“Now, go down to supper, and do your best, my boy, more for your own sake than for ours.” Then Mr. Bhaer shook hands with him, and Dan went down more tamed by kindness than he would have been by the good whipping which Asia had strongly recommended.
Dan did try for a day or two, but not being used to it, he soon tired and relapsed into his old wilful ways. Mr. Bhaer was called from home on business one day, and the boys had no lessons. They liked this, and played hard till bedtime, when most of them turned in and slept like dormice. Dan, however, had a plan in his head, and when he and Nat were alone, he unfolded it.
“Look here!” he said, taking from under his bed a bottle, a cigar, and a pack of cards, “I’m going to have some fun, and do as I used to with the fellows in town. Here’s some beer, I got it of the old man at the station, and this cigar; you can pay for ’em, or Tommy will, he’s got heaps of money, and I haven’t a cent. I’m going to ask him in; no, you go, they won’t mind you.”
“The folks won’t like it,” began Nat.
“They won’t know. Daddy Bhaer is away, and Mrs. Bhaer’s busy with Ted; he’s got croup or something, and she can’t leave him. We shan’t sit up late or make any noise, so where’s the harm?”
“Asia will know if we burn the lamp long, she always does.”
“No, she won’t, I’ve got the dark lantern on purpose; it don’t give much light, and we can shut it quick if we hear any one coming,” said Dan.
This idea struck Nat as a fine one, and lent an air of romance to the thing. He started off to tell Tommy, but put his head in again to say,—
“You want Demi, too, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t; the Deacon will roll up eyes and preach if you tell him. He will be asleep, so just tip the wink to Tom and cut back again.”