"I'll write and tell him to come home if he's not going to do anything," said Roy, with his little mouth pursed up determinedly.
"We'll give him a chance, first. He may go out to fight. Captain Smalley didn't say for certain."
"I think Captain Smalley is funky himself about fighting, that's what I think!"
And with this disdainful assertion Roy dismissed the subject.
XIII
OLD PRINCIPLE
It was a soft, mild day in December. Mr. Selby's study seemed close and stifling to the boys as they sat up at the long table with books and slates before them, and a blazing fire behind their backs.
"This sum won't come right, Mr. Selby," groaned Roy; "and I've gone over it three times. It is made up of nothing but eights and nines. I hate nine. I wish it had never been made. Who made up figures, Mr. Selby?"