ASA LEMM IS DISMISSED
While the examination of Jack and Walt was taking place in the office,
the other Rovers and their chums held a meeting in Randy's room.
"What do you suppose this means--calling Jack and Walt down to the
colonel's office?" remarked Fred anxiously. He had just been informed by
Dan Soppinger about Walt.
"It was Jack and Walt who took those goats back. Maybe somebody spotted
them," suggested Spouter.
The discussion lasted for some minutes and grew quite warm, and then
Andy leaped up.
"I know what I'm going to do!" he said. "I'm going below and try to find
out just what it means."
"And so am I," added Fred and Randy quickly.
"We'll all stand by him," announced Spouter. "Of course, you fellows
brought the goats here, but I think we had as much to do with the rest
of it as any of you."
Andy hurried off, and lost no time in making his way to the door of
Colonel Colby's private office. The door had been left slightly ajar, so
it was an easy matter for him to take in most of what was said.
"Gracious! this certainly is growing serious," he murmured to himself,
when Asa Lemm made the declaration that he would go down to Haven Point
and have Jack and Walt arrested. "I guess I had better let the others
know about it," and he scurried upstairs again.
"Oh, Andy! do you suppose old Lemon will really have them locked up?"
questioned Fred anxiously, after being told of what was taking place
below.
"I don't think he would dare to do it," announced Spouter.
"I move we all go down and take a hand in this!" cried Gif. "There is no
fairness in letting Jack and Walt suffer for what we did."
Several other cadets had drifted in, those who had either been on the
watch while the joke was being prepared or who had assisted in placing
the sheets of ice on the floor and in the bed, and all agreed that the
crowd had better stand together when it came to acknowledging what had
been done.
"Forward march!" cried Gif, who, as a leader in athletics, took it upon
himself to manage the affair. "Come on now--and no shirking!"
Braced up by numbers, all of the cadets fell in readily with this plan,
and as a consequence there were ten boys led by Gif and the Rovers who
marched down to the office.
"We'll enter by column of twos," announced Gif. "March in in regular
military fashion," he added, and then knocked upon the office door.
Colonel Colby was doing what he could to question Jack and Walt on one
hand, while trying to make Asa Lemm keep quiet on the other, when the
others arrived. The master of the Hall was having no easy time of it,
because Professor Lemm seemed to be growing more and more excited.
"I'll have the law on them, I tell you!" he cried. "They ought to go to
state's prison for this!"
"Please be quiet just a minute, Professor," remonstrated Colonel Colby.
Then came the knock on the door, and the colonel flung it open, not at
all pleased over the interruption.
"Wha--what does this mean?" gasped Asa Lemm, as he saw the double row of
cadets filing in.
"Colonel Colby, we have come to report," announced Gif, saluting.
"Please allow me to be the spokesman, Gif," pleaded Randy, stepping to
the front. And then, before his school chum could speak, he continued:
"Colonel Colby, we have come to give ourselves up."
"Give yourselves up! What do you mean, Rover?"
"We were all in this lark together, sir."
"And if there is to be any punishment we want to stand for our share of
it," added Andy.
"I think we Rover boys were more to blame than the others," put in Fred.
"You see, Professor Lemm is down on us, and we thought we had to do
something to get square," Andy endeavored to explain.
"He doesn't treat us fairly in the classroom!" cried Spouter.
"If he wasn't here we'd get along without any trouble whatever," piped
up a voice in the rear.
It must be confessed that the sudden entrance of the ten cadets, and
what they had to say concerning the joke that had been played, somewhat
stumped the master of the Hall. As for Asa Lemm, for the moment he was
dumbfounded; but then his natural antipathy to boys asserted itself, and
he glared at them viciously.
"So you were all in it, eh?" he snarled. "I might have known as much.
You are all a pack of rowdies! You are not fit to associate with
respectable people!"
"Professor Lemm, I do not wish you to address our cadets in such a
manner," said Colonel Colby sternly. "These young gentlemen are not
rowdies, even though they have played a joke which was not particularly
nice. I do not uphold them in the least in what they have done, but, at
the same time, I cannot help but remember that they are only boys, and
that boys are sometimes very thoughtless."
"Thoughtless! They think too much! I tell you, sir, they are a pack of
rowdies, and unless you punish them, and punish them severely, I shall
take the matter in my own hands and have them arrested."
"If you do anything of that sort, Professor Lemm, we will have to
dispense with your services in this school," announced Colonel Colby
flatly. He was growing weary of the irate teacher's manner.
A strenuous half hour followed, everybody present forgetting all about
roll call and breakfast. Colonel Colby did what he could in questioning
all of the cadets regarding the occurrences of the night before, but was
continually interrupted by the unreasonable teacher. Finally he could
stand it no longer, and turned to the professor with all the dignity he
could command.
"Professor Lemm, I have stood enough," he said in a cold, hard voice,
which instantly commanded attention. "I want no more such language from
you. You may go to your breakfast, and I will conduct this examination
alone, and will see you about it before we begin the day's session in
the school. And, in the meantime, allow me to impress upon you that it
is all nonsense to talk about having any of these boys arrested. They
have done nothing that warrants arrest, and if you attempt anything of
that sort, you will not only make yourself ridiculous, but you might
place yourself open to a suit for damages. Now, please leave this
office."
"I'll see about this! I'll see about this!" snapped the unreasonable
teacher, and left the office in anything but a dignified fashion.
As soon as Professor Lemm had gone, the master of the Hall questioned
the boys closely concerning, not only the affair of the night before,
but also about the troubles they had had with the teacher, both in the
classroom and elsewhere. This was the first time the boys had had a
chance to "get one in on old Lemon," as Andy afterwards declared, and
they did not mince matters in telling of the many trials and
tribulations which Asa Lemm had caused them. It is barely possible that
some of the complaints were overdrawn, yet there was such a unanimity of
opinion concerning Professor Lemm's harshness that Colonel Colby was
quite impressed.
"Now I want to ask you boys a question, and I want you to answer it
honestly," said Colonel Colby toward the close of the examination.
"Would you have played such a trick as this upon any of the other
professors?"
"I wouldn't," answered Randy quickly.
"Nor I," came from Fred and Andy.
"I'd never dream of playing such a trick on anybody but a man like
Professor Lemm," announced Jack. The others also agreed that it was not
likely any such joke would have been played on anybody else in the Hall.
"Then, evidently, none of you likes Professor Lemm," said Colonel Colby
slowly.
To this there was no reply, but the look on the faces of the various
cadets showed the master of the Hall that he had struck the truth.
"Now I'm going to ask you boys another question," he went on, after a
pause, and there was a faint smile on his face when he spoke. "Don't you
think you ought to be punished for what you have done?"
For a moment there was another silence. Then Jack spoke up.
"In one way, yes, sir; but in another, no," he replied. "Professor Lemm
treated us very unjustly in the classroom in making us stay in and
making us do extra lessons, and we didn't know of any other way to get
square with him."
"Looks to me as if we got our punishment before we played the joke,"
said Andy, and this reply made some of the cadets grin.
Colonel Colby looked out of the window, which faced the snow-covered
campus. Although the boys did not know it, he hardly knew what to say or
do. He realized that he could not pass over the occurrence without
punishing the lads, and yet he could see their point of view--that Asa
Lemm had been the first at fault in not treating them fairly during
classes.
"Order has got to be maintained in this school," he said finally, as he
faced them. "If we did not have order, the whole institution would go to
pieces. That is my first point. My second is that two Wrongs have never
yet made a Right, and instead of taking matters into your own hands, as
you did, after having trouble with Professor Lemm, you should have come
to me and told me what was wrong.
"I shall take this matter up later, after I have had an opportunity to
make further inquiries concerning your conduct. In the meantime, you
may go to breakfast, and then to your classes;" and thus he dismissed
them.
Of course, as soon as the boys were by themselves, they began to discuss
the situation from every possible angle. Several wanted to know how it
was that the master of the Hall had learned that Jack and Walt were
guilty.
"Somebody sent Colonel Colby a note about us. I saw it on his desk,"
answered Jack.
"Yes, and Asa Lemm had another note just like it," added Walt. "Some
sneak in this school must have watched us, and then sent the notes."
Much to the cadets' relief, they did not see Asa Lemm in the messroom.
Nor did the language teacher show himself during the morning session.
"Perhaps he's having another talk with Colonel Colby," suggested Fred.
The youngest Rover was right. The unreasonable teacher was closeted with
the master of the Hall for over an hour, and during that time much of
what had been told by the cadets was threshed over. Asa Lemm was as
unreasonable as ever, and finally Colonel Colby lost all patience with
him.
"I am afraid, Professor Lemm, that you are not suited to be a teacher in
this institution," he said. "Your actions here show that you are very
irritable and unreasonable. After you left this office, I questioned all
of those cadets closely, and all had practically the same story to tell;
namely, that you had required more than was fair of them in your
classes, and that, on the slightest pretext, you had punished them by
making them stay in and do extra lessons. I went into many of the
details, and I am convinced that in a good proportion of the cases the
students were right and you were wrong. Now, I regret this very much,
because I realize that----"
"Sir, I don't want to be talked to in this fashion!" cried Asa Lemm,
bridling up. "I was not in the wrong at all. Those boys are regular
imps! They don't know how to treat a teacher decently! I won't stand for
their nonsense! I want them severely punished, or else----"
"Wait a moment, Professor Lemm," interrupted the colonel, rising and
facing him sternly. "I said I was sorry, and I am; but I feel that you
are not the man to teach in this institution, and consequently I must
ask you for your resignation. I will pay you your salary up to the first
of next month, and you can leave this school just as soon as you
desire."
"Wha--what? This! to me?" ejaculated the professor in consternation.
"Yes, sir. You can draw your pay, and, if you wish, you can leave this
morning."
"But--but--this is outrageous! I won't stand it! I was hired for the
school year!"
"You were--on condition that your services were entirely satisfactory to
me. They are not satisfactory, and consequently I am giving you this
opportunity to resign."
"If I have to leave, I'll have those boys arrested!" stormed Asa Lemm.
"I don't think I'd be so foolish, if I were in your place, Professor.
What they did was nothing but a foolish schoolboy joke, and they did
that simply to get square with you for your unreasonable conduct toward
them. I think the best you can do is to drop the matter. If you insist
on dragging this affair before the public, perhaps the boys, and I,
myself, will have something to say that you will not care to hear."
"We'll see--we'll see!" cried Asa Lemm, shaking his head and with his
eyes blazing wrathfully. "We'll see about this!" and thus speaking, he
stamped away.