Of course Dick was immediately deeply interested. He also felt a quiver pass over him as of apprehension, though just why this should be he could hardly have explained if asked.
“Go on and tell us, Peg,” he pleaded.
“In the first place I want you to know I didn’t mean to spy on Nat, because I’m not that kind, and besides, it wasn’t any of my business,” Peg started in to say. “I happened to be sitting on that bench in the school grounds that stands behind the big tree, fixing my shoelace that had broken, when Nat came along with his arm through Dit’s, and what did they do but stand close by me, with Nat reading some new stuff he’d just got up, he said, to add to his farce.”
“Oh!” was what Dick said, though his eyes flashed with interest. “Don’t tell me what it was like, Peg, because somehow it might get me started along the same line. Of course though, you can tell what you thought of it, for I’d like to know.”
“I hate to say it the worst way, Dick.”
“Do you mean that it sounded good to you, then?” asked Dick, bravely.
“I never heard anything funnier than the stuff Nat got off,” replied Peg, with a grin he could not repress.
Dick and Leslie exchanged glances, the one full of encouragement, the other rather dubious. When Dit Hennesy said he thought Nat’s farce was going to “bring the house down” it was bad enough; but then he was Nat’s crony, and might be expected to stand up for the other. Now that Peg, a good friend of Dick’s, added his unqualified approval it looked indeed serious.
“It must have been pretty good stuff then,” said Leslie, grimly; “if it made you double up like that, Peg.”
“It was certainly the greatest thing I ever heard,” confessed Peg. “If that is original with Nat then he’s sure got a heap more in that big head of his than anybody in Cliffwood ever dreamed he had. I’m sorry, Dick, it’s running that way, but I thought it my duty to tell you.”