MRS. HENDERSON'S DECISION
The minister, very much embarrassed, was doing his best to get rid
of the chair. It was hard work, for if he turned around to one side
to grasp it, the chair, naturally, swung away from him. It was
several seconds before any one thought to aid him. Then Captain
Spark came to his relief.
"Guess I'll have to give you a hand, dominie," he said. "You're
anchored pretty hard and fast on a shoal, and you'll need help to
break loose. How did it happen? Did you sit down on an egg?"
"Some one put glue in the chair. I did not notice it until I tried
to get up."
"Glue, eh?"
The captain's eyes had a queer look in them.
"Yes. I suppose some of the boys did it for a joke."
"Pretty poor sort of a joke," remarked Mrs. Olney. "I could almost
put my hand on the boy that did it, too."
She looked to see if Mrs. Henderson had heard her, but Bob's mother
was on the other side of the room and was not fully aware of what
had happened.
Captain Spark tried to pull the chair loose from the minister, but
the glue had taken a firm hold, and the only result of his efforts
was to drag the reverend gentleman about the room.
[Illustration: "Captain Spark tried to pull the chair loose."]
All this while the people were trying hard not to laugh. But it was
impossible. Men were chuckling and endeavoring to suppress their
mirth, and nearly all the women were red in the face from holding in
their laughter.
"Guess you'd better sit down, dominie," advised the captain.
"If I do, I'll stick faster than before."
"Well, if you do I'll put my feet on the rounds of the chair and
hold it down while you get up. Maybe you can pull loose."
"I'm afraid," said Rev. Mr. Blackton.
"Afraid of what?"
"I might tear my trousers, and," he added in a whisper to the
captain, "they're the best pair I have."
"Might as well be killed for a sheep as a goat," replied the
mariner. "They're spoiled anyhow, by this glue. Better try to pull
loose. Go on. I'll hold your chair down."
Thus advised, the minister sat down. The crowd watched with
anxiety, not unmixed with mirth. Even the clergyman himself could
not help smiling, though it was quite an embarrassing position for a
dignified gentleman.
"Would you mind putting your feet on the rounds on the other side?"
asked the captain of Mr. Henderson. "Between us both I guess we can
hold him down."
The two men bore heavily on the chair-rounds, and Mr. Blackton
strained to rise. There was a pulling, ripping sound, and he
hesitated. Then, feeling that he must get loose no matter what
happened, he gave a mighty tug and was free. But his trousers,
though only slightly torn, were covered with glue.
Now that it was over, and the excitement was beginning to cool down,
the minister began to feel a little natural anger at the perpetrator
of the "Joke." His best trousers were spoiled, and the donation
supper had been thrown into confusion.
"Who did it?" was the question asked on every side.
The boys came slowly down from the gallery and mingled unnoticed
with the throng. Bob was a little worried. He had not meant to
humiliate the minister, but had counted on Captain Spark getting
stuck to the chair. The captain, he knew, would make light of the
prank. But it was no small matter to have done this thing to the
clergyman.
"Going to supper?" asked Ted of Bob.
"No. I don't feel like eating. Guess I'll go home."
But Bob's plan was frustrated. His mother, who had been looking for
her son, caught sight of him.
"Oh, Bob!" she exclaimed. "I hope none of the boys that you go with
played that horrid trick on the minister! It was a very mean thing
to do! But you had better have your supper. The table will soon be
ready again."
Bob did not have much appetite. He was afraid of being discovered.
The chair, with the glue on it, had been taken to the cellar, and
the minister had gone home to change his trousers. Captain Spark,
who had begun to turn certain things over in his mind, approached
Bob. He had a sharp eye, had the mariner, and, in looking closely
at his relative's son, he saw a bit of evidence that Bob had not
counted on. This was nothing more nor less than a big spot of glue
on the lad's coat sleeve.
"What's this?" asked the seaman, pointing to the sticky place.
"I don't know. Glue--I guess," replied Bob, turning pale.
"Glue, eh? Seems to be about as sticky as that on the minister's
chair."
At the mention of glue several persons about Bob and the captain
looked curiously at them. Mrs. Henderson, who was just then
passing, carrying a big platter of baked beans, stopped to listen to
what the seaman was saying.
"Yes, it's glue," remarked the mariner. "Just like that on the
chair. Bob," he asked suddenly, "did you put that glue there?"
Now, with all his faults, Bob would never tell a lie. He regarded
that as cowardly, and he was always willing to take whatever
punishment was coming to him for his "jokes."
"Yes, captain," he said in a low voice. "I did it."
"Ha! I thought so."
"Bob Henderson!" exclaimed his mother, her face flushing red with
mortification. "Did you play that horrid joke on the minister?"
"Yes, but I didn't mean to."
"You didn't mean to?"
"No. I thought some one else was going to sit on that chair."
"You thought some one else was? Why, that's just as bad--almost.
Who did you think would sit there?"
"Captain Spark!"
"You young rascal!" exclaimed the commander of the _Eagle_, but he
did not seem very angry. "So that was intended to anchor me down,
eh? Well, I must look into this."
"I thought you'd sit there," went on Bob.
"So I was going to, but the minister made me change, as he's a
little deaf on one side, and he wanted to ask me some questions
about the Fiji Islanders."
There was now quite a crowd around Bob, his mother, and the captain.
Mrs. Henderson did not know what to do. Up to now Bob's pranks had
been bad enough, but to play this trick on the minister, and at the
annual donation supper, where nearly every person in the village was
present, was the climax. She felt that she had been much humiliated.
Bob's father heard what had happened, and came up to his son.
"Bob," he said, in a curiously quiet voice, "you must go home at
once. I shall have to punish you severely for this."
Bob knew what that meant. He wished, most heartily, that he had not
played this last prank. But it was too late now.
"I told you I thought he was up to something," whispered the captain
to Mrs. Henderson.
"Yes, you were right," she admitted. "Now my mind is made up.
Captain, I wish you would take him to sea with you at once! I can
stand his foolishness no longer!"
Bob was out of the room by this time and did not hear his mother's
decision.
"Do you mean that, Lucy?" asked Captain Spark eagerly.
"Yes, I do. I am determined. Bob shall go to sea. Perhaps it will
teach him a lesson, and he will mend his ways."
"It will be the making of him," declared the captain heartily. "I'm
glad you decided this. I'll make arrangements at once."