CHAPTER XXIII
TIMMY, THE GENTLEMAN, AT HOME
"Oh, won't life seem stale when we get back into the land of crowdedbusiness streets and schoolhouses?" grumbled Reade, as, perchedon the seat of the camp wagon, he drove out onto the highway thenext morning, followed by the other members of Dick & Co. on foot.
"No, sir!" Darry retorted. "Life won't seem stale on that account.Instead, it will be brightened by the pleasant recollection ofthis summer's fun, which is now so soon to be ended."
"You're not going through Fenton, are you, Dick?" asked Greg.
"I guess we'll have to. We were pretty well cleaned out of someof our provisions last night. We shall have to replenish ourfood supply, and Fenton is the only real town along our routeto-day. The rest are small farming villages."
"But we'll attract a lot of attention," declared Holmes.
"You won't," laughed Darry. "You didn't go to town with us lastnight, and consequently you're not known there."
"I'd rather not go through the town myself," Dick explained, "butit seems to me that as long as we must purchase supplies we oughtto make a stop in the town that's likely to have the best stores."
Fenton's principal street had rather a sleepy look this hot Augustmorning. There were but few people abroad as Dick & Co. turnedinto the main thoroughfare.
At Miller's place there was not a sign of life. "I'll wager thatbrute is applying raw beef to his eyes this morning," mutteredTom, somewhat vindictively.
Prescott's watchful glance soon discovered a provision store thatlooked more than usually promising. At a word from him Tom reinedin the horse, while Prescott and Darrin went inside to make purchases.
When they came out they found Farmer Hartshorn and another mantalking with Tom Reade.
"You young men of Gridley don't look any the worse, this morning,for the excitement you had last night," said Mr. Hartshorn, aftera cordial greeting. "Reade tells me that you left the milk-pailat my house as you came along."
"Yes, sir," Dick nodded. "And with it, we left our very bestthanks for the fine treat that milk proved to be to us."
"Prescott, shake hands with Mr. Stark. He's our leading lawyerin this little place."
"I've heard a good deal about you this morning," said the lawyer,as he shook hands.
Mr. Stark was a tall, thin man, of perhaps forty-five years ofage. Warm as was the day he was attired wholly in black, a bitrusty, and wore a high silk hat that was beginning to show signsof age. He belonged to a type of rural lawyer that is now passing.
"I think we've heard of you, too," smiled Prescott innocently.
"Have you?" asked the lawyer, looking somewhat astonished.
"Yes," Dick went on. "I think it must have been your letter thatMr. Reuben Hinman showed us one day. It was in regard to a billhe had given you to collect. Mr. Hinman is in the hospital andmust need quite a bit of money just at present so I beg to expressthe hope that you have been able to collect the other half ofthe debt---the half that belongs to him."
Lawyer Stark reddened a good deal, despite his sallow skin.
"Why, what about that other half? What's the story?" questionedMr. Hartshorn, his eyes, twinkling as though he scented somethingamusing.
"Oh---er---just a matter of business between a client and myself,"the lawyer explained, in some confusion.
"And poor old Hinman was the client, eh?" asked the farmer.
"We don't know very much about the matter," Dave Darrin brokein, a trifle maliciously, for he fell that it might be a goodthing to show up this lawyer's tricky work. "Mr. Hinman gaveMr. Stark a bill of twenty dollars to collect, and-----"
"It was---er---all a matter of business between a client and myself,and therefore of a confidential nature," Lawyer Stark broke in,reddening still more.
But Dave was in no mood, just then, to be headed off so easily,so he went on:
"Mr. Hinman showed us the letter, and asked us what we thoughtof it, so that rather broke the confidential nature of the matter.You see," turning to Mr. Hartshorn, "the bill was for twentydollars, and it seems that. Mr. Stark was to have half for histrouble in collecting it. Now the letter that Mr. Hinman showedus-----"
"I protest, young man!" exclaimed the lawyer.
"The letter," Darry went on calmly, "was to the effect that Mr.Stark had collected his own half of the twenty dollars, and thatthe collection of Mr. Hinman's half of the money seemed doubtful."
"Now, now, Stark!" exclaimed the farmer, looking sharply at thelawyer. "Surely, that isn't your way of doing business with apoor and aged client like Hinman!"
"I have collected the remainder of the bill, and am going to maila settlement to Mr. Hinman to-day," muttered the lawyer, tryingto look unconcerned. "All just a matter of routine office business,Mr. Hartshorn."
But the lawyer felt wholly uncomfortable. He was thinking, atthat moment, that he would heartily enjoy kicking Darrin if thelatter didn't look so utterly healthy and uncommonly able to takecare of himself.
"Do I hear you discussing money that is due my father?" inquireda voice behind them. "If so, my father is very ill, as you doubtlessknow, and I would take pleasure in receiving the money on hisbehalf."
Timothy Hinman, looking wholly the man of fashion, made this offer.He had come up behind the group, and there was a look in hiseyes which seemed to say that the handling of some of the familymoney would not be distasteful to him just then.
"I'll walk along with you to your office, Mr. Stark, and receiptfor the money, if you're headed that way," suggested the youngerHinman again.
"Unless you hold a regular power of attorney from your father,you could hardly give me a valid receipt," replied the lawyersourly, as he turned away from Mr. Hartshorn and the boys andstarted down the street.
"Won't my receipt do until my father is up and about once more?"pressed Timothy Hinman.
"No, sir; it won't," snapped the lawyer.
"Have you heard, this morning, how your father is?" Dick inquired.
"Just heard, at the post-office," Hinman answered. "My fatherhad a very bad day yesterday. Er---in fact, the chances, I amsorry to say, appear to be very much against his recovery."
"He must feel the strain of his father's illness," observed Davesarcastically.
"He does!" retorted Mr. Hartshorn, with emphasis. "If old Reubendies young Timothy must go to work for a living. The disgraceof toil will almost kill him. His two sisters are as bad as heis. They've never done a stroke of work, either. All three havelived on the poor old peddler's earnings all their lives, thoughnot one of the three would be willing to keep the old man's housefor him. There are a lot of sons and daughters like them to-day.Perhaps there always have been."
Mr. Hartshorn waited until Dick and Dave had finished with thepurchases and had loaded them on the wagon.
Then the farmer shook hands with each member of Dick & Co.
"I'm coming up to Gridley to see the football game this Thanksgiving,"he promised. "I hope I'll see as good a game as I did last year.Anyway, I'll see the work of a mighty fine lot of young fellows."
Prescott expressed again the heartiest thanks of himself and friendsfor the timely aid given them during the trouble in camp.
"We've lost so much time this morning that we'll have to hustlefor the rest of the day," Tom called down from the wagon seat,as he started the horse.
An hour later they were more than three miles past Fenton.
"Get out of the way, Tom!" called Dave. "Drive up into someone'syard like lightning. Here comes a whizz wagon that wants thewhole highway."
Behind them, its metal trimmings flashing in the sun, and leavinga trail of dust in its wake, came an automobile traveling at leastsixty miles an hour.
Yet, fast as the car was going when it passed them, the speeddid not prevent one occupant from recognizing them and callingout derisively. Then, half a mile ahead, the car stopped, turned,and came slowly back toward the wondering Gridley boys.
CHAPTER XXIV
CONCLUSION
Five rather contemptuous pairs of youthful eyes surveyed Dick& Co. as their outfit plodded on its way.
"Aren't they a mucker looking outfit?" demanded one voice fromthe car.
Then the automobile shot ahead again.
"Phin Drayne! Humph!" said Darry rather scornfully.
Phin Drayne is no stranger to the readers of the "_High SchoolBoys Series_," who will recall Phin as the "kicker" who, at thegame on the Thanksgiving before, had sulked and refused to goon the field, hoping to induce the other members of the GridleyHigh School gridiron team to coax him to play. Thus Dick, thoughsuffering at that time from injuries, and forbidden to play, hadbeen forced out onto the field to help win the great game of theseason. Of course a kicker like Drayne did not like Prescott.Dick worried but little on that account.
"There! they are coming back," Greg announced. "They are grinningat us again."
"If they keep on grinning," threatened Darry, "we'll sic DannyGrin onto them. When it comes to grinning our own Danny boy cangrin down anything on earth."
As if to verify that claim, Dalzell began to grin broadly. Besidesthis, he turned his face toward the occupants of the automobileas it once more passed Dick & Co.
Just at this point the car slowed down. Phin Drayne looked asthough he were exhibiting his fellow students of Gridley HighSchool as so many laughable freaks.
"That's what I call a vacation on the cheap," Drayne remarkedto his friends, in a tone wholly audible to Dick & Co.
"It is 'on the cheap,'" Dick called out pleasantly. "And yet,our trip hasn't been such a very cheap one, either, and we'veearned all the money ourselves. I don't suppose, Drayne, youever earned as much money in your life."
"I don't have to," scoffed Phin Drayne. "My father is able tosupply me with whatever money I need."
"Why!" uttered Dan Dalzell. "Our old Drayne is just another TimmyHinman of the regular kind, isn't he?"
Dan looked so comical when he made this observation that his fivechums burst into a shout of gleeful laughter.
Phin Drayne didn't relish that very sincere laughter. Thoughhe didn't understand the allusion, he suspected that he was beingmade the butt of a joke by Dick & Co.
"Drive on, George," he requested his friend at the wheel. "Onehates to be seen in the company of such fellows."
The car's speed was let out several notches, and shot down theroad ahead of Dick & Co.'s plain little caravan.
"Now that I think of it," Dick declared, "Phin is just anotheredition of Timmy Hinman, isn't he? And so are quite a good manyof the fellows we know. The world must be nearly as full of TimmyHinmans as it is of fathers either wealthy or well-to-do. I'dhate to belong to the Timmy Hinman crowd!"
"As for me," sighed Tom comically, "I don't see any chance ofmy becoming a Timmy until I'm able to do it on money accumulatedfor myself."
As Phin Drayne was still in Gridley High School, and had an overweeningidea of himself as a football player, it is extremely likely thatwe shall hear of him again, for which reason, if for no other,we may as well dismiss him from these present pages.
A few more days of earnest hiking, followed by restful sleep incamp at night, brought Dick & Co., one fine afternoon toward theend of August, in sight of the spires of Gridley.
"There's the good old town!" called Dick, first to reach the riseof ground from which the view of Gridley was to be had.
"Good old town, indeed!" glowed Dave Darrin.
"Whoop!" shouted Tom Reade irrepressibly. "Whoop! And then---whoop!"
Dalzell, as he stood still for a few moments, gazing ahead, grinnedbroadly.
"He thinks his native town is a joke!" called Greg Holmes reproachfully.
"No," replied Dalzell, with a solemn shake of his head. "I amthe joke, and it's on Gridley for being my native town."
"I'm glad to be back---when I get there," announced Hazy. "Ishall be glad, even if for nothing more than the chance to restmy feet."
"Nonsense!" Dick retorted. "You'll be out on Main Street, to-night,ready to tramp miles and miles, if anything amusing turns up."
At the first shade by the roadside Dick &. Co. halted for fifteenminutes to rest.
"Now, each one of you do a little silent thinking," Prescott urged.
"Give us the topic, then," proposed Reade.
"Fellows," Dick went on, mounting a stump and thrusting one handinside his flannel shirt, in imitation of the pose of an orator,"the next year will be an eventful one for all of us. In thattime we shall wind up our courses at the Gridley High School.From the day that we set forth from Gridley High School we shallbe actively at work creating our careers. We are destined tobecome great men, everyone of us!"
"Tell that to the Senate!" mocked Tom Reade.
"Well, then," Dick went on, accepting the doubt of their futuregreatness, "we shall, at least, if we are worth our salt, becomeuseful men in the world, and I don't know but that is very closeto being great. For the man who isn't useful in the world hasno excuse for living. Now, in a little more than another hour,we shall be treading the pavements of good old Gridley. Let usdo it with a sense of triumph."
"Triumph?" quizzed Tom soberly. "What about?"
"The sense of triumph," Dick retorted, "will arise from the factthat this is to be the last and biggest year in which we are togive ourselves the final preparation for becoming either greator useful men. I'm not going to say any more on this subject.Perhaps you fellows think I've been talking nonsense on purpose.I haven't. Neither have I tried to preach to you, for preachingis out of my line. But, fellows, I hope you all feel, as solemnlyas I do myself, just what this next year must mean to us in work,in study---in a word, in achievement. It won't do any of us anyharm, once in a while to feel solemn, for five seconds at a time,over what we are going to do this year to assure our futures."
For once Tom Reade didn't have a jest ready. For once Dalzellforgot to grin.
The march was taken up again. The next halt was made in Gridley,thus ending their long training hike, the boys going to theirrespective homes.
"Just give three silent cheers, and we won't startle anyone,"Tom proposed.
"We went out on the trip to harden ourselves," murmured Dave,"and I must admit that we have all done it."
That evening Dick and Harry Hazelton drove the horse and wagonover to Tottenville, where the camp wagon was returned to itsowner, Mr. Newbegin Titmouse.
"You young men have worn this wagon quite: a bit," whined Mr.Titmouse, after he had painstakingly inspected the wagon by thelight of a lantern.
"I think we've brought it back in fine condition, sir," repliedDick, and he spoke the truth. "The wagon looks better, Mr. Titmouse,than you had expected to see it."
"You owe me about five dollars for extra wear and tear," insistedthe money-loving Mr. Titmouse.
But he didn't get the money. Again Dick Prescott turned out tobe an excellent business man. Dick was most courteous, but herefuted all of Mr. Titmouse's claims for extra payment, in theend even such a money-grubber as Mr. Newbegin Titmouse gave upthe effort to extort more money for the use of his wagon thanwas his due. He even used his lantern to light the boys throughthe dark side alley to the street where the trolley car ran.
Two or three times after this Dick and his friends heard fromTom Drake. That young workman never repeated his earlier error.In time he paid for his home, then began the saving of moneyfor other purposes. To-day Drake owns his own machine shop andis highly prosperous.
Old Reuben Hinman lingered many days between life and death.At last he recovered, and in time was discharged from the hospital.
However, his first attempts to run the peddler's wagon again revealedthe fact that the peddler's days on the road were over. He wasno longer strong enough for the hard outdoor life.
Timothy Hinman and his sisters came forward when the Overseersof the Poor began to look into the peddler's affairs. These dutifulchildren wanted to be sure to obtain whatever might be
their shareof their father's belongings.
Timothy and his sisters obtained their full shares---nothing.
The Overseers of the Poor found that they could effect an arrangementby which the peddler's home, his horse and wagon, stock and goodwill could be sold for four thousand dollars.
This was done. With half the money Reuben Hinman was able topurchase his way into a home for old men. Here he will be maintained,without further expense, as long as he lives, and he will livein a degree of comfort amounting, with this simple-minded ex-peddler,to positive luxury.
The other two thousand dollars, at the suggestion of the Overseersof the Poor, was spent in buying an annuity from a life insurancecompany. This annuity provides ample spending money for ReubenHinman whenever, in fine weather, he wishes to go forth from thehome and enjoy himself in the world at large.
Timothy has been forced to go to work as a valet. The daughterstearfully support themselves as milliners. Reuben Hinman longago spent the ten dollars received from Lawyer Stark.
The tramp who accepted work from Dr. Hewitt made good in everysense of the word. In fact he did so well that, in time, he tookunto himself a wife and is now the head of a family, which livesin a little cottage built on Dr. Hewitt's estate. The name of"Jim Joggers" has given way to the real name of that former knightof the road. However, as the man is sensitive about his idlepast, we prefer to remember him as "Joggers."
And now we come to the end of the "_High School Boys VacationSeries_."
It is to be hoped that these four little volumes have not dweltso much upon fun as to make it appear that pleasure is all thereis in the world that is worth while.
Dick Prescott and his friends were destined to discover thatall the pleasure in the world that is worth anything at all comesonly as the reward of continuous, hard and useful endeavor.
The further adventures that befell Dick Prescott and his chumswhile they were still Gridley High School boys will be found inthe fourth volume of the "_High School Boys Series_," which is publishedunder the title, "_The High School Captain of the Team; Or, Dick& Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard_."
In that volume, the last dealing with Dick Prescott's high schooldays, the value of sports and the worth of honor and faithfulwork will be set forth as strongly as lies within the power ofthe narrator of these events.
The High School Boys' Training Hike Page 23
