These sights and sounds did not interrupt the tumultuous flow of the boy’s thoughts, and he was not aroused till the whistles of the mills far across the river told him that the noon hour had arrived. Then he sprang to his feet and hurried from the grove, making great haste to get back to the village.
There was no one in the vicinity of the academy to observe him as he reached it and scudded past, but he found his aunt “sputtering” when he reached home.
“Goodness sakes! where have you been?” she impatiently exclaimed. “The other scholars went past twenty minutes ago, and I had dinner all ready then. Everything will be stone-cold.”
“I—I staid behind,” said Don.
“What for?” she questioned, curiously. “Was it something about your lessons that kept ye?”
And he answered: “Yes.” Having taken the first step by deceiving his father and telling him a falsehood, he was surprised to find how readily this untruth came from his lips.
The doctor ate dinner with them, but his mind seemed to be occupied, so that he talked very little, which was decidedly to Don’s satisfaction.
Leon Bentley was loitering past the house when Don came out, and he called:
“Hello, Scott, old man! Where were you this forenoon? Didn’t see you at school.”
“Shut up, you idiot!” hissed Don, hurrying down the steps and out to the sidewalk. “What do you want to come round shouting like that for?”