“When shall we start for Bridgeport?”
“A week from next Wednesday. New students are received up to the 13th of the month; so we must make our application two days before the school begins.”
“Of course we’ll not go up on the same boat with the Gordons?”
“Why not? Having been there before, they can save us a great deal of trouble by telling us just where to go and what to do.”
“But I don’t like the idea of traveling in their company. They will snub me every chance they get.”
“You need not borrow any trouble on that score. They have good reasons for disliking you, but if you conduct yourself properly, you will have nothing to fear from them. Now, Lester, promise me that, if you are admitted to that school, you will wake up and try to accomplish something. I will do everything I can to aid and encourage you, and I will begin by putting it in your power to hold your own with the richest student there.”
Lester perfectly understood his father’s last words, and he was considerably mollified by them. If there were anything that could reconcile him to becoming a member of the military academy, it was the knowledge of the fact that a liberal supply of spending money was to be placed at his disposal. Lester’s highest ambition was to be looked up to as a leader among his companions. He had failed to accomplish his object so far as the boys about Rochdale were concerned, but he was pretty sure that he would not fail at Bridgeport. He didn’t, either. His money, which Mr. Brigham might better have kept in his own pocket, brought him to the notice of some uneasy fellows at the academy, who joined him in a daring enterprise, the like of which had never been heard of before. It gave the village people something to talk about, and furnished the law-abiding students with any amount of fun and excitement. In fact the whole school term was crowded so full of thrilling incidents, so many things happened to take their minds off their books, that when the examination was held, some of the best scholars narrowly escaped being dropped from their classes.
“I will do anything I can for you,” repeated Mr. Brigham, seating himself in the nearest chair and taking a newspaper from the table. “If you will go through the four years’ course with flying colors, and come out at the head of your class, I shall be highly gratified, and I assure you that you will lose nothing by it.”
Mr. Brigham fastened his eyes upon his paper, and Lester, taking this as a hint that he had nothing more to say just then, picked up his cap and went out. He made his way directly to his own room, and taking his squirrel rifle down from the antlers that supported it—purchased antlers they were, and not trophies of the boy’s own skill—he buckled a cartridge belt about his waist and left the house. He wanted to go off in the woods by himself and think the matter over; but it is hard to tell why he took his rifle with him, for he had no intention of hunting, and he could not have killed anything if he had. Perhaps it was because he had fallen into the habit of carrying a weapon on his shoulder wherever he went, just as Godfrey and Dan did.