"Well, you must be neighborly. I don"t believe the Hart boys know much about the seash.o.r.e."
"Dab and Frank and I will try and educate them."
Annie thought of the ink, and her box of spoiled cuffs and collars, while her brother was speaking. Could it be that Ford meant a good deal more than he was saying? At all events, she fully agreed with him on the Dab Kinzer question.
That was one "council;" and it was one of peace or war, probably a good deal as the Hart boys themselves might thereafter determine.
At the same hour, however, matters of even greater importance were coming to a decision around the well-filled breakfast-table in the Morris mansion. Ham had given a pretty full account of his visit to Grantley, including his dinner at Mrs. Myers"s, and all he had learned relating to the academy.
"It seems like spending a great deal of money," began Mrs. Kinzer, when Ham at last paused for breath; but lid caught her up at once, with--
"I know you"ve been paying out a good deal, mother Kinzer, but Dab must go, if I pay"--
"You pay, indeed? For my boy? I"d like to see myself! Now I"ve found out what he is, I mean he shall have every advantage. If this Grantley"s the right place"--
"Mother," exclaimed Samantha, "it"s the very place Mr. Foster is going to send Ford to, and Frank Harley."
"Exactly," said Ham; "Mr. Hart spoke of a Mr. Foster,--his brother-in-law,--a lawyer."
"Why," said Keziah, "he"s living in our old house now. Ford Foster is Dab"s greatest crony. They"re the very people you met at the landing."
"Yes, I"ve heard all that," said Ham, "but somehow I hadn"t put the two things together. Now, mother Kinzer, do you really mean Dab is to go?"
"Of course I do," said she.
"Well, if that isn"t doing it easy! Do you know, it"s about the nicest thing I"ve heard since I got here?"
"Except the barn," said Dabney, unable to hold in any longer. "Mother, may I stand on my head a while?"
"You"ll need all the head you"ve got," said Ham. "You won"t have much time to get ready."
"He"ll have books enough after he gets there," said Mrs. Kinzer decidedly. "I"ll risk Dabney."
"And they"ll make him give up all his slang," added Samantha.
"Yes, Sam; when I come back I"ll talk nothing but Greek and Latin. I"m getting French now from Ford, and Hindu from Frank Harley. Then I know English, and slang, and Long-Islandish. Think of one man with seven first-rate languages!"
But Dabney soon found himself unable to sit still, even at the breakfast-table. Not that he got up hungry, for he had done his duty by Miranda"s cookery; but the house itself, big as it was, seemed too small to hold him, with all his new prospects swelling within him. Perhaps, moreover, the rest of the family felt that they would be better able to discuss the important subject before them, after Dab had taken himself out into the open air; for none of them tried to stay his going.
"This beats dreaming, all hollow," he said to himself, as he stood, with his hands in his pockets, half way down to the gate between the two gardens. "Now I"ll see what can be done about that other matter."
Two plans in one head, and so young a head as that?
Yes; and it spoke well for Dab"s heart, as well as his brains, that his plan number two was not a selfish one. The substance of it came out in the first five minutes of the talk he had, a trifle later, with Ford and Frank, on the other side of the gate.
"Ford, you know there"s twenty dollars left of the money the Frenchman paid us for the bluefish."
"Well, what of it? Isn"t it yours?"
"One share of it"s mine. The rest is yours and d.i.c.k"s."
"He needs it more"n I do."
"Ford, did you know d.i.c.k Lee was real bright?"
""Cute little chap as ever I saw. Why?"
"Well, he ought to go to school."
"Why don"t he go?"
"He does, except in summer. He might go to the academy, if they"d take him, and if he had money enough to go with."
"Academy? What academy?"
"Why, Grantley, of course. I"m going, and so are you and Frank. Why shouldn"t d.i.c.k go?"
"You"re going? Hurrah for that! Why didn"t you say so before?"
"Wasn"t sure till this morning. You fellows "ll be a long way ahead of me, though. But I mean to catch up."
For a few minutes poor d.i.c.k was lost sight of in a perfect storm of talk; but Dab came back to him, with,--
"d.i.c.k"s folks are dreadful poor, but we might raise it. Twenty dollars to begin with."
"I"ve ten dollars saved up, and I know mother"ll say "Pa.s.s it right in,"" exclaimed Ford.
It was hardly likely Mrs. Foster would express her a.s.sent in precisely that way; but Frank Harley promptly added,--
"I think I can promise five."
"I mean to speak to Ham Morris and mother about it," said Dab. "All I wanted was to fix it about the twenty dollars to start on."
"Frank," shouted Ford, "let"s go right in, and see our crowd!"
Ford was evidently getting a little excited; and it was hardly five minutes later that he wound up his story, in the house, with,--
"Father, may I contribute my ten dollars to the Richard Lee Education Fund?"
"Of course; but he will need a good deal more money than you boys can raise."
"Why, father, the advertis.e.m.e.nt says half a year for a hundred and fifty. He can board for less than we can. Perhaps Mrs. Myers would let him work out a part of it."
"I can spare as much as Ford can," here put in Annie.
"Do you leave me out entirely?" said her mother, with a smile that was even sweeter than usual.
As for sharp-eyed lawyer Foster himself, he had been hemming and coughing in an odd sort of way for a moment, and he had said, "I declare," several times; but he now remarked, somewhat more to the purpose,--