Lester Wallace and Richard Bradley, however, professed inability to comprehend David’s actions. “In some ways, Dave, you’re almost human,” Lester said to him. “But this choosing to spend your vacation in study—and such a study! Sculpins and jellyfish and other slimy things!”
“You’ll get queer like some of those fishes you’re interested in,” said Richard. “They say that people who make a study of birds always come to look like birds, and it’s much more dangerous to make a study of fishes.”
“He’s getting goggle-eyed already,” asserted Lester.
“Yes, and his chin has begun to fall away, and his mouth sags at the corners,” remarked Richard. “A fish is an awfully sad-looking animal, Dave.”
“I think they’re more interesting than porch lizards and parlor snakes,” said David.
The significance of the remark was such that it provoked a scuffle, at the end of which David was lying prone upon the sand of the beach and Lester and Richard were sitting triumphantly on his back.
CHAPTER XIII
HERO WORSHIP
During his college course David made a number of visits to his old school. He was interested in observing Ralph’s progress and hearing his experiences and in reviving his own memories, but he enjoyed the visits most for the opportunity they gave him to be again with Ruth Davenport. He learned from Ralph that several of the unmarried masters were attentive to her, and the information roused his jealousy and resentment. Her dealings with two or three of those creatures in his presence as she gave them tea filled him with gloom; he feared she had learned to flirt. But afterwards, when she treated him with a special consideration and interest, he knew that she really was not a flirt at all, but just what she had always been, a kind, sweet-tempered, honest girl. It did not excite his jealousy to have her ask him about Lester, not even when she said that she thought Lester was the most attractive person who had ever passed through the school. David knew that she had always thought that, and, as it was true and Lester was his friend, it was right that she should think it.
“Why doesn’t he come up to see us oftener, David?” she asked. “He’s too busy with his new friends, I suppose.”