CHAPTER IX
OFF FOR ROCKLEDGE
Trade at the peep-show was brisk until mid-afternoon. Bobby and Fredhad been able to get only a bite of luncheon from the store "in theirfists," and had compared notes but seldom.
Bobby's trouser-pockets were borne down with the weight of pennies. Inrefusing to make change it soon became very hard along Hurley Street toobtain pennies at all. All the copper money in the town was fast comingthe way of the proprietors of the peep-show.
Neither Bobby nor Fred realized this fact--nor what it meant tothem--until after the First National and the Old Farmers' Banks hadclosed their doors for the day. The storekeepers then began runningaround to borrow copper money, and it was some time before anybody knewwhat made the scarcity of pennies in the storekeepers' tills!
Meanwhile the financial adventure of Bobby Blake and Fred Martin wasprospering.
Bobby suddenly saw the long-armed, white-headed Applethwaite Plunkitstanding in the crowd eying him while he delivered his talk. The crowdbefore the rostrum laughed as usual, and those who had been in to seethe show urged their friends to venture likewise.
The white-headed farm boy from Plunkit's Creek was pushing forward toenter the show. Bobby had hoped he would not venture, but when Apapproached, Bobby made up his mind quickly.
"You can't go in, Applethwaite," he said, decidedly. "We don't wantyou."
"Why not!"
"Never mind why not," said Bobby, firmly, looking straight into theflushed face of the boy who had treated him and Fred so meanly just aweek before. "But you can't go in."
"Ain't my cent just as good as anybody else's?"
"Not here it isn't," declared Bobby, who knew very well that if thewhite head appeared in the tent where the red head was, there would bean explosion! Besides, he did not trust Ap. He believed Ap would doall he could to break up the show after he had seen it.
Ap began to bluster and threaten, but there were too many grown folkaround for him to dare attack Bobby. "You jes' wait," he whispered."I'll fix you some time."
Bobby did not know what Applethwaite might try to do, and when he sawhim a little later with a group of boys who were pretty rough looking,he was worried. These boys stood across the street from the show andBobby was afraid they were waiting for some slack time, when there wereno grown folk about, to "rush" the tent.
He called Fred out and told him what he feared and Fred went through andtold the biggest clerk in his father's store. The clerks wereinterested in the two young showmen, for they had been into the tent andwere delighted with what they had seen.
The big fellow promised, therefore, to come running and bring the otherclerks to help, if the boys whistled for assistance. This plan quietedBobby's fears, and he gave his mind to the lecture, and to coaxing theaudience into the show, one by one.
Suddenly the young lecturer saw Mr. Priestly in the crowd. He flushedup pretty red when he saw him, for Mr. Priestly was the minister at thechurch the boys attended, and Bobby thought he was about the finest manin town.
The clergyman was a young man who had made a name for himself inUniversity athletics, and he had the biggest Boys' Club in town. Bobbyand Fred were particular friends of the young minister, and for a momentBobby wondered if Mr. Priestly would approve of the peep-show.
The gentleman's ruddy, smoothly shaven face was a-smile as he listenedto Bobby's speech, and his blue eyes twinkled. He was the first toreach the tent entrance when Bobby stepped down from the platform.
"Which wonder am _I_ to see, Bobby?" he asked, as he presented his pennyto the youthful showman.
"We--we favor the clergy, Mr. Priestly," said Bobby, hesitatingly, yetwith an answering smile. "_You_ shall see two wonders." Then he calledin to his partner: "Hey, Fred!"
"Hullo!" returned the red-haired one, coming to the entrance.
"Here's Mr. Priestly," said Bobby, in a low voice. "I want you to show_him_ the strongest man in the world, and the very best man in Clinton!"
"Oh-ho!" cried Mr. Priestly. "_That's_ the way of it, eh?" and hepinched Bobby's cheek as he went into the tent. "I believe I can guessyour joke, boys."
"Never mind! nobody else has guessed it," chuckled Fred, going beforehim. "Stand right there, Mr. Priestly."
The oil lamp was in a bracket screwed to a post in the back of the tent.Just where its light shone best was a narrow red curtain. Fred becamepreternaturally solemn as he stepped forward and laid his hand upon thecords that manipulated the curtain.
"We will show you, Mr. Priestly," he said, "the Strongest Man in theWorld--and as Bobby says, the very _best_ man in Clinton!"
He pulled aside the curtain and Mr. Priestly saw his own reflection in along mirror that had been borrowed from the Martin attic.
"Well, well!" exclaimed the minister, nodding. "And is this all yourshow?"
"Anybody who is not satisfied with what he _sees_," returned Fred,chuckling, "can have the entrance fee refunded."
At that the clergyman burst into a great laugh. "You boys! you boys!You certainly have them _there_. One must be dissatisfied with himselfto ask for the return of his penny. I--I am not altogether sure thatthis doesn't smack of a swindle; but it certainly _is_ smart. Youshould show your own face in the glass, Fred, when the younger victimscome in to see the Smartest Boy in the World."
"No, sir," grinned Fred. "Every fellow that comes in is bettersatisfied to see his own reflection, I reckon."
The clergyman went out, laughing. That the joke had kept up all day wasthe wonder of it. The audience became smaller as supper time drew near.
Then came Mr. Harrod, who kept the variety and ice cream store down thestreet. "Say," he said to Bobby. "You boys must have cornered all thepennies in town. I've got to have some. I'll give you a dollar bill forninety cents, Bobby Blake."
"All right, sir," cried Bobby. "Is a dollar's worth all you want? I'llsend them down to your store in a few moments."
"Send two dollars' worth," returned Mr. Harrod, hurrying away.
"Hi, Betty Martin!" shouted Bobby to Fred's "next oldest sister," whowas on the fringe of the crowd. "Come here and count pennies--do,please!"
"Hi Betty Martin" stuck out her tongue promptly and did not stir. "Callme by my proper name, Mister Smartie!" she said, sharply.
"Oh, me, oh, my! I beg your pardon," laughed Bobby. "Miss ElizabethMartin, will you please count some of these pennies and roll them intopapers--right there on the box, please?"
"All right," said Betty, who did not like to be called after any MotherGoose character.
She was a bright girl and she counted the pennies correctly into pilesof thirty, rolled them up that way, carried six of the rolls down to thevariety store, and brought back a two dollar bill.
Then Mr. Martin needed copper money, and Betty counted a dollars' worthout for him--at the rate of exchange established by Mr. Harrod.
"Wow, Bobby!" murmured Fred, at the door of the tent. "We get themcoming and going, don't we? Ten cents on the dollar, too! We'regetting rich."
But the peep-show had had its run. Not many could be coaxed in aftersupper, and the boys were tired, too. They had not eaten a proper mealall day, and Mr. Martin advised them to shut up shop.
They took down the signs, put out the lamp, and went into the back roomof the grocery to count the receipts. The amount was far beyond theirexpectations, and naturally Bobby and Fred were delighted.
"It takes you to think up the bright ideas, chum," said Fred,admiringly.
But Bobby looked thoughtful. "I wonder if Mr. Priestly thought it wasjust right?" he murmured. "I suppose we _did_ fool them all," and hesighed.
"Shucks!" exclaimed Fred. "They didn't have to be fooled if they didn'twant to. And even Prissy Craven didn't come back for her penny, didshe?"
Only a few days more before they would start for Rockledge School. Thechums bought the bats and mask and other things they craved. They packedtheir tru
nks two or three times over. They carried the books they likedbest, and many treasures for which their troubled mothers could see noreason whatsoever.
"Now, this can of pins and nails, Bobby," urged Mrs. Blake, helplessly."What _possible_ good can they be? I do not see how I am to get yourclothing into the trunk."
"Aw--Mother!" gasped Bobby. "Don't throw them away. A fellow never cantell when he'll want a pin--or a nail--or a button--or something. Nevermind putting in so many stockings. Leave the can--do, Mother!"
All the Clinton boys who had been the chums' particular associates atschool were greatly interested in what they termed Bobby's and Fred's"luck." They all had to be told, over and over again, of the expectedwonders of Rockledge School.
"And I bet you and Fred turn things upside down there," said "Scat"Monroe, with an envious sigh.
"I bet we don't!" responded Bobby, quickly. "Dr. Raymond is awfullystrict, they say. We'll have to walk a chalk line."
"Well, if Fred Martin ever walks a chalk-line," scoffed another of thefellows, "it'll be a mighty crooked one!"
However, the night before the boys were to start for Rockledge, the goodnatured groceryman gave his son a long talk, and Fred went to bedfeeling pretty solemn. For the first time, he began to realize that hewas not going away to boarding school merely for the fun there was to begot out of it!
"You haven't made much of a mark for yourself in the Clinton PublicSchool, Frederick," said Mr. Martin, sternly; "but I do not believe thatis because you are either a dunce, or stubborn. You have beenfrittering away your opportunities.
"I am tired of seeing your name at the foot of your class roster--ornear it. Inattention is your failing. You are going where they makeboys attend. And if you do not work, and keep up with your mates, youwill be sent home. Do you understand that?
"And if you are sent home, you shall be sent to another school whereyou'll have very little fun at all for the rest of your life. I meanthe School of Hard Experience!
"You shall be set to work in my store half of each day, like a poorman's son, and go to the public school the other half day, and your namewill be on the truant officer's list."
"And I guess he meant it," said Fred to Bobby the next morning. "Fatherdoesn't often scold, but he was mad at me for being so low in my classeslast term."
The boys started for the railroad station with Mr. Blake, gayly enough,however. When Bobby had parted from his mother, he had to swallow a biglump in his throat, and he hugged her around the neck _hard_ for aminute. But he had forced back the tears by the time they got to theMartins' house.
There the other children were all out on the front porch to bid theirbrother and Bobby good-by. "Hi Betty Martin" threw an old shoe afterthem.
"For luck," she said. "That's what they do when folks get married."
"But Bobby and I aren't getting married," complained Fred, rubbing hisright ear where the shoe had landed. "And, anyway, no girl's got aright to shut her eyes tight and throw an old boot like _that_. How'dyou know you wouldn't do some damage?"
"That's the luck of it," chuckled Bobby. "It's lucky she didn't hurtyou worse."