Five Little Peppers at School Part 56

"To Moose Island?" asked Mr. Harrow.

Joel nodded. He couldn't yet bring himself to speak the name.

"All right; I will, Joe." Mr. Harrow grasped the brown hand hanging by Joel's side.

"Really?" said Joel, swallowing hard.

"Really. Run back to your books, and trust me."

So Joel dashed back, not minding the alluring cries from several chums, "Come on--just time for a game before supper," and was back before his table in the same att.i.tude, and hanging to his hair.

"I can study better so," he said, and holding on for dear life.

One or two boys glanced in. "Come out of this hole," they cried. "No need to study for to-morrow. Gee whiz! just think of Moose Island, Joe."

No answer.

"Joe!" They ran in and shook his shoulders. "Moose Island!" they screamed, and the excitement with which the whole school was charged was echoing it through the length of the dormitory.

"Go away," cried Joel at them, "or I'll fire something at you," as they swarmed around his chair.

"Fire your old grammar," suggested one, trying to twitch away his book; and another pulled the chair out from under him.

Joel sprawled a moment on the floor; then he sprang up, hanging to his book, and faced them. "I'm not going. Clear out." And in a moment the room was as still as if an invasion had never taken place. In their astonishment they forgot to utter a word.

And in ten minutes the news was all over the playground and in all the corridors, "Joe Pepper isn't going to Moose Island."

If they had said that the corner stone of the dormitory was shaky, the amazement would not have been so great in some quarters; and the story was not believed until they had it from Joe himself. Then amazement changed to grief. Not to have Joe Pepper along, was to do away with half the fun.

Percy ran up to him in the greatest excitement just before supper. "What is it, Joe?" he cried. "The fellows are trying to say that you're not going to Moose Island." He was red with running, and panted dreadfully.

"And Van is giving it to Red Hiller for telling such a whopper."

"Well, he needn't," said Joel, "for it's perfectly true. I'm not going."

Percy tried to speak; but what with running, and his astonishment, his tongue flapped up idly against the roof of his mouth.

"Dr. Marks won't let me," said Joel, not mincing matters. "I've got to study; so there's an end of it." But when Davie came in, a woe begone figure, for Mr. Harrow had kept his promise, then was Joel's hardest time. And he clenched his brown hands to keep the tears back then, for David gave way to such a flood in the bitterness of his grief to go without Joel, that for a time, Joel was in danger of utterly losing his own self-control.

"I'm confounded glad." It was Jenk who said it to his small following; and hearing it, Tom Beresford blazed at him. "If you weren't quite so small, I'd knock you down."

"Well, I am glad,"--Jenk put a goodly distance between himself and Tom, notwithstanding Tom's disgust at the idea of touching him--"for Pepper is so high and mighty, it's time he was taken down," but a chorus of yells made him beat a retreat.

Dr. Marks paced up and down his study floor, his head bent, his hands folded behind him.

"It was the only way. No ordinary course could be taken with Pepper. It had come to be imperative. It will make a man of him." He stepped to the desk and wrote a few words, slipped them into an envelope, sealed and addressed it.

"Joanna!" He went to the door and summoned a maid, the same one who had shaken her broom at Joel when he rushed in with the dog. "Take this over to the North Dormitory as quickly as possible." It seemed to be especially necessary that haste be observed; and Dr. Marks, usually so collected, hurried to the window to a.s.sure himself that his command was obeyed.

Mrs. Fox took the note as Joanna handed it in, and sent it up at once, as those were the orders from the master. It arrived just at the moment when Joel was at the end of his self-mastery. He tore it open. "My boy, knowing you as I do, I feel sure that you will be brave in bearing this.

It will help you to conquer your dislike for study and make a man of you. Affectionately yours, H. L. Marks."

Joel swung the note up over his head, and there was such a glad ring to his voice that David was too astonished to cry.

"See there!" Joel proudly shook it at him. "Read it, Dave."

So David seized it, and blinked in amazement.

"Dr. Marks has written to me," said Joel importantly, just as if David hadn't the note before him. "And he says, 'Be a man,' just as Mr. Harrow said, and, 'affectionately yours.' Now, what do you think of that, Dave Pepper?"

David was so lost in the honor that had come to Joel, that the grief that he was feeling in the thought of the expedition to be made to Moose Island to-morrow without Joel, began to pale. He smiled and lifted his eyes, lately so wet with tears. "Mamsie would like that note, Joe."

Tom Beresford rushed in without the formality of a knock, and gloomily threw himself on the bed. "Poor Joe!" was written all over his long face.

"Oh, you needn't, Tom," said Joel gaily, and prancing up and down the room, "pity me, because I won't have it."

"It's pity for myself as well," said Tom lugubriously, and cramming the pillow-end into his mouth. "What's a fellow to do without you, Joe?"

suddenly shying the pillow at Joel.

Joe caught it and shied it back, then twitched the master's note out of David's hand. "Read it, Tom," he cried, with sparkling eyes.

"I'd much rather stay back with you, Joe," Tom was saying.

"Well, you won't," retorted Joel. "Dave tried that on, but it was no good. Read it, I tell you." So Tom sat up on the bed, and spread Dr.

Marks' note on his knee.

"Great Caesar's ghost! It's from the master himself! And what does he say?" Tom rubbed his eyes violently, stared, and rushed over the few sentences pellmell; then returned to take them slowly to be sure of their meaning.

"Joe Pepper!" He got off from the bed.

"Isn't it great!" cried Joel. "Give me my note, Tom."

"I should say so!" cried Tom, bobbing his head. "I shouldn't in the least mind being kept back from a few things, to get a note like that.

Think of it, Joe, from Dr. Marks!"

"I know it," cried Joel, in huge satisfaction. "Well, now, you must take yourself off, Tom; I've got to study like a Trojan." He ran to the closet, and came back with his arms full of books.

"All right," said Tom, shooting out. Then he shot back, gave Joel a pat--by no means a light one;--"Success to you, old fellow!" and was off, this time for good.

And Davie dreamed that night that Joel took first prize in everything straight through; and that he himself was sailing, sailing, over an interminable sea (going to Moose Island probably), under a ban never to come back to Dr. Marks' school. And the first thing he knew, Joel was pounding him and calling l.u.s.tily, "Get up, Dave; you know you are to start early."

And then all was bustle and confusion enough, as how could it be helped with all those boys getting off on such an expedition?

And Joel was the brightest of them all, here, there, and everywhere! You never would have guessed that he wasn't the leading spirit in the whole expedition, and its bright particular star!

And he ran down to the big stone gate to see them off. And the boys wondered; but there was no chance to pity him, with such a face. There was only pity for themselves.

And somebody started, "Three cheers for Joe Pepper!" It wasn't the under-teacher, but he joined with a right good will; and the whole crowd took it up, as Joel ran back to tackle his books, pinching Dr. Marks'

letter in his pocket, to make sure it really was there!