The boat was coming in and soon the passengers commenced to come ashore. Josiah Crabtree started to talk to the widow again and had just got her to smile when there came another rattle. He dropped the suit-case like a hot potato and this time the crowd fairly howled. And the cadets, who were watching from behind a pile of boxes, howled too.
Br-r-r-r-r-r-i-ng! went one alarm clock, and a minute later still another joined in. The noise was great and the teacher did not know what to do. In his rage he jumped on the suit-case, smashing the middle flat. But the clocks rattled on more viciously, it would seem, than ever, and now the fifth and last added to the racket. Everybody stopped to enjoy the fun and a large crowd collected.
“What’s the matter?”
“Is it a fire-alarm?”
“Does he want an ambulance?”
“He must be a clock vendor. Anybody want to buy an alarm clock cheap?”
“You shut up, all of you!” roared Josiah Crabtree. “I don’t sell clocks! This is a trick! Oh, those cadets! I’d like to wring their necks! What a disgrace!” And he jumped on the suit-case again. “Will you stop? Oh, what a racket! I shall go mad!” And then picking up the offending baggage he fairly ran on the steamboat and disappeared into the cabin, the last of the clocks still rattling shrilly. The widow hurried in another direction, and the teacher did not dare to go near her during the trip.
“Well, I reckon that send-off was worth the price,” said Pepper, after he and his chums had laughed themselves sore. “What a figure he did cut, trying to stop the clocks!”
“And wasn’t the widow mad!” put in Jack. “She’ll never speak to him again!”
“Crabtree will remember those clocks as long as he lives,” added Andy.