Dick laughed. "It's the same at all schools, Uncle Richard. If we let the masters into the secret of all our fun, mighty little of it should we get."
"I think they ought to be let into the fun that consists in going on the water. There's danger in that."
"Not a bit of it, Uncle Richard. It was the jolliest splash! The chief trouble was getting the dry things to put on. They had been laid up in the boxes ready to come home with us, and we had to put out no end of stratagem to get at them."
"A jolly splash, was it! Were you one of the immersed ones, Dick?"
"Not I," returned Dick, throwing back his head. "As if we second-desk fellows couldn't manage a boat better than that! Leo was."
"How many of you were drowned, Leo?"
Leo opened his eyes as wide as Dick had previously done. "Drowned, Uncle Richard! Not one. We scrambled out as easy as fun. There's no fear of our getting drowned."
"No fear at all, as it seems to me," returned the doctor. "But there's danger of it, Leo."
Leo made no reply. Perhaps he scarcely defined the distinction of the words. Dr. Davenal remained silent for a minute, lost in thought; then he sat down, and held the two lads in front of him.
"Did either of you ever observe a white house, lying back on a hill, just as you pass the next station to this--Hildon?"