A NEW KIND OF EXAMINATION.
Three large trunks and one small one were delivered at Mrs. Myers's
front door before that first breakfast was disposed of; and Miss Almira
remarked of the boys, a few minutes later,--
"How strong they are, especially Mr. Kinzer!"
"Don't make a mistake, Almira," said her mother in an undertone. "I'm
glad the trunks are up stairs, but we mustn't begin by saying 'mister'
to them. I've got all their first names. They mustn't get it into their
heads that they're any thing more'n just so many boys."
She hurried up stairs, however; and it did not take long to make her new
boarders "know their places," so far as their rooms were concerned. That
house was largely made up of its one "wing," on the first floor of which
was the dining-room and sitting-room, all in one. In the second story of
it were two bedrooms, opening into each other. The first and larger one
was assigned to Dab and Ford, and the inner one to Frank.
"Yours is a coop," said Ford to his friend from India; "but ours is big
enough. You can come in here to study, and we'll fix it up prime. The
stove's a queer one. Guess they burn wood up here mostly."
Of course, so long as there was a good "wood-lot" on the outlying farm
that belonged to Mr. Hart's speculation.
The stove was a little box of an affair, with two "griddles" on top, and
was quite capable of warming that floor.
"She's putting Dick away in back somewhere," said Frank. "We must look
and see what she's done for him."
The main building of that house was only big enough for a "hall," a
good-sized parlor opening into it on the right, a bedroom and large
closet back of that, and two rooms overhead; but the kitchen and
milk-room back, which must have been stuck on at a later day, had only
one wide, low garret of a room in the space under the roof. It was
lighted by a dormer window, and it did not contain any stove. The floor
was bare, except in the spot covered by an old rug before the little
narrow bed; but there was a table and a chair, by standing on either of
which Dick would be able to put his hand upon the unceiled rafters and
boards of the roof. On the whole, it was a room well calculated to be as
hot as possible in summer, and as cold as possible in winter, but that
would do very well in spring and autumn. At all events, it was "as good
as he had been used to at home." Mrs. Myers herself said that to Almira;
and the answer was,--
"Guess it is, and better too."
Dick never dreamed of making any criticisms. In fact, his young brains
were in a whirl of excitement, through the dust of which every thing in
and about Grantley took on a wonderfully rosy color.
"Dis room?" he said to his inquiring friends when they looked in on him.
"How does I like dis room? It's de bes' room in de house. I
shall--study--hard--in--this--room."
"Bully for you," said Ford; "but you mustn't forget there's a stove in
our room, when cold weather comes. Got your books out?"
"Here they are. I will pile them upon the table."
"Stick to it, Dick," said Ford. "But it's about time we set out for Dr.
Brandegee's.--Dab, hadn't we better kindle a fire before we go? It makes
me feel chilly to think of it."
"We'll all be warm enough before he gets through with us," said Dab.
"But the sooner we get there, the better. Maybe there are other boys,
and we must go in first."
"Come on, Dick."
Not one of them seemed to be in a hurry, in spite of Dab's prudent
suggestion; and at the bottom of the stairs they were met by Mrs. Myers.
"Going for your examination? That's right. Dinner'll be ready at
half-past twelve. When, school's opened, it will be a few minutes
earlier, so you'll have plenty of time to eat and get back. Dick, as
soon as your examination's over, I want you to come right back here, so
I can finish making my arrangement with you."
"Yes, ma'am. I will return at once."
"You said that tip-top," said Dab, the moment they were on the sidewalk;
"but I can't guess what she means. Ham Morris made all the bargain for
you when he settled for me. S'pose it's all right, though."
"Course it is. I's got to work out half my board a-doin' chores. Jes'
wot I's been used to all my life."
Frank Harley had seen a great many people, considering how young he was;
and he had done less talking than the rest, that morning, and more
"studying" of his landlady and her daughter. The results of it came out
now.
"Tell you what, boys: if I'm not mistaken, Dick Lee'll pay more for his
board than we will for ours."
"I don't care," said Dick bravely. "It's wuff a good deal to feed a boy
like me."
His mother had told him so, many a time; and in that matter "Glorianna"
had not been so far from the truth.
Ham Morris had indeed made a careful and particular bargain for Dick,
and that his duties about the house should not interfere with his
studies. He had done more; for he had insisted on buying Dick's
text-books for him, and had made him promise to write to him about the
way things went at Grantley.
Up the street marched the four new boys, still a little slowly, until
Ford broke out into a sudden word of encouragement,--
"Look here, boys, we're a set of wooden-heads! I'd like to know if we
need be afraid of any thing Joe and Fuz Hart could go through?"
"Well, I guess not," replied Dab. "Let's push ahead."
He found himself leading the procession when it went through Dr.
Brandegee's front gate; and there was a look of admiration on Dick's
face, when he saw how promptly and courageously "Captain Dab Kinzer"
pulled that door-bell.
"This way, please," said the servant who opened the door,--"into the
library. The doctor'll see you in a minute."
"And we'll see him," muttered Ford, as they walked in, and he added in a
whisper to Dick,--
"That's his portrait. There, over the mantel."
"Jes' so," said Dick, coming dangerously near smiling; "an' his name den
was Oliver Cromwell, an' dey dressed him up in sheet iron."
That was the name printed under the engraving; but the smile had barely
time to fade from Dick's face, before a door opened on the opposite side
of the room, and the dreaded Principal of Grantley Academy walked in.
"Good-morning, my young friends. Glad to see you so early."
His hand was out towards Dick Lee, as he spoke; and they all had what
Ford afterwards called "a good square shake of it," by the time they
recovered their tongues, and replied to that genial, hearty, encouraging
welcome.
Dick couldn't have helped it, if he had tried,--and he somehow forgot to
try,--a broad grin of delight spread all over his face, as he looked up
in that of the doctor.
The latter himself was smiling a good deal as if he could not help it,
but he did not know the exact reason why every one of those boys looked
so cheerful just then.
The thought in Ford's mind came within an inch of getting out over his
tongue.
"Dwarf? Why, he's more like a giant. How Joe and Fuz Hart did spin it!"
The great man was certainly a good "six feet two," and all his bodily
proportions were correspondingly ample.
Frank Harley was the last to be shaken hands with, and so had time to
think,--
"Afraid of him? Why, he's too big to be afraid of. We're all right."
That was the whole truth. Dr. Brandegee was too big, in mind as well as
body, for any boy of their size to feel at all uneasy after the first
half-minute of looking in his calm, broad, thoughtful face. Every member
of that quartet began to feel a queer sort of impatience to tell all he
knew about books.
The doctor mentioned the fact that he had that morning received letters
from their parents and friends, announcing their arrival; but the oddity
of it was that he seemed to know, at sight, the right name for each boy,
and the right boy for each name.
"He might have guessed at Dick," thought Ford; "but how did he know me?"
Perhaps a quarter of a century spent in receiving, classifying, and
managing young gentlemen of all sorts had given the man of learning
special faculties for his work.
"I shall have to ask you a few questions, my young friends; but I think
there will be little difficulty in assigning you your places and
studies. Be seated, please."
That library was plainly a place where no time was to be wasted, for in
less than a minute more Ford Foster was suddenly stopped in the middle
of a passage of easy Latin,--
"That will do. Give me a free translation."
Ford did so, glibly enough; but there followed no word of comment,
favorable or otherwise. Similar brief glimpses were taken of three or
four other studies; and then the doctor suddenly remarked to him, in
French,--
"Your father has written me very fully concerning your previous studies.
You are well prepared, but you have plenty of hard work before you."
Ford fairly strained his best French in the reply he made; and the
doctor observed,--
"I see. Constant practice. I wish more parents would be as wise.--Mr.
Harley, I had not been informed that you spoke French. You noticed Mr.
Foster's mistake. Please correct it for him."
Frank blushed to his eyes, but he obeyed; and he hardly knew how it was,
that, before the doctor's rapid questioning was over, his answers had
included the whole range of his schooling and acquirements.
"Isn't dey doin' fine!" was the proud thought in the mind of Dick Lee.
"But jes' wait till he gits hol' ob Cap'n Dab!"
Dick's confidence in his friend was at least ten times greater than
Dabney's in himself. The very air of the room he was in seemed, to the
latter, to grow oppressively heavy with learning, and he dreaded his own
turn more than ever. While he was waiting for it to come, however, some
casual reference to Long Island by the doctor, and a question as to the
precise character of its southern coast, rapidly expanded into a wider
range of geography, upon the heels of which history trod a little
carelessly, and other subjects came tumbling in, until Dabney discovered
that he was computing, at the doctor's request, sundry arithmetical
results, which might with greater propriety have been reserved for his
"examination." That, too, was the way poor Dick Lee came to make so bad
a breakdown. His shining face would have told, even to eyes less
practised than those of Dr. Brandegee, exactly the answer, as to kind
and readiness, which he would have made to every question put to his
white friends. That is, unless he had been directly called upon to
"answer out aloud." There is no telling what he would have done in such
a case as that.
The doctor found out, for he quietly shifted his last question over
Dab's left shoulder, and let it fall upon Dick in such a way as not to
scare him.
"You's got me, dis time! Dat's de berry place whar we stopped at de end
of our school, las' year."
"Then, I think I know about where it's best for you to begin. I'll have
another talk with you about it, Richard. You must come up and see me
again."
It was not a great deal to say; but the way in which he said it plainly
added,--
"I mean to be your friend, my dear boy. I'll do all I can to help you
along."
Dick understood it too, but he was feeling dolefully about his tongue
just then.
"Missed fire de fust time!" he said to himself; but he carefully
replied, aloud,--
"Thank you, sir. Will you tell me when to come?"
"To-night, right away after tea. Now, young gentlemen, I must bid you
good-morning. Bear in mind that the first law of Grantley Academy is
punctuality. I expect you to be in your places promptly at nine o'clock,
Monday morning."
"We will, sir," said Dabney. "But will you please tell us when we are to
be examined?"
"I believe, Mr. Kinzer, I have a fair idea of the use you have made of
your books up to this time. No further examination will be necessary. I
will see you all, with others, after school is opened, next Monday."
They were politely shown out of the library, but they did not clearly
comprehend the matter until they had drawn each a good long breath in
the open air.
"Dab," said Ford, "can't you see it?"
"I'm beginning to. Seems to me we've been through the sharpest
examination I ever heard of. I say, Frank, do you know any thing he
didn't make you tell him?"
"Nothing but Hindustanee and a little Teloogoo. Well, yes, I know a
Karen hymn. He got all the rest, if I'm not mistaken."
There was no doubt at all but what Dr. Brandegee had gained a correct
view of the attainments of his new pupils.