Good old Brother Bart felt it was a time for warning and exhortation, which Dud found altogether exasperating.
“Sure it’s on your knees you ought to go morning and evening to thank God for bold, brave Dan Dolan. If it hadn’t been for him, it’s food for the fishes ye’d be now. The Lord was merciful to ye, lad; for I’m misdoubting if ye were fit for heaven. Though it’s not for me to judge, ye have a black look betimes, as if God’s grace wasn’t in yer heart. This ought to be a lesson to ye, a lesson that ye should never forget.”
“I’m not likely to forget it,” was the grim answer. “I couldn’t if I tried.”
“And I’m glad to hear ye say so,” said the simple-minded old Brother. “I’m thinking sometimes ye’re not over friendly with Dan. It was a rough bating he gave ye before we left the college.” (Dud’s black looks grew blacker at the memory.) “But he has more than made it up to ye now, for he has given ye back yer life.”
“And what are you going to give him for it, Dud?” questioned Freddy confidentially, as the good Brother moved away.
“Give who?” growled Dud, who was sick and sore and savage over the whole experience, and, strange to say—but such are the peculiarities of some natures,—felt as if he hated his preserver more than ever.
“Why, Dud!” continued Freddy. “You always give a person something when he saves your life. Dick Walton told me that a man saved him when he was carried out in the surf last summer, and his father gave the man a gold watch.”
“So Dan Dolan wants a gold watch, does he?” said Dud.
“Oh, no!” answered Freddy, quite unconscious of the sneer in the question. “I don’t think Dan wants a gold watch at all. He would not know what to do with one. But if I were you,” continued Dan’s little chum, his eyes kindling with loyal interest, “I’d make it a pocket-book,—a nice leather pocket-book, with a place for stamps and car tickets and money, and I’d just fill it chock full. You see, Dan hasn’t much pocket money. He pulled out his purse the other day at Beach Cliff to get a medal that was in it, and he had only a nickel and two stamps to write to his aunt.”
“So your brave Dan is striking for ready cash, is he?” said Dud, in a tone that even innocent Freddy could not mistake, and that Dan coming up the beach with a net full of kicking lobsters, caught in all its sting.