PRETTYMAN SWEET MAKES A FRIEND
Lake Luna was a beautiful body of water, all of twenty miles long and
half as broad, with Centerport on its southern shore and Lumberport
and Keyport situated at either end.
The first named stood at the mouth of Rocky River which fed the great
lake, while Keyport was at the head of Rolling River through which
Lake Luna discharged its waters.
Centerport was a thriving and rich city of some 150,000 inhabitants,
while the other two towns--although much smaller--were likewise
thriving business communities. There was considerable traffic on Lake
Luna, between the cities named, and up and down the rivers.
Cavern Island was a beautiful resort in the middle of Lake Luna; but
man's hand was shown in its landscape gardening and in the pretty
buildings and the park at one end.
Acorn Island, in Lake Dunkirk (thirty miles above Lumberport, and
connected with Lake Luna by Rocky River) was a very different place.
It was heavily timbered and had been held by a private estate for
years. Therefore the trees and rubbish had been allowed to grow, and
one end of the island, as the girls of Central High knew, was almost a
jungle.
But at the eastern end--that nearest the head of Rocky River--was a
pleasant grove on a high knoll, where the old cabin stood. There they
proposed to camp.
Indeed, Mr. Tom Hargrew, Bobby's father, had been kind enough to send
the girls' tents up to the island with the men he had directed to
repair the cabin, and the party expected to find the camp pitched, and
everything ready for them when they arrived at Acorn Island.
This would scarcely be before dark, for there was some current to
Rocky River, although its channel was deep and there were no bridges
or other barriers which the powerboats and their tows could not easily
pass.
The boys expected to have to rough it at the site of _their_ camp for
the first night, and they had come prepared for all emergencies of
wind and weather.
All, did we say? All but one!
In the confusion of getting under way the details of Prettyman
Sweet's outing suit, and his general get-up for camping in the wilds,
was scarcely noticed. Once the boats were steering up the lake toward
Lumberport, a sudden shriek from Billy Long drew the attention of the
girls and Mrs. Morse to the object to which he pointed.
"It's not! it's not! my eyes deceive me!" panted Short and Long, who
was the third member of the crew of boys aboard the _Bonnie Lass_,
Chet and Lance being the other two.
Short and Long was pointing to the other powerboat that was drawing in
beside the _Bonnie Lass_, Pretty himself was at the wheel of the
_Duchess_ for he had learned to manage her.
"What _is_ the matter with you, Billy?" Chet demanded.
"What _is_ it I see?" begged the younger boy, wringing his hands and
glaring across the short strip of water between the powerboats. "I
know there ain't no sech animile, as the farmer said when he first saw
the giraffe at the circus."
"What's eating you, Billy?" asked Lance, who was giving his attention
to the steering of the _Bonnie Lass_. "Don't frighten the girls and
Mrs. Morse to death."
"It's just some joke of Billy's," began Jess, when the very short boy
broke in with:
"If _that's_ a joke, may I never see another! It is a phantom! It's a
nightmare! It's something that comes to you in a bad dream."
"_What?_" demanded Chet, suddenly shaking Short and Long by the
collar.
"Don't, Chetwood," begged Billy. "I'm not strong. I'm sea-sick. That
thing yonder has queered me----"
"What thing?" asked Laura. "We don't see the joke, Billy."
"There you go again--calling a serious thing like that a joke," cried
the small boy. "Look at it--at the wheel of the _Duchess_! How ever
did it crawl aboard? I bet a cent it's been living in the bottom of
the lake for years and years, and has come up to the light of day for
the first time now."
"You ridiculous thing!" snapped Lily Pendleton. "Do you mean Prettyman
Sweet?"
"My goodness gracious Agnes!" gasped Billy. "That's never Purt Sweet?
_Don't_ tell me he's disguised himself for a nigger minstrel show in
that fashion?"
They were all laughing at the unconscious Purt by now--all save Lily;
and Chet said, gravely:
"There is something the matter with your eyesight, Short and Long.
That's Purt in a brand new outing suit."
"He didn't dress like that to go camping?" murmured Billy. "Say not
so! Somebody dared him to do it!"
It was a fact that the exquisite of Central High had decked himself
out in most astonishing array--considering that he was expected to
"rough it" in the woods instead of appear at a lawn party on the
"Hill."
"His tailor put him up to that suit," chuckled Lance. "He told me so.
As he expects to live in the sylvan forest, as did the 'merrie, merrie
men' of Robin Hood, Purt is dolled up accordingly."
"Gee!" breathed Bobby. "Do you suppose Robin Hood ever looked like
that?"
"That's Lincoln green," announced Lance, trying to keep his face
straight. "You notice that the pants are short--knickerbockers, in
fact. They are tied just below the knee with 'ribbands' in approved
outlaw style."
"Oh, my!" giggled Dora Lockwood. "Do you suppose they hurt him?"
"What hurts him most is the leather belt at which is slung a
long-bladed hunting knife so dull that it wouldn't cut cheese! But the
knife handle gets in his way every time he stoops."
"Oh! he's so funny!" gasped Dorothy Lockwood. "You boys are certainly
going to have a great time with Pretty Sweet on this trip."
"I don't think it is funny at all," muttered Lily Pendleton. "That
rude little thing, Billy Long, tries to be too smart."
"But look at the cap!" gasped Laura, who was herself too much amused
to ignore the queer get-up of their classmate. "Where did he get the
idea of _that_?"
"It's a tam-o'-shanter," said Lance. "Another idea of the tailor's.
That tailor, I think, tries things out on Pretty. If Pretty doesn't
get shot wearing them, then he puts similar garments on his dummies
and risks them outside his shop door."
"But what has he got stuck into the cap?" pursued Laura.
"A feather. Rather, the remains of one," chuckled Lance. "It was quite
a long one when he started for the dock this morning; but he crossed
the street right under the noses of Si Cumming's team of mules that
draws the ice-wagon, and that off mule grabbed the best part of the
feather. You know, that mule will eat anything."
"Well, one thing is sure," drawled Bobby. "If Purt is supposed to
represent a Sherwood Forest outlaw, and he ever meets one of the
outlaws of the Big Woods that he's been worried about, the latter
'squashbuckler' will be scared to death."
"'Squashbuckler' is good!" chuckled Jess. "Some of those old villains
I expect _were_ squashes."
"My dear!" ejaculated her mother. "I fear the language you young folk
use does not speak well for your instructors of Central High."
"I guess we do not cast much glory upon our teachers, Mrs. Morse,"
rejoined Laura, laughing.
"It's only Short and Long, here, who 'does the teachers proud,'" said
her brother, with a grin. "Hear about what he got off in Ancient
History class the other day? Professor Dimp pretty nearly set him back
for _that_."
"Aw--now," growled Billy. "He asked for a date, didn't he?"
"What's the burn?" demanded Bobby, briskly.
"Why, Old Dimple asked Billy to mention a memorable date in Roman
history, and Billy says: 'Antony's with Cleopatra.'"
"Oh, oh, oh!" gasped Jess. "That's the worst kind of slang."
Mrs. Morse paid the young folk very little attention. She had
withdrawn from the group and was busy with pencil and notebook.
"When mother gets to work that way, she heeds neither time, place, nor
any passing event," laughed Jess. "She expects to sketch out her
whole book while she is at camp with us."
"She's going to be a dandy chaperone," declared Chet. "Suppose we'd
had Miss Carrington along?"
"Goodness!" groaned Bobby. "Don't let's mention that lady again this
summer."
"And we can cut out Old Dimple, too," grumbled Billy Long.
"He's off somewhere on a trip, so we won't have to bother about him,"
said Chet, with confidence.
The girls had begun to compare notes regarding what they had packed in
their suitcases, long before the boats reached Lumberport; and some of
them discovered that they had neglected to bring some very essential
things.
"You'll just have to tie up beyond the Main Street bridge, and give us
a chance to shop, Chet," announced Laura. "We're making good time as
it is."
"Isn't that just like a parcel of girls?" grumbled Billy. "Now, we
fellows didn't forget a thing--you bet!"
"Wait till we unpack at camp," chuckled Chet. "We'll see about that,
then."
He and Lance agreed to make the halt as the girls requested; and they
shouted to the crowd on the smaller boat to do the same. As Lily
Pendleton was one of the girls who must shop in Lumberton, Purt Sweet
was most willing to tarry and accompany the girls ashore.
He was, in fact, the only escort the girls had when they went up into
the town in search of the several articles they needed. The dude was
evidently proud of his outing suit and, as Billy suggested, "wanted to
give the people of Lumberport a treat."
So he swaggered along up Main Street with the girls. Not a block from
the wharf at which the boats were tied he met with an adventure.
"Whatever impression Purt is making on the good people of this town,"
whispered Nellie Agnew to Laura, "he has certainly smitten a
four-footed inhabitant with a deep, deep interest."
"What's that?" asked Laura, turning swiftly to see. Bobby Hargrew
looked, likewise. Purt and Lily were behind, and Bobby immediately
shouted:
"Say, Purt who's your friend?"
"What's that, Miss Hargrew?" asked Purt staring. "I weally don't get
you--don't you know?"
"But he'll get _you_ in a minute," chuckled Bobby.
"Don't pay any attention to her, Mr. Sweet," said Lily. "She's a
vulgar little thing."
But just then Purt felt something at his heels and turned swiftly. One
of the homeliest mongrel curs ever seen was sniffing at Purt's green
stockings.
"Get out, you brute!" gasped the dude, rather frightened.
But the dog didn't seem to have any designs upon Purt's thin shanks.
Instead, he jumped about, foolishly stiff-legged as a dog will when he
thinks he has found a friend, and barked.
"Gee! he's glad to see you," said Bobby. "Where'd you find him,
Purt?"
"Weally!" declared the dude, trying to shoo the dog off. "I--I never
did see the horrid brute before--I never did."
"Don't call him names. You'll hurt his feelings," suggested one of the
Lockwood twins, while Laura said, seriously: "That dog certainly does
know you, Mr. Sweet."
"I declare, I never saw him before," said Purt, making frantic efforts
to frighten the dog away.
He was a snarly haired dog, with one ear cocked up and the other half
chewed off, his coat muddied, only half a tail, which he wiggled
ecstatically, and the most foolish looking face that was ever given to
a dog.
"Did you ever see such a looking thing?" gasped Bobby, half choked
with laughter.
"And how well he matches Purt's suit," said Nellie, demurely.
"I'm not going to walk with you if you don't get rid of that dog!"
declared Lily, seeing that many bystanders were laughing at the boy
and the mongrel.
She went ahead with the other girls while poor Purt remained in the
rear, trying his best to chase away the friendly animal. But the more
Purt shooed him, or attempted to hit him, or strove otherwise to send
the brute about his business, the more the latter considered that the
boy was playing with him, and he welcomed the game with loud and
cheerful barks.
Soon a small crowd was collected, watching the performance with broad
grins. The girls, giggling, but rather worried by the attention that
was being attracted to their escort, darted into a store and left Purt
to settle the matter by himself.