“O grandpa, I couldn’t think of being so very impolite,” she exclaimed. “Surely you must know that my absence would spoil all the fun and seriously interfere with any enjoyment others might find in being there if I were with them!”
“But then we ought, any of us, to be willing to forego our own enjoyment for the sake of your improvement in your beloved studies, Rosie dear,” said Herbert in tones of brotherly affection.
“Ah, but I could not think of allowing such self-denial for my sake!” she exclaimed. “I should even prefer rising an hour earlier in the morning, or toiling over my tasks an hour later at night; and that is what I think I shall do, if the captain proves obdurate in regard to the granting of the holidays.”
“Which he will if I’m not greatly mistaken,” said Walter. “He said we were to go on with our studies till the time for our usual summer trip up North, and he’s a man to stick to his word if there ever was one.”
“Quite a strong recommendation, Walter,” laughed Mrs. Dinsmore, “and I really think the captain is deserving of it.”
“The captain is a very agreeable man to have a chat with,” remarked Croly. “I have seldom been more interested than I was yesterday in a little talk I had with him in regard to mining interests in the far West.”
“Yes; he owns property out there in which there are mines of great value,” said Harold.
“Ah? I was not aware of that fact, and he did not mention it,” returned Croly; “but in reply to a remark of mine, that I had been paying some attention to mineralogy and thought of going out to examine some land father owns in Arizona, he gave me a good deal of interesting information, such as I have not been able to find in any publication on the subject that I have got hold of as yet.”
“And should you question him on naval matters, or the history of our wars—or indeed history of any part of the world, I believe he could furnish all the information you might happen to want,” said Herbert.
“Yes,” said Walter, “it’s my decided belief that Brother Levis knows about as much on almost every subject as you could find in any of the cyclopædias.”