“Thank you, Paul,” he said, slowly. “I’d like to go first-rate; but I’ve made up my mind to keep clear of all the high school young people until this mystery is solved, and I can look them in the face without a blush. Understand, I have the utmost faith in my father; and I know he must be innocent of the charge brought against him; but so far old Jed has not sent any cheering word; and I must wait.”
“But I say again, that’s no reason for you to keep on hurting your health,” Paul insisted. “Even your Aunt Mary is getting anxious about you; and Harry, she’s been so good to you, don’t you think it is a little cruel to add to her burden in any way?”
Harry sighed again, and looked undecided.
“Yes, Aunt Mary is as good as gold,” he observed. “And I certainly wouldn’t want to cause her any unnecessary pain; but Paul, somehow I haven’t the heart to do the things I used to. I feel a terrible weight in here,”—putting his hand on his chest as he spoke—“that hurts. In my present condition I’d only be a drawback to any crowd of merry boys and girls; and so I stay away.”
Perhaps Paul could understand more than Harry gave him credit for. Perhaps he guessed that it was partly the coolness of one particular girl that helped give his chum this heavy feeling in the region of his heart. For he knew how much Harry had come to care for Viola; and it was difficult for him to understand just why she should take up again with Elmer Craven, whom she had once cut dead.
“All right,” he said cheerily; “for once, then, you’ve just got to put that idea out of your head, and come along with me, Harry. Your aunt says you must, and insists that I carry you off to get a few hours of bracing air. And yet, if you’d rather stay here in your den to being in my company, why——”
“Oh! you know better than that, Paul!” cried the other lad eagerly, as he looked into the face of his friend. “I’ve enjoyed many happy hours in your company; and if it wasn’t for this unfortunate business——”
“That’s enough, Harry,” and Paul in turn broke in on what the forlorn boy was trying to say in a trembling voice; “you’ve just got to come along now, or else all my plans for the morning will be broken up. I’d arranged for the two of us, no others, mind, to take my new iceboat, Lightning, and have a great spin far up the river. The ice couldn’t be beat; and I’m determined that it’s just got to be you with me, or no one. That’s flat. Now, what do you say?”
Harry smiled with pleasure. It was almost worth suffering all that he had endured in these last few unhappy days, just to learn what a true friend meant.
“Well, you put it up to me in a way that knocks out all my argument,” he said.