"And you are positive you didn't snowball Mr. Haskers on purpose?"
"Positive, sir—and I can prove it by the other boys who were in the crowd."
"Hum!" Doctor Clay was silent for fully a minute. "You can both go to your classes. If I wish to see you further in regard to this—ahem—unfortunate affair I will let you know."
The boys bowed and went out, and quarter of an hour later each was deep in the studies for the day. Occasionally their minds wandered to what had occurred, and they tried to imagine what the outcome would be.
"I don't think the doctor will stand for the whip," was the way Dave expressed himself, and in this surmise he was correct. That very afternoon the master of the Hall called the teacher to his office, and a warm discussion followed. But what was said was never made public. Yet one thing the boys knew—Dave was never called upon to pay for the broken statue—Job Haskers had to settle that bill.
With the ice so fine on the river, much of the boys' off-time was spent in ice-boating and skating. One afternoon there was an ice-boat race between the Snowbird from Oak Hall, a boat from Rockville Military Academy, and two craft owned by young men of Oakdale. This brought out a large crowd, and each person was enthusiastic over his favorite.
"I hope our boat wins!" said Roger, who was on skates, as were Dave and Phil and many others.
"So do I," said Dave. "I don't care who comes in ahead so long as it's an ice-boat belonging to Oak Hall."
"That's pretty good!" cried Sam Day, "seeing that we have but one boat in the race."
"Say, that puts me in mind of a story," came from Shadow. "One time a lot of young fellows in a village organized a fire company. They voted to get uniforms and the question came up as to what color of shirts they should buy. They talked it over, and at last an old fire-fighter in a corner got up. 'Buy any color you please,' said he, 'any color you please, but be sure it's red!'" And the story caused a smile to go around.