"Got to. School's broken up," he said. "But I'm going to Waterside—Andy and I—if we can persuade dad to send us. So I—I'll see you again."
"Oh," said she, and she smiled, and seemed pleased.
When Frank got back to school he found a crowd of joyous and yelling students out on the campus. A big fire had been built, and the crowd was marching about it singing.
"Humph! They don't seem to be taking it very seriously," he mused. "I thought they'd feel rather broken up about the old school closing." There was a mist of tears in his own eyes, for, though he had not been there long, he had formed a liking for the place, and for Dr. Doolittle.
"Hey, what's up, Andy?" he called a moment later to his brother. "Are they celebrating the football victory? Have you got our traps packed up?"
"No, to both questions!" fairly roared Andy. "We're not celebrating the football victory, because we're celebrating something else, and I haven't got our things packed up because we're not going home."
"Why not—isn't Riverview Hall closed?"
"Not much. Say, it's great news. Mr. Lairman, that millionaire who once refused to invest in Riverview, changed his mind after he saw how we could play football to-day. He was in the grandstand. That was he yelling so after you made that dandy run. He saw we had a good team, he saw how we'd fixed up the gridiron and the boathouse, and he's going to make a new school of this. He's bought a half interest and he's paid Dr. Doolittle about a million in cash, I guess. Wow! But it's great news! There's going to be practically a new school at Riverview—a gym, a football field that's going to beat the old one all to pieces, a new diamond, lots of shells, a new boathouse, new buildings—say—pinch me so I'll know I'm not asleep."
"Is this true?" asked Frank of several of his chums.
"Sure thing!" Jack assured him. "That millionaire was an old graduate and he's made good. Now he's going to make a new school of this. He just told us in a little speech. He's all right. Dr. Doolittle's troubles are over and I guess he's glad of it. Now he can translate Chinese, Assyrian and Chocktaw until the cows come home, and he won't have to worry."