CHAPTER I.
PREPARATIONS.
"Have you heard from Bob? Will he come?"
"Can't tell yet. I had a letter this morning, and he writes that it'sdoubtful. He hasn't given up all hope, though, and says he may get onthe rear platform just as the train pulls out."
"That would be just like him. He never started for chapel till all thefellows were there, or went into class-room until the recitation wasjust ready to begin. He never wasted a minute of his time hanginground."
"He never was late, though, in his life."
"That's all right. I know that as well as you do. I sometimes used towish he would be late, for it made me half provoked to see him.Nothing ever seemed to put him out, and yet he'd always come in justat the last minute, as if he hadn't hurried or he somehow knew theywouldn't begin until he got there. It was just the same with hisstudies. There I'd be burning my midnight oil and putting in my bestwork, and he'd sit down for a few minutes at the table and do in halfan hour what it had taken me three straight hours to work out. I neversaw such a fellow."
"Yes, Bob was a great fellow."
"You don't have to remind me of that. Haven't we roomed together allthrough senior year? I used to think before he took up his bed andcame over to room with me, that if I could only have him with me,somehow I'd catch the way he did his work, but it wasn't contagious."
"He's got, without asking for it, what my father says is the one thinghe sent me to the academy for, and what he's going to send me tocollege to get, though I'm afraid he'll be disappointed."
"What's that?"
"Oh, it's what my father calls the power of concentrating your mind."
"Well, Bob had it for a fact. It didn't seem to make much differenceto him whether there was a room full of fellows about him, or not.When he got ready to work, he just sat down to it, and you might yellin his ears or pull his chair out from under him, and it wouldn't makea bit of difference. He'd sit there on thin air and dig away until hiswork was all done and then look up as if he was as surprised as youplease to see any one in the room. Do you know, I just envied Bob. Idid for a fact. I'd give all my father's money to stand in his shoes."
"Perhaps your father would have something to say about that. But Bobwas a great fellow; no mistake about that. Do you think he'll have togive up going to college with us?"
"I don't know; I hope not. His mother's a widow, you know, and sincehis father died, I think they've had a hard time of it. If it was anyother fellow I'd say right off he couldn't go. But Bob's different,you see. He didn't have any money and couldn't do lots of the thingsthe others did, but he was the most popular fellow in all the school,for all that. So I somehow don't give up hope that he'll go with us inthe fall, after all. Everything seems to turn his way."
"Don't you believe it. It's the other way around, I'm telling you. Hejust turns everything his way."
"Well, I don't care how you put it if he'll only join us in the camp.I say, Jock, how did you happen to hit on this plan? It's great,that's what it is."
"Oh, I didn't hit on it at all, it was my father. You see, he spentthe first vacation he's had in ten years last summer down at theThousand Islands. We all had such a good time that we wanted to goagain this summer; but he couldn't get away, and my mother wouldn't gowithout him, so they finally compromised on me. At first they thoughtthey'd send me down to Alexandria Bay and Round Island to one of thehotels, and for fear that I'd get lonesome they were going to selectsome fine man who was well up in Latin and Greek to go along with me,just for company, you see."
"Yes, I see," laughed his companion. "They were going to get a tutorfor you, were they?"
"Yes, that's what some people call it, I believe. But when Iastonished the family by passing my entrance exams., they didn't knowwhat to do, so at my own suggestion my father hired a camp on PineTree Island, and the result is that you and the other fellows are tobenefit by my brilliant labors. You ought to be grateful; but this isa cold, cold world, and I'm not building my hopes too high. Thetrouble is, I _know_ you."
"Oh, we'll do the dutiful act and put in all the flourishes," said hisfriend, with a laugh. "But say, Jock, is it really true about thefishing and canoeing and all that sort of thing that they tell aboutthere?"
"True? well, I should say it was! You won't need but one look at theriver to make you think you've found the best spot on earth. Fishing,fishing? why, let me tell you."
"No, no! please don't. I can't bear too much, you must remember."
"Fishing?" resumed Jock, unmindful of his friend's banter, "why, onemorning last summer I got up before breakfast--"
"Impossible!" interrupted his friend. "I can stand your fish stories;but that--that is too much for me."
"One morning I got up early, as I was telling you," resumed Jock.
"I believe you did make some remarks upon that subject."
"Keep still! Well, I got up before light--"
"What, what?"
"And went out with my boatman. We caught thirty of the biggest bassyou ever saw--"
"Ever saw or ever expect to see," broke in his friend.
"And we were just going ashore to cook our dinner--"
"But when and where did you have breakfast? You've got ahead of yourstory. Tell me about the breakfast. I haven't recovered from the shockof thinking of you as being up before that was ready."
"And just before we landed, I was beginning to reel in my line. I hadout about a hundred and fifty feet, when all at once--"
"What, what? Oh, don't keep me in this suspense, I can't bear it,"again interrupted his irreverent friend, striking an attitude of eagerattention as he spoke.
"I had a strike that almost yanked my rod out of my hand."
"Ah, yes, I see, your hook had caught on the bottom."
Jock flung a book at the head of his friend and then laughingly said:"Well, you just wait till we get into camp, that's all I can say. Ifyou don't tell bigger stories then than I can now, it will be becauselanguage has failed you."
"I usually fail in language; my marks are apt to be below par. But Imust be going now, Jock. You say the train leaves the Grand Central atnine to-night?"
"Yes. You'd better get your ticket and check your trunk early. There'slikely to be a crowd at this time of the year."
"I'll be there. Got your ticket, Jock?"
"Me? Yes. I've got a pass for Bob and myself, or rather my father gotone for us."
"That's the way in this world," said his friend, with mock solemnity."Here you are the son of a railroad magnate and just rolling in lucre,and you don't have to buy a ticket like common mortals. No, you have apass and all the conductors and porters stand off and look at you asif you were the King of Cr[oe]sus or some other thing, and we poorlittle sons of lawyers have to march up to the ticket-office and plankdown good, hard-earned straight cash for our little pieces ofpasteboards."
"You are to be pitied," replied Jock. "I heard my father say the otherday the reason the railroads couldn't make any money was because thelawyers got in first, and the roads had to take what little theyleft."
"Did he say that?"
"Yes, for a fact."
"This moment I return to my ancestral domicile and demand of my sternparent the portion which falleth to me. He has kept his possession ofsuch vast wealth concealed from his family. I go to make himdisgorge."
"Don't forget the train leaves at nine," warned Jock. "I've got thesleeping-car tickets, or at least I've got a section and a berth.That'll be enough if Bob shouldn't come, and if he does, why, two ofus will have to double up, that's all."
Jock watched his friend as he ran down the stairway, and then turnedback into his own room and continued his preparations for the proposedjourney. Fishing tackle was rearranged, a gun was placed carefully inits case, and many details looked after which only a light-heartedlad, eager for a new experience, knew how to provide.
And certainly Josiah Cope apparently had everything to add to hishappiness. His home was one of wealth, and all that fat
her or mothercould do had been done for him. He was an eager-hearted lad, as fullof good impulses as one could well be, and as he moved busily about inhis room it was not difficult to understand why he was such auniversal favorite among his mates. His face had that expression offrankness and good-will which somehow draws to itself all who beholdit, whether they will or no; and the devotion with which his motherwatched over him was, in a measure, shared by his schoolboy friends,for there was something about him which appealed to their desire toprotect and shield him from ruder blasts which others might enduremore readily.
Not that Jock (for so his friends had shortened the somewhat homelyname which the lad was the fifth in direct descent to bear) was in theleast effeminate, but his slight figure, his dark eyes and somewhatdelicate features, left one with the impression that he was notover-rugged. Whatever others might think, his mother was mostdecidedly of that opinion, and perhaps not without reason; for shehad seen his brothers and sisters enter the home only to remain for afew brief years and then go out forever, and Jock, she frequentlydeclared, was her all. If she meant all she had left, she was correct,and certainly the love he received in his home might easily have beenshared with many, and then no one would have complained of receivingtoo small a portion.
But Jock had somehow survived the perilous treatment and apparentlywas as popular among his mates as he was in his home. And unknown tohim it was the loving fears of his mother that had led to theexperiment of a summer camp among the Thousand Islands in the hopethat the breath of the great river and the outdoor life would bring alittle more color into the cheeks that were too pale for a well-grownlad of seventeen to have.
The decision once made, the next move was to select his companions.This was not a difficult problem, and soon the choicest three of hisfriends in the academy from which Jock had just graduated, and withwhom he hoped to go up to college in the coming autumn, were invitedto join him,--an invitation quickly and eagerly accepted by all saveRobert Darnell, the "Bob" of the preceding conversation, and thereasons which led him to hesitate have already been referred to.
Still all hoped that the sturdy Bob, the quiet self-contained lad, theleader of his class in scholarship, and easily the best bat in school,could come from his home in the country and join them.
Albert, or "Bert," Bliss, who had been having the conversation we havealready reported, was a short sturdy lad, always ready for a goodtime, his curly hair and laughing blue eyes causing one to laughwhenever he saw him, so irresistible was the contagion of hisoverflowing spirits.
The fourth member of the proposed party, Benjamin, or "Ben," Dallett,was in many ways the opposite of Albert, and in school parlance theyhad sometimes been known as the "Siamese twins," or "The Long and theShort of it." Certainly they were much together, and just as certainlywas Ben as much too tall as his friend was too short.
All of the boys save Bob had their abode in New York and had come fromhomes of wealth, but in their presence Bob almost never thought ofhis own deprivations, or only when it was impossible for him to engagein some of the enterprises of his friends, and certain it is that theenvy to which Ben had given expression, if there was such a feelingmanifest among the four friends, was much more of the sterling worthand quiet powers of Bob than of the possessions of the others. At allevents, they had become fast friends, and, bound together by such tiesas can only be found in school and college, would be certain to have agood time if once they should be together in the camp on the selectedisland in the St. Lawrence River.
The evening had come, and the three boys had eagerly been watching inthe great station for the arrival of their friend. As yet he had notappeared, and when the gong sounded its warning, reluctantly theygrasped their various belongings and, holding their tickets in theirteeth, passed through the gate and boarded their train.
"It isn't time yet," said Bert. "He won't come till the train beginsto move."
"I'm afraid he isn't coming at all," replied Jock, as he arranged hisvarious parcels in the section, all the time keeping a careful lookoutfor the appearance of the missing Bob in the doorway of the car.