MR. BORDEN DECIDES
Bright and early the following morning, Mr. Borden, accompanied by
Walter, went to Dan’s home. Eager as Walter was to talk about the
prospect of his friend being enrolled as a pupil in the Tait School he
did not refer to the matter which was uppermost in his thoughts. The
clear warm air of the summer morning, the green of the fields of waving
corn, the sight of the well-fed and contented cattle in the pastures,
the songs of the birds in the treetops――all were so attractive to the
man who had found a brief respite from the cares of his office in the
city that somehow Walter was aware that his father had no desire to
talk. Accordingly, the two walked in silence and in a brief time stood
before the open door of the kitchen in Dan’s home, where his mother was
busily engaged in her morning tasks.
“Good morning, Mrs. Richards,” called Mr. Borden, who already had a
slight acquaintance with Dan’s mother. “Walter and I were taking a
morning stroll and stopped for a moment to look about us here.”
“Good morning, Mr. Borden,” responded Mrs. Richards, advancing to the
door and drying her arms on a towel as she did so. There was no apology
for being found doing this, and simply and cordially she said, “Won’t
you come in?”
“Thank you,” replied Mr. Borden. “I think I understand what it means to
be interrupted in a busy hour. No, we’ll not come in, but if you don’t
object we’ll take a walk about your place and look up the boys.”
“They are in the field, yonder,” she said pointing to a distant part of
the little farm. “We call it the ten-acre lot.”
“They appear to be busy too,” suggested Mr. Borden.
“They are, but not too busy to see their friends. I’ll call them,”
she added as she reached for a long tin horn that was hanging on the
kitchen wall.
“No! not by any means!” said Mr. Borden hastily. “Don’t disturb the
boys. We shall find them easily. It is all slightly different from what
I find in my office,” he added smilingly. “There, I’m afraid the boys
are more likely to stop work before the horn sounds.”
“My boys are good workers――they have to be,” said Mrs. Richards simply.
“Yes, I understand. It is hard when the head of the family is gone.”
“It isn’t that only, though of course Dan and Tom feel more
responsibility than they would if their father had lived. But they are
both interested in the farm, though Dan is interested in his books
too.”
“Which is he more interested in――the farm or his books?”
“Books.”
“Isn’t he too tired to study when night comes, after working so hard
all day?”
“If he is he doesn’t say anything about it. Since young Mr. Moulton has
been here he has been helping Dan.”
“Yes, he’s been showing Dan how to pitch too,” broke in Walter.
“So he has,” said Mrs. Richards smilingly. “You’d think those boys
had had enough work when night comes, but they go out behind the barn
almost every night after supper and Dan will throw a ball to Tom with
all his might and keep it up for an hour at a time. I hear Mr. Moulton
talking to them, but I can’t seem to make head or tail of what he
is saying. It’s mostly about inshoots and fade-aways and drop-balls
and spitballs. When I was a girl in school the boys used to throw
spitballs. I guess you could see some of ’em still sticking to the
ceiling of the old Pine Tree schoolhouse. But Mr. Moulton and Tom and
Dan seem to take it all seriously, though for my part I can’t see how
or why. But then,” she added complacently, “they’re boys and I’m just a
middle-aged woman, an’ it isn’t natural to think I’d be interested in
the things that interest my boys.”
“You are interested in the boys though, I fancy,” suggested Mr. Borden
smiling as he spoke.
“I wouldn’t be fit to be their mother if I wasn’t. They’re both good
boys. There, I’ve talked enough about my own flesh and blood. I wish
you would come in. I have some fresh buttermilk――right from the churn.”
“We’ll stop and have some on our way back if that will not be too much
trouble,” said Mr. Borden as he and Walter turned away.
As they came to the barn and sheds Mr. Borden glanced keenly at the
objects in view. “Dan and Tom appear to be taking good care of their
belongings,” he said quietly. “The wagons are all under cover and
there’s no litter about the place. Let me step inside the barn a
moment,” he added as he entered the rude building.
Walter looked rather eagerly into his father’s face when Mr. Borden
came out of the barn, but as his father smiled and did not refer to
what he had seen inside the building he did not voice the question he
was eager to ask.
As the two drew near the place where Dan and his brother were hoeing,
the young farmers did not stop their labors as they pleasantly greeted
their visitors.
“We are on our way back home and just stopped a moment to look at your
potato-field,” Mr. Borden explained. “You certainly have a promising
crop, boys.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Dan glancing with pride at the long and
well-cultivated rows. “We have had an unusually good summer.”
“Is this the last hoeing?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’ll still have to fight the bugs, won’t you?”
“Oh yes,” said Dan smiling as he spoke. “They keep us from getting
lazy. I don’t know what they were made for anyway.”
“When you do find out you must not forget to let the rest of us know.
You might investigate mosquitoes and a few other creatures while you
are at it.”
“Well, they are a sure cure for taking things too easily.”
“Are they?” laughed Mr. Borden. “Some of us think we don’t need any
whip or spur for that. Have you ever been in the city, Dan?”
“Never in New York.”
“Like it better here I fancy.”
“I never expect to find anything I like as well as I do this place.”
“Then you are planning to stay here, are you?”
“No, sir.”
“I recall that Walter told me you were going to the normal school this
fall.”
“I want to go.”
“If you are so fond of the farm why do you leave it?”
“A farmer ought to be more than his farm.”
“I don’t think I quite understand you.”
“It pays to put money into a farm. It ought to pay better to put money
into a farmer.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know that I can explain, though I see what I mean,” said Dan
thoughtfully. “I have an idea that an education helps to set a man’s
brains in working order.”
“It ought to,” assented Mr. Borden.
“That is what I want.”
“So you are going to the normal school to work, are you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you don’t expect to dodge any classes or slip along as easily as
possible?”
“I don’t know what I may do, but I know what I need and what I want
too. I want to get my brains into as good working order as I have the
muscles in my right arm.”
“Walter told me you struck out fifteen yesterday.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Dan simply.
“Come on, Walter; we must be going,” said Mr. Borden turning to his boy.
Bidding the young farmers good morning the visitors at once departed,
walking toward the rail fence which they speedily climbed, and then
following the course of the noisy brook they returned to the bridge.
“Dan seems to be a quiet fellow,” said Mr. Borden as he and Walter
halted on the bridge and looked down into the swiftly flowing water.
“He is,” exclaimed Walter eagerly. “There isn’t a bit of brag in his
whole make-up. Everybody likes him. And he has hardly been out of sight
of Rodman in all his life.”
“Time enough for that later. Why do you want him to go to the Tait
School? Why not let him go on and do as he is planning?”
“Go to the normal school?”
“Yes.”
“I’d like to have him with me.”
“How many did he strike out?” asked Mr. Borden quizzically.
“Fifteen.”
“And you think he’d do that for the Tait School nine?”
“I’d like him to have a chance to show what he can do.”
“Walter, if Dan hadn’t struck out fifteen yesterday would you have
wanted him to enter the Tait School this year?”
“I don’t know,” replied Walter in some confusion. “Of course, I’d like
our nine to have him. But his pitching isn’t all there is to Dan.
He’s――――”
“I can understand that,” broke in Mr. Borden. “Come, Walter, we mustn’t
keep your grandmother’s dinner waiting.” As they at once started toward
the farmhouse Walter was eager to ask his father what his decision
was, but as Mr. Borden walked thoughtfully along the roadside his boy
looked at him keenly and decided to wait before he made any further
inquiries. Indeed, Mr. Borden did not again refer to the matter until
just before his departure for the city. He had been away from the
farmhouse twice, but he had gone by himself each time, and did not
refer to what he had been doing.
“Walter,” Mr. Borden said as he was preparing for his departure, “I
have decided to let you tell Dan that he can go to the Tait School this
coming year.”
“Great!” shouted Walter in his delight. “I was sure you would do it
when you found out what kind of a fellow Dan is.”
“I have talked with two or three who know him well――Mr. Moulton among
others. Their reports are all favorable to Dan, but the one thing that
more than any other influenced me was what I found he was doing in the
work on the farm. Walter, he will room with you.”
“Just what I want.”
“You know, he has not been accustomed to some things that are a part of
your life. He may appear a bit awkward at first――――”
“I’ll risk all that!” broke in the boy in his enthusiasm.
Mr. Borden smiled and said: “Very well, Walter. There is much that you
and Dan can teach each other and I’ve no doubt each of you will try to
be a teacher. Whether or not either of you will be a very apt scholar
remains to be seen.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will a little later.”
“It’s good of you to do this for Dan.”
“Is it? Your mother says you are the one that is doing it. Don’t forget
that, Walter. Good-bye; I’ll see you soon and I shall be interested in
hearing about your talk with Dan.”
As Mrs. Borden was to accompany her husband to the station, Walter at
once started for Dan’s home. He was highly elated over his father’s
decision, though he had been confident that his consent would be
granted. It was seldom that Walter met a rebuff in the family in which
he was an only child.
He stopped a moment on the bridge that spanned the brook and saw Dan
coming from the fields to his house. The sight of his friend aroused
his enthusiasm once more, and turning into the near-by lot Walter began
to run. As he came near, he shouted in his eagerness, “Dan! Dan! Wait a
minute! I’ve got something to tell you!”
Dan stopped as he heard the call, and in a brief time his friend ran to
him. “What’s wrong?” inquired Dan in his quiet way as he became aware
of the excitement under which Walter was laboring.
“I’ve got some great news for you, Dan,” panted Walter.
“For me?”
“Yes, sir! For you and me too. You’re going to the Tait School this
year. You’re to room with me. You’ll be the pitcher on the nine and the
biggest ‘find’ we’ve ever had. Oh, it’s immense, Dan! I just――――”
“Hold on a minute,” interrupted Dan. “I’m not very clear what you mean.”
“You are to go to the Tait School this year and room with me.”
“How am I to go?”
“My father is to send you.”
“Do you mean he is to pay for me?”
“Yes, sir. That’s it exactly. He’s going to send you and you’re to room
with me. Why? What’s wrong about that? It’s just as I’m telling you!”
exclaimed Walter somewhat aghast as Dan slowly shook his head.