As students were allowed to spend their recess quietly on the near-by streets, if they preferred, the girls generally deserted the yard.
The spirit of mischievous mutiny was getting loose among the young men. Nor will anyone who remembers his own school days wonder much at that. In June, when the end of the school year is all but at hand, restraints become trebly irksome.
Dick's own face was glowing. As much as any boy there he wanted a swim, just now, down in Foster's Pond. Oh, how he wanted it!
"See here, fellows," Prescott called to some of the nearest ones. "And you especially, Charley Grady, for you're studying to be a lawyer."
"What has a lawyer to do with the aching desire for a swim?" inquired
Grady.
"Well, post us a bit," begged Dick. "What was it the great Burke had to say about punishing a community?"
"Why," responded Grady thoughtfully, "Burke laid down a theory that has since become a principle in law. It was to the effect that a community cannot be indicted."
"All of us fellows—-all of us might be called a community, don't you think?" queried Dick.
"Why—-er—-aha—-hem!" responded Grady.
"Oh, come, now, drop the extras," ordered Dick. "Time is short. Are we a community, in a sort of legal sense? Just plain yes or no."