Square and Compasses; Or, Building the House

by Oliver Optic

The feeling which had grown up between the Beech Hill and the Chesterfield students was not hatred, enmity, or even ill will. When they first met near Sandy Beach neither party could have had anything against the other. No traditional hatred had been handed down, for both institutions were new.

The Chesterfield Collegiate Institute was established only a year before, and was intended to be a very high-toned establishment, judged by the society standard. The boys were generally the sons of rich men or merchants, with a standing in the world; and Colonel Buckmill catered for this class. Everything about the school was genteel, and the boys had been taught to "feel their oats."

In accordance with their education they naturally looked down upon farmers, mechanics, and small shopkeepers. They were gentlemen, and the sons of gentlemen, the principal said, and he treated them as such. Out of this feeling on the part of the students had come the bad conduct of the Chesterfields at their first meeting with the Beech Hillers. They expected, and probably received from the country people in their immediate vicinity, a certain degree of deference, for the institute was a good customer to all who had anything to sell.

Doubtless the possession of the new boats had excited them to a degree which made them somewhat reckless when they were away from the influences that surrounded them at the school. But even in the offensive epithets they had applied to the students from the other side of the lake, they meant no evil. When they were treated with the contempt of silence they felt like great men who had been neglected, and they wanted to make themselves felt.

But they had been beaten with their own weapons, and the desire to humiliate their school-neighbors was increased. They wanted to get the Beech Hillers into some sort of a scrape, to annoy them all they could, and though the Topovers were not at all after their style, they were glad to make friends with them for the time, in order to accomplish their purpose.

It looked as though the Chesterfields had come across the lake for the purpose of doing mischief to their conquerors in the two former contests. They could hardly have come to give the Topovers a pleasure excursion in their elegant barges, and their presence in the boats made it appear that they meant mischief.

It must be acknowledged that the Beech Hill students generally enjoyed these meetings with the enemy, as they regarded the Chesterfields, for the contests with them were full of excitement and fun. But on the present occasion they were too full of building, too much interested in the enterprise of moving the timber from Burlington to the quarry, to care for a battle with the young gentlemen from the other side.

Most of the students wished that Dory Dornwood were in command of the steamer, for he had twice proved that he was more than a match in skill for the Chesterfields. As it was, Captain Thad Glovering was the autocrat of the occasion. All hands must obey his orders, even if they led to the most disastrous failure. Mr. Jepson was the only adult on board; and in his present capacity of chief engineer of the steamer, he was as much under the orders of the captain as any of the boys. He simply minded his own business, and did his best to instruct his two assistants in the structure and management of the engine, hoping the time would soon come when he could be relieved from his somewhat disagreeable position.

Captain Glovering saw that the Chesterfields were making for the caisson with all the speed of their boats. They would not attempt to meddle with the steamer, but they could put the Topovers on the caisson, and the first thing they would do would be to cast off the hawsers. They were cutting across the shoal water, and would come out in time to intercept the tow.