“Yes, and it’s a dandy. I wish you could see it. Where do you go, Toby?”
“Me? Next year I’m going to high school here at Johnstown. You can almost see the building. It’s about a mile up from the landing there, near where you see that white steeple. I’d rather go to a boarding school, though. It must be lots of fun. What do you do?”
So for the next half-hour, while the Turnover, slowed down to a four-mile gait, rocked and swayed over the sunlit waters of the bay, Arnold recited the glories of Yardley Hall School and told of football and baseball and hockey battles and of jolly times in hall. Perhaps Arnold drew rather a one-sided picture of life at Yardley, omitting mention of such things as study and discipline and the periodical examinations, but that was only natural, for he was proud of Yardley and wanted to make it as alluring as possible. Toby listened intently, questioning now and then, because many of Arnold’s references were quite unintelligible to him, and, when Arnold had reached the end of his subject, sighed wistfully.
“My, wouldn’t I like that!” he exclaimed. “Are the other fellows nice? I suppose they’re mostly all swells like you, aren’t they?”
“I’m not a ‘swell,’ thank you! There are all sorts of fellows at Yardley, though. I guess the kind you call ‘swells’ are pretty few. Lots of them are just poor fellows——”
“Like me,” interpolated Toby.
“I didn’t mean that!”
“Oh, I don’t mind. I am poor, you know. I mean dad is. We used to have a little money, when the boat yard was more—more flourishing, but nowadays we just sort of scrape along. That’s why I couldn’t go to boarding school. It would cost too much money. I’d like to, though. Say, wouldn’t I just!” Toby’s face lighted. Then he laughed. “I guess it wouldn’t do, though, because I’d have to fight half the school for calling me red-headed!”
“You’d have your hands full then. We’ve got about three hundred fellows.”
Toby shook his head sadly. “I wouldn’t last, then, would I? The only thing I could do would be to dye my hair black. Do you have to study very hard?”