“Don’t think the captain will let us off,” answered Andy.
“We can sound him anyway,” put in Jack.
The master of Putnam Hall was appealed to, and finally said the big boys could go to the circus if they wished, but all must promise to behave themselves.
“To be sure we’ll behave ourselves,” said Jack.
“But we must have a little fun,” came from Pepper, with a wink at his chums.
“Better keep out of mischief,” put in Andy. “If you don’t, the captain will put the screws on us, and we won’t get anywhere after this.”
The circus soon became the chief topic of conversation, and it was ascertained that twenty-one of the older cadets were going. Dan Baxter “stuck up his nose” at the affair.
“Don’t catch me going to such a one-horse affair,” he said, with a sneer. “When I go to a circus it’s only to the best.”
“We can get along very well without his company,” was Jack’s comment, when he heard what the bully had said.
On the following day Jack and Pepper walked down to the lake shore and then up to a spot where a large tree overhung the water. It was sunny and fairly warm, and the two cadets took a seat in the tree to chat and rest.