Being quite an athlete, Nat always took a leading part in the varied exercises of the gymnasium. He could do many feats that caused some of the other less muscular and agile boys to envy him very much.
Mr. Holwell, who read boys so well, understood that it was only a slender hold the association had on such a wild fellow as Nat. He hoped, however, that by degrees the influences of the new life might serve to tone the other down, and cause him to change his ways.
After some of the boys had tired themselves out in their exercises with the parallel bars, the swinging hoops, the lifting weights, and many other devices calculated to make them stronger in every way, they clustered around Nat, who was holding forth on the subject of his farce.
“Wait till you hear it,” he was telling them in his exultant and superior way. “Chances are you’ll double up like a hinge with every page that’s read. Am I right, Dit?” and as he said this last he turned on his “shadow,” Dit Hennesy, who, as always, was hovering close by Nat.
“Say, it’s sure a screamer,” asserted the other, vigorously. “Talk to me about funny business, Nat’s got every minstrel show beat to a frazzle. He read some of the stuff to me last night, and I’m giving you the straight thing when I tell you my mother says she heard me laughing in my sleep ever so many times.”
Nat grinned happily as he looked around. Then his eye fell on Dick, who he very well knew was also writing a farce so as to enter the competition for the golden prize.
“I reckon that makes you feel some sore, eh, Dick?” he sneered, as though delighted at the opportunity to pay back some of the long score he thought he owed the other. “Course you’re doing your level best; but shucks! you’re only wasting your time let me tell you. There never was, and there never will be as funny a farce as I’m goin’ to spring on the committee. Huh! even makes me laugh myself when I get off a rattlin’ good joke, and hurry to write it down before I forget it.”
To tell the truth, Dick did feel as though he hardly had the ghost of a chance in the competition, after hearing all this boasting. Not for worlds, however, would he let that fellow see him look downcast. So he laughed good-naturedly as he went on to say in reply:
“Oh! well, I’m doing my level best, and that’s all any fellow can do. If the committee turns down my effort, all right. I’ll take my medicine without whimpering. I believe the best original farce ought to win, and that’s all there is to it.”
Nat looked keenly at him as though he wondered whether Dick could have any hidden meaning back of his words.