Dave Porter and the Runaways Part 54

"Because you are not fit to teach here--you are not fit to teach anywhere!" thundered the doctor. "I want your resignation, and then I want you to leave just as soon as you possibly can."

"But--but--I want you to explain. I want----"

"It is not necessary for me to explain, Haskers. You have been found out. You are a despicable villain, and you ought to be in jail. I trusted you, and you have deceived me. More than that, you have tried to get these young gentlemen into serious trouble. Don't deny it, for it will do no good. We have the absolute proof against you, and those proofs are also in the hands of the law. If you don't want to be arrested, you will leave this school as soon as you can get your baggage packed."

"Sir, I want you to know----" commenced Job Haskers, but stopped short, for Doctor Clay had taken a stride forward and was shaking a finger in the teacher's face.

"I will not argue with you, Haskers. For a long time I have not been satisfied with your work, for you did not seem to have the students'

interest at heart. You have a good education. But a teacher must have more than that--he must have a heart for his work. Now you are found out, and I want nothing more to do with you. I will give you a check for what is due you up to to-day, and you will sign a receipt in full, and also your resignation, and then I never want to see or hear of you again."

"And suppose I won't resign?" snarled the teacher. "I have a contract----"

"If you don't get out, you'll go to jail."

"And we'll sue you," Dave could not help putting in.

"That's right, we'll push the case as far as the law allows," added Phil.

"Ha! you think you are smart, but you don't know it all," snarled the teacher, but his manner showed his uneasiness. He attempted to argue, but Doctor Clay would not listen, and when he said he would send for a constable, Job Haskers quickly capitulated, signed his resignation, took his check, and hurried away to pack his baggage. He left about an hour later, by the back way, so that none of the students saw him go.

An hour after that a man came for his trunks and bags; and that was the last seen or heard of him at Oak Hall.

"Hurrah!" cried Dave, when the affair was at an end. "How glad I am that Haskers is gone! I feel as if a weight had been taken from my head!"

"I guess everybody will be glad," returned Roger, and he was right.

Some of the students wanted to get up a celebration in honor of the unpopular teacher's departure, but this was not permitted. But the boys had a time on the quiet, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

With the going away of Job Haskers, and the clearing up of the mystery surrounding the letter, Oak Hall settled down once more to its normal condition. Another teacher came to take the place of the man who had left, and he proved popular all around, and made Doctor Clay wonder why he had not made a change long before.

With their minds free from worry, Dave and his chums buckled down to their lessons, and our hero spent much time over his paper on "The Future of Our Country." Soon the examinations started, and then the boys fell to worrying over how they would fare in this final test.

"Well, I hope I pa.s.s," remarked Phil, when the last examination was over. "I don't expect to be near the top. I lost too much, going to Cave Island, and when I ran away."

"Me for the pa.s.sing mark, too," chimed in Ben.

"Well, I am hoping for something better," said Roger.

"What about you, Dave?" queried Buster.

"I am like Roger, hoping for something better," answered our hero, with a smile. "But I'm prepared to take what comes," he added.

At last came the day when the announcements were to be made. Dave had sent in his theme and he expected to hear from this as well as from his studies. In the meantime, preparations were going forward for the graduation exercises, and visitors were expected from far and near.

Nearly all the folks from Crumville were coming, and also the parents of Phil, Roger, and the other seniors.

The big a.s.sembly room was crowded when the announcements were made.

The pa.s.sing mark was seventy-five per cent., and many of the boys dreaded to think that they might be below that.

"I will read the names in the order of merit," said Doctor Clay, after the opening exercises. "Only two boys have failed to pa.s.s for graduation, and they will be conditioned, if they so desire. I am proud of the record." And then the master of the school proceeded to read the list. Polly Vane and Dave had each ninety-six per cent., Roger had ninety-four, Shadow ninety, Sam and Luke each eighty-eight, Phil eighty-seven, Gus eighty-six, and so on down to Buster, who squeezed through with seventy-eight. The boys who had failed to pa.s.s were Nat Poole, who had only sixty-eight, and one of his cronies, who was marked sixty-nine.

"It ain't fair! I did as well as lots of 'em," said Nat, when the reading was over. But n.o.body listened to him, for all knew that the examinations had been just in every particular.

"I will now announce the prizes for the best themes on the subject, 'The Future of Our Country,'" went on Doctor Clay. "The reading of the nine papers handed in has afforded me great pleasure, for all are good and many of them excellent. But I think the best of all is that written by David Porter, and the committee of teachers who have examined the papers agree with me. Porter, I congratulate you, and I will now ask you to come forward and read your meritorious composition to your fellow-students."

And amid a general handclapping our hero went to the platform and commenced to read the theme. Everybody listened with close attention, and loud was the applause when he had concluded. It was certainly a fine paper, and later on Doctor Clay had it published in one of the school journals, where it attracted not a little attention.

Dave was certainly happy and he had good reason to be. He sent word home that night of how he had fared and the next day received several messages of congratulation. One message from Jessie he prized very highly, for she wrote, "You deserve a big hug for coming through so finely. My very best wishes." The other boys also got congratulations; and that night and the night to follow were "bonfire nights," in more ways than one.

"Well, we are rid of Haskers, and also Merwell and Jasniff," remarked Roger to Dave. "We ought to be happy, eh, Dave?"

"Yes, and especially over coming out so well for graduation," answered Dave.

"Do you think we'll ever see Haskers or Merwell again?" questioned Phil.

"I don't know--I trust not," answered our hero. But his wish was not fulfilled. He did meet the pair, and in a most unexpected fashion, as will be related in the next volume of this series, to be called "Dave Porter in the Gold Fields; or, The Search for the Landslide Mine," in which we will learn how Dave went West with some of his chums, and joined an old prospector in a hunt for a lost mine that had been willed to Roger Morr's mother.

The graduation exercises at Oak Hall that year formed a gala event long to be remembered. The school and the campus were crowded, and Dave and his chums surprised even Doctor Clay by "chipping in" and hiring a bra.s.s band to play outside, after the exercises were over.

The boys also presented their teachers and the master with some volumes of history and poetry, and received numerous gifts in return.

From his father Dave got a bank-book, with an amount written therein that was a complete surprise. His sister gave him a neat stickpin and his uncle a set of books, and from Jessie and her folks came a desk set, of solid silver, suitably engraved.

"Well, I think I ought to be the happiest boy alive," said Dave, after the exercises were over, and he had his diploma, tied with a broad ribbon. "I feel just as if I was walking on air."

"And I am glad, too," said his sister Laura, warmly.

"We are all glad," put in Jessie, and gave him her brightest smile.

"Glad and proud, Dave," said his father. "My boy, you have done very well."

And then the whole party went down to the gymnasium, where refreshments were being served to the visitors. And here let us leave Dave Porter, wishing him well.

THE END

DAVE PORTER SERIES

By EDWARD STRATEMEYER

"Mr. Stratemeyer has seldom introduced a more popular hero than Dave Porter. He is a typical boy, manly, brave, always ready for a good time if it can be obtained in an honorable way."--Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis.

"Edward Stratemeyer's 'Dave Porter' has become exceedingly popular."

--Boston Globe.

"Dave and his friends are nice, manly chaps."--Times-Democrat, New Orleans.

DAVE PORTER AT OAK HALL Or The School Days of an American Boy

DAVE PORTER IN THE SOUTH SEAS Or The Strange Cruise of the Stormy Petrel