49
and the next day, the story which flew all over the yard, how that joel pepper was “put into coventry” last night, was overtaken and set right.
“huh! there, now you see,” cried van whitney, coming out of his rage. he had cried so that his eyes were all swollen up, and he was a sight to behold. percy, too miserable to say anything, and wishing he could ever cry when he felt badly, had slunk out of sight, to bear the trouble as well as he might. now he came up bright and smiling. “yes, now you see,” he cried triumphantly.
“oh, i hope that mean beggar jenk will be expelled.” there appeared to be but one voice about it.
“well, he won't,” said van.
“won't? why not?” the boys crowded around him on the playground, all games being deserted for this new excitement. “why not, pray tell?”50
“of course he will,” said one boy decidedly. “dr. marks never'll keep him after this.”
“yes he will too,” roared van, glad he could tell the news first, but awfully disappointed that it must be that jenkins was to stay, “for joel got dr. marks to promise there shouldn't anything be done to jenk. so there now!”
“what, not after locking that door! that was the worst.” the boys, two or three of them, took up the cry, “'twas beastly mean.”
“contemptible! just like jenk!” went all over the playground.
“well, he isn't to go,” repeated van with a sigh; “and joel says he was as bad, because he went out at night to fight.”
“why, he had to; jenk dared him. and he couldn't have it out in the dormitory; you know he couldn't, whitney,” said one of the boys in surprise.
“oh dear! i know,” said van helplessly. “well, joel says it's no matter that the racket was stolen out of his room, and—”
“no matter!” ejaculated the boys, a whole crowd of them swarming around him, “well, if that isn't monstrous!”
“oh, joel's afraid that dr. marks will expel51 jenk,” percy, very uncomfortable to have joel blamed, made haste to say. “don't you see?”
“well, he ought to be turned out,” declared one boy decidedly. “never mind, we'll make it so hot for that jenk, he'll want to go.”
“no, you mustn't,” declared percy, now very much alarmed. “oh, no, you mustn't, hobbs; because, if you do, joel won't like it. oh, he'll be so angry! he won't like it a bit, i tell you,” he kept saying.
the idea of joel's not liking it, seemed to take all the fun out of the thing; so hobbs found himself saying, “well, all right, i suppose we've got to put up with the fellow then. but you know yourself, whitney, he's a mean cad.”
there seemed to be but one opinion about that. but the fact remained that jenkins was still to be one of them, to be treated as well as they could manage. and for the next few days, joel had awfully hard work to be go-between for all the crowd, and the boy who had made it hard for him.
“you'll have to help me out, tom,” he said more than once in despair.
“pretty hard lines,” said tom. then the color flew all over his face. “i suppose i really52 ought, for you know, pepper, i told you i wanted at first that you should lose your racket.”
“never mind that now, tom,” said joel brightly, and sticking out his brown hand. “you've been awfully good ever since.”
“had to,” grunted tom, hanging to the hand, “when i saw how mean the beggar was.”
“and but for you i should never have found the racket, at least not in time.” joel shivered, remembering the close call he had had from losing the game.
tom shivered too, but for a different cause. “if i hadn't told him, i'd always have hated myself,” he thought.
“well, joe, i wouldn't after this give away a racket. now you see if you hadn't bestowed your old one on that ragamuffin in town, you wouldn't have been in such a scrape.” tom tried to turn it off lightly.
“oh, that made no difference,” joel made haste to say, “'cause i could have borrowed another. but i'd got used to my new one. besides, grandpapa sent it to me to practise with for this game, and i really couldn't have done so well without it.”
“yes, i know—i know,” said tom remorsefully,53 “and that's what jenk knew, too, the beggar!”
“well, it's all over now,” said joel merrily, “so say no more about it.”
but it wasn't all over with jenkins; and he resolved within himself to pay joel pepper up sometime, after the boys had forgotten a little about this last exploit, if they ever did.
and that afternoon joel staid in, foregoing all the charms of a ball game, to write mamsie a complete account of the affair, making light of the other boys' part in it, and praising up tom beresford to the skies. “and oh, mamsie,” joel wrote over and over, “dave didn't have anything to do with it—truly he didn't. and mr. harrow is just bully,” he wrote,—then scratched it out although it mussed the letter up dreadfully—“he's fine, he is! and oh, i like dr. marks, ever so much, i do”—till mrs. fisher had a tolerably good idea of the whole thing.
“i'm not sorry, adoniram,” she said, after dr. fisher had read the letter at least twice, and then looked over his spectacles at her keenly, “that i agreed with mr. king that it was best that the boys should go away to school.”54
“now any other woman,” exclaimed the little doctor admiringly, “would have whimpered right out, and carried on dreadfully at the least sign of trouble coming to her boy.”
“no, i'm not a bit sorry,” repeated mrs. fisher firmly, “for it's going to be the making of joel, to teach him to take care of himself. and i'd trust him anywhere,” she added proudly.
“so you may; so you may, my dear,” declared the little doctor gaily. “and i guess, if the truth were told, that joel's part in this whole scrape hasn't been such a very bad one after all.”
which came to be the general view when dr. marks' letter arrived, and one from the under-instructor followed, setting things in the right light. and although old mr. king was for going off directly to interview the master, with several separate and distinct complaints and criticisms, he was at last persuaded to give up the trip and let matters work their course under the proper guidance at the school.
“so, polly, my child,” he said on the following day, when the letters were all in, “i believe i'll trust dr. marks, after all, to settle the affair. he seems a very good sort of a man, on the whole, and i really suppose he knows what to do with55 a lot of boys; though goodness me! how he can, passes my comprehension. so i am not going.”
“oh grandpapa!” exclaimed polly, the color flooding her cheek, and she seized his hand in a glad little way.
“yes, i really see no necessity for going,” went on the old gentleman, much as if he were being urged out of his way to set forth; “so i shall stay at home. joel can take care of himself. i'd trust him anywhere,” he brought up, using the same words that mother fisher had employed.
“wouldn't you, grandpapa!” cried polly with sparkling eyes, and clinging to him.
“yes, polly, my child,” said grandpapa emphatically, “because, no matter into what mischief joe may get, he always owns up. goodness me! polly, that boy can't go very far wrong, with such a mother as you've got.”
alexia rhys, running through the wide hall, came upon the two. “oh, beg pardon, and may we girls have polly?” all in the same breath.
“get away with you,” laughed old mr. king, who had his own reasons for liking alexia, “that's the way you always do, trying to get polly pepper away when we are having a good talk.”56
“oh dear!” exclaimed alexia, doing her best to curb her impatience, and pinching her hands together, “we did so want—”
“i can't go now, alexia,” said polly, still clinging to mr. king's hand.
grandpapa sent a keen glance over into alexia's face. “i think you better go, polly,” he said. “you and i will have our talk later.”
“oh goody!” cried alexia, hopping up and down. and “oh grandpapa!” reproachfully from polly.
“yes, polly, it's best for you to go with the girls now,” said old mr. king, gently relinquishing her hands, “so run along with you, child.” and he went into the library.
“come right along,” cried alexia gustily, and pulling polly down the hall.
“there now, you see, you've dragged me away from grandpapa,” cried polly in a vexed way.
“well, he said you were to go,” cried alexia, perfectly delighted at the result. “oh, we're to have such fun! you can't think, polly pepper.”
“of course he did, when you said the girls wanted me,” said polly, half determined, even then, to run back. “i'd much rather have staid with him, alexia.”57
“well, you can't, because he said you were to come; and besides, here are the girls.” and there they were on the back porch, six or eight of them in a group.
“oh polly, polly!” they cried, “are you coming—can you really go?” swarming around her. “and do get your hat on,” said clem forsythe “and hurry up.”
“where are you going?” asked polly.
“the idea! alexia rhys, you are a great one to send after her,” cried sally moore. “not even to tell her where we are going, or what we want her for!”
“well, i got her here, and that is half of the battle,” said alexia, in an injured way; “and my goodness me! polly won't hardly speak to me now; and you may go yourself after her next time, sally moore.”
“there, girls, don't fight,” said clem sweetly. “polly, we are going out to silvia horne's. mrs. horne has just telephoned to see if we'll come out to supper. come, hurry up; we want to catch the next car. she says she'll send somebody home with us.”
“yes, yes, do hurry,” begged the girls, hopping up and down on anxious feet.58
“i must ask mamsie,” said polly. “oh, how perfectly splendid!” running off with a glad remembrance of lessons all ready for the next day. “now how nice it is that mamsie always made me get them the first thing,” she reflected as she sped along.
mamsie said “yes,” for she well knew that mrs. horne was a careful person, and when she promised anything it was always well done. “but brush your hair, polly,” she said, “it looks very untidy flying all over your head.”
so polly rushed off to her own room; alexia, who didn't dare to trust her out of her sight, at her heels, to get in the way, and hinder dreadfully by teasing polly every minute to “hurry—we'll lose the train.”
“where are you going, polly?” asked phronsie, hearing alexia's voice; and laying down her doll, she went into the blue and white room that was polly's very own. “oh, may i go too?” as polly ran to the closet to get out her second-best hat.
“oh dear me!” began alexia.
“no, pet,” said polly, her head in the closet. “oh my goodness! where is that hat?”
“oh dear!” exclaimed alexia, wringing her59 hands, “we'll be late and miss the train. do hurry, polly pepper.”
“i'll find it, polly,” said phronsie, going to the closet and getting down on her knees, to peer around.
“oh, it wouldn't be on the floor, phronsie,” began polly. “oh dear me! where can it be?”
“here it is,” cried alexia, “behind the bed.” and running off, she picked it up, and swung it over to polly.
“goodness me!” said polly with a little laugh, “i remember now, i tossed it on the bed, i thought. well, i'm ready now, thank fortune,” pinning on her hat. “good-bye, pet.”
“i am so very glad it is found, polly,” said phronsie, getting up on tiptoe to pull polly's hat straight and get another kiss.
“come on, polly,” called alexia, flying over the stairs. “yes, yes, girls, she's coming! oh dear me, polly, we'll be late!”
