“I don’t believe he will, if I am not ready to leave her. Don’t my uncle Perry say I have the right to name my own guardian? if the judge don’t do the right thing, I will not consent to name him as my guardian. But when I tell him I prefer to stay in the Tritonia, if he is a reasonable man, as I think he is, he will not object.”
“But you are not doing the right thing yourself, my boy,” protested O’Hara. “What kind of a way was it to put a telegraphic despatch in your pocket, and not open it? And what kind of a way was it to lave your letter unopened till it was too late to do what you were told by your guardian? Don’t your uncle Perry tell you to come home as soon as ever you can?”
“He has resigned as my guardian; and the other one has not been properly appointed,” said Tom, laughing at his own ingenuity in devising an excuse.
“How do you know what’s in the letter to Mr. Lowington?” demanded the lieutenant.
“I have no doubt it contains an order for my discharge from the academy squadron,” replied Tom. “I would deliver it, if the principal were only here; for I have no right to keep his letters back, whatever I do with my own.”
“I think you had better give the letter to the vice-principal.”
“I am willing to do that.”
“I am afraid the powers that be will blame you for not opening the letter before we sailed,” continued O’Hara.
“I am willing to bear the blame for what I have done,” replied Tom; and, seeing the vice-principal coming up from the cabin, he delivered the letter to him as he reached the deck.
“Where did you get this?” asked Mr. Pelham, surprised to see a sealed letter to the principal so soon after leaving port.