"Because this five dollars will fool Mr. Fits in another way. I can go to-morrow and get mother another fan like the first one."
Mr. Prescott"s eyes flashed proudly for a moment as he answered, a bit huskily.
"You could do that, of course, young man, but your mother would never forgive you for cheating yourself out of the one pleasure you want most."
"Sometimes," spoke d.i.c.k gravely, "there"s more fun in doing without a pleasure, when you can find another that is worth more to you."
The tears stood in Mrs. Prescott"s eyes. She rose and dropped both arms around her boy.
"If we absolutely needed your money, d.i.c.k," she said, "I know how cheerfully you would do without your pleasure for our sakes. But this is a case where your going camping will be worth more to us all than anything else that five dollars would buy. Besides, think how disappointed your friends would be over not having their leader."
"I appreciate your mother"s feelings so much, lad," went on Mr.
Prescott, "that I forbid you to spend your remaining money on anything for your mother. She has had her greatest happiness in knowing that you spent half of the first considerable sum of money you ever had in buying something for her. That is as far as you can go. Illness alone preventing, d.i.c.k, you"ll go camping, and you"ll pay your full share into the camping fund. Besides, I"m glad to say that the indications are that a much better business year is coming, and that probably we"ll soon be able to have all the things within reason that we may want."
So Christmas, if it ran rather shy on presents in the Prescott household, was at least a season of extremely good feeling among three people whose sympathies ran staunchly together.
"The fellows will be waiting to see me," laughed d.i.c.k after breakfast.
"So, if I haven"t anything to show "em, at least I"ve got something to tell them that will make their hair stand up. And I wonder if Mr. Fits visited any of their homes last night?"
Laughing, though doubtless he felt quite unlike it, d.i.c.k Prescott put on coat and hat and went out into the Gridley streets.
CHAPTER V
d.i.c.k TRIES STRATEGY
"Hey! Hear about d.i.c.k Prescott?"
"What?"
"His Christmas got "pinched"!"
"No!"
"Sure."
Rapidly indeed did the news travel about. d.i.c.k told it to his own chums first. The news "leaked" and traveled up and down the streets as Gridley boys began to come forth to compare their Christmas experiences.
Just as certainly, too, the news didn"t lose any on its rounds. By the time that the yarn had been carried to the further end of Main Street, d.i.c.k"s holiday losses had mounted up to a total of: A gold watch and chain, a diamond stickpin, a twenty dollar gold piece, a suit of clothes, silver plated racing skates, a camera, a cornet and a host of lesser articles.
"Whee! The Prescotts must have been making money this year," commented Ben Alvord, when he heard the long list of presents named.
"Say," proposed Dave Darrin indignantly, "we"ll hike all over Gridley and just see if we can"t run into Mr. Fits somewhere. If we find him we"ll jump him all together, and then holler for the police."
Quite a bit of searching the six members of d.i.c.k & Co. did that morning, though all without the least success. It presently dawned on these Grammar School boys that Mr. Fits must have left Gridley far behind.
"We"ll keep our mind on the camping, anyway," proposed d.i.c.k. "We want to start to-morrow morning. We ought to meet at eight o"clock, and then get away together as soon after as we can."
"And hoof it twelve miles?" asked Hazelton.
"No; as we"ll have so much stuff to carry, we"ll have to pay someone to drive the stuff out there for us. If we have a wagon we may as well ride on it."
"I hope you fellows will all have a good time," suggested Dan Dalzell generously, though his own face still wore a doleful look. For his father and mother had held out against his going. All of the other boys had secured permission.
"It"s a shame you can"t go, Dan," blazed Dave.
"That"s what I think," muttered Dan. "Huh! I"ve a good mind to run away from home."
"You"d get spanked when you went back," laughed Tom Reade.
"Huh! I ought to run away and never come back," growled Dan.
"Oh, cut that out--do!" urged d.i.c.k. "Be a fellow of good sense, Danny.
Your father and mother have their own reasons for not wanting you to go."
"Their reasons don"t do me any good," uttered Dan resentfully.
"Would it do any good if we all went down to your house and tried coaxing for you?" asked Greg Holmes.
"Not a bit," declared Danny gloomily.
"Say, will you fellows wait here a little while?" begged d.i.c.k. "I want to run home a minute. I"ll be right back."
"Go ahead," nodded Dave.
d.i.c.k started on a trot, for he had a new thought as to a possible way of securing Dan"s happiness.
As young Prescott turned a corner and raced homeward, he was espied by a boy on the other side of the street.
"Hey, d.i.c.k!" challenged Hen Dutcher gleefully. "What time is it?"
d.i.c.k flushed, but wisely made no answer.
"Humph!" muttered Hen to himself. "Just as well his watch did get the run-off. Now d.i.c.k Prescott won"t be hauling his old timepiece out every two minutes in school to see what time it is."
d.i.c.k reached home somewhat out of breath.
"Who"s been chasing you?" demanded Mr. Prescott, s.n.a.t.c.hing up a cane that stood in the corner of the parlor. He a.s.sumed a ferocious expression, which, with one of as peaceable a disposition as d.i.c.k"s father possessed, looked more than out of place.
"I haven"t got time to joke, dad," objected the boy, dropping into a chair. "But I"ve got something very particular that I want you to do for me, and it will make Christmas really jolly after all if you can do it."
Then d.i.c.k unfolded his plan, while Mr. Prescott looked uneasy.
"Why, d.i.c.k, my boy, if Dalzell"s parents don"t want him to go camping it would look very strange in me to call on them and urge them to exchange their own good judgment for mine. It would look like an impertinence on my part. Dan"s father and mother are the very best judges as to whether he should be allowed to go away several days camping. In fact, although I"ve consented to it, I"m not sure that I have shown the best kind of judgment in the matter."