CHAPTER XVII
THE MATTER SETTLED
Lessons were resumed and no more was said concerning the charge against Jack or any of the boys having the same initials, Sawyer and Sharpe being ready to turn out their desks for the doctor’s satisfaction but not being required to do so.
Jack’s friends did not believe in his guilt, even without his saying that the book was not his and they all regarded the affair as a very clumsy one.
“Whoever it was ought to know that Jack was not in Cæsar,” said Harry. “If he had put in a translation of something Jack was doing at this time there would have been more reason.”
“And nobody sends an anonymous letter who has any spunk,” muttered Billy Manners. “The doctor would have done right to have paid no attention to it but he is a good old fellow and wants to do right by all.”
“I’d like to know what Jack is going to do about it,” thought Dick. “He won’t let it rest. I have an idea who did this for it was just his clumsy way of working that betrays him but I won’t say anything.”
When the forenoon recess arrived, the boys generally went out upon the campus but Jack went straight to the cellar where the negro coachman and general caretaker was at work cleaning up.
“What do you do with the papers and stuff you sweep up of a morning, Bucephalus?” asked Jack.
“Ah gather them in a receptickle fo’ de puppose, sah, and den Ah communicate dem to de fiah, sah,” answered the man.