CHAPTER XVIII.
There was a sort of council at the breakfast table of the Foster family that morning, and Ford and Annie found themselves "voted down."
"Annie, my dear," said Mrs. Foster, in a gentle but decided way, "I'm sure your aunt Maria, if not your uncle, must feel hurt about your coming away so suddenly. If we invite Joe and Foster to visit us, it will make it all right."
"Yes!" sharply exclaimed Mr. Foster. "We must have them come. They'll behave themselves here. I'll write to their father; you write to Maria."
"They're her own boys, you know," added Mrs Foster, soothingly.
"Well, mother," said Annie, "if it must be. But I'm sure they'll make us all very uncomfortable."
"I can stand 'em for a week or so," said Ford, with the air of a man who can do or bear more than most people. "I'll get Dab Kinzer to help me entertain them."
"Excellent," said Mr. Foster, "and I hope they will be civil to him."
"To Dabney?" asked Annie.
"Fuz and Joe civil to Dab Kinzer?" exclaimed Ford.
"Certainly, I hope so."
"Father," said Ford, "may I say just what I was thinking?"
"Speak it right out."
"Well, I was thinking what a good time Fuz and Joe would be likely to have trying to get ahead of Dab Kinzer."
Annie looked at her brother and nodded, and there was a bit of a twinkle in the eyes of the lawyer himself, but he only remarked:
"Well, you must be neighborly. I don't believe the Hart boys know much about the sea-shore."
"Dab and Frank and I will try and educate them."
Annie thought of the ink and her box of ruined cuffs and collars while her brother was speaking. Could it be that Ford meant a good deal more than he was saying? At all events she fully agreed with him on the Dab Kinzer question. That was one council, and it was of peace or war according as events and the Hart boys themselves should determine.
At the same hour, however, matters of even greater importance were coming to a decision around the well-filled breakfast-table in the Morris mansion. Ham had given a pretty full account of his visit to Grantley, including his dinner at Mrs. Myers', and all he had learned of the academy.
"It seems like spending a great deal of money," began Mrs. Kinzer, when Ham at last paused for breath, but he caught her up at once with, "I know you've been paying out a great deal, Mother Kinzer, but Dab must go if I pay—"
"You pay, indeed, for my boy! I'd like to see myself. Now I've found out what he is, I mean he shall have every advantage, if this Grantley's the right place."
"Mother," exclaimed Samantha, "it's the very place Mr. Foster is to send Ford to, and Frank Harley."
"Exactly," said Ham. "Mr. Hart spoke of a Mr. Foster,—his brother-in-law,—a lawyer."
"Why," said Keziah, "he's living in our old house now! Ford Foster is Dab's greatest crony."
"Yes, I heard about it last night, but I hadn't put the two together," said Ham. "Do you really mean Dab is to go?"
"Of course," said Mrs. Kinzer.
"Well, if that isn't doing it easy. Do you know it's about the nicest thing since I got here?"
"Except the barn afire," said Dabney, unable to keep still any longer. "Mother, may I stand on my head a while?"
"You'll need all the head you've got," said Ham. "You wont have much time to get ready."
"Books enough after he gets there," exclaimed Mrs. Kinzer. "I'll risk Dabney."
"And they'll make him give up all his slang," added Samantha.
"Yes, Sam, when I come back I'll talk nothing but Greek and Latin. I'm getting French now from Ford, and Hindoo from Frank Harley. Then I know English and slang and Long Islandish. Think of one man with seven first-rate languages."
But Dabney found himself unable to sit still, even at the breakfast-table. Not that he got up hungry, for he had done his duty by Miranda's cookery, but the house itself seemed too small to hold him, with all his new prospects swelling so within him. Perhaps, too, the rest of the family felt better able to discuss the important subject before them after Dab had taken himself into the open air.
"It beats dreaming all hollow," said the latter to himself, as he stood, with his hands in his pockets, half-way down toward the gate between the two farms. "Now I'll see what can be done about that other matter."
Two plans in one head, and so young a head as that? Yes, and it spoke very well for Dab's heart, as well as his brains, that plan number two was not a selfish one. The substance of it came out in the first five minutes of the talk he had with Ford and Frank, on the other side of the gate.
"Ford, you know there's twenty dollars left of the money the Frenchman paid us for the blue-fish."
"Well, what of it? Isn't it yours?"
"One share's mine, the rest yours and Dick's."
"He needs it more'n I do."
"Ford, did you know Dick was real bright?"
"'Cute little chap as I ever saw. Why?"
"Well, he ought to go to school."
"Why don't he go?"
"He does, except in summer. He might go to the academy if they'd take him and he had money enough."
"What academy?"
"Why, Grantley, of course. I'm going, and so are you and Frank. Why shouldn't Dick go?"
"You're going? Hurrah for that! Why didn't you say so before?"
"Wasn't sure till this morning. You fellows'll be a long way ahead of me, but I mean to catch up."
For a few minutes poor Dick was lost sight of in a storm of talk, but Dab came back to him with:
"Dick's folks are dreadful poor, but we might raise it. Twenty dollars to begin with—"
"I've ten dollars laid up, and I know mother'll say pass it right in," exclaimed Ford.
It was hardly likely Mrs. Foster would express her assent precisely in that way, but Frank added:
"I think I can promise five."
"I mean to speak to Ham Morris and mother about it," said Dab. "All I wanted was to fix it about the twenty to start on."
"Frank," shouted Ford, "let's go right in and see our crowd."
Ford was evidently excited, and it was hardly five minutes later when he wound up his story with:
"Father, may I contribute my ten dollars to the Richard Lee Education Fund?"
"Of course, but he will need a good deal more than you boys can raise."
"Why, father, the advertisement says half a year for a hundred and fifty. He can board for less than we can. Perhaps Mrs. Myers would let him work out a part of it."
"I can spare as much as Ford can," said Annie.
"Do you leave me out entirely?" asked her mother, with a smile that was even sweeter than usual. As for sharp-eyed lawyer Foster, he had been hemming and coughing in an odd sort of way for a moment, and he had said, "I declare," several times, but he now remarked, somewhat more to the purpose: "I don't believe in giving any man a better education than he will ever know what to do with, but then, this Dick Lee, and you boys,—well, see what you can do, but no one must be allowed to contribute outside of the Foster and Kinzer families and Frank. As for the rest, hem,—ah, I think I'll say there wont be any difficulty."
"You, father?"
"Why not, Annie? Do you s'pose I'm going to be beaten by a mere country boy like Dab Kinzer?"
"Father," said Ford, "if you'd seen how Dick behaved, that night, out there on the ocean, in the 'Swallow!'"
"Just as well, just as well, my son!"
"Hurrah!" shouted Ford, "then it's all right, and Dick Lee'll have a fair shake in the world."
"A what, my son?" exclaimed his mother.
"I didn't mean to talk slang, mother, I only meant,—well, you know how dreadfully black he is, but then he can steer a boat tip-top, and he's splendid for crabs and blue-fish, and Dab says he's a good scholar, too."
"Dab's a very good boy," said Mrs. Foster, "but your friend Dick will need an outfit, I imagine. Clothes and almost everything. I must see Mrs. Kinzer about it."
Meantime Dick Lee's part in the matter had been taken for granted all around. An hour later, however, Mrs. Kinzer's first reply to her son, after a calculation on his part which made it almost seem as if Dick would make money by going to Grantley, was: "What if Mrs. Lee says she can't spare him?"
Dab's countenance fell. He knew Mrs. Lee, but he had not thought so far as that.
"Well, Dabney, if we can make the other arrangements, I'll see her about it."
Ham Morris had been exchanging remarkable winks with Miranda and Samantha, and now gravely suggested: "May be the academy authorities will refuse to take him."
"They had a blacker boy than he is there last year, Ford says."
"Now, Dab," exclaimed Ham.
"Well, I know he's pretty black, but it don't come off."
"Mother," said Samantha, "Mrs. Foster and Annie are coming through the gate."
Dab just waited long enough, after that, to learn the news concerning the "Richard Lee Education Fund," and Mr. Foster's offer, and then he was off toward the shore. He knew very well in which direction to go, for, half-way to the landing, he met Dick coming up the road with a basket of eels on his arm.
"Dick, I'm going to boarding-school, at an academy."
"Cad'my? Whar?"
"Up in New England. They call it Grantley Academy. Where Ford and Frank are going."
"Dat spiles it all," exclaimed Dick, ruefully. "Now I's got to fish wid fellers 'at don't know nuffin."
"No you wont. You're going with us. It's all fixed, money and all."
Dick would never have thought of questioning a statement made by "Captain Kinzer," but the rueful expression deepened on his face, the basket of eels dropped heavily on the grass, the tough, black fingers twisted nervously together for a moment, and then he sat mournfully down beside the basket.
"It aint no use, Dab."
"No use? Why not?"
"I aint a w'ite boy."
"What of it? Don't you learn well enough over at the school?"
"More dar like me. Wot'd I do in a place whar all de res' was w'ite?"
"Well as anybody."
"Wot'll my mudder say, w'en she gits de news? You isn't a jokin', is you, Dab Kinzer?"
"Joking? I guess not."
"You's lit on me powerful sudden, 'bout dis. Yonder's Ford an' Frank a-comin'. Don't tell 'em, not jist yet."
"They know all about it. They helped raise the money."
"Did dey? Well, 'taint no use. All I's good for is eels and crabs and clams and sech. Har dey come. Oh, my!"
But Ford and Frank brought a fresh gust of enthusiasm with them, and they had Dick and his eels up from the grass in short order. "We must see Mrs. Lee right away," said Ford. "It would never do to let Dick tell her."
"I HASN'T SAID HE MIGHT GO."
"Guess dat's so," said Dick.
Quite an embassy they made, those four boys, with Dab Kinzer for spokesman, and Dick half crouching behind him. Mrs. Lee listened with open mouth while Dab unfolded his plan, but when he had finished she shut her lips firmly together. They were not very thin and not at all used to being shut, and in another instant they opened again.
"Sho! De boy! Is dat you, Dick? Dat's wot comes of dressin' on him up. How's he goin' to git clo'es? Wot's he got to do wid de 'cad'my, anyhow? Wot am I to do, yer, all alone, arter he's gone, I'd like to know? Who's goin' to run err'nds an' do de choahs? Wot's de use ob bringin' up a boy 'n' den hab 'im go trapesin' off to de 'cad'my? Wot good 'll it do 'im?"
"I tole yer so, Dab," groaned poor Dick. "It aint no use. I 'most wish I was a eel."
Dab was on the point of opening a whole broadside of eloquence when Ford Foster pinched his arm and whispered: "Your mother's coming, and our Annie's with her."
"Then let's clear out. She's worth a ten-acre lot full of us. Come on, boys."
If Mrs. Lee was surprised by their very sudden retreat, she need not have been after she learned the cause of it. She stood in wholesome awe of Mrs. Kinzer, and a "brush" with the portly widow, re-enforced by the sweet face of Annie Foster, was a pretty serious matter. Still, she did not hesitate about beginning the skirmish, for her tongue was already a bit loosened.
"Wot's dis yer, Mrs. Kinzer, 'bout sendin' away my Dick to a furrin 'cad'my? Isn't he most nigh nuff sp'iled a'ready?"
"Oh, it's all arranged, nicely. Miss Foster and I only came over to see what we could do about getting his clothes ready. He must have things warm and nice, for the winters are cold up there."
"I hasn't said he might go,—Dick, put down dem eels,—an' he hasn't said he'd go,—Dick, take off your hat,—an' his father—"
"Now, Glorianna," interrupted Mrs. Kinzer, calling Dick's mother by her first name, "I've known you these forty years, and do you s'pose I'm going to argue about it? Just tell us what Dick'll need, and don't let's have any nonsense. The money's all provided. How do you know what'll become of him? He may be governor yet—"
"He mought preach."
That idea had suddenly dawned upon the perplexed mind of Mrs. Lee, and Dick's fate was settled. She was prouder than ever of her boy, and, truth to tell, her opposition was only what Mrs. Kinzer had considered it, a piece of unaccountable "nonsense," to be brushed away by such a hand as the widow's.