased astonishment, 
 "Why, you look actually pretty I" Chris had not felt 
 it necessary to contradict. 
 
 The following morning she was eagerly ready to render 
 the expected account of her good time; at the first 
 allusion Nan somewhat ostentatiously left the table. 
 
 "I never knew any one so perfectly lovely as Miss 
 Meg," Chris began. " I thought her lovely before " 
 
 "We have heard you mention your opinion once or 
 twice on that topic," suggested Bobby ; but his sister
 
 164 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 went on, as one hardened to interruptions of a flippant 
 nature, 
 
 "But if you could have seen her as hostess! She 
 made each feel that she was really pleased to see 
 him, and was interested in what he was saying. Shy 
 and awkward people forgot themselves with her, and 
 blossomed into something like grace and brilliancy. 
 She is n't so handsome as Miss Herbert, nor so brilliantly 
 educated as Mrs. Carr, nor so intellectual as Miss 
 Benton, whose book is the hit of the season. But there 
 is something about her I don't know what that 
 none of them have. Her fascination " Chris repeated 
 the magic word wistfully "is something individual, 
 unattainable, what Mr. Blake would call * occult.' " 
 
 "What's that?" queried Lou, whose language, like 
 her feelings, never quitted the every day and tangible. 
 
 " It means that a person can make a ghost of himself 
 before he 's dead, or shin up a rope into the sky, or shut 
 himself in a bottle for a thousand years and come out as 
 good as new," explained Bobby, whose information on 
 esoteric themes was drawn from the lively tales of 
 Messieurs Crawford and Stevenson. 
 
 "Oh, did they do all that at the party?" questioned 
 Betty, who had been an entranced listener to Chris's 
 narration. 
 
 "They didn't last night, Betty, or I'd have taken you 
 to see the performance," answered her sister, laughing. 
 "Mr. Blake came at once to my table, and in a fit of 
 theosophic abstraction threatened to splash his tea over
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 165 
 
 my gown. Afterwards Miss Benton she and Mr. 
 Blake are great friends, although they always seem to be 
 quarrelling explained that every season he adopted 
 a new religion. She says he cuts his hair to match his 
 spiritual views ; it appears there is an esoteric connection 
 between theosophy and a Vandyke ; last season, when 
 he was an ultra-ritualist, his face was smooth-shaven, 
 and the year before he was then a disciple of Tolstoi 
 he wore a full beard. He was evidently imparting some 
 of his theosophical views to Miss Herbert, for she 
 looked as though she expected momentarily to see him 
 go off in a blue light." 
 
 " Did everybody inquire for me ? " asked Betty. " You 
 seem to disremember a very important part of the party," 
 she frowned. 
 
 " Miss Meg asked very particularly for you," answered 
 Chris, too happy to answer sharply. "She sent you 
 some little cakes; they're on my table." 
 
 Betty clattered joyfully over the stairs, and Chris 
 resumed, 
 
 "Mrs. Courtenay was asking everybody what King 
 of Israel had six letters to his name. As I have hitherto 
 associated Scripture royalty less with the letters than 
 with the wives they had to their honored names, I dis 
 tinguished myself by suggesting Solomon. By and by 
 she retreated to a corner, where she fondled Wee Willie 
 with such an agonized expression of affection and solici 
 tude, with distrustful glances toward Mr. Blake, that 
 I ventured to inquire if Willie Winkie were ill. As
 
 166 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 he had just devoured a plateful of ice-cream, the question 
 did not seem out of order. But Mrs. Courtenay looked 
 at me reproachfully. 
 
 " ' My dear,' said she, in a whisper that could be heard 
 all over the room, 'Wee Willie is so intelligent. He 
 always barks at people he doesn't like. Didn't you 
 notice when Mr. Blake spoke to me just now, how Willie 
 Winkie barked? I 've been told that that young man is 
 a theosophist, one of those dreadful people out in 
 India, you know, to whom we send missionaries to teach 
 them it's quite wrong to choke people to death with 
 a cord. I could see by the way Mr. Blake looked at 
 poor dear Willie, that he would like to choke him to 
 death.' I'm afraid," laughed Chris, "that in that re 
 spect we were all Thugs as Mrs. Courtenay presum 
 ably meant at heart. For the remainder of the 
 evening Mr. Blake hovered about the old lady with a 
 devotion that nearly drove her distracted. Mr. Carr was 
 there too, wandering about, rubbing his hands and con 
 versing upon his usual timely topic of St. Paul." 
 
 "What did you have to eat?" asked Betty from the 
 doorway, where she was stuffing the little cakes into her 
 pocket to share with Evangeline. 
 
 " Oh, the usual things," answered Chris, languidly. 
 "Tea and chocolate, orange frappe", cakes and salted 
 almonds." 
 
 " Ho 1 do you call that a party ? " commented Betty, 
 scornfully. "What's a party without ice-cream and 
 snappers ? "
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 167 
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 
 
 THE ice between Nan and the rest of the family 
 with the exception of Chris was broken in an 
 unexpected manner. Bobby had expressed a modest 
 wish for some " Hermit " cakes, which Nan curtly refused 
 to gratify. 
 
 " Never mind, Robin, I will make them," proffered Lou. 
 
 Accordingly, the following morning, she proceeded to 
 the kitchen, unearthed an old cook-book, and set about 
 her unwonted task with prolonged intervals of playing 
 with the cat and chatting with Betty, who, kneeling in 
 a chair by the table, was patting and rolling into shape a 
 little clay-colored ball of dough. 
 
 "I wish Nan would be cross all the time," she com 
 mented gleefully. "You don't mind if I stuff my 
 pockets with raisins and cinnamon, or say * Run away ' 
 when I offer to help. I think your * Hermits ' are 
 lovely, Lou. Truly, I like them such funny shapes, and 
 I don't mind a bit if they're all burnt up. It gives 
 them such an well, original flavor." 
 
 " Don't tell Nan they are n't good," said Lou, adding 
 with something more than her usual hopefulness, 
 " Bobby will like them ; he won't mind if they are 
 kind of hard," for she had forgotten the baking-powder 
 and had stirred in flour as long as her strength held out.
 
 168 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Betty was skipping wildly about the kitchen as Lou 
 bore the platter of cakes to the cupboard, when Nan, 
 overtaken by speedy remorse, appeared in the doorway. 
 Lou brought up with a shock against Betty, with the 
 result that the black discs were sent rolling and spinning 
 in every direction. Lou's face of dismay at this unex 
 pected betrayal of her culinary failure appealed irresis 
 tibly to Nan's sense of humor, a chorus of laughter 
 cleared the air, Betty, as usual, in convulsions of 
 merriment over an accident, and the three girls went 
 down on their hands and knees to collect the scattered 
 cakes, whose composition had been proof against the 
 smallest fracture. That night, on the supper-table, 
 "Hermits" galore, of spicy fragrance and symmetrical 
 outlines, testified that peace had been proclaimed within 
 the borders ; and later, the battle notes of " Horatius " 
 sounded forth, as Bobby sought the studio for consulta 
 tion regarding an approaching school event of the first 
 magnitude. 
 
 For weeks before the holidays Nan had racked her 
 brain for new and telling designs for Christmas cards. 
 The dainty pen and ink work tried her eyes sorely, and 
 yet more sorely her patience, for a single false stroke of 
 the tiny " croquil " meant the ruin of hours of pains 
 taking toil. But each impulse to undue haste was 
 restrained by the thought that the labor was for Dick, 
 and abhorrence of the work that was " robbing her of all 
 strength and breadth " was put resolutely out of sight in 
 a toil of which the inspiration never failed. And so
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 169 
 
 grew slowly the pile of cards, and Nan had awaited the 
 result of the holiday sales in blissful security that they 
 would realize a goodly sum. In due tune the check 
 arrived, but without giving its recipient the expected 
 joy. The money, together with all of her previous 
 savings, must go toward making good the gap left by 
 Chris's appropriation of the household funds. That 
 was the end of Nan's hope of helping to make the old 
 house presentable ; for though there was a fairly steady 
 demand for dinner-cards throughout the winter, the 
 amount could not reach an appreciable sum in the 
 short time left at her disposal. Besides, she was too 
 disheartened by the untoward result of her labors to 
 begin again. 
 
 Hitherto, in whatever trials had beset her, or however 
 dark her hours of unreasoning depression, Nan had been 
 upheld by the hope that some day her talent would 
 bring her name and fame. But now, in her bitter dis 
 appointment, the weary struggle to find some way out of 
 the worries that beset her, worst of all in the tumult 
 of angry, vengeful feelings toward her sister, her hand 
 seemed to have lost its cunning, and to-day's work was 
 merely to destroy the labor of yesterday. If Chris had 
 any conscience, Nan hoped she would feel its pricks 
 every time she put on that new gown. 
 
 But just then Chris would have been impervious to 
 sword-thrusts from the inward monitor. That first " At 
 Home " of Miss Courtenay's was followed by invitations 
 to other teas, receptions, dances, theatre and toboggan-
 
 170 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 ing parties, so that all at once the desire of her soul 
 was gratified, and Chris beheld herself a full-fledged 
 " society girl." It was tacitly understood that she was 
 to accompany Miss Meg to all these functions, so that 
 the onerous question of a carriage was never raised. 
 Among the throng of new acquaintances were many 
 who gave her cordial greeting as the daughter of their 
 old friends, or singled her out for special notice in an 
 invitation to some exclusive luncheon or small whist 
 party. Several tunes a tea was given in her honor, and 
 more than once, in a flutter of gratified vanity, she heard 
 herself called "one of the most attractive buds of the 
 season." 
 
 Diffidence was too foreign to the girl's nature for her 
 to betray awkwardness in her unaccustomed r6le. Be 
 sides, if she were ever at a loss for word or act, she had 
 only to watch Miss Meg. She studied the very tones of 
 her friend's voice, her manner of entering a room, her 
 phrases of welcome and farewell. Yet, strive as she 
 would, letter perfect though she seemed to be at times, 
 there was a lurking dissatisfaction within herself at the 
 clever mimicry. For there were moments when an in 
 flection of Miss Meg's voice, an expression in her glance, 
 seemed to throw the girl back on herself and make her 
 sedulous seeking of her friend's charm mean and pinch 
 beck and servile. 
 
 Mr. Blake was present at most of the social gather 
 ings in Holbrook that winter, and the preference he had 
 displayed for Chris's society at their first meeting grew
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 171 
 
 more marked. Already their names were coupled in 
 the general speech. If one was asked to an entertain 
 ment, it was regarded almost as a matter of course that 
 the other should be included in the invitation. With 
 the usual temper displayed toward actual or prospective 
 lovers, people made opportunities for leaving them to 
 gether. Mr. Blake was always so happy and merry, so 
 quick of retort, and so unfailingly good-natured when 
 one laughed at his esoteric fairy tales, that at first 
 Chris accepted the young artist's attentions merely as 
 one of the many pleasant things that had recently fallen 
 to her lot. But as time went on, the long-cherished 
 vision of a beautiful house and herself as a society 
 leader began to materialize in this congenial atmosphere. 
 Mr. Blake was undoubtedly a good match. He had a 
 handsome income, independent of his profession; his 
 last picture was on the line in the Salon, and though 
 he carried his impressionistic theories to the verge of 
 insanity, even conservative critics mentioned his name 
 with respect. 
 
 By degrees, behind the merry by-play, a serious inten 
 tion grew, and every night, as Chris laid aside her finery, 
 a mental review of the day's pleasure always reckoned 
 up her progress to the final goal of her ambition, a 
 brilliant match. 
 
 She was quite at home, now, in the great house across 
 the way. Miss Meg consulted her in every plan. Mrs. 
 Courtenay displayed all her latest acquisitions from the 
 " bargain counter," and had in daily store a new Biblical
 
 172 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 conundrum. Mr. Courtenay did not pay much attention 
 to his daughter's young friend, except on their seldom 
 meetings to regard her somewhat scrutinizingly from be 
 neath his bushy brows. Chris's secret awe of young Mr. 
 Courtenay had increased rather than diminished on far 
 ther acquaintance, while with unwonted humility she 
 cherished a secret conviction that she was being con 
 tinually weighed in the balance against Miss Herbert 
 and found deplorably wanting. In her heart she 
 greatly preferred Mr. Blake's society, in which she 
 always felt pleasantly elated, to that of her friend's 
 brother; but in the presence of Miss Herbert, for whom 
 her first dislike had not lessened, an uneasy desire to 
 assert herself dominated. It was at such times that she 
 exerted all her natural and acquired powers of attraction 
 to hold young Mr. Courtenay by her side. The impas 
 sive look on his betrothed's face deepened, and her 
 heavy white eyelids were more scornfully lowered when 
 Chris entertained the young man with a stream of merry 
 small talk, in the art of which Miss Herbert was notably 
 deficient. 
 
 As Chris entered the drawing-room the day of the 
 last reception, somewhat before the arrival of the other 
 guests, Miss Meg looked up, smiling, from a note in her 
 hand. 
 
 "Mrs. Francis has just returned from Old Point 
 Comfort," she said. " She writes that she will be here 
 this afternoon. I am so glad that you will have an 
 opportunity, at last, to meet her."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 173 
 
 Everybody worth, knowing was to be met at Mrs. 
 Francis' house, where the society combined a dignified 
 conservatism with the best of modern thought in litera 
 ture and social progress. Her name was almost as well 
 known abroad as at home; men of letters and of 
 science, grand dukes, arctic and equatorial explorers, 
 brought to her letters of introduction as the open 
 sesame to the best that the New World afforded. For a 
 young girl, to be noticed by Mrs. Francis was an honor; 
 to be invited to her house was to receive the stamp of 
 social prestige. Miss Meg was a prime favorite of the 
 older woman, and in the little note that was presently 
 read aloud to Chris, Mrs. Francis stated that she was 
 "looking forward with much pleasure to becoming ac 
 quainted with the little girl in whom her dear Meg took 
 such an interest." 
 
 As Chris expressed her gratification at the prospec 
 tive meeting, Miss Herbert looked up in her " hateful, 
 supercilious way," and Chris presently took the oppor 
 tunity of saying smilingly, 
 
 " I am only a poor ignorant little bud, you know. I 
 suppose you have known Mrs. Francis a very long while 
 indeed ? " thus cleverly turning the tables on Miss Her 
 bert, in the assumption that her own years in society 
 entitled her to the acquaintance of Noah. 
 
 Mrs. Courtenay had retreated to the hall at the en 
 trance of Mr. Blake, for the idea that the painter was 
 bent upon choking her pet had taken full possession of 
 her. There Willie Winkie contrived, by some contor-
 
 174 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 tionist's feat, to squeeze his fat body through a space 
 between the balusters, whence he dangled some feet 
 below, kicking lustily and bouncing up and down like 
 an animated return-ball, as he approached his end at the 
 hands of his fond mistress ; for Mrs. Courtenay, with a 
 relentless grip upon the cord, and deaf to the chorus of 
 advice about her of "Let go," was giving loud vent 
 to her grief. Mr. Blake hastened to the tragic scene; 
 whipping out his knife, he cut the cord and Willie 
 Winkie dropped to the hall below, uninjured. 
 
 " My dear, it cannot be true that that young man is a 
 theosophist or he would have been glad to see Wee 
 Willie choke to death," whispered Mrs. Courtenay to 
 Chris. " How we have misjudged him I " 
 
 Following the excitement and delay of this incident, 
 a little crowd of arrivals entered the drawing-room 
 and Chris caught the words in Miss Meg's clear, full 
 tones, 
 
 " My dear Mrs. Francis I How glad I am to see you 
 after this lapse of tune 1 " 
 
 She held by the hand with marked cordiality a tall, 
 handsomely dressed lady of somewhat pronounced 
 presence, over whose shoulder she was smiling at a 
 modestly dressed woman, who had apparently slipped 
 into the room in Mrs. Francis' wake. Motioning to 
 Chris, Miss Courtenay murmured introductions, and 
 turned to greet other arrivals. Ignoring the plainly 
 dressed woman, Chris addressed herself to Mrs. Francis, 
 and in her most winning tones asked if she would find
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 175 
 
 it pleasant to sit here, and might she bring her tea 
 or chocolate? 
 
 In her triumph, she did not notice that she had turned 
 her back upon the unassuming stranger, who after a mo 
 ment or two of solitude retired to the embrasure of a 
 window, where the heavy curtains partially concealed 
 her from the other guests. 
 
 " Diffident and awkward ! " thought Chris, as she 
 brushed past the window. " She will enjoy herself most 
 by watching the other people, poor thing 1 " Giving no 
 further heed to the shy occupant of the lonely corner, 
 she set about winning her way into the good graces of 
 Mrs. Francis. 
 
 Her manner was the perfection of the deference due 
 from a young girl to a woman of acknowledged character 
 and position. She drew upon her best conversational 
 powers; she paid graceful little compliments, and 
 listened to her companion with an air of absorbed atten 
 tion. It was an added note in her triumph that the 
 numerous acquaintances of Mrs. Francis who were no 
 doubt present had apparently observed and respected an 
 evident wish for a tete-d-tte. The girl noticed with 
 some disappointment, however, that Miss Herbert was 
 not among the witnesses of her crowning success. 
 
 She did not see that Miss Herbert had espied the 
 neglected stranger ; nor did she note, as she escorted Mrs. 
 Francis to the door and received her cordial invitation 
 to call, that all at once everybody in the room seemed 
 gravitating toward the window.
 
 176 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 "I have had such a lovely time! I never had such 
 a good time in my life!" repeated Chris, with girlish 
 enthusiasm, as she stood by Miss Meg's side after the 
 last guest had departed. 
 
 " You were a dear good girl to devote yourself to Mrs. 
 Smith," answered Miss Meg, warmly. " I have so little 
 time to give to any one person, you know, and she has 
 so few acquaintances in Holbrook, that I am afraid 
 she would have found it very stupid but for your 
 kindness." 
 
 Chris's heart gave a thump and then stood still. Had 
 she could it be that she had made an awful blunder? 
 Miss Meg's next words answered the unspoken query. 
 
 "I had the higher regard for you, dear," she added, 
 and one of her sweet seldom caresses gave emphasis 
 to the words, "when I saw you devoting yourself to 
 making an uninteresting stranger happy, while you 
 might have been enjoying the rare privilege of a talk 
 with lovely Mrs. Francis!" 
 
 Chris stammered a modest disclaimer of this certainly 
 undeserved praise, while horror descended full upon her. 
 She had made herself agreeable to a nobody, and turned 
 her back upon the society leader. In her own bitter self- 
 reproach, even Miss Herbert's words were shorn of their 
 sting, when that young woman took an early opportunity 
 of saying, 
 
 "What a pity you did not meet Mrs. Francis! So 
 sorry ! " 
 
 The day was not to be concluded without another
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 177 
 
 blow to Chris's vanity. There was no one in the hall 
 below as she adjusted her wraps and awaited the un 
 certain appearance of Bobby, who could never see the 
 necessity of his sister requiring an escort across the 
 street, or who was liable to forget his promise to call in 
 the stress of some business of his own. Mr. Courtenay's 
 voice was audible from the library. 
 
 "A silly, affected chit! I can't imagine what Meg 
 can see in her, except that Meg would find some good 
 in the most arrant humbug ! I thought there was 
 no nonsense about the little girls I used to see sit 
 ting in the tree, or snowballing one another on the 
 terrace." 
 
 Chris crept from the house out of sorts with every 
 body, and, worst of all, with herself. In vain did she 
 urge, in response to her own self-arraignment, that her 
 mistake was a perfectly natural one, one that even 
 Miss Meg might have made. Somehow she could not 
 picture Miss Meg turning her back upon any one, how 
 ever insignificant. 
 
 At supper that night, Betty came out, suddenly, of 
 one of the brown studies to which she was prone, to 
 ask, 
 
 "I suppose if you saw somebody at a party who 
 didn't know anybody and who was sitting in a corner 
 all alone by herself, you 'd go right up and speak to her, 
 would n't you, Chrissy ? " The child repeated with odd 
 anxiety, "You wouldn't turn your back on her, would 
 
 you?" 
 
 12
 
 178 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 "What ridiculous questions you're always asking, 
 Betty I" returned Chris, sharply. "I might turn, my 
 back upon her, I suppose, if I happened to be going that 
 way. Of course it is n't our business to see that other 
 people have a good time."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 179 
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 
 
 WHAT 's struck Bobby ?" 
 "How do I know?" responded Lucy, who 
 had made several futile attempts at renewed good fel 
 lowship with his former chief; but Bobby, feeling that 
 his late assistant's perfidy was not a thing to be lightly 
 forgiven, persisted in holding him at arm's length. 
 " Nothing 's any fun, now Bobby does n't show up," 
 added Lucy gloomily. "Larry and Hayti have been 
 after him, too, but it 's no go. Bobby 's got a wheel in 
 his head I don't know what." 
 
 "Bobby isn't the only pebble on the beach," said 
 Taffy, sulkily. 
 
 "He's the smoothest fellow going," asserted Lucy, 
 sorrowfully. " Maybe you think you made better play 
 than he could have done the day of the match?" he 
 added significantly. 
 
 Taffy muttered something unintelligible. His "bull 
 play" at the football match would never be forgiven 
 him. Since that day it is not too much to say that he 
 had been hated by his fellows. The other members of the 
 team would hardly speak to him. He would be pointed 
 out at future reunions, if he had the courage to attend 
 them, as "the fellow who lost the match," and under 
 that opprobrium his name would go down in the annals
 
 180 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 of the school. He had a particular object just now in 
 continuing the conversation with Lucy. The nagging 
 voice of Cutty still goaded him like a visible conscience, 
 and, worse than all, he lived in constant terror lest his 
 " borrowing " be discovered at home. If that transac 
 tion came to his father's knowledge, Taffy trembled for 
 the consequences. 
 
 " What 's been done about the Snark ? " he asked, 
 lowering his voice and glancing uneasily over his shoul 
 der. It was now the eve of publication. "I suppose 
 it's been given up?" 
 
 "Ask me something I don't know," returned the 
 late exchange editor, who in truth, since his own 
 "resignation," had been doing his best to discover 
 the purposes of the editor-in-chief. " I don't care 
 in the least what becomes of the SnarJc" he added 
 loftily, " except, of course, it seems a pity that it 
 should be run into the ground by poor management. 
 I expected to see the end of the paper when we 
 resigned." 
 
 " Of course; so did I," echoed Taffy. 
 
 " Bobby is a smooth fellow, all right," Lucy hastened 
 to add, " but it takes more than one kind of a fellow to 
 run a paper. Cash is necessary, and an eye for accept 
 able items in the exchanges." 
 
 "And a business editor who understands the ground," 
 suggested Taffy. "Bobby may do something at writ 
 ing," he went on in a large-hearted way, " but when it 
 comes to finances, he isn't there."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 181 
 
 On his homeward way, Lucy took occasion to stroll 
 into Peterson's shop. 
 
 "Bobby been in?" he inquired easily. He had 
 waited without till he saw his former chief's unmistak 
 able figure leave the premises. 
 
 " Just left," answered the printer. 
 
 "Yes, ah, yes, that's all right," responded Lucy. 
 " Proof ready, Peterson ? " It had been recently the 
 office of the exchange editor to correct the proof; and 
 Lucy boldly went on the assumption that the printer 
 was not cognizant of the sundered relations in the 
 management of the Snark. 
 
 " Bobby took the copy and the plate proof with him," 
 answered the man. 
 
 " Who printed the Snark this month ? " queried 
 Lucy, a sudden glimmering of the truth coming to 
 him. 
 
 " Bobby did it himself," answered the printer. " He 's 
 been in and out of the plant for some tune, you know, 
 but you wouldn't have thought he could have made 
 such a neat job of it," he added admiringly. " Bobby 's 
 all right!" 
 
 " Of course he is I " ejaculated Lucy, who found it 
 difficult to keep up the weakest semblance of ani 
 mosity against his adored chief. Only the thought of 
 Susie's frowns could have enabled him to preserve the 
 haughty front demanded by self-respect. "Have you 
 the galley proof?" he asked eagerly. 
 
 " See if you can find any of the Snark proof," Peter-
 
 182 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 son ordered the office boy. " 'T ain't everybody I 'd let 
 fool 'round the plant," he added ; " they 'd knock every 
 thing into pi. Yes, here 't is ; " and he handed Lucy a 
 roll of besmudged slips of paper, with margins richly 
 inscribed with cabalistic signs. 
 
 The ex-editor crammed the proof eagerly into his 
 pocket and fled. Reaching home, he got no farther than 
 the hall before smoothing out the crumpled sheets and 
 eagerly inspecting their contents. 
 
 Bobby's pen was unmistakable in every line. 
 
 "By cracky 1" ejaculated Lucy, "Bobby beats the 
 band. If he has n't been the whole team I " and for 
 getful of all resentment, Lucy capered about the hall in 
 exultation over his chief's prowess. Then he soberly 
 read the leading editorial and consternation followed. 
 "What will Susie say?" With rueful prescience he 
 answered his own question. "She'll say it's all my 
 fault." 
 
 The forthcoming issue of the Snark created a sen 
 sation among its school constituency. The leader 
 read: 
 
 " ' He that cannot say " no," that is, is of so good a nature that 
 he cannot deny anything, or cross another in anything is not fit 
 for business.' PEPYS. 
 
 "The Editor of the Snark begs to state to our sub 
 scribers and to our honored list of contributors, that this 
 periodical will henceforth be conducted on the business 
 principles indicated by the above. Good, live articles, of 
 a nature suited to the interest of its patrons, will always 
 be acceptable. Articles cribbed from The Starry Heavens
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 183 
 
 or the Popular Science Monthly will be instantly consigned 
 to the wastepaper basket. 
 
 " Poetry of a sentimental nature is herewith respectfully 
 declined. Not from lack of merit, that which is unsuited 
 to our columns will no doubt be acceptable elsewhere, 
 but the large quantity of mellifluous verse already on hand 
 compels the editor to regretfully decline much that would 
 otherwise be gladly retained. 
 
 "Humorous poetry will receive our prompt attention 
 and always find a ready place in our columns." 
 
 "Gladly" had at first been written "rapturously;" 
 but Bobby reflected that the latter expression was per 
 haps " going it too strong," and might cast doubts on 
 the editorial veracity. 
 
 " I don't know where such stuff would be acceptable, 
 though, except to the junkman," he thought, with a 
 sigh of relief at his release from thraldom. "'Pishy' 
 must throttle her muse, for her poetry has reached a 
 depth no self-respecting journal would tolerate. She 
 ought not to get mad, when I 've said it all so politely, 
 and poulticed the wound with that handsome suggestion 
 about funny poetry 1 " and Bobby leaned back in his 
 chair as far as its unstable centre of gravity would 
 permit, feeling that he had displayed a degree of di 
 plomacy equal to that which had finessed the Ashbur- 
 ton Treaty. " Still, there is no knowing what a re 
 jected author worse, an enraged poetess will do I" 
 he added, as one to whom the sanctum had revealed 
 intricacies of human nature hardly more astounding 
 than discreditable.
 
 184 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 The next day Susie Grossman appeared at school 
 with red eyes and a manner expressive of the deepest 
 injury. Lucy's foreboding proved too true. His little 
 sweetheart cut him dead because of " that mean, hateful 
 editorial 1 " 
 
 "The rest was bad enough," she sobbed to Lou, 
 " but to think of his telling me to write funny poetry ! " 
 
 The result of this decisive action did not end, how 
 ever, with those immediately concerned. Susie's friends 
 rallied around the insulted poetess, and bore themselves 
 with marked coldness toward the boys, whom they chose 
 to regard as being in a confederacy, based upon literary 
 jealousy, against the girls. Dancing at recess was 
 given over, and they stood in knots about the corridor, 
 in haughty indifference to what the boys were doing; 
 while the boys amused themselves on the parade ground, 
 with great apparent success, if much talk and loud 
 laughter told a truthful tale. The friendly relations, 
 the mutual give and take, that had always existed be 
 tween the Holbrook boys and girls seemed at an end, 
 before either party fairly knew how it had come about. 
 
 Several tunes a week Bobby went to the city 
 walking to save fares to solicit advertisements for 
 the Snark. His success in this direction was limited, 
 for it was the dull season ; but everybody received him 
 with a smile and a pleasant word and the suggestion, 
 " Come again ! " Who, indeed, ever said, " Get out! " to 
 Bobby? He sat up till midnight writing editorials, 
 incidents connected with school life, class jokes, the
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 185 
 
 latest blunder in recitation. A serial story, though 
 strongly flavored with Henty and Conan Doyle, had at 
 least the merit of action, for the number of hairbreadth 
 escapes and marvellous " clews " followed up to the 
 villain's undoing might have been warranted to keep 
 the blood of the most phlegmatic reader at fever heat. 
 Lucy, who kept a watchful eye upon his ex-chief's 
 movements, saw him, one day, emerging from the 
 church, and questioning the old sexton, learned that 
 Bobby was acting as his assistant. He discovered, also, 
 that Bobby was shovelling snow from the sidewalks 
 all over town, sawing wood for any one who needed 
 such service, and helping about the Holbrook stables 
 wherever extra help was wanted. 
 
 As reporter, business manager, and compositor, Bobby 
 might have indulged in pleasing reminiscences of Ben 
 jamin Franklin and Horace Greeley, but the conduct of 
 the Snark was only a small part of the business that 
 absorbed his time. His gains were small, but they were 
 steady, and every Saturday night saw a reduction in his 
 indebtedness to Griff. To the young shopkeeper this 
 weekly visit was the one bright spot of his life. As 
 soon as Bobby was gone, he began to reckon the days 
 and hours before he should see him again, dreading 
 to think of the time when the debt should be paid. 
 One stormy night, when he had been a little later than 
 usual in carrying the papers, Bobby lingered a moment 
 by the stove, and Griff hastened fussily to shake it. 
 Bobby placed his hand on the other's shoulder, with
 
 186 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 the mere unthinking impulse with which he would have 
 patted the head of an ill-treated cur that sought to lick 
 his hand. Griff vaguely felt all this. Nevertheless, 
 with that careless touch, something of new hope and 
 manhood seemed infused into his being. Perhaps, after 
 all, there was room for him in the world. 
 
 Lou was the confidant of Susie Grossman regarding a 
 new school journal that was presently to make its saluta 
 tory, to be called the Spinster, its name defiantly an 
 nouncing its management and policy. The other girls 
 were nobly seconding the efforts of the editor to produce a 
 journal that should so far outshine the Snark as to show 
 the repentant editor of the latter periodical what he had 
 lost in declining feminine co-operation. The editorial 
 desk of the Spinster was already stuffed to repletion with 
 sentimental and tragic tales and reams of gloomy poetry. 
 
 " Those horrid boys will make fun if I print it, and 
 Alice will get mad if I don't," thought the editor of 
 the new school journal, as she laid down another tale 
 that ended in the misery of everybody concerned. " I 
 wonder if she would ever speak to me again if I changed 
 the ending and let them marry and live happy ever 
 after." 
 
 The editor of the Spinster signed herself " Susan L. 
 Grossman." 
 
 One afternoon as Chris was returning from a round 
 of calls, to her amazement she beheld Bobby emerging 
 from the back door of the house whose front entrance 
 she had just left. His sooty hands and hair prematurely
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 187 
 
 gray with a liberal sprinkling of ashes indicated even 
 to his unsuspecting sister what his business had 
 been at the house of one of her most fashionable 
 acquaintances. 
 
 "What are you doing?" she exclaimed in horror- 
 stricken tones. 
 
 "Taking care of the Forbes' furnace," answered her 
 brother, easily. 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 " For the fun of it," answered Bobby, with a brevity 
 indicating that confidences were not in the order of 
 the day. 
 
 " What will people say ? What could have put such 
 an idea into your head ? Don't 1 " entreated Chris, as her 
 brother strode along by her side, his appearance in 
 startling contrast to her own dainty costume. "How 
 can you do it?" 
 
 " Muscle," answered Bobby, succinctly. " Brains 
 don't count for much under thirty, but brawn always 
 commands its price," he added, feeling of his biceps in a 
 self-gratulatory way. " I shook the furnace out of 
 gear at St. Barnabas the other day, and Mr. Carr 
 begged me not to emulate Samson." 
 
 " It 's such dirty work," gasped Chris. 
 
 " But it brings clean money," retorted Bobby. 
 
 "If you're trying to earn money against Colonel 
 Jerome's visit, the whole idea is absurd," went on Chris, 
 irritably. "It was simply one of Nan's impracticable 
 schemes. Colonel Jerome must take us as he finds us."
 
 188 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Bobby began whistling the " Walrus Chorus." 
 
 "Mr. Courtenay is going to give me a job in his 
 office," he said presently. 
 
 " Well, if you want to earn money I 'm glad you 're 
 going to do it in a respectable way," returned Chris, 
 somewhat mollified. "What did Mr. Courtenay say 
 when you asked him?" 
 
 "Oh, I didn't ask him," returned Bobby, easily. 
 " I 've brought his trap around once or twice'lately when 
 Mike was busy ; the other day he looked up as though 
 he saw me for the first time and said they needed an 
 extra hand in the office. I 'm to give Saturdays to it, 
 and afternoons the rest of the week. Old Courtenay 
 is a brick," added Bobby, speaking with enthusiasm, 
 even if with something of disrespect, of his prospective 
 employer. 
 
 But Betty's secret was the most momentous of all.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 189 
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
 
 EVERYBODY in Betty's school was her intimate 
 friend," from the big girls in the first class to the 
 little toddlers just learning their a b c's. She shone 
 more in this extended social circle than in the class-room, 
 where her diligence was chiefly directed in such short 
 cuts to learning as were embodied in the lines, 
 
 " In fourteen hundred ninety-two, 
 Columbus sailed the ocean blue," 
 
 or, 
 
 " First William the Norman, 
 Then William his son." 
 
 But she was so unfailingly and elaborately polite to 
 both teachers and scholars, so fertile in excuses for 
 unlearned lessons or ingenious in her attempted answers, 
 always accompanied by a beaming smile as though 
 assured of well-merited praise, that she was as much of a 
 favorite with Miss Lang as with her playmates, notwith 
 standing the frequent necessity in her recitations of re 
 proof or punishment. Betty's sociability, too, brought her 
 into frequent trouble; and many and bitter were the 
 tears she shed at losing her recess or having to remain 
 after school, penalties which as depriving her of 
 society represented the severest punishment that could
 
 190 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 be inflicted. Zealously as Betty had striven, she had 
 never attained a place in the "Banner Row," as the 
 seats were called on the extreme right of the room, 
 where, in proud isolation of virtue, sat those little 
 boys and girls who had refrained from whispering a 
 whole month. Betty always meant "never, never to 
 whisper again, truly honest," particularly when a talk 
 after school with her teacher had reduced her to a 
 Niobe state of contrition; for she dearly loved Miss 
 Lang, and always meant to be a " little help " to her, 
 instead of as she called herself in those moments 
 of tearful, but alas impotent penitence "a great 
 bother." 
 
 In pleasant weather the children played at recess in 
 the schoolhouse yard, where Betty and a half-score of her 
 particular friends walked up and down with arms inter 
 twined, discussing school affairs and exchanging "secrets." 
 The little girls in Betty's class had a secret society like 
 the girls in the upper room, known as the "K. P. 
 Society," "Keep Private," of which the badge was 
 a blue ribbon tied into the top buttonhole of the left 
 boot; a happy arrangement for the President, as the 
 top button of her honored boot was usually missing. 
 This badge of eternal fidelity had lost something of its 
 pristine freshness by splashes from mud-puddles, reckless 
 scaling of adjacent snowbanks, and falls on the ice, 
 there was always a beautiful long slide from the school- 
 house steps to the gate, worn to glassy smoothness by 
 the swift passage of many little feet. It was difficult to
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 191 
 
 say at any given time what the " secret " was, for it was 
 changed at frequent intervals, and never in any case 
 remained a secret long. 
 
 On stormy days the children had recess in a basement 
 cellar, where they played " Button, Button," " Hunt the 
 Squirrel," and " Little Sally Waters," the chorus rising 
 to so shrill a crescendo at the closing lines, 
 
 " Turn to the east and turn to the west, 
 And turn to the very one that you love best," 
 
 as would effectually have scared the little god of love 
 from the premises. But the favorite amusement was 
 playing "keep house," for which the cellar afforded 
 exceptional facilities. Before each of the three furnaces 
 was a recess sufficiently large to afford lodging albeit 
 somewhat crowded for a family comprising parents, 
 eight or ten children and an unlimited number of in 
 fants represented by sticks taken from the woodpile 
 and wrapped in handkerchiefs. Betty, of course, was 
 the head of one family and usually selected Maud 
 Courtenay for her husband, the latter being of too 
 gentle disposition for the demands of the maternal r6le. 
 Not content with ruling her own household with a rod 
 of iron, Betty laid down the law for the community. 
 The relations between the several households were always 
 complicated and frequently inimical, for each family 
 stood rigidly upon its dignity, and an unceasing strife 
 for precedence kept life in the cellar areas from 
 stagnation.
 
 192 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 The selection in the School Reader beginning, 
 " Burnt Marmion's swarthy face like fire," 
 
 was a favorite with Betty, who had accordingly elected 
 to call herself and husband Mrs. and Mr. Burnt Marmion, 
 cellar etiquette prescribing that the lady's name 
 should precede that of her spouse. The family in the 
 adjoining recess were known as King and Queen Zeno- 
 bia, while Evangeline set up housekeeping under the 
 style and title of Mrs. Thanatopsis. 
 
 To every new-comer in the school Betty extended the 
 chubby right hand of good fellowship; she introduced 
 her forthwith to the other little girls with the formality 
 prescribed by the most punctilious etiquette, inducted 
 her into the games, admitted her to membership in the 
 " K. P.," and gave her timely warning of " Old Sukey." 
 One day there was a knock at the schoolroom door, and 
 those who sat near saw Miss Lang hold a brief colloquy 
 in the hall with a shabbily dressed woman to whose 
 hand a little girl was clinging. The new scholar was 
 presently given a seat next Betty. She was a pretty 
 little girl with large, soft brown eyes that she raised 
 appealingly to the face of any one who addressed her, and 
 curly golden hair that reached below her waist, veri 
 table fairy princess locks that aroused Betty's fervent 
 admiration. She smiled across the aisle at the new 
 comer and with difficulty forebore from whispering a 
 welcome. Betty had set her heart upon getting into the 
 Banner Row that month; her efforts seemed, at last,
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 193 
 
 about to be crowned with success, for some three weeks 
 of the time of probation had already elapsed, a longer 
 period than she had ever before stood the test. Miss Lang 
 observed the sudden flush, the quick tightening of the 
 lips, as well as the look of welcome, and laid an affection 
 ate helping hand on Betty's shoulder; and the child 
 smiled up at her teacher and thought for the hundredth 
 time that she would never again whisper or do aught 
 else that could trouble Miss Lang. 
 
 It was speedily known that Lassie Brown lived in the 
 " Beyond," as an outcast settlement on the borders of 
 Holbrook was called. Not without forethought had she 
 been given a seat next Betty ; for though the little girls 
 of the "Dudley Primary" were too gently bred, with 
 the exception of Evangeline, to treat rudely any one less 
 favored than themselves, Miss Lang knew children too 
 well and had read the sensitive pale face of the new 
 comer too clearly, not to be aware that questioning 
 glances and thoughtless words might wound as well 
 as deliberate unkindness. 
 
 Betty lost no tune in fulfilling the congenial office of 
 chaperon, and that very recess, after she had duly gone 
 through the requisite formalities, invited Lassie to be 
 her husband, coolly telling the late Burnt Mannion that 
 she could be cook, a position, however, under the 
 social order that prevailed in the cellar, not perceptibly 
 inferior to that of wedded lord. But the sudden and 
 violent intimacy in the next house proved a cause of 
 offence to Mrs. Thanatopsis, who forthwith showed her 
 
 13
 
 194 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 resentment by neglecting to return Mrs. Burnt Mar- 
 mion's greeting when his lordship's household were out 
 on a constitutional by the coal-bin. This ebullition of 
 ill-feeling made Betty's display of affection for her 
 spouse more marked than ever, so that at the close of 
 recess she had even exchanged her cornelian ring with 
 one of Lassie's, fashioned out of a bone button, as a 
 pledge of everlasting friendship. 
 
 It was about this time that surprise parties came into 
 vogue. Betty was invited to several of these entertain 
 ments by her friends in the upper class, and being 
 greatly pleased with the novel festivity, would gladly 
 have " surprised " every man, woman, and child of her 
 acquaintance, at the head of a basket-laden troop, at 
 three o'clock Saturday afternoon, that being the 
 fashionable hour for the new function. Besides the 
 pleasure of the actual occasion, there was what was 
 even more enjoyable the previous mystification, the 
 whispered confidences concerning what one was to wear 
 or intended to contribute to the entertainment, subsiding 
 into frantic giggles as the proposed victim came within 
 earshot. Betty, of course, was not long in organizing 
 one of these festivities. Maud Courtenay was selected 
 for the honor of being "surprised." Mrs. Courtenay 
 gave assent, and Miss Meg kindly promised co-opera 
 tion and secrecy. In this new and absorbing interest 
 the slide was neglected, the games were abandoned, and 
 even " keep house " forgotten. Mrs. Burnt Marmion and 
 Mrs. Thanatopsis buried their feud, and the "K. P.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 195 
 
 Society" tied new ribbons in its boots in honor of 
 this latest and most stupendous secret. 
 
 But the one who was the most interested of all 
 in the coming event was Lassie Brown. She never 
 wearied of listening, open-eyed, to the reminiscences 
 of other parties, what dresses had been worn, what 
 games played, and what they had had for supper. Her 
 questions were innumerable, and her gratitude for any 
 information was unbounded. Betty not only gave her 
 prote'ge' the benefit of her own wide social experience, 
 but kindly undertook to coach her for the approaching 
 occasion. 
 
 " Have n't you ever been to a party before, Lassie ? " 
 began this blase young woman. " Dear me, where can 
 you have lived all your life ? " 
 
 As Lassie's existence, previous to going to her 
 " lovely home in the country," had been passed in the 
 city slums, her opportunities for parties had not been 
 many. A Fourth of July on the Common, when she 
 had seen the balloon rise and had some pink lemonade, 
 and a car ride to the park, where she heard the band 
 play and saw the electrical fountain, made up the list 
 of her festive memories. 
 
 " Well, you may go with me," went on Betty, " and if 
 you don't know what to do, just watch me and you will 
 be all right. In the first place, you are shown to a room 
 where you take off your things and smooth your hair. 
 Then you go downstairs to the drawing-room, and walk 
 up to Miss Courtenay and Maud and say, ' How do you
 
 196 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 do, Miss Courtenay ? ' and she will say, * I am very glad 
 to see you, Miss Brown.' " 
 
 " Shall I say, ' Hullo, Maud ' ? " queried Lassie, anx 
 ious to do her friend credit. 
 
 " Of course not," frowned Betty. " ' Hullo ' is just 
 for school ; it is n't for parties and Sundays. You must 
 say * How do you do ? ' to Maud too ; and remember not 
 to giggle when you say it." 
 
 " I think I could do that," murmured Lassie. 
 
 " What you observe does n't matter so much as the 
 way you observe it," returned Betty, loftily. " That is 
 all I have been hi the habit of saying, but I asked my 
 sister Chrissy, who is very elegant and very much ad 
 mired in society, if she said anything else ; and she told 
 me she generally answered, * So glad to come to your 
 delightful house, dear Mrs. Courtenay 1 ' ' 
 
 " Please stop a minute. Let me see if I can say 
 that," said Lassie, puckering her pretty arched brows. 
 " ' So glad so glad you 've come to my delightful 
 house'" 
 
 " Lassie Brown, you have n't got it straight, and you 
 must n't say that anyway, 'cause I 'm going to," cried 
 Betty, indignant at this flagrant infringement of copy 
 right. " You 'd better just smile and get out of the way 
 as quick as you can. If one isn't used to society, it 
 isn't safe to put on too many frills." 
 
 " What comes next ? " questioned Lassie. 
 
 " We play games. You can play * Geography '- splen 
 didly," went on Betty, encouragingly, " because you al-
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 197 
 
 ways remember all the hard names. I am apt to get 
 excited and think that ' Jersey ' begins with a * G.' It 's 
 like a spelling-match, you know; we choose sides and 
 each side tries to think of all the cities and mountains 
 and rivers that begin with a certain letter. Now what 
 are you going to wear ? " went on the Mentor. 
 
 " I have a lovely pink sateen " Lassie pronounced 
 it " satin " " that a lady who goes out scrubbing gave 
 to my sister Agnes. She says I may wear it." 
 
 " I '11 lend you my Roman sash ; it will just match," 
 proffered Betty, with anticipated pride in her prot^g^'s 
 appearance. 
 
 That afternoon, on her way to school, Betty was over 
 taken by Evangeline, whose sharp eyes instantly descried 
 the parcel in her friend's hand. 
 
 " Lemme see what you 've got there," said she. 
 
 " It is n't for you," answered Betty, indignantly. 
 
 " It 's for Lassie Brown," returned Evangeline, 
 quickly. 
 
 Betty vouchsafed no reply. 
 
 " My ma is n't willing for me to 'sociate with a beggar 
 child," went on Evangeline. " If she goes to the party, 
 I dunno as I shall go." 
 
 " Lassie is n't a beggar ! " cried Betty, indignantly. 
 " She always has her lessons better than you or I, and 
 she hasn't whispered once since she's been in school. 
 She '11 be in the Banner Row next month." 
 
 " Poh I so could I be there, too, easy as wink, if I 
 wanted to," retorted Evangeline. "I dare say Lassie
 
 198 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 has n't stood up lots of times when Miss Lang has asked 
 for those who whispered." 
 
 " Lassie would n't do such a thing," maintained Betty, 
 stoutly. " She 'd know it was n't polite." 
 
 " H'm, polite ! " sniffed Evangeline. " I b'lieve you 
 think all folks have got to do to get into heaven is just 
 to be polite, Betty Bradstreet Dudley ! " with a haughty 
 fling of her skirts, that spoke, louder than words, of her 
 contempt for social upstarts. Then she struck upon 
 a sensitive chord. " Only think how mortified your 
 sister Chrissy will be to have Miss Courtenay s'pose you 
 go with folks in the * Beyond ' I Like as not, Lassie 
 eats with her knife and does not know what to do with 
 a napkin. I presume likely Miss Courtenay will send 
 her right straight home." 
 
 " I don't believe Miss Courtenay would do that," re 
 sponded Betty, faintly, as the two children reached the 
 schoolhouse door. 
 
 There was time to slip the parcel into Lassie's 
 hands before school began and to receive from her a 
 look full of love and gratitude. The sash was more 
 beautiful than anything Lassie had ever seen ; it was 
 even lovelier than the rainbow whose colors it seemed to 
 have borrowed. She tore a tiny hole in the wrappings, 
 through which she could twist the soft fringe about her 
 finger, and sent little loving looks across the aisle more 
 eloquent than words. Of Thanksgiving Lassie had 
 never heard; Christmas was only a name to her; over 
 her birthday none had ever rejoiced. The party was
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 199 
 
 one and all of those blissful epochs of childhood in one 
 to her. She thought of it by day and dreamt of it by 
 night, and its anticipation was to her as the foretaste of 
 heaven. With the possession of the Roman sash her 
 cup of happiness ran over. 
 
 In spite of herself, Evangeline's stinging words re 
 peated themselves over and over again in Betty's mind 
 as she bent over her geography lesson. She began to 
 have grave misgivings, too, about that " pink satin." 
 Lassie had shown it to her yesterday, as a precious 
 secret "between us two," and even to uncritical eyes 
 the dress looked as though it had seen service in the 
 " washerlady's " vocation before descending to Agnes. 
 Besides, its present owner was tall and lanky, and it was 
 to be feared that the frock might not adapt itself to 
 Lassie's round little form as the dresses of " Alice in 
 Wonderland " were adjusted to the growth or diminu 
 tion of that adventuresome little girl. 
 
 But the rankling thought below all the rest was, 
 What would Chrissy say to her introducing at the 
 Courtenays' as her own particular "intimate friend" 
 a little girl who lived in the "Beyond"? Chris had 
 described with such amplitude of detail the gowns that 
 were worn at each party, she had dwelt with such 
 enthusiasm on Miss Meg's "lovely manners" that to 
 Betty, in her unquestioning faith in and admiration for 
 her eldest sister, a beautiful gown and the glib utterance 
 of conventional phrases were all that were demanded 
 even of grown-up people who went to parties. Only the
 
 200 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 night before, pondering these weighty questions, the 
 happy thought occurred to her of asking her sister 
 what she would do in a like emergency to that which 
 was now puzzling her, and Chrissy had answered, oh, 
 so crossly, 
 
 "Of course it isn't our business to see that other 
 people have a good time. I 'd turn my back on them 
 if I were going that way." 
 
 Betty's forehead had nearly touched the troublesome 
 map questions, when, suddenly raising her head, she met 
 that glad, loving look of Lassie's. Forgetful for the 
 moment of everything but her friend's happiness, she 
 whispered, 
 
 " Tie it in a big bow." 
 
 The selfsame moment the consequences of her thought 
 less act flashed across her. She had lost her place in the 
 Banner Row. On the last day of the month, at almost 
 the last hour, when she had worked so hard for four long 
 weeks. It was all Lassie's fault 1 
 
 Even the party was forgotten, as Betty, putting her 
 arms upon her desk, gave way to a flood of tears that 
 bid fair to convert the Desert of Sahara into a pink and 
 watery waste. Not even Miss Lang's gentle words of 
 regret and attempted encouragement could lighten the 
 bitter disappointment, and when the ten minutes' duress 
 after school had expired, it was with red and swollen 
 eyes that Betty made her appearance in the school-yard. 
 
 A group of little girls were gathered by the gate, 
 Lassie standing somewhat apart from the others, with
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 201 
 
 a look of anxious expectancy turned toward the school- 
 house door. As Betty emerged, Evangeline's shrill, 
 high-pitched voice was saying, 
 
 "Who asked you to the party, Lassie Brown? Who 
 do you think will speak to a beggar child from the 
 'Beyond'?" 
 
 Lassie raised her soft brown eyes to Betty's face with 
 a look that was at once appealing and trustful. Her 
 lips were quivering, one arm was slightly raised as 
 though to tAvine itself about her friend. Betty met the 
 look stonily, brushed past the extended arm, and turning 
 her back full upon Lassie, entered into eager discussion 
 with Evangeline. The "beggar child" stood for a 
 moment like a little statue with extended arm, hearing 
 no one, seeing no one but Betty. Then, without a word 
 of surprise or remonstrance, she walked slowly away, 
 holding to her heart, tightly clasped in both hands, a 
 tissue-paper parcel. 
 
 The following afternoon Maud was as much surprised 
 and delighted as one could expect a hostess to be on 
 entering her drawing-room and finding a score of her 
 friends seated on the edges of as many chairs in a state 
 of suppressed giggle. Betty was in high feather, not 
 only at the success of the " surprisement," but at taking 
 the leading part in every game throughout the afternoon. 
 She retained the last seat in "Jerusalem," she was 
 chosen as the brightest in "Compliments," and so far 
 distinguished herself in " Geography " as to save her 
 side, at the critical moment, by an opportune recollection
 
 202 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 of a remote hamlet on the coast of Siberia, whose name 
 no one else would have ventured to pronounce. 
 
 "That isn't fair; there is no such place!" cried 
 Evangeline, who headed the other party. 
 
 " Yes, there is," answered Betty, with her usual con 
 fidence. "It is used as a depot of supplies in case 
 anybody wants them," and could see no reason for Miss 
 Meg's laughter. 
 
 In the dining-room a surprise awaited the surprisers. 
 A number of little round tables were decorated with 
 ribbons and flowers and colored candles in pretty shades. 
 There was a button-hole bouquet for every boy and a 
 basket of bonbons for each girl. The last requirement 
 of a party was fulfilled when there appeared ice-cream 
 and " snappers." Miss Meg herself pulled Betty's bon 
 bon with her, and smilingly fitted the Puritan cap it 
 contained about the rosy little face. " Like some Betty 
 Dudley of two hundred and fifty years ago," she said. 
 A merry hubbub ensued as all the children arrayed 
 themselves in the quaint Normandy bonnets, befrilled 
 aprons, and ruffled capes, and flocking into the drawing- 
 room, wound up the happy afternoon with an impromptu 
 German. When the time came to say good-bye, Betty 
 quite forgot her elegance, and putting her arms around 
 Miss Meg's neck, cried rapturously, 
 
 " Oh, dear Miss Meg, thank you ever so much I I 've 
 had the beautifulest time that ever was I " And Miss 
 Meg did not seem to mind the absence of "company" 
 manners.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 203 
 
 If the recollection of a beseeching little face obtruded 
 itself more than once into the midst of her good time, 
 Betty thrust it from her with the thought, " It is n't my 
 business to see that other people have a good time ! " 
 
 Soon after the party Betty's " Whats " increased so 
 alarmingly that Chris, fearing her recent illness had 
 affected the child's hearing, took her to Dr. Burnham. 
 The assurance was speedily given that Betty's ears were 
 in a healthy condition. 
 
 " Is there much illness in Holbrook ? " inquired Chris, 
 casually. 
 
 " Very little in Holbrook," was the answer. " Several 
 cases have broken out, however, in the ' Beyond,' " added 
 the doctor, to whom the condition of affairs on the other 
 side of the railroad track had long been a cause of un 
 availing warfare. "The worst cases are in a family 
 who have recently moved in, named Brown. The 
 youngest little girl died last Saturday."
 
 204 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 
 
 BETTY cried at the top of her voice all the way 
 home, hanging at arm's length to Chris's hand, 
 and unheeding her sister's remonstrances and attempts 
 at consolation. 
 
 "I did it! It wasn't her illness that killed her. 
 Her heart was broken and it was I who broke it. 
 I feel just as I did when I killed the dear little baby 
 alligator; only it 's ever so much worse to kill your 
 friend." 
 
 "Do stop crying till we get home," pleaded Chris. 
 " Everybody is looking at us." She had indeed, passed 
 several of her acquaintances ; and just then Miss Herbert, 
 across the street, bowed and smiled with a somewhat 
 ostentatious display of ignoring what appeared to be a 
 family fracas. 
 
 " Oh, Chrissy, Chrissy, how could you say it was n't 
 our business to try to make other people have a good 
 time and she a little stranger girl who didn't know 
 anybody and who had never had a good time in her 
 life!" 
 
 " If she had gone to the party, you might all have had 
 the fever," suggested Chris desperately. 
 
 " I wish we had, and all died together," sobbed Betty. 
 " She looked at me so sor'ful ! "
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 205 
 
 Those words remained the burden of her cry. She 
 refused supper and sobbed herself to sleep, to awake the 
 next morning with a fresh burst of grief ; announcing 
 her intention of " lying there till she died," she turned 
 away from even the luxury of breakfasting in bed, for 
 which she always clamored when any slight ailment 
 seemed to offer the pleasures of an invalid. 
 
 In vain Chris proposed a ramble through the shops 
 in town, usually the most enticing prospect that could 
 be held out. Nan's suggestion of stories fell on deaf 
 ears; equally in vain did Lou coax and cuddle, and 
 Bobby bring to the bedside two lovely pink-eyed white 
 mice. At her wits' end, and fearing that the child 
 would really starve herself to death, Chris sought the 
 advice of Dr. Burnham. Exhausted with crying, an 
 occasional quivering sob shook Betty from head to foot. 
 At the sound of approaching steps she buried her face 
 more deeply in the pillow, and murmured huskily, 
 
 " G' way, g' way ! Leave me alone to die ! " 
 
 " Betty I " said a quiet voice by her bedside. 
 
 Though unrecognizing, something in the tones com 
 pelled attention, and Betty blinked one eye at Dr. Burn- 
 ham, who, ostensibly to feel her pulse, took her hand, 
 and holding it fast within his own, the quivering breath 
 grew calmer, and by degrees the sobs ceased. 
 
 " I want to tell you about your little friend," began 
 the doctor. " At dusk, Saturday afternoon, Lassie did 
 not know those who were around her. She thought she 
 was still at school and that she was going to a party
 
 206 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 with Betty. There was a bright sash beneath her pillow 
 which she said Betty had lent her ; throughout her ill 
 ness she never once let go her hold of the sash. She 
 talked to it and stroked it, and twisted the fringe about 
 her fingers. Once her mother tried to take it away, but 
 Lassie pleaded so piteously, saying she could not go to 
 the party without the sash, tied in a big bow, as Betty 
 had said, that none could have had the heart to take it 
 from her. By and by she fell asleep, her cheek resting 
 on the pretty sash. Toward midnight she suddenly 
 opened her eyes and looked surprised and very glad. 
 
 " * Oh, is this a party ? ' " she cried, and almost instantly 
 closed her eyes again. 
 
 "That was all." 
 
 " Did she wear the sash when she went to Heaven ? " 
 queried Betty, eagerly. " Maybe she 'd have a better 
 tune, you know. The other little girls wouldn't 
 think her a beggar-child then, would they ? or or 
 turn their backs upon her? " 
 
 "I am sure they would not," answered the doctor, 
 with grave sympathy. " I thought you would wish her 
 to keep the sash," he went on. " At the last she wore 
 it, tied in a big bow, and her little face was bright and 
 peaceful. Now you are to go to sleep, and when you 
 awake, you will want something to eat." 
 
 "Yes," answered Betty, mechanically, but speaking 
 for the first time in her natural voice. 
 
 She made her appearance at the supper-table, where 
 she displayed a ravenous appetite, and even vouchsafed
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 207 
 
 a watery little smile to Bobby's unwonted amenities. 
 The following morning she went to school, but was un 
 naturally quiet and subdued for many days. That 
 month she attained the Banner Row, but with an alarm 
 ing increase of conscience she only sobbed, 
 
 "'T is n't because I've been made good, dear Miss 
 Lang. It 's just 'cause there 's nobody left in the world 
 to talk to 1 " 
 
 Only once, in those early weeks, did Betty display 
 something of her wonted spirit. On her first meeting 
 with Evangeline the latter "tagged," with a swing of 
 her skirts more assertive than ever. Drawing herself up 
 with a haughtiness that her Puritan ancestor could have 
 no more than equalled, Betty turned upon her quondam 
 friend, and said, in a tone loud enough to be heard by 
 every one in the schoolyard, 
 
 " I thank you, if you please, Miss Bean ; but if my 
 friends are not good enough for you, then you are not 
 good enough for me 1 " and walked away, leaving Evan 
 geline for once silenced. 
 
 No longer upheld by the most popular little girl in 
 the "Dudley Primary," Evangeline was studiously 
 avoided by every one. Even her not over-fine sensibil 
 ities were not proof against this general coldness, her 
 absences became more and more frequent, and before the 
 end of the term her attendance ceased altogether. 
 
 The trouble in the " Beyond " speedily attained a seri 
 ous aspect. The city authorities, urged by Mr. Cour- 
 tenay's powerful influence, took stringent measures
 
 208 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 of relief. Miss Courtenay proved Dr. Bumham's most 
 efficient aid, superintending the work of the trained 
 nurses she had herself installed, while the Courtenay 
 kitchen and hothouses were laid under unstinted con 
 tribution for the supply of nourishing food, no less requi 
 site than skilled medical aid. But notwithstanding 
 every exertion the fever spread with increasing viru 
 lence, till it assumed the character of an epidemic, and 
 scarcely a day passed that did not see a black cortege 
 wind from some house in the " Beyond." 
 
 To Chris those unwonted weeks of social gayety under 
 the chaperonage of Miss Courtenay would doubtless 
 have had their inevitable reaction, but combined as this 
 condition was with the stinging self-reproach left by 
 Betty's grief, she was reduced to a limp and nerveless 
 condition of mind and body, in which existence seemed 
 an unprofitable thing indeed. She could not attain the 
 resolve of offering her assistance in the settlement work, 
 sorely though she knew it was needed ; any qualms of 
 conscience on the subject being speedily silenced by the 
 thought that she did not want to see poverty or unhap- 
 piness, she had enough of both at home. The days were 
 spent in wandering about the house like an unlaid spirit, 
 or in taking long, aimless jaunts into the city, whence 
 she returned more restless and dissatisfied than ever. 
 
 As there seemed no particular object in getting out of 
 bed, her morning appearance became later than usual, 
 with something more than the customary results. One 
 morning after a particularly sharp passage at arms with
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 209 
 
 Nan, she sat at the deserted breakfast-table, nibbling 
 cold toast and trying to sip lukewarm coffee. Betty 
 came into the room, to ask how many buttons of her 
 coat she should fasten, an inquiry she never omitted. 
 Moved by her sister's forlorn aspect, she put her arms 
 around Chris's neck, and whispered, 
 
 " Never mind what naughty Nan says, Chrissy. You 
 are the head of the table ! " 
 
 Chris pushed her plate from her. Another mouthful 
 would have choked her. The childish words seemed to 
 precipitate all the partially formed thoughts and nebu 
 lous regrets that for the past few days had been floating 
 in her mind. The " head of the table " ! How, indeed, 
 had she filled the place? By the utterance of those 
 thoughtless words that had borne her little sister such 
 bitter fruit; by selfishly pursuing her own ends, for 
 getting Dick and the sacrifices he had made for them 
 these many years ? All the others had kept true to the 
 compact. Even heedless Lou had scrupulously put 
 aside every cent of her tiny income. Nan's purse must 
 be well filled, thought the girl, with a twinge of jealous 
 irritation. Bobby's mysterious business was doubtless 
 to the same end. Abandoning all her magnificent 
 schemes of achieving wealth at a bound, Betty had 
 patiently devoted herself, throughout the winter, to 
 picking up the smallest scraps and shreds that could go 
 to the rag-bag ; creeping about on her hands and knees, 
 after any dressmaking, for the least thread that might 
 increase her store and insisting upon a sale whenever a 
 
 14
 
 210 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 corner of the rag-bag was filled. Chris recalled, remorse 
 fully, how sharply she had spoken on more than one 
 occasion when, as she was entertaining callers in the 
 drawing-room, a stentorian voice from above shouted, 
 "Stop that ragman!" followed by a clatter over the 
 stairs as of a cavalry regiment at full charge. It was an 
 inscrutable mystery why Betty should invariably be on 
 the house-top when one of the craft came in sight. Per 
 haps, like Sister Ann, she went up into the tower to lie 
 in wait for them. 
 
 She wondered what Nan had done about the deficit 
 in the winter's income, and brought to mind, for the 
 first tune, how pale and harassed her sister was looking. 
 The insistent words rang in her ears, " You 're a thief, 
 Chris Dudley, that 's what you are I " The money she 
 had appropriated to her own use, insignificant as the 
 amount looked at the tune, now seemed a colossal sum. 
 There was no way by which she could replace it, at least 
 before Dick's return, for art needlework, her only 
 resource, was slow and unremunerative at the best ; and 
 it was now the dull season. Besides, only original 
 designs were profitable, and under existing circum 
 stances she could not ask Nan's aid. All at once a 
 solution of the question flashed upon her. Her skill 
 with the needle might perhaps be turned to account in 
 another way. Miss Meg had casually mentioned, not 
 long before, that she wanted a dressmaker who would 
 come to the house to make Maud's spring frocks and 
 remodel some of her own gowns. The idea of applying
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 211 
 
 for the situation had been at the time as far from 
 Chris's mind as that of offering herself as a missionary 
 to China ; but the longer she dwelt upon the plan, the 
 more feasible did it appear. 
 
 A dressmaker commanded good wages. If she offered 
 herself for the situation Chris handled the word 
 timorously the employment would last a month at 
 least, and in that time she could surely earn enough to 
 replace the " borrowed " money and perhaps even have a 
 little surplus to devote to refurbishing the house. 
 
 But on the other hand, how could she go, a paid 
 dependant, to the house where she had lately been a 
 petted guest? Miss Herbert had once alluded, in her 
 hearing, to somebody who looked like a "little dress 
 maker." Chris fastened a pincushion at her waist and 
 held ostentatiously in her hand a shabby black "reti 
 cule " that might be supposed to contain patterns and a 
 " chart ; " thus arrayed, she surveyed herself critically in 
 the glass to see if there were anything in her appearance 
 that might be supposed to characterize those who "go 
 out by the day." 
 
 Miss Herbert would turn upon her that cool, critical 
 gaze and be more scrupulously polite than ever. How 
 she would sink in the estimation of young Mr. Courte- 
 nay, who would probably ask her to mend his overcoat 
 and darn his gloves. Did the Courtenays allow the 
 dressmaker to come to the table with the family? 
 
 That afternoon, in response to a somewhat imperative 
 pull at the bell, Chris opened the door herself.
 
 212 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " The coal man has come for the bill," she reported to 
 Nan. " He said it was the third time he had called. I 
 should think you would be ashamed to let him dun us 1 " 
 the irritation of the moment getting the better of her 
 half-formed repentance. 
 
 Nan flushed, but vouchsafing no reply, took out her 
 own shabby little leather purse, cherished as a Christmas 
 gift of long ago from Chris. The sight touched some 
 sensitive chord in the elder girl's heart, and adding 
 another item to the list of her self-reproaches, gave the 
 crowning touch to resolve. At dusk, summoning all 
 her courage, she slipped across the street. 
 
 Miss Meg had just returned from the " Beyond " and 
 was in the library. Whether because of her friend's 
 smile and outstretched hand, or because it was the hour 
 that invited confidences, Chris forgot the tactful way in 
 which she had intended to lead up to the subject; simply 
 and directly she made known her request. 
 
 " I think I could satisfy you," she added ; " I have 
 always made my own gowns and Betty's frocks." 
 
 The proposal was received with a warmth that left no 
 doubt as to its acceptability. The question of remunera 
 tion, too, was soon settled, although its amount was so 
 far beyond Chris's expectations as to draw forth a 
 protest. 
 
 " I am sure your help will be worth all that," smiled 
 Miss Meg. " It will be a great relief to me to leave the 
 matter in your hands," she added, with a confidence that 
 made the girl feel as though the inspiration of Worth
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 213 
 
 glowed within her. " The trouble in the settlement will 
 occupy most of my time for some weeks to come," she 
 added gravely. 
 
 " I wish I could be like you ! " exclaimed Chris, with a 
 little irrepressible burst of girlish enthusiasm. 
 
 Just then the fire flashed out a single gleam, lighting 
 the picture of Lady Katharine Douglas above the man 
 tel, to which Miss Meg's eyes were uplifted. In that 
 space Chris seemed to catch a glimpse of something so 
 true and sweet and high that in its mere presence her 
 own life was mysteriously touched to finer issues. 
 
 " Dear," whispered Miss Meg, " one may still give her 
 right arm to the King in loyal, loving service 1 "
 
 214 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY 
 
 NAN was giving the last touches to a drawing 
 upon which she had been at work for weeks 
 past, in such intervals of ardor as was permitted by 
 her disturbed condition of mind. Sometimes, indeed, 
 it almost seemed to the girl that out of the very ful 
 ness of her need for help and sympathy was the con 
 ception born. She was goaded, now, not only by her 
 usual finishing devil, but by the knowledge that the 
 hours in which she could complete her work were num 
 bered. Close at hand lay a copy of the Connoisseur 
 open at an announcement at which the artist glanced 
 ever and anon for inspiration, 
 
 "The Connoisseur offers a prize of One Hundred 
 Dollars for the best design for an Easter card." Cer 
 tain restrictions and specifications followed, concluding 
 with the words, "All designs must be sent in before 
 the first of March." 
 
 " If I should get it ! " thought Nan, leaning back in 
 her chair for a moment's well-earned rest, in which she 
 drew up a mental list of the uses to which that elastic 
 one hundred dollars should be put. 
 
 " Nan Na an ! " called Bobby's voice, from below. 
 
 "Oh dear, another interruption 1 " thought Nan, Sti 
 rling the impulse to disregard the call or return an
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 215 
 
 impatient answer, and shuffling her work out of sight be 
 neath the confusion of watercolor blocks, papers, stumps, 
 charcoal sticks, and smudgy rags on the table. 
 
 Bobby ran up the attic stairs, two at a time, singing 
 " Nancy Lee " at the top of his voice. 
 
 " If you would couch your admiration in prose and in 
 a lower key, it would be just as acceptable," suggested 
 Nan mildly, as her little brother blocked the door with 
 a voluminous pile of papers in his hand, and the words 
 spoken with simulated indifference, 
 
 " Want to hear my plea ? " 
 
 " Of course I do," answered Nan, heartily, and pre 
 pared to give all attention to the orator as he mounted 
 an impromptu rostrum, constructed out of a big Japanned 
 tray whereof most of the Japan had vanished laid 
 across an empty soap-box. 
 
 The Holbrook Debating Club was to hold its open 
 meeting to-night. The occasion was not only a notable 
 event of the school year, but it was regarded by Hol 
 brook at large as a social function of the first magnitude. 
 Local pride was aroused, for the Debating Club was 
 almost coeval with the Holbrook High School, and that, 
 as every one knew, was the oldest endowed school in 
 New Engknd. Tickets to the debate were sold by 
 subscription; the committee included the most distin 
 guished names in the town and there was an imposing 
 list of patronesses, who came on the great night in gala 
 attire laden with bouquets for the favored orators. 
 Following the debate, every one present voted upon the
 
 216 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 merits of the question under discussion. "Which side 
 are you on ? " was a query that was heard on every side, 
 among the old boys on. the early train, as well as at 
 social functions of afternoon and evening. 
 
 This year the question was, " Resolved, Our Country 
 is too Free." The affirmative side was upheld by Bobby 
 and Taffy Dabney. Probably the latter's unpopularity 
 would have lost him the position but for the stand taken 
 by Bobby. 
 
 "He's the best fellow for the place," insisted the 
 latter, regardless of personal animosities. "We're not 
 going to risk our cause, are we, because we 're down on 
 a fellow for something that doesn't affect the present 
 issue ? " 
 
 Somehow, despite the fact that Bobby had almost 
 vanished from their midst, his influence among his 
 mates was greater than ever, and his voice now carried 
 the day. 
 
 "I say, Bobby, that was dandy of you," said Taffy, 
 almost humbly. 
 
 " Keep the change," returned Bobby, with a magnifi 
 cent bow and turning his back upon his "honorable 
 colleague." 
 
 Jack Burnham and Lucy were on the negative side ; 
 the latter, spurred to unwonted endeavor, covered sheet 
 after sheet with flowery eloquence, to the end of rein 
 stating himself in the good graces of his little sweet 
 heart and incidentally of "preserving the liberties of 
 our country."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 217 
 
 The girls meantime, besides their partisanship in the 
 debate, had their own side issues. They were all heartily 
 tired of the feud at first exciting between them 
 selves and the boys, but were not sufficiently versed 
 in worldly tactics to know how to make up without 
 loss of dignity. 
 
 "It's stupid dancing with girls for partners," said 
 Susie Grossman, dejectedly ; " we 've lost the skating 
 and tobogganing too. I really think, girls, we can afford 
 to be magnanimous," brightening as she thought how 
 nobly the feminine contingent of the Holbrook High 
 School had vindicated itself. For the Spinster had 
 proved a success, although some of its constituency were 
 openly suggesting that a masculine department would 
 be acceptable. 
 
 Wisely taking their mothers into their councils, the 
 debate was suggested as an occasion when a friendly 
 interest in the boys' affairs might express gracefully 
 a desire for renewed good feeling. 
 
 " Of course I shall vote for you, my darling Robin," 
 said Lou, when Bobby would have explained the question 
 to her. "So you need not trouble to make me under 
 stand what it is all about. If you would like to say 
 that Voodooism whatever that may be is the best 
 form of government, you shall have my vote, one and 
 indivisible, survive or perish 1 I guess I could n't think 
 all winter about Dick and forget my own precious little 
 brother at home. Besides, you don't suppose I 'd vote 
 for a horrid boy who " Lou bit back the words, as she
 
 218 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 had done similar ones many times the past months, and 
 contented herself with adding, "I'll vote with both 
 hands stuff the ballot-box that's the phrase, isn't 
 it ? if I get the chance. But oh, Bobby, I do think that 
 if Taffy were not quite so fat, he 'd have more votes from 
 the girls. You will wear your hair banged, won't you, 
 Robin love? It's awfully fetching, and it doesn't 
 make you look a bit sissy, truly." 
 
 To which petition the future legislator responded, 
 with a keenness and brevity that would doubtless win 
 many a future forensic triumph, 
 
 "Rubbish!" 
 
 Nan, on the contrary, had stoutly maintained the 
 opposite side of the question. For days past she and 
 Bobby had not met without launching upon the vexed 
 subject, till the others begged them to confine their dis 
 cussions to the studio. There the battle waged high, 
 neither party yielding a point, and when breath failed, 
 proceeding to settle the question by single combat, with 
 swords fashioned out of broomsticks. Bobby had written 
 and re-written, revised and polished his plea, spurred 
 to further researches, or even to the recasting of an 
 entire line of argument by one of these discussions. 
 
 He had just finished copying his speech for the last 
 time. 
 
 The argument was compact and well sustained, the 
 illustrations were few and apt, and the orator's gestures 
 spare, partly by reason of a careful study of effect and 
 partly because his present rostrum was not calculated to
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 219 
 
 bear the gesticulations of fiery eloquence; till at the 
 climax he made an unwary movement and with a wild 
 swoop of his arms was precipitated to the floor, with a 
 bang and clatter that hopefully prefigured the plaudits 
 of the nations. 
 
 "It's perfectly splendid, Bobby!" cried Nan, when 
 she could speak for laughter. " I 'm not convinced, but 
 I know you '11 get the verdict ; and oh, Bobby when you 
 knit your brows and put out your hand like that, you 
 look just like the picture of Daniel Webster in the 
 Athenaeum." 
 
 Eulogy could strike no higher note, and Bobby, 
 though scorning to betray his gratification, nor the 
 fact that he had spent hours before the glass posing in 
 the characteristic attitude of the great statesman, allowed 
 a smile to cross his face, as he responded, 
 
 " Now let 's say 4 Horatius I ' " and off the two started 
 on the stirring " Lay," Bobby sounding a tocsin on the 
 tray as an accompaniment to his favorite lines, 
 
 " ' When none were for a party, 
 And all were for the state I '" 
 
 The great evening came. The hall of the schoolhouse 
 was filled to its utmost capacity. The Senior class had 
 been given a place on the platform, and were buzzing 
 confidentially among themselves. Heedful of the ex 
 citement among the boys, the dignified old head 
 master admonished them that they were gentlemen and 
 he expected them to behave as such. The violent
 
 220 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 demonstrations of the ball-field would be out of place on 
 the present occasion. 
 
 Chris, Nan, Lou, and Betty had secured seats in the 
 front row ; while Miss Meg, who was one of the patron 
 esses, smiled her interest and sympathy close by. 
 Early in the evening four choice bouquets, with a card 
 attached to each, had arrived from the Courtenay 
 hothouses. Betty nearly sniffed her violets to pieces 
 with mingled rapture and excitement. 
 
 The audience settled itself to attention as Lucy ap 
 peared on the platform. He acquitted himself admira 
 bly and sat down amid a storm of applause, the 
 conviction that he had won the case for his side, and, 
 best of all, a bunch of red and white carnations from 
 Susie, who had been wavering between a lingering fond 
 ness for the leading affirmative and a conviction of 
 wasted affections in that direction. As the little speaker 
 labored with his big words and grandiloquent gestures, 
 she remembered, all at once, how unfailing had been his 
 admiration of her own literary efforts, and how untir 
 ingly he had fought innumerable battles hi her behalf. 
 So, with a beaming smile that betokened unmistakably 
 the renewal of good feeling, she bestowed her posy upon 
 him. 
 
 Taffy Dabney now arose for the affirmative ; anxious 
 to retrieve himself in the estimation of his fellows, he 
 had done his honest best ; but though his argument was 
 well conceived and couched in excellent English, it fell 
 short of its effect by reason of the orator's defective
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 221 
 
 delivery and clumsy figure. In the intermission that 
 followed, the opinion was generally expressed that thus 
 far the negative side had shown itself the stronger. 
 The audience turned toward Jack Burnham with an 
 interest that betrayed its realization of the fact that the 
 real significance of the contest was now before them. 
 
 With the glowing words of the speaker, it was invol 
 untarily felt that such generous sentiments accorded 
 best with youth. There was a genuine heart-throb 
 among the audience as Jack, with a gesture toward 
 the flag that draped the back of the platform, turned to 
 his mates with the closing words, 
 
 " Shall the stars and stripes lose the meaning that has 
 made them, the world over, the synonym for liberty? 
 Shall ours be the stigma, ' In that day and generation 
 America ceased to be sanctuary ! " 
 
 Then came Bobby's turn. As he stepped upon the 
 platform, there was an instant's hush, followed by an 
 involuntary murmur of admiration at the boy's superb 
 figure and handsome, earnest face. Taken by surprise, 
 Bobby stood vainly searching for the first line of his 
 speech, while the audience, perceiving his embarrass 
 ment, gave another encouraging round that only suc 
 ceeded in completing the orator's bewilderment. The 
 silence had become painful when Bobby, catching sight 
 of Nan's pale, frightened face, seized upon the thought, 
 
 " I '11 think I 'm in the studio again, and that she 's 
 going to say, ' It's perfectly splendid, Bobby I ' " 
 
 So, keeping his eyes fixed upon the one face, address-
 
 222 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 ing the one person out of all the audience, the spell was 
 broken, and once launched upon his theme, he forgot 
 everything but that he was there to win men's minds 
 and hearts to larger thought and sounder sentiment. 
 
 As he dwelt on the race to office of those who forgot 
 friendship, principle, honor, in the mad desire to win the 
 highest place, there was more than schoolboy rhetoric, 
 there was the depth and passion of personal experience 
 in his words ; his voice rang with the spirit of the 
 gallant, uncompromising old Puritan Governor, and he 
 spoke as one who felt himself the chosen champion of 
 that heritage of truth and honor and unswerving devo 
 tion to an ideal that made the Puritan Commonwealth 
 what it was. But to Bobby himself, still seeking Nan's 
 face, it was the dear home life, mysteriously inter- 
 wrought with the great life of the nation, that throbbed 
 in his closing words, 
 
 " When none were for a party, 
 And all were for the state ! ' " 
 
 He took his seat without applause ; only no one 
 noticed its absence. The silence remained unbroken 
 as the committee, consisting of Dr. Burnham, Mr. 
 Dabney, and Judge Luce, retired to count the votes. A 
 nervous restlessness pervaded the assembly ; the tension 
 was too great to admit of talking, and there was an 
 audible sigh of relief when Judge Luce appeared on 
 the platform, holding a slip of paper, from which he 
 read, 
 
 "Number of votes, four hundred and sixty-three.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 223 
 
 Necessary to a choice, two hundred and thirty-two. 
 Negative, thirty-seven. Affirmative " 
 
 The report was cut short in an unlooked-for manner. 
 Mr. Shattuck started into the aisle, and gave the Hoi- 
 brook yell ! 
 
 It was the signal for such a tumult as had never 
 before been known, even on the victorious ball-field. 
 
 "What's the matter with Bobby! He's all- 
 right I Who's all right? Bobby I Rah, rah, rah, 
 st, boom, tiger! .SbZ-brookl Bobby!" 
 
 There was a simultaneous rush for the platform, and 
 Bobby disappeared from view, to be lifted high, the next 
 instant, upon the shoulders of his companions. A hand 
 shaking followed that made even the orator's practised 
 biceps ache. Lucy, contentedly sniffing his posy, 
 strutted around the hero of the hour, admiring him 
 from every point of view, and rejoicing far more in 
 Bobby's victory than he would have done in his own. 
 
 The glow and excitement had left Bobby's face as he 
 broke at last from his rejoicing mates and ran down 
 stairs to the dressing-room. At the very climax of a 
 triumph greater than any of which he had dreamt, he 
 had caught sight of Jack Burnham's face on the edge 
 of the crowd. 
 
 What mattered the shouts of the multitude when 
 Jack's voice was not heard? What did he care to be 
 borne aloft before all Holbrook when it was not Jack's 
 shoulder that upheld him ? Of what value were these 
 grips on every side, when Jack's hand was not first to
 
 224 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 clasp his own? In all the sea of admiring faces turned 
 toward him, Bobby saw only Jack Burnham's. Not 
 frightened, nor resentful, nor even evasive, as it had 
 been through the alienated months of the winter, but 
 sorry and wistful and full of a pleading that could not 
 be misunderstood. 
 
 Some one was standing on the threshold of the 
 dressing-room, some one who was twirling in his 
 hands a cap upon which was the glittering insignia of 
 its owner's rank. 
 
 The two boys looked at each other hi dead silence. 
 Bobby held out his hand. 
 
 " Jack, old boy ! " 
 
 "Bobby, old fellow!"
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 225 
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 
 
 THE others had gone to bed, but Nan could not 
 defer congratulations till the morning and waited 
 in the chill sitting-room for Bobby's footsteps. The 
 last notes of " Comrades" whistled in duet died 
 away, and she turned an eager face toward the door. 
 
 " I voted for you, Bobby, after all," she cried. " Of 
 course I would n't have voted against you, whatever I 
 thought, but I had no idea of going over to your 
 side till after your speech. When you are up for 
 Governor of Massachusetts, I shall cast my vote for 
 you, no matter what your platform is even if it 's 
 as rickety as an old tin tray. Oh, Bobby, I was so 
 proud of you 1 " 
 
 She was in jubilant spirits. Bobby knew that none 
 other of his sisters could enter into his triumph as Nan 
 could. Boon companions though he and Lou were, 
 there were subjects upon which he never touched with 
 her. But he always felt, instinctively, that Nan would 
 understand, in those rare moments when mind and soul 
 outstripped his years and he thought and felt as one 
 who had put away childish things. 
 
 Too full of pride and rejoicing to note the unusual 
 quiet of her little brother's mood, Nan began repeating 
 the compliments of the evening. 
 
 15
 
 226 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " Mr. Dabney said he was proud of you, and declared 
 your speech was the finest that had ever been delivered 
 in that hall, and that it would do credit to a trained 
 advocate. Judge Luce said, ' Our young men of family 
 are sorely needed in the public life of to-day. Bobby 
 does credit to his inheritance of principle and intellect. 
 Holbrook will some day be proud of Bobby.' Think of 
 that, from Judge Luce! Dr. Burnham shook hands 
 with us all Betty insisted on shaking hands twice 
 and his face glowed ! Mr. Shattuck was n't it funny, 
 his giving that yell 1 " ran on Nan, breathlessly " said, 
 in such a tone, ' I congratulate you ! ' 
 
 " Nan, I suppose you '11 think I 'm off my base," 
 began Bobby, in a dry, husky voice ; " but the fact is, 
 I 'm in doubt as to whether I shall go in for the law, 
 after all 1" 
 
 "Why, what do you mean what else could you 
 do?" exclaimed his sister, incredulously. "Are you 
 afraid of making a failure of it after to-night?" 
 The echo of the evening's triumph was in her laugh. 
 
 " Of course not," returned Bobby, superbly. " It 
 isn't from lack of nerve," he went on slowly, "nor 
 because" more slowly still "because I don't care 
 for the distinction that, more than any other, the legal 
 profession confers." 
 
 " You 've meant to be a lawyer before you could even 
 speak plain," went on his sister, in amazement. " Don't 
 you remember your oration on 4 Murder ' when you were 
 in kilts, after you 'd been reading Webster's argument in
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 227 
 
 the White case how scared Lou was, and how Nurse 
 Ransom came tearing to the nursery when she heard 
 you cry * Murder ! ' expecting to find us all in a bloody 
 row, like the King's daughters in Hop-o-my-Thumb ' ? 
 Have you forgotten how you've learnt Webster's 
 speeches by heart and would never declaim anything 
 else in school, and have quoted him and sworn by him 
 on every occasion, till we 've sometimes wished Webster 
 had never been born. You've always said that the 
 bar was the most direct path to public life 1 " 
 
 Bobby did not answer immediately. 
 
 " There 's such a thundering lot of lawyers," he said, 
 at length, with averted face. 
 
 " It was Daniel Webster who said, * There 's always 
 room at- the top ! ' " answered Nan, in a choked voice. 
 " Are you forgetting Daniel Webster? " 
 
 " I should be ready for college this fall," said Bobby, 
 jerkily. " It would be a pull to go through, although, 
 of course, I should help myself." He threw back his 
 broad shoulders with a gesture that held, perhaps, a 
 little too much of self-confidence. "But I could not 
 hope to earn much money the first year, before I had 
 learnt the ropes. Even after I had been admitted to 
 the bar, some time would necessarily elapse before I 
 could make even a bare living at my profession. All 
 these years I should be pulling on somebody, for it 
 would be impossible to earn an adequate income, mean 
 time, from other sources; the Law is a mistress who 
 will not tolerate divided attention. Lucy's dad says that
 
 228 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 old Shattuck was regarded as the one man of his class 
 who was sure to make his mark, and look at him now I " 
 
 Bobby spoke with a grasp and succinctness that be 
 trayed it was not the first tune he had thus reviewed 
 the situation. 
 
 " We 'd all help ! " said Nan, tremulously. 
 
 "That would be the worst of the rub," returned 
 Bobby sturdily. " Dick has enough on his shoulders, 
 as it is. Pinching and scraping at home might keep me 
 at Harvard, but how would it be with the rest of you ? 
 Maybe I 've learnt a thing or two this winter," he added 
 soberly. 
 
 "It would be such a disappointment to us all," 
 pleaded his sister. "Truly, Bobby, I'd be willing to 
 work my fingers to the bone and live on bread and 
 water I 'd give up gladly all idea of studying art or 
 going abroad, to see you what you were meant to be, 
 what you should be by right of inheritance as well as 
 of inborn talent, ' Robert Dudley, By the grace of God 
 Governor of Massachusetts.' " 
 
 Bobby winced. Involuntarily his eyes were raised to 
 the portrait of Thomas Dudley on the opposite wall. 
 The face of the old Puritan Governor was unmistakably 
 that of a man in whom love of power was dominant. 
 But whatever his errors of passion or of judgment, in 
 whatever age or land he had lived, to proud old Thomas 
 Dudley the words " party politics " could have had no 
 meaning. 
 
 " I Ve something to tell you, Nan, if you 'd care to
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 229 
 
 hear," said Bobby, with a watchful eye on his sister's 
 expressive face. 
 
 " I '11 listen," answered Nan, with a kind of snort that 
 betokened scant toleration for further confidences of a 
 nature like those that had preceded. 
 
 "Lucy begged his dad to let him tell me/' began 
 Bobby, slowly. "It was hatched out between Judge 
 Luce and Mr. Shattuck ; you know he and Lucy's dad 
 are old cronies. Lucy said his father found him with 
 the new issue of the SnarTc, and Lucy told him that I 'd 
 been the whole team. His dad walked off with the 
 paper and read every word of it 1 " Bobby could not 
 keep the triumph out of his voice. " Lucy told him 
 the whole row, and afterwards well," added Bobby, 
 modestly, " that is about all there is to it. To-night, 
 after the debate, the two immense old fellows put their 
 heads together, and Judge Luce has offered to pay 
 my expenses through Harvard and the Law School 1 " 
 
 Nan was sitting bolt upright, with sparkling eyes. 
 
 " Oh, Bobby I " was all she could say. 
 
 " If I accept," added her brother, " I am to take the 
 entrance exams, with Jack and Lucy and the other fel 
 lows. We should go through college, as we have gone 
 through school, together." 
 
 " If you accept," repeated Nan, with an incredulous 
 laugh. " I should n't think it would take you long to 
 decide." 
 
 "I did think, for a moment, that it was my luck," 
 said Bobby, whose self-confidence not infrequently took
 
 230 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 the form of belief in a lucky star. "But I haven't 
 decided yet." 
 
 " If you prefer a business career, you might go into 
 partnership with Griff," suggested Nan, with a disagree 
 able laugh. "Is that the opportunity you are pining 
 for, instead of the law?" 
 
 "Yes, I had some thought of going into business," 
 answered Bobby, jerkily. "Mr. Courtenay has offered 
 me a steady job. If I take up with his offer, I am to 
 begin work as soon as school closes, and learn the busi 
 ness from the start. After all," he went on, plead 
 ingly, as Nan's eyes filled with tears that were rare 
 indeed, "it is not as though I meant to give up the 
 thought of public life. You know that I have regarded 
 the law rather as a means to an end than as the end 
 itself. He said, 'Boston should send commercial men 
 to Congress ! ' " 
 
 " He probably said it as a pretty speech to the solid 
 men of Boston after they had made up another purse to 
 pay his everlasting debts," retorted Nan. " If you don't 
 go to college, all I can say is that it 's the worst thing 
 that has happened this winter. Colonel Jerome has 
 proved a worse bugaboo than our old spectre, the 
 Female Relative ! " Without waiting for a reply, with 
 a gesture that indicated she washed her hands of Bobby 
 and his affairs, Nan hastened from the room. 
 
 Bobby went to his den with the all-important question 
 weighing heavily upon him. It was not alone because 
 of the approaching examinations that he felt he must
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 231 
 
 decide his future career before he slept. He had in 
 truth reached the " parting of the ways " to which each, 
 sooner or later, must come. His thoughts went back to 
 the hour on the parade ground when he had saluted the 
 false captain. Afterwards, when the glow of generous 
 impulse had been replaced by the dull, unrequited strain 
 of every-day endeavor, he had guarded well the secret of 
 Jack's perfidy, and in such magnanimity he thought he 
 had done well. But since that never to be forgotten 
 hour there had been other acts of self-abnegation, new 
 thought for others ; in his manful struggle for indepen 
 dence had come a strengthening and a tempering of the 
 fine metal of his character, so that, unconsciously to 
 himself, the boy who that hour had cksped Jack Burn- 
 ham's hand in full forgiveness and forgetfulness was on 
 a higher plane than that on which he had stood a few 
 short months before. 
 
 He stood looking at the chair that had been Daniel 
 Webster's, of which he had made a very fetich, held 
 from seating himself therein by a strange feeling that in 
 some way the act involved his entire future. From his 
 very cradle the impelling impulse of his life had been to 
 
 " Learn his great language, catch his clear accents, 
 Make him his pattern to live and to die 1 " 
 
 Could it be that for the first tune the thought of 
 Webster held for him no illuminating impulse, no 
 inspiring example? 
 
 In involuntary mental review, the great life passed
 
 232 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 before him. Of all the attributes that make for power, 
 what lacked this royal man? Yet when the issue came 
 on which turned the crowning ambition of his life, men 
 refused their trust to the greatest statesman of his day, 
 and Daniel Webster died a disappointed and embittered 
 man. 
 
 In his petted boyhood how calmly he had accepted 
 the sacrifices of all around him, as though by right 
 divine of his fivefold talent 1 His education was ob 
 tained at the supreme cost of another. Throughout his 
 towering manhood, when he was a nation's idol, still the 
 keynote of his life was self, till the zenith of his intel 
 lectual strength was the nadir of his moral weakness, 
 and the Seventh of March speech struck the knell of 
 Daniel Webster's better fame. 
 
 With the clairvoyance that comes in some supreme 
 moments, the boy read his own possible future in the 
 light of his shattered idol. He sank into what was truly 
 his " Siege Perilous," the seat of Daniel Webster, 
 crying in his boyish heart, as did Galahad of old, 
 
 " * If I lose myself, I save myself 1 ' "
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 233 
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 
 
 CHRIS had merely said, regarding the coming weeks, 
 that she was to "help Miss Meg." As she had 
 " helped " in so many of their neighbor's pleasant plans, 
 no suspicion was attached to this announcement, even 
 by her vigilant family, the only comment being the 
 inquiry from Nan, "Shall I send your trunk after 
 
 you?" 
 
 Miss Meg met her in the hall with outstretched 
 hands, saying, 
 
 "I know how prompt you always are, so everything 
 is ready. But, first, would you mind coming into the 
 library while I write a note?" 
 
 Presently she read aloud the little missive, with an air 
 of holding consultation, so that by the time they were 
 ready to go upstairs, Chris had been made to feel that 
 she had come to lend her aid in a friendly way as she 
 had done at the various social functions of the winter. 
 Materials and fashion-books were outspread on the bed 
 in Miss Meg's own room, where Chris found, gratefully, 
 she was to work instead of in the remote sewing-room. 
 In deciding on the way in which Maud's spring frocks 
 were to be made, an hour passed quickly; when Miss 
 Meg departed on her daily visit to the " Beyond," Chris 
 fell to work in actual enjoyment of her new r81e.
 
 234 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 But unhappily, not for long was she left in peace. 
 Mrs. Courtenay presently appeared, drawn thither partly 
 by the amiable wish to keep her young friend from 
 being "lonesome," a calamity that she always thought 
 overtook a person if left for five minutes to her own 
 society, and partly by the desire to ascertain "what 
 five letters spelt the name of an ancient city of Phoe 
 nicia, the home of a wicked princess, who set up the 
 worship of the false god Baal." As Chris could not 
 enlighten her on this interesting point, Mrs. Courtenay 
 fetched a Bible and Concordance, and seating herself in 
 a rocking-chair immediately before the dressmaker, 
 began swaying violently back and forth, accompanying 
 the dizzy motion with fragmentary quotations from the 
 Concordance, in the intervals of a disjointed stream 
 of talk. 
 
 " I 've wanted so much to consult Mr. Carr about that 
 point. I suppose he 's very busy hi Lent, but I think he 
 ought to attend to the spiritual needs of his parishioners, 
 whatever the season. * So the posts that rode upon 
 mules and camels went out.' It's really very strange 
 that he should be 'out so much when I call and he a 
 clergyman of the Episcopal Church and I dare say will 
 some day be bishop. I hope he won't wear knicker 
 bockers, as some bishops do, or call himself * Holbrook,' 
 because that was the name of the man who died the 
 other day in state's prison or somewhere. But then, 
 there 's no knowing 1 Things turn out so strangely 
 nowadays, and that is the reason I never leave home
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 235 
 
 without taking Wee Willie with me; the house might 
 catch afire or burglars come on from New York. 
 Things are so much cheaper in New York than here ; 
 such bargains after the holidays I " and Mrs. Courtenay 
 heaved a cyclonic sigh. " What 's the matter, my 
 dear?" she inquired, as Chris uttered an exclamation. 
 
 "Nothing," answered the girl, faintly. "You were 
 speaking of a wicked princess the opera Medea " 
 with her brain in a whirl at the awful discovery that 
 she had cut both sleeves for one arm. 
 
 The material was a remnant, of an " up and down " 
 pattern and a " right and wrong " side ; these trying con 
 ditions had necessitated, hi the first instance, the most 
 careful planning, and not a scrap of the material re 
 mained, as she well knew. Nevertheless, in forlorn 
 hope, she searched the floor, the bed, and the tables; 
 she scrutinized every corner of the room, and even looked 
 behind the window draperies, " as though I expected 
 to stare some of the stuff into existence, like the old 
 Begum and the teacups in Mr. Blake's fairy tale," she 
 thought, with a gleam of humor felt to be as misplaced 
 as at a funeral. Mrs. Courtenay, meantime, having 
 somehow become possessed by the idea that the dress 
 maker had lost her scissors, was on her knees before the 
 fireplace, narrating to somebody up the chimney how 
 a treasured pair of shears of her own had once mysteri 
 ously vanished, and after having been mourned as lost 
 for a twelvemonth, was discovered behind the cushions 
 of her rocking-chair. Fired by this recollection, she
 
 236 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 proceeded to search the chair she had just left. Perhaps 
 she deemed it a magnet for wandering steel. 
 
 "Never mind, dear Mrs. Courtenay!" said Chris, 
 sweetly. " Perhaps you would be so kind as to lend me 
 your scissors," she added, for to her guilty consciousness 
 it seemed evident to everybody that Maud must appear 
 at Easter with a sleeve that was upside down and wrong 
 side out. 
 
 To her inexpressible relief, Mrs. Courtenay presently 
 announced her intention of calling on Mr. Carr. 
 
 "I know it's his sermon morning," she added benig- 
 nantly ; " but then, he won't mind me." 
 
 Hardly was her ponderous back turned, when Chris 
 whipped the evidence of her guilt into her pocket. But 
 peace of mind was gone, and the remainder of the morn 
 ing was spent in a fruitless endeavor to think of some 
 way out of her difficulty. On her return from school, 
 Maud was called in to try on the frock. While the 
 skirt was being adjusted, she stood on either leg, like a 
 stork ; and when Chris tried to fit the waist, hitched her 
 shoulders, screwed herself into the attitude of a contor 
 tionist in the endeavor to see the back, and anon 
 wriggled out of the dressmaker's hands to preen up and 
 down before the mirror, dragging an imaginary train. 
 
 " Where 's the other sleeve ? " she demanded. 
 
 "It isn't cut," answered Chris, hastily taking out 
 the pins. 
 
 " I want to see how I 'm going to look. Where 's the 
 other sleeve ? " reiterated the youthful Nemesis.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OP THE SCHOOL 237 
 
 " Never mind now, there 's a dear," pleaded the hapless 
 dressmaker. 
 
 Fortunately, at this crisis, Mrs. Courtenay returned 
 from a fruitless call at the rectory, and Maud's perti 
 nacity was checked. 
 
 "What a diffident little woman Mrs. Carr is!" ob 
 served Mrs. Courtenay. " I only just mentioned how 
 nice the addition to the rectory looked, and how con 
 venient for Mr. Carr to have an independent entrance 
 and exit, and she turned quite scarlet, my dear." 
 
 Miss Meg returned at noon only for a hasty luncheon, 
 but her words of encouragement enabled Chris to perse 
 vere through the afternoon instead of confessing her 
 blunder and retiring to a convent for the rest of her 
 life. She went home feeling that there were trials in 
 the path of the breadwinner of which she had never 
 dreamt. 
 
 That night she turned and tossed on her bed, seeking 
 some way out of her dilemma, and when at last she fell 
 asleep, it was only to troubled slumber. She opened her 
 eyes just as the outlines of things in her room were be 
 coming visible, with a vague sense of something awful 
 that had happened. The next moment she sat bolt 
 upright with wide-open eyes. Sleep had seemingly 
 brought inspiration, and the solution of the question was 
 clear before her. She would go in town on the "tin 
 pail " train, match the material, and be back in time to 
 present herself at the Courtenays' only a little after the 
 appointed hour. Dressing herself with all speed, she
 
 238 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 slipped, breakfastless, from the house before any one 
 else was astir, Chris, who had never before been known 
 to leave her bed before the world had fairly rubbed its eyes 
 open, and made her way to the station in the gray light 
 of the piercing March morning. The car was filled with 
 laboring-men with dinner-pails and clerks and shop-girls 
 hastening to their respective places of employment. 
 Most of the latter looked cold and sleepy and underfed ; 
 a queer little thrill of fellow feeling presently moved 
 Chris to offer her seat to a girl of about her own age, 
 who entered the train at a forlorn way station, and 
 whose pale face and sunken chest showed her ill pre 
 pared to begin the long day by weary standing in the 
 crowded aisle. 
 
 Chris entered the first shop as the covers were being 
 taken from the counters and cash boys were scudding 
 hither and thither. She made her request known to a 
 clerk whose faculties seemed not fully aroused from 
 their night's torpor. 
 
 "This was a remnant, madam," he said; "we have 
 nothing like it," and added, out of the fulness of his 
 heart, " I don't believe you '11 be able to match it any 
 where in town." 
 
 Prophetic words ! From shop to shop Chris wended 
 her way with her " sample " and her query, her steps 
 growing ever heavier as each successive clerk returned 
 the fated sleeve with the like reply. She even looked, 
 equally in vain, hi places off the beaten track of 
 shoppers, where limp linen dusters and tawdry calico
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 239 
 
 wrappers swung in low, dingy doorways, placarded with 
 dirty scraps of pasteboard. The hours had flown when 
 she entered the last shop. Her heart gave a bound as 
 the clerk unearthed a pile of odds and ends from beneath 
 the counter and produced a small piece of the desired 
 goods. Chris hastened to the station with a hatred of 
 " bargains " that she felt would be lifelong. 
 
 It was after luncheon when she made her appearance at 
 the Courtenays' ; to her relief no comment was made on 
 the delay. How sick and faint she was, as she worked, 
 fasting, through the long hours of the afternoon, trying 
 to make up for lost time 1 
 
 That first day was, in many respects, like those that 
 followed, except that the novelty of the situation soon 
 wore off, and the work resolved into steady, unremitting 
 toil, that sent Chris home with tired fingers and wearied 
 brain ; lingering sleep brought visions of breadths and 
 gores, Biblical conundrums, a swaying rocking-chair and 
 a poodle that she grew to hate with a virulence un 
 equalled since the days of " Snarleyow, the Dog Fiend." 
 Light as were the chains, they were still bondage. 
 When tired of hemming the interminable ruffle, she 
 could not refresh herself by running to the piano and 
 thrumming a waltz ; if the skirt betrayed a tendency 
 to hitch, she might not thrust it out of sight to await 
 a more favorable opportunity. Nor must she betray 
 impatience at Mrs. Courtenay's chatter nor chide 
 Maud's overweening vanity. When the day's work 
 was done, scarcely more tired from the unaccustomed
 
 240 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 toil than from the tumult of new thoughts, she 
 crossed the street, accompanied unfailingly by young 
 Mr. Courtenay. 
 
 "There was no need, it was scarcely dark," she fal 
 tered ; but the young man, with his quiet, grave cour 
 tesy, that always contained a certain suggestion of 
 masterfulness, put aside the demur. In her new humil 
 ity there came to the girl none of the gay speeches and 
 bright nothings with which she had once sought to 
 attract her companion. But the little attention was 
 unspeakably grateful to her in the thought, " He treats 
 me as though I were still their guest ! " and in a strange 
 sweet sense of rest and comfort that she did not seek to 
 analyze, and which was too precious to be broken by 
 words. 
 
 " Good-night, Mr. Courtenay." 
 
 " Good-night, Miss Chris." 
 
 Then he went back to his beautiful home and to 
 Miss Herbert; and Chris entered the shabby old house, 
 realizing, with double weight, that she was tired and 
 dispirited and longed to go to her own room and have a 
 good cry. It was not easy, instead, to try to make the 
 supper-table bright and cheery with her chatter and to 
 answer without impatience all Betty's questions as to 
 " what Maud was going to wear ; " for of course Maud 
 had told Betty what Chris was doing at her house, 
 and of course Betty had promptly informed the others ; 
 but to Chris's surprise and relief, Bobby had not 
 pounced upon the situation with every ingenuity of
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 241 
 
 tormenting query and suggestion; Nan opened her 
 mouth only to shut it again; sometimes, in the days 
 that followed, she looked at her sister in a questioning 
 way and insensibly her chilling demeanor altered. 
 Lou, too, looked as though she would like to know more, 
 but forbore to speak. 
 
 Since the uncomplimentary remarks of which she had 
 been the object, Chris had dreaded meeting Mr. Courte- 
 nay, and in her goings and comings slipped quietly past 
 the library. But one day he came forward with out 
 stretched hand and with so kindly an expression in his 
 keen gray eyes that Chris straightway forgot her fear, 
 and never afterward passed the library without pausing 
 for the greeting that always awaited her. 
 
 She seldom saw Miss Meg, except at luncheon. But 
 even in that brief interval there was always tune for 
 a sympathetic smile, an interested query, or a few helpful 
 words, that sent the girl back to her work with new 
 strength and courage ; as her fingers flew at their task, 
 the image of a lovely, gracious womanhood was with her 
 in the upper chamber, and words from some forgotten 
 source floated in her mind, 
 
 " 'T were like a breach 
 Of reverence in a temple, could I dare 
 Here speak untruth, here wrong my inmost thought. 
 Here I grow strong and pure, here I may yield 
 Without shamefacedness the little brought 
 From out my poorer life, and stand revealed 
 And glad and trusting, in the sweet and rare 
 And tender presence which hath filled this air." 
 16
 
 242 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 She marvelled sometimes that she had hitherto seen in 
 her friend only the woman of wealth and fashion, who 
 even in the moments of her most unbounded admiration 
 had not appealed to her as did the Miss Meg who was 
 being slowly revealed hi the light of a new understand 
 ing, a more sympathetic insight. The words spoken in 
 that quiet hour in the library repeated themselves in 
 Chris's mind, with ever deepening meaning, 
 
 " Dear, one may still give her right arm to the King 
 in loyal, loving service." 
 
 Miss Herbert, dividing her tune between the work hi 
 the " Beyond " and the Lenten services at St. Barnabas, 
 was rarely seen by Chris; but in these glimpses even 
 she appeared in a new aspect, and beneath the frigid 
 demeanor and punctilious regard for etiquette were 
 discerned a true heart and a standard that demanded 
 as much of herself as of others. 
 
 Miss Meg had insisted that Chris should leave her 
 work every afternoon for fresh air and exercise, and Mr. 
 Blake found it convenient to take his constitutional in 
 the same direction, at the leisurely pace enjoined by 
 the Buddhistic code. What change had come over Chris 
 she could scarce have told, but, marking the evident 
 trend of the young man's words, she affected to treat 
 them as part of the nonsense they had bandied back and 
 forth all winter. But one afternoon he spoke with a 
 seriousness that could not be lightly turned aside j and 
 quietly and seriously, too, she made answer in a gently 
 framed " No."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 243 
 
 "You can't mean it! I've taken you by surprise. 
 I thought you knew that you understood from the 
 first how much I liked you," repeated the young man. 
 
 " I 'm so sorry but I could n't care for you at 
 least, not in that way," faltered Chris. 
 
 " I don't see why not," answered the young man, pre 
 pared to argue the case, if the objections were so shadowy. 
 " We 've hit it off fairly well together thus far. I think 
 I 'm not such a beast that a girl could n't get along with 
 me. And although I know it's the last question that 
 could ever come into your head, I 've rocks enough for 
 us to rub along on very comfortably." 
 
 " Don't, oh, don't 1 " cried Chris, hastening her steps. 
 
 " You need n't run away," said the young man, with 
 new bitterness. 
 
 They walked on in silence, till they neared the 
 Courtenays' house. 
 
 " Can't you, Chris ? " asked the young man, earnestly. 
 
 "I couldn't," she answered, with a gentleness that 
 for an instant recalled Miss Meg's own manner. " Some 
 time you will see it as I do, and then you will be 
 glad that I answered you as I have, instead of as you 
 would like to have me." 
 
 " You are the only girl I have ever cared for, or ever 
 shall," asseverated the young man, gloomily. 
 
 He would have taken leave of her in the porch, but as 
 the door was opened, Mrs. Courtenay chanced to be 
 passing through the hall. Since Willie Winkie's rescue 
 from a tragic death, the old lady referred to Mr. Blake
 
 244 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 as "a hero." It was difficult to evade her pressing 
 hospitality; so the young man entered, and being just 
 then in a rudderless mental condition, remained through 
 the evening ; he went home thinking that henceforth he 
 would live for art. And by the by what a classic 
 profile and faultless coloring Miss Herbert had! 
 
 To-night, with a goodly sum in her pocket, Chris 
 would pick her way through the mud for the last tune. 
 She wondered that the thought did not bring more 
 rejoicing. When she looked at the clock her needle 
 lagged, as though she would thereby stay the rapid 
 hands. At six o'clock there were still the finishing 
 stitches to be taken in Maud's ulster bought in three 
 pieces so that it was considerably past the usual hour 
 when she at last descended the stairs. 
 
 The gentle click of silver and china was audible from 
 the dining-room. Chris could catch a glimpse of Miss 
 Herbert's black lace gown, that set off so exquisitely her 
 firm white shoulders. Young Mr. Courtenay was 
 doubtless at her side. It was the brilliant light that 
 brought the mist to the " dressmaker's " strained eyes, 
 and after fumbling in the umbrella rack, Chris buried 
 her face in a certain overcoat that hung near by and 
 tried to wink away the troublesome moisture. 
 
 " I have your umbrella," said a quiet voice ; and young 
 Mr. Courtenay stood before her, arrayed in ulster, and 
 hat in hand. 
 
 "I I thought you were at dinner," stammered Chris. 
 
 " Did you think I would let you go home alone through
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 245 
 
 the rain ? " returned the young man. And if Chris had 
 not been so perturbed, she might have noted a tone in 
 his voice unusual in addressing even the most respected 
 dressmaker. 
 
 He piloted her across the street, for the last time 
 the last time, the very rain-drops were saying. It was 
 not till they had nearly reached the opposite house that 
 the silence was broken. 
 
 " What were you crying for ? " asked young Mr. 
 Courtenay, abruptly. 
 
 "I I could n't find my umbrella," answered Chris, 
 huskily. " I am so fond of my umbrella " 
 
 The object of her tearful affection was suddenly 
 dropped, and a blast of wind whirled it down the muddy 
 driveway to the utter disregard of its owner. 
 
 "I must go in," quavered Chris. " It is raining ! " 
 
 " Don't go, Chris," cried the young man. " I want 
 you, dear, I want you for always 1 " 
 
 " But but I don't understand 1 " In her bewilder 
 ment, the last vestige of self-control vanished and how 
 it happened she did not know she found herself sob 
 bing on young Mr. Courtenay's shoulder. " Miss Her- 
 ber-bert I " she gurgled. 
 
 " What of Miss Herbert? " 
 
 "She and you she and you and she," sobbed 
 Chris. 
 
 " Listen, dear," said Mr. Courtenay. " Miss Herbert 
 is one of the nicest girls going. She has always been 
 my sister's friend and mine, too, and she knows how
 
 246 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 fond I am of her. But neither of us has ever really 
 cared for the other, and we 've both known that, too. 
 Besides, shall I tell you something? Miss Herbert's 
 engagement to Archie Blake is just out." 
 
 " Oh, but I think you must be mistaken in think 
 ing it's Mr. Blake," urged Chris, hi a wobbly voice. 
 "She'd as soon many a Thug. Why, she's a High- 
 churchwoman; she even goes into retreat and he is a 
 theosophist I " 
 
 " They have decided, no doubt, to unite their predi 
 lections," suggested the young man, " and will ' retreat ' 
 in future, together, to some Thibetan fastness, on a peak 
 of the Himalayas ' high ' enough to suit her proclivities. 
 But the world just as it is is a good enough place for 
 me, with you to live with 1 Will you, Chris, will you? " 
 
 Perhaps the look on Chris's upturned face spoke 
 louder than words, for the young man drew her more 
 closely to him and bent his face to hers.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 247 
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 
 
 CHRIS'S announcement was followed by a dead 
 silence in which the family stared at her open- 
 mouthed, with an expression that was at once incredu 
 lous and disapproving. Betty pushed her chair from the 
 table and burst into tears. 
 
 "You're just as mean as you can be!" she sobbed. 
 "We were all going to be married on the same day 
 and start on our wedding journey in the same hack. I 
 don't know as I'll come to your wedding, so there! 
 You'd oughter have waited for Lou and me." 
 
 " Me, too," asserted Nan. " No, I withdraw from the 
 family compact. There must be a vestal virgin in every 
 family, and the lot has fallen upon me in this one." 
 
 " What did he say ? " questioned Lou, eagerly. " Did 
 you tell him ' yes ' at once, or did he have to ask you 
 two or three times, as they do in stories ? " 
 
 "I don't believe he asked at all," supplemented 
 Bobby, as Chris warmly refused an answer to these 
 graceless questions. " I shall demand an interview with 
 Mr. Louis Courtenay and find out the exact state of 
 affairs. I cannot have my sister's young affections 
 trifled with." 
 
 "They never do ask directly," said Lou, sagely, 
 "They give you to understand,"
 
 248 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 " I sha'n't leave things at such loose ends when I ask 
 my young woman," declared Bobby. " I shall not give 
 her a chance to cry off. I mean to say, politely, but 
 firmly, * Yes or no, and be quick about it 1 ' and have my 
 stenographer on hand to take down her reply. This 
 unjustifiable reticence," he went on, turning to Chris, 
 " leads me to fear that the bridegroom's eloquence did 
 not rise to the occasion. Did he couch his offer in 
 terms like Wemmick's, ' Hello, here 's a ring ' ? " 
 
 "You'll let me wear it sometimes, won't you, 
 Chrissy ? " asked Betty, eagerly, emerging from her nap 
 kin, as she realized that even this portentous cloud was 
 not without its silver lining, 
 
 " Have the wedding in June, do I " urged Lou ; " the 
 place is so lovely then." 
 
 " If you wish me to grace the occasion, the nuptials 
 must come off before vacation," mentioned Bobby; 
 " * Courtenay and Son ' may be unable to spare their 
 new partner later, particularly as Courtenay's Son will 
 be gallivanting over the country with you. If you go 
 to Europe, take me with you. I '11 be courier. I would 
 much rather shoulder the trunks than do the levering." 
 
 " I 'm going, too," announced Betty. 
 
 " We will all go," assented Bobby. " We will char 
 ter a steamer instead of the proposed hack. I will 
 explain to brother Louis," adopting his new relative 
 with amiable alacrity, " that our sister would pine away 
 without our cheerful society, particularly that of her 
 loving little brother."
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 249 
 
 " It will be so sweet to have Miss Meg for an elder 
 sister," murmured Chris. 
 
 " We, who have always enjoyed the inestimable 
 blessing of an elder sister, congratulate, while we do 
 not envy you," said Bobby, with a Chesterfieldian 
 bow. 
 
 " I shall sit at the head of the table when you 're 
 gone," said Betty thoughtfully, as the alleviations of 
 the situation began to grow upon her, accompanying the 
 words with a defiant look at Nan. 
 
 " Hush ! " said Chris, gently ; and Nan, more in re 
 sponse to tone than words, added merrily, 
 
 "We will henceforth consider the table a Hydra, 
 Betty. It has six heads." 
 
 Yesternight, when Chris had appeared for her belated 
 supper, Nan was alone at the table. The elder girl 
 slipped a roll of bills into her hand. Nan looked up 
 with eyes that were wet and shining, and Chris, answer 
 ing the mute appeal, bent down and kissed her. 
 
 Presently, in response to the postman's ring, Betty 
 returned with an imposing-looking missive. After 
 spelling out the superscription, letter by letter, ignoring 
 the impatient calls from about the table, she said with 
 her utmost deliberation, 
 
 "I guess it 's for Nan," and handed it to Chris. 
 
 Nan hastily tore open the package. 
 
 " It 's a picture ! " she exclaimed. " Why why, 
 girls, it 's mine ! Oh, here 's a letter 1 " She ran her 
 eye over the accompanying writing. " It 's a mistake,"
 
 250 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 she gasped, " a horrid joke 1 Send it back, quick, some 
 body, before I spend it." 
 
 Bobby promptly seized the extended letter, and read 
 it aloud : 
 
 DEAR MADAM, We have the pleasure to enclose here 
 with our check for one hundred dollars, the amount of the 
 prize offered by the Connoisseur for the best design for an 
 Easter card. Accompanying is our lithographed reproduc 
 tion of your drawing, which we hope will meet your 
 approval. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 The Editors of the Connoisseur. 
 
 The others looked eagerly over Nan's shoulder at 
 the picture. 
 
 The sun, from out the violet mists of early dawn, 
 threw into bright relief the outlines of a marble cross. 
 Within the cross's shadow, as it rested upon a long low 
 mound in the foreground, primroses, emblems of im 
 mortality, were opening their blossoms, and nestlings 
 were uplifting a joyous carol, in the hope of Easter. 
 
 " Really, it 's most as good as my Day of Judgment," 
 said Betty, encouragingly. 
 
 Nan paid no heed to the questions and comments with 
 which she was showered. She had forgotten the money. 
 At that moment even gratified ambition held no place 
 in her heart. She scarcely recognized the work as her 
 own. It was, indeed, a hothouse blossom of her nature, 
 but that she did not know. She only knew, for a fleet-
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 251 
 
 ing. instant, that the power to do was hers, and that 
 henceforth, no matter how the light might be obscured, 
 something of the radiance of that moment would linger 
 upon her path. 
 
 "Let us all make our purchases to-day, so that the 
 room may burst into full radiance at once," suggested 
 Bobby, presently. "Besides, it will be better to have 
 the edge taken off our elegance or we may be unable to 
 behave with our usual freedom from haughtiness." 
 
 If Bobby's share in the prospective offerings was less 
 than he would gladly have made it, he had the satisfac 
 tion of knowing that the last cent of his debt to Griff 
 and to the printer had been paid. The Snark would be 
 handed on to the coming class a self-respecting journal 
 on a paying basis. It was confidently reported that, the 
 next year, the Snark and the Spinster would be com 
 bined. Bobby had been aided in his struggle with the 
 nearly expiring journal by the unexpected action of 
 Taffy. Perhaps Bobby's own course was not without 
 its influence ; something, too, of Taffy's self-confidence 
 had vanished since his recent disastrous " operation," 
 and the contumely visited upon him as " the fellow who 
 lost the game" made him grateful for even speech 
 from Cutty. Something must be wrong, indeed, when 
 he turned with positive loathing from taffy that some 
 how seemed the cause of all his misfortunes. At last 
 he mustered courage to go to his father and make a 
 clean breast of the whole affair, asking to borrow the 
 money he had stolen from the Snark's treasury and
 
 252 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 promising to work out the sum that summer in the 
 office of "Dabney and Co., Architects." To his sur 
 prise, his father did not "blow him up;" but he did 
 talk long and earnestly with him, which had the un 
 expected effect of making Taffy feel worse than the 
 anticipated severity would have done. It would be dull 
 work, drawing up plans and specifications through the 
 hot weeks, when the other fellows were enjoying them 
 selves in the woods or at the seashore ; but Taffy held 
 manfully to his resolution, cheered by the thought that 
 he would be able to enter college, in the fall, with a 
 clean record. 
 
 Bobby's proposition was received with acclaim. It 
 was Saturday, so that he and Betty, as well as the others, 
 could devote the day to the purchase of their offerings. 
 Not that time for consideration was necessary, for all of 
 the family had long ago decided upon the special gift to 
 which to devote their hoards. Only, upon so momentous 
 an occasion, it was felt that any appearance of haste 
 would be unseemly. Chris was to replace the dining- 
 room carpet with a handsome rug. Nan had planned 
 a dinner-service, there was one in a certain show- 
 window to which she made a pilgrimage every time she 
 went to the city. Bobby intended to make a lamp 
 his offering, and Lou would buy table linen for her 
 share. 
 
 Betty had resolved to patronize local enterprise. The 
 Empire Emporium had taken a fresh lease of life. Its 
 window had blossomed into an array of emblems suitable
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 253 
 
 to the season, and the tintypes of Abraham Lincoln were 
 replaced by lithographs of contemporaneous heroes. 
 Within, the shelves were rilled with " new spring stock " 
 that was not a barefaced fiction ; there was an enlarged 
 case of pies and cakes and a fresh supply of walnut 
 sticks. This general rejuvenation was announced to the 
 public by a placard over the door, reading, 
 
 " Come and See I Do not wait for the Crowd I An 
 hour may be too late I Remember that but one Chance 
 comes to Men ! " 
 
 If the last words held an inner and tragic meaning 
 known only to Griff, the minister that was n't to be was 
 no longer without hope in the world; the rejuvenation 
 that had come over him was no less remarkable than 
 that which had taken place in his stock. He stood up 
 right and did not blink when spoken to, while Lucy's 
 finger had lost its dire effect upon his waistband. 
 
 Among the new stock was a set of finger-bowls. 
 They were very red, very ugly, with a wiggly physio 
 logical sort of design, suggestive of intestines. Betty's 
 own conception of her brother's friend, aided by the con 
 stant family reference to him as a " Bugaboo " had 
 taken immovable lodgment in her mind. The giant at 
 the " Zoo " always wore a red necktie and flourished 
 a red bandanna handkerchief ; it was therefore deducible 
 that red was the favorite color of giants. Betty had 
 hailed the finger-bowls with a rapture that held no doubt 
 as to the gratification the gaudy glass would afford the 
 coming "Visitor."
 
 254 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 Nan was the first to reach home after the day's shop- 
 ing. It occurred to her, as a kind and sisterly deed, 
 that she would take up the dining-room carpet and get 
 the floor in readiness for Chris's offering. Accordingly 
 she arrayed herself in the indispensable adjuncts to her 
 labors in whatever field, the big apron and the hang 
 man's cap, and, armed with the hammer, fell to work, 
 jerking, pulling, clawing, and ever and anon falling over 
 backwards in whatever is the equivalent, in carpet 
 ripping, of catching crabs. The disordered breadths 
 were gathered together and piled in a corner of the room. 
 Washing the floor was next in order. Disdaining a 
 mop as a half-way measure, a mean-spirited compromise 
 between cleanliness and dignity, Nan went to work on 
 her hands and knees, and the dirt was speedily con 
 verted into mud. The wash-pail and scrubbing-rags 
 were deposited under the table. It was time to begin 
 preparations for tea; the stove was black and cold, 
 Bridget having elected to participate in the general holi 
 day. The frenzy that had possessed Nan all at once 
 departed, leaving her limp and nerveless. Seating her 
 self on the inverted coalhod, she sat hugging her knees, 
 and waiting for the others' return. It was not long 
 before Chris and Lou entered the house; they went 
 upstairs more quietly than usual; doubtless they, too, 
 were tired. Presently a pounding and shuffling on 
 the piazza announced Betty, while a prolonged giggle, 
 merging into a wail, indicated that Bobby was with her. 
 All entered the kitchen together.
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 255 
 
 "The lamp is coming out by express," said Bobby. 
 "It's a beauty. Will your things be here to-night, 
 too?" 
 
 Nan smiled feebly, Chris gazed at the ceiling, Lou 
 looked at the floor, Betty burst into a howl. 
 
 " There, see what I 've done ! " she cried, tugging at 
 a huge parcel with which her pocket bulged. With a 
 wild shake she scattered its contents far and wide. 
 
 One three ten fifteen^ thirty-two jaw-breakers 1 
 She had bought out the Emporium I 
 
 Strange to say, no one paid the slightest heed to this 
 performance. 
 
 " Oh, girls ! oh, Bobby ! " gasped Nan. 
 
 " ' Oh, fire and coal scuttle, and shovel and tongs and 
 fender and ashes and dust and dirt! Oh, everythuig! 
 Oh, nothing ! Oh, my eye ! ' " spouted Bobby. " Have 
 you been reading Walt Whitman ? " 
 
 " I don't know what possessed me," groaned Nan. " I 
 never went near the china shop. I went straight to the 
 bookstore and bought the beautiful new edition of 
 Browning." 
 
 " And I did n't go to the linen shop, either," chimed in 
 Lou, breathlessly. " I went to all the spring openings 
 at the millinery stores. I had the most beautiful tune I 
 I was simply starving for the sight of a bonnet I 
 always did hate a hat. I bought such a lovely one 
 just the thing for Easter. It 's upstairs. I '11 show it 
 to you." 
 
 " I did n't get the rug," said Chris. " I went around
 
 256 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 hunting for bargains. I found a lovely piece of black 
 silk." 
 
 The silence that followed was the longest in the family 
 annals. 
 
 " It 's just as I Ve always said. Girls are bound to 
 be the ruin of any enterprise they're in," said Bobby, 
 in tones of unmeasured disgust. " Only I did think 
 better of you 1 What struck you all ? " 
 
 "Beggars on horseback. Temporary insanity. Re 
 action is equal to action and in the contrary direction. 
 Repression begets revolt," suggested Nan. " Luckily, 
 we 're all in one boat, and none of us can ever twit the 
 others of this futile end of the winter of our struggles 1 " 
 
 There was a peal at the back-door bell. Only Bobby 
 had strength of mind to answer. 
 
 " It 's the lamp I " he cried, and flinging open the door, 
 shouted, 
 
 " Hi there I Look out how you fetch her 1 " 
 
 It was not the expressman. It was Dick. They 
 knew him at once, despite the years of absence, and as 
 with one impulse, fell upon him. Chris had a hand 
 upon his shoulder, while Nan grasped an arm as though 
 fearful of his vanishing, bodily, from their midst. Bobby 
 was shaking hands with the apparent intention of keep 
 ing on till the end of time ; and Betty, mindful of the 
 presumable neighborhood of the giant, laid hold of her 
 elder brother's coat-tails for protection, while she mur 
 mured weepingly, 
 
 "Don't let him get me! I've bought him some
 
 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 257 
 
 sweet pretty finger-bowls. Oh, no, I have n't I oh, no I 
 so red so sweet so pretty ! But I have n't them 1 " 
 The wail ended in a howl that had the effect of bringing 
 * every one but Betty to some approximate realization of 
 the situation, and simultaneously they let go their hold 
 of Dick. Upon the threshold stood, at last, the dread 
 Visitor. Lou was the only one who retained command 
 of her powers of speech. 
 
 " How do you do, Colonel Bugaboo ? " said she, with 
 awful distinctness. Happily for herself, she was un 
 conscious of her fall from grace, and entered into con 
 versation with the " Visitor," whom she apparently did 
 not find "dread" at all; an upright, military bearing, 
 a handsome face, and pleasant voice made up a list of 
 attractions to which it was easy to see that Lou was not 
 unsusceptible. 
 
 " ' We have done the things we should not have 
 done,' " murmured Nan, hysterically. 
 
 " What is there for supper ? " articulated Chris. 
 
 "Nothing but half a pan of stale gingerbread," an 
 swered Nan, with the calmness of despair. " I forgot to 
 order anything this morning." 
 
 Both girls spoke in tones they fondly imagined to be 
 whispers, but which the deafest colonel of cavalry would 
 have had no difficulty in overhearing. That this par 
 ticular officer heard was evidenced by the twitching of 
 the lip half hidden by a heavy moustache, followed by 
 an irrepressible laugh. They might learn to like Colonel 
 Jerome for all those sterling qualities for which Dick 
 
 17
 
 258 THE CAPTAIN OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 valued his friend; but it was the laugh that won him 
 instant admission to their hearth, their home, most 
 sacred of all, their table! Lou actually rose to the 
 occasion. 
 
 " Do you like gingerbread ? " she asked prettily. 
 
 "Above all things," answered Colonel Jerome, with 
 the appearance of truth. 
 
 " Then you shall help me cut it." 
 
 Bobby and Betty retired to the pantry to peer at Lou 
 and her companion in the chaotic dining-room. 
 
 " Lou always did like soldier boys," said Betty, 
 thoughtfully. Then, as a new idea struck her, she 
 whimpered, "I don't care, I call it mean. I don't be 
 lieve Lou means to wait for me, either 1 " 
 
 " Say not, 'twas all in vain. 
 Love thrown upon the waters comes again, 
 In quenchless yearnings for a nobler life." 
 
 THE END
 
 A NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION 
 With pictures by REGINALD B. BIRCH 
 
 Little Men 
 
 Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys 
 By LOUISA M. ALCOTT 
 
 Author of "LITTLE WOMEN," " EIGHT COUSINS," "AN OLD- 
 FASHIONED GIRL," " SPINNING-WHEEL STORIES," ETC. 
 
 With 15 full-page illustrations by REGINALD B. BIRCH, 
 
 illustrator of " Little Lord Fauntleroy." 
 Crown 8vo. DECORATED CLOTH. $2.00. 
 
 Nothing of its kind could be better than Miss Alcott's " Little Men," 
 unless, possibly, her " Little Women." ... It is the story of boys 
 at school, and how they lived there. The boys will like it, for it will 
 tell them of their own kind. The mothers will like it, for it is full of 
 suggestions on the high art of governing. And everybody should 
 read it, for it is cheery and like cordial from beginning to end. 
 Congregationalist. 
 
 Full of vivacity, life, and sparkle, as well as good sense. Milwaukee 
 Sentinel. 
 
 Miss Alcott is really a benefactor of households. HELEN HUNT 
 JACKSON. 
 
 Bright and sparkling. . . . Never was there such a want of system 
 as at Plumfield, and yet never were such happy results attained in 
 education before. . . . How jolly would this world be if child-life 
 was all a Plumfield experience ! New York Evening Post. 
 Miss Alcott is always welcome, not only to the boys and girls she has 
 taken under her special patronage, but also to their elders. . . . Miss 
 Alcott's stories are thoroughly healthy, full of racy fun and humor, 
 even when she is teaching some extra hard task which must be learned 
 and accomplished. London Athen<tum. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY, Publishers 
 254 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.
 
 An Entertaining Story of School Life 
 
 The Boys and Girls 
 of Brantham 
 
 By EVELYN RAYMOND 
 
 Author of "AMONG THE LINDENS," "A CAPE MAY DIAMOND," 
 " THE LITTLE LADY OF THE HORSE," ETC. 
 
 Illustrated by ETHELDRED B. BARRY 
 
 I2mo. DECORATED CLOTH. $1.50. 
 
 A charming tale for both boys and girls. Chicago Chronicle. 
 It is a jolly little story all through. Book Buyer. 
 
 The incidents are amusing, and the dialogue bright, and there is a 
 healthy, stirring atmosphere about the entire book. New York Com 
 mercial Advertiser. 
 
 A pleasant, cheerful book. Boston Transcript. 
 
 Holds the reader' s interest from first to last. Ne<w York Tribune. 
 
 A good story. Boston Advertiser. 
 
 The breezy atmosphere, which one naturally associates with tales of 
 boarding-school life, its occasional escapades, and inevitable rivalries 
 is not lacking ; and the book is fully equal to the ealier ones by the 
 same writer. Christian Register, Boston. 
 
 A bright, readable story, abounding in incident and fresh in style. 
 Portland Transcript. 
 
 The whole story is brightly and pleasantly told, and withal quite 
 convincingly. It is equally good for boys or girls. Chicago Tribune. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY, Publishers 
 254 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-42m-8,'49(B5573)444
 
 PS Robinson - 
 2719 Captain of the 
 R558o school 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 i irn in in ii mi in f| | | [||| | 
 
 A A 000118269 
 
 PS 
 
 2719 
 
 R558o