CHAPTER VIII
AN UNEXPECTED VACATION
The boys bad been told before they retired that there would be nolessons the next day, and the breakfast hour was put one hour later, tothe satisfaction of all but Pee Wee, who was inclined to question thewisdom of the arrangement. To put off a meal on any pretext was to him aviolation of the proper order of things. Still, as it occurred to himlater, there was some satisfaction in the thought that he would have abetter appetite and be able to eat more; and this reconciled him to thesituation.
Of course there was only one topic of conversation among the boys duringand after the meal. The fire had banished everything else from theirminds and conjecture was rife as to what changes if any it would make inthe routine of the school. The incidents of the night were gone overfrom every angle, and the part that Bobby and Fred had played was morediscussed than any other feature.
The boys made an inventory also of their personal losses. In most casesthat was not great. One or two had forgotten watches or scarf pins inthe confusion, but cherished the hope that some of these might be foundin the debris when the ruins had time to cool.
“I hope you didn’t lose your joke book, Billy,” remarked Shiner.
“I hope you did,” put in Fred with a grin.
Billy looked scornfully at his would-be-tormentors.
“I don’t have to depend on any joke book,” he replied loftily. “I getthe best things I spring on you dubs right out of here,” and he touchedhis forehead.
“How can you?” queried Sparrow. “Mr. Leith was telling us the other daythat you couldn’t get anything out of a vacuum because there wasn’tanything in it.”
Billy favored him with a stony stare.
“Just to prove to you that you’re wrong,” he said, “I’ll ask you fellowsa simple question, and I’m willing to bet that none of you can answerit. That’ll show where the vacuums are.”
There was no immediate acceptance of the challenge, and the scorn inBilly’s eyes became more pronounced.
“Just as I thought,” he announced. “Every one of you has rooms to let inhis upper story.”
“Oh, well,” remarked Mouser, stung into acceptance, “we’ve stood so manyof Billy’s jokes that one more won’t count. Go ahead, Billy, and get itoff your chest.”
The invitation was none too cordial, but Billy pounced on it.
“All right,” he said, “here’s the question. What’s the best material forfootwear?”
“You tell him, razor, you’re sharp,” murmured Shiner.
“You tell him, garter, you’ve got the snap,” remarked Howell.
“You tell him, goldfish, you’ve been round the globe,” put in Fred.
Billy glared at the dispensers of these frivolities.
“You fellows are just trying to gain time to think up an answer,” heremarked cuttingly. “Come across now with the answer and prove thatyou’re not the dumb-bells I think you are.”
“Why, leather is the best material for footwear I suppose,” hazardedBobby.
“Wood lasts a long time; lots of people wear nothing but wooden shoes inHolland and other places in Europe,” suggested Skeets.
“How about canvas?” queried Shiner. “I’ve got a pair of tennis shoesthat I’ve had for more than two years, and they’re almost as good asever.”
“All wrong,” pronounced Billy. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
They cudgeled their brains, but the list of possibilities seemed aboutexhausted, and at last they gave it up.
“Well, Billy, let’s have it,” said Fred. “What is the best material forfootwear?”
“Banana peels,” Billy answered promptly.
The boys looked blankly at each other.
“Come again,” urged Mouser, “I don’t get you.”
“Why, you fatheads,” said Billy, “even you ought to know that bananapeels make the best slippers.”
What might have happened to the perpetrator of this outrage will neverbe known, for at that moment a summons came from Dr. Raymond for all theboys to come to the assembly hall of the school.
When they obeyed and had all taken their places, Dr. Raymond, who wasseated on the platform with Mr. Leith and Mr. Carrier, and who lookedworn and haggard after a sleepless night, arose to speak.
“The fire of last night was of course a great misfortune,” he said amongother things, “not especially in a financial sense, for, as you may beglad to know, the building and furniture were fully covered byinsurance. But it is regrettable that so many dormitory rooms weredestroyed, for it makes it necessary for some of the pupils to suspendtheir studies for the month or more that may be necessary before thepart of the school damaged by fire can be rebuilt. It may be necessaryfor them to work a little harder when they return in order to make upfor lost time. With the exception of those who are thus excused, thework of the school will go on as usual. While we all are sorry that thefire occurred, that after all counts for little compared with the factno one was seriously injured. I want before you all to say publicly whatI have already said to them personally, that Blake and Martin by theirquick thinking and brave action have brought credit to themselves andhonor to Rockledge School.”
Following his remarks, he read the list of those who would be given theunexpected and yet most welcome vacation. The boys listenedbreathlessly, each one hoping that he might be among the favored ones,and when the reading finished there were many stifled sighs ofdisappointment on the part of the majority, while the eyes of the electglowed with satisfaction. Bobby and Fred were on the list, as well asMouser and Shiner and Lee, but none of their other close friends wereincluded in the dozen or more to be excused.
The exodus was not to take place for a day or two, because time wasrequired for packing and for proper notification of their parents.Telegrams were already coming in from the latter who had heard or readof the fire, and the teaching staff had plenty of work in sendingreassuring messages in reply. How the fire had started was a mystery.
When finally the boys were dismissed, they gathered in groups,discussing eagerly the program that had been mapped out by the head ofthe school. Some were jubilant, others despondent.
“Scubbity-yow!” cried Fred, executing a jig. “Best news I’ve heard sinceSitting Bull sat down.”
“I love my books, but, oh! you vacation,” chuckled Shiner.
“If you fellows fell in the water, you’d come up with a fish in yourmouth,” remarked Billy enviously.
“Never mind, Billy,” comforted Fred. “You’ll have all the more time tothink up some poor jokes to spring on us when we get back.”
“I don’t know any poor ones,” replied Billy. “All of mine are good, toogood anyway for you boobs to guess, I notice. By the way,” he continued,brightening up visibly, “here’s one of the best I ever thought of. Whyis—”
“Officer, he’s crazy again,” groaned Fred.
“Choke him off, somebody,” urged Mouser.
“But listen,” pleaded Billy.
“Not on your life,” was Shiner’s heartless rejoinder. “Here’s where weget a chance, fellows, to make Billy stew in his own juice. It’ll breakhis heart to have a joke all ready to spring and nobody to listen toit.”
“But you fellows don’t know what you’re missing,” warned Billy. “Whyought a cook—”
“We’ll admit she ought, right off the reel,” interrupted Skeets, “sosuppose we let it go at that.”
But Billy was not to be shaken from his prey, and he held on like grimdeath.
“Why ought a cook to get good wages?” he demanded.
“Because she needs the dough,” replied Mouser promptly. The suddennessof the response nearly took Billy off his feet.
“You must have heard that somewhere,” he said in a crestfallen way.
“Noah sprang that on Mrs. Noah when they were in the Ark,” jibed Mouser.
“I knew you wouldn’t have guessed it of your own accord,” retortedBilly, getting at least that much satisfaction ou
t of his discomfiture.
Shortly after dinner, Bobby and Fred went to call on Lee. They found himin much better condition than they had expected. They had feared thatthe excitement of his experience the night before might have given him aset-back, but on the contrary his eyes were bright, and there was morecolor in his face than had been there at any time since he had beentaken ill.
He was fervent in his thanks to Bobby and Fred for having saved hislife, but they waved these aside and made as light of their own part inthe proceedings as possible.
“It would certainly have been all up with me if it hadn’t been for youfellows,” declared Lee. “I suppose the smoke must have stupefied mebefore you came, because I can just remember staggering about the roomwithout even having sense enough to find the door. It was an awfullyplucky thing for you boys to do, and I owe it to you that I’m not deadthis minute.”
“You certainly look to be far enough from dead now,” laughed Bobby.
“Perhaps the shock and shaking up did me good instead of harm,” rejoinedthe boy from the South. “I certainly feel better than I did at this timeyesterday.”
“All the same, I guess the doctor wouldn’t prescribe it,” said Fred witha grin.
“Probably not,” smiled Lee. “By the way I hear that you two fellows aregoing to have a vacation.”
“Right you are,” chuckled Fred. “And maybe we’re not tickled to deathabout it, eh, Bobby?”
“You bet!” returned Bobby happily. “But you’re on the list too, Lee,although for that matter you’ve been having about all the vacation youwanted for the last two weeks.”
“That was the wrong kind of vacation.”
“Of course you’ll have to spend it here,” conjectured Fred.
“I’m not so sure of that,” replied Lee. “I was speaking to the doctorthis morning and he said he thought I’d be able to make the trip home intwo or three days from now. He thinks the warm southern weather is justwhat I need to bring me around all right again. So I telegraphed to mymother this morning about it and asked her to answer right away.”
He had barely finished speaking when there was a knock at the door, anda messenger entered with a telegram.
“Here it is now!” exclaimed Lee, his face lighting up with expectancy.“If you fellows will excuse me I’ll see what she says.”
He ran his eyes eagerly over the telegram, which was an unusually longone, and before it was finished gave a whoop of delight.
“Sounds as though you had good news,” remarked Bobby, as he saw theflushed face and sparkling eyes of his friend.
“I should say so!” cried Lee, waving the yellow slip above his head.“Listen to this part of it, fellows: ‘I cannot tell you how grateful Iam to the brave boys who saved your life, and I want you to be sure tobring them along with you for a visit, if they would care to come.’ Howabout it fellows? Will you come along with me?”
“If we would care to come!” repeated Bobby. “You bet we’ll come!”
“Will a duck swim?” asked Fred, wild with delight at the vista opened upby the invitation. “That is,” he added a little more soberly, “if thefolks at home will let us go.”
“Of course,” agreed Bobby. “But I haven’t much doubt about that. Theylet us go West on a ranch, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t be just aswilling to have us go down South on a plantation. Come along, Fred, andwe’ll write to them now, so that the letters will get to themto-morrow.”
“Why not telegraph?” asked Fred, who was bubbling over with excitementand impatience.
“It would cost too much,” replied practical Bobby. “We’ll have to writegood long letters to explain everything and get them to let us go.”
“Put it strong,” counseled Lee. “I’ll be terribly disappointed if youcan’t go with me. And I know that my mother will, too. I want to showyou what life is on a real old-fashioned Southern plantation.”
“Don’t you worry,” replied Bobby. “If we can’t go, you can be sure thatit won’t be any fault of ours.”
They put all their powers of persuasion into the letters they wrote, andwere especially urgent that the answers should be sent at once. Thenthey waited with feverish impatience for the replies.
These were not long in coming, for the second day after they wrote theyreceived the answers. They tore the letters open with quaking hearts,for fear that they might prove unfavorable. And their delight was beyondbounds when they found that they might go. There were long letters ofadvice and injunctions to take the best care of themselves. And therewas also in each letter a substantial check to cover all expenses of thetrip. It was made plain to both that the ready agreement to let them gowas largely due to their behavior at the time of the fire, and was inthe nature of a reward.
To save a great deal of unnecessary traveling, it was arranged that theboys should go directly from Rockledge School to New York. It wasthought best that they should go South by boat, instead of rail, and aseparate letter to Dr. Raymond requested that he should telegraph forpassage and stateroom in advance, and make what other arrangements mightbe necessary for the trip.
As may be imagined, the next two days were busy ones for the three boys.But at last all was ready, and with a big send-off from their chums,they took the train for New York. The journey was a pleasant thoughuneventful one, and they reached the city too late to do anything but godirectly to their stateroom on the boat.
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, they took up their positionon the rail and watched the scene of busy life on the pier. There wasgreat noise and animation as the last freight was put into the hold andbelated passengers hurried down to the vessel. But at last order wasbrought out of confusion and the bell rang the signal for “All Ashore.”