Chapter 3 SOME OF THE BOYS AND THEIR WAYS

The boys were awakened at six o'clock, went into chapel at half past six, had breakfast at seven, went through a drill from eight to nine and then went into the general schoolroom and were busy till noon, when they were dismissed to get ready for dinner.

Nothing was said about the event of the night before but several of the boys gave Jack sly winks and it was quite evident that there would be no repetition of the hazing.

When they went out to drill, Dick Percival said to Jack:

"Well, my boy, it seems to me as if you showed just as cool a head last night as you did in the afternoon when you stood in the road and directed the two fellows who were rushing down upon you on their bikes. I would have liked to seen the fun."

"If they had not talked about it I would not have known anything of it," replied Jack, "but how did you hear of it?"

"Oh, Billy Manners thought it was too good a joke to keep even if you did soak him with the contents of the water jug," laughed Dick. "I don't think he upset it as some of the boys think."

Jack said nothing and the subject was dropped for the time.

Later, Billy Manners himself came to Jack and said, good-naturedly:

"That was one on us, Sheldon, but I don't hold it up against you. I would like to know how you suspected us, however. Have you been to other schools where they practised this sort of thing?"

"No, I have never been away to school before but if fellows will talk of their plans they need not be astonished if somebody overhears."

"True enough!" rejoined Billy, with a chuckle. "I never thought of that. I supposed we were speaking low, however."

"You spoke in whispers and you can hear a whisper farther than you can hear a low tone."

"H'm! I never knew that. That's something to remember."

After dinner and before they went back to the school room several of the boys, Jack among the rest, were standing in front of the main building when Peter Herring, a big, brawny fellow with a disagreeable face and manner said brusquely to the new boy:

"I say, Sheldon, who are you anyhow? Who's your father?"

Jack flushed crimson and then turned pale and for a moment seemed greatly agitated but he quickly gained his composure and said quietly:

"My father is dead."

"Well, what was he then?" pursued the other in the same disagreeable tone he had before used.

"A gentleman," answered Jack, pointedly, and then turned away and spoke to Harry and Arthur.

"H'm! you got it that time, Pete!" roared Ernest Merritt, Herring's chum and a boy with a reputation for bullying and also of toadying to the richer boys and snubbing the poor ones. "That hit you. Did you hear how he said 'a gentleman,' my boy? Your father is something dif--"

"Mind your business!" snapped Herring, darting a look at Jack which boded no good for the latter and then walking away with a sulky air.

"Did you notice how Jack flushed when Herring asked him who his father was?" asked Harry of Arthur when Jack had left them. "There is some mystery there."

"I don't see it. Jack would naturally be angry when spoken to in that tone. Herring is a bully and no gentleman, as Jack indicated."

"That's true enough, but Jack turned red and then white and was evidently under a considerable agitation. There is some mystery, take my word for it."

"Well, suppose there is?" rejoined Arthur. "It is certainly no business of ours and I am not going to meddle with it."

"Well, neither am I," with a little snap, "but I can have my opinion, can't I?"

"Certainly," and there was nothing more said, the boys being good friends and though having little differences at times, never quarreled.

While Arthur and Harry were having this conversation Herring said angrily to Merritt:

"What did you want to say that for? My father is as good as yours. I'll give it to Sheldon for talking back to me."

"You started it," growled Merritt. "You're always picking on the new fellows."

"So are you," snapped Herring. "You're a regular bully. Never mind, though. There is something crooked about Sheldon or his family and I'm going to find it. I don't associate with tramp berry pickers and the rest of the boys won't when I find out things."

"Dick Percival goes with him," muttered Merritt, pointing to where the rich man's son and Jack Sheldon were walking together arm in arm. "Percival is a swell and his father is richer than yours and a lot more--"

"A lot more what?" snarled Herring, clenching his fist.

"Respectable!" snapped Merritt, hastily retreating.

"Don't mind what a fellow like Herring says, Jack," said Dick Percival, kindly, putting his arm in the new boy's. "No one of any account pays any attention to him. A fellow that can show the nerve you can has nothing to fear from Pete Herring."

"I am not afraid of him, Dick," Jack answered, "but--" and then he stopped and went on in silence.

"It's all right," said Dick, at length. "A boy that stands as high as you do in your classes need not be afraid of Pete Herring's condemnation. I believe I shall have to hustle or you will be up to me before I know it."

"That's what I'm here for, to get ahead as fast as I can," laughed the other, who in his examination that morning had showed that he was by no means a backward scholar.

The first day of the new term was spent mostly in getting things into shape for the days that were to come and the regular routine was not as strictly observed as it would be later, new boys being tried out, new methods experimented upon and everything being made ready for the fall and winter.

There were several new boys in addition to Jack Sheldon and one or two of these were as advanced as he was but the greater part went into the lower classes and would make the material of which the Academy would be composed at a later period, Dr. Wise taking them under his particular care and forming their characters for the future as he put it.

In the course of two or three days the machinery of the school was running as smoothly as if it had been in operation for a month, the boys knowing what was expected of them and the professors keeping them rigidly to their work and attending to their own duties with unflagging zeal.

Jack took an interest in his work and was stimulated by knowing that much was expected of him and that there were others who desired to overtake him in his studies, this very emulation helping him to do his best.

The greater part of the boys were his friends and he gave little attention to those who were not, keeping on good terms with them while not having much to do with them.

As far as he was concerned, however, the boys knew no more of him at the end of the week than they had known at the beginning and many of them decided that it was as well to let him remain a mystery until he chose to further enlighten them.

Without being churlish or obstinate, Jack was reserved and all they knew, which could have been obtained outside as well as from him was that he lived in another county, some ten miles distant, that he was the only child of a worthy widow and that he was paying for his schooling out of money that he had earned or would earn from his own efforts in one line or another.

"At any rate if he does have to earn the money to carry him through," said Billy Manners to a number of the boys one afternoon when school was over for the day, "he is not mean and contributes what he can to the legitimate fun of the Hilltops and does not waste his coin on foolish things. If he is poor he is not a miser and if he has to work for his schooling that is his business. If Dick Percival, the acknowledged head of the school in studies as well as in athletics, can associate with him and be proud of his company, the rest of us have nothing to say and I, for my part, certainly have not."

"Neither has any decent fellow among the Hilltops," added Harry, enthusiastically, and the majority echoed his sentiment, the few that remained silent and indulged in black looks being unobserved amid the general acceptance of the new scholar.

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