A SNUB AND THE QUICK RETORT
At half-past five o'clock the next day, Dick & Co. strolled up
to the porch of the Ashbury Terraces Hotel.
From one of the parlors a cry of recognition in a girlish voice
floated out. Then appeared the Gridley High School girls, with
Susie Sharp in the lead.
"I thought you told us you didn't have any other than your hike
clothing with you!" Susie cried accusingly to Tom Reade.
"We didn't. We told you the truth," Reade rejoined.
"Then these-----"
"These new clothes were bought with money from the treasury,"
Reade informed her.
"Does our appearance suit you, ladies?" Greg asked smiling.
"You look like so many tailor's models," replied Belle Meade,
adding, sweetly: "If that is any praise."
Certainly Dick & Co., clad in well-fitting white duck suits, presented
a creditable appearance.
"We've been preparing our friends at the Terraces for a different
looking lot of young men," laughed Susie. "We have told them
that a number of high school boy friends of ours were coming
over to dinner and the hop attired in the same clothes they have
been wearing in camp and on the road. Now we must apologize to
them for presenting fashion plates."
The explanation, as Dick presently furnished it to Laura Bentley,
was a simple one. Dick had been handling the funds of the six
boys on this expedition, which had held out much longer than any
of his chums had known. At the time of accepting the invitation
young Prescott had felt sure that an Ashbury clothier would be
able to furnish proper clothes for his party, and his guess had
proved a correct one. Moreover, the treasury of Dick & Co. had
been easily able to endure the drain, for these white clothes
had not been costly.
Mrs. Bentley presently joined the little Gridley group of young
people on the veranda. That good lady noted, with secret pleasure,
the well-groomed appearance of her young guests.
"Rah, rah, rah!" came boisterously up the veranda, as the camp
visitors of the evening before suddenly appeared. "Rah, rah,
rah!"
Then, halting in a compact group midway on the veranda, they shouted
in chorus:
"S-A-U-N-D-E-R-S! Saunders! Saunders! Siss-boom-a-a-ah! Rah,
rah, rah!"
"College boys!" exclaimed Susie Sharp in an impatient undertone.
"College boys, and the worst of their kind. They're noisy nuisances!"
"So far as any other guest has been able to discover they haven't
any manners," Belle added.
Then, espying the girls and their guests the rah-rah-rah boys
came briskly up the veranda.
"Good evening, Miss Meade!" called one of them, lifting his hat.
"Glorious evening, isn't it? How many dances may I have the
honor of claiming at the hop to-night?"
Belle Meade blushed slightly and drew back a step, resenting the
young man's familiarity.
In front of the presumptuous youth stepped Dave Darrin, with eyes
flashing.
"Kindly keep your distance, young man!" Dave advised, in a tone
of dangerous quiet.
"Who asked you to speak?" inquired the rah-rah youth mockingly.
"I am a friend of the young lady, and she finds your presence
an intrusion," replied Darry, controlling himself by a mighty
effort.
"All guests of the hotel are supposed to be acquainted," urged
the rah-rah youth, reddening a trifle.
"These young ladies do not wish to recognize you and your friends
as acquaintances," replied Dave. "Kindly efface yourselves!"
"Don't make your lack of breeding too conspicuous," Dick advised,
in a quiet undertone, to another of the intruders who had pushed
forward to join in the conversation.
A sudden sense of discomfort seemed to sweep over the eight presuming
young men. They turned and moved away, though muttering among
themselves.
"That is the kind of young men I thought they were," Laura observed.
"I am glad that you boys sent them off about their own affairs."
Dr. Bentley joined the young people last of all.
"I have just returned from a long walk," he explained. "I have
to make the most of these brief summer vacations of mine."
When dinner was announced, Dr. and Mrs. Bentley and the young
people took seats at a long table reserved for their party.
It was a pleasant meal in the midst of an animated scene.
Over at another table the rah-rah boys made a good deal of noise
until the head waiter went to them, uttering a few words in low
tones. After that the rah-rah youngsters quieted down considerably.
A delightful half-hour stroll on the verandas followed the dinner.
Then, like most of the guests, the Gridley young people drifted
into the hotel ballroom where the musicians were playing a march.
Dick secured Mrs. Bentley for the first dance, as the doctor preferred
to remain on the veranda. Then, after the first dance, a general
change of partners was made.
But the Gridley boys were too well bred to claim all the dances
with their girl friends. Laura and her friends had other acquaintances
at the hotel. Dick & Co. stood back to give these other young
men a fair opportunity of securing some dances with the girls.
It was eleven o'clock when the hop had finished. For a few moments
Dick & Co. chatted with the Gridley High School girls on the porch.
Then they prepared to take their leave.
"We've had a splendid time, for which we must thank you all,"
Dick declared. "We did not look for any such pleasant evening
as this has been when we left home on our hike."
"We are indebted to you all for the most delightful time of our
lives," Tom stated formally with a very low bow.
"We couldn't have had a nicer time under any circumstances. Thank
you all," Dave Darrin said, on taking leave.
The other boys found words in which to fitly express their pleasure
and gratitude.
Then, as Mrs. Bentley and the girls went in side the hotel, the
Gridley High School boys wheeled to march back to camp.
"I wonder what the head waiter said to the rah-rah boys?" asked
Reade curiously.
"I don't know, but I can guess the meaning of what he said," laughed
Darry. "Did you ever see such an ill-bred lot of fellows before!"
"They're not college boys," Dick declared quietly. "I don't know
where they came from, but certainly none of them have ever been
through as much as a year in any real college."
"They're about as frisky as some college boys," retorted Danny
Grin.
"College boys may be full of mischief, at times," Dick returned,
"but at least they know how to behave well when they should do
so. College men never think it funny to be rude with women, for
instance. College men are usually the sons of well-bred parents,
and they also acquire additional finish at college. Moreover,
the English language is one of the subjects taught in colleges.
These cheeky rah-rah boys were very slip-shod in their speech.
I don't know who these fellows are, but they're not real college
men."
"Say, it must be nice," remarked Hazelton, "to be able to travel
about the country, stopping at such nice hotels. Laura and her
friends manage to have pretty good times."
"Their families are all better off than ours, in a worldly sense,"
Dick replied. "When you stop to think of it, there are far more
girls than boys in our good old high school who come from comfortable
homes. Perhaps two dozen of our high school fellows come from
homes of considerable wealth. The rest of us don't. More than
half of the Gridley High School girls come from families where
servants are kept. I wonder if it is that way, generally, in
the United States?"
Prescott had unwittingly stumbled upon a fact often noted. The
homes of plain American wage earners send more boys than girls
to high school. The well-to-do families send more of their boys
to private schools, while their girls are more likely to attend
high school.
However, as the boys neared their camp, all other thoughts were
driven from their minds.
Tom Reade, who was leading, stopped abruptly, holding up one hand.
"Now, what do you think of anyone who would do a trick like that?"
he demanded with a sharp in-drawing of his breath.
"The sneaks!" breathed Darry fiercely.
"Who could have done it?" gasped Greg.
For the tent was down---flat. The wagon lay on its side, nor
was the horse anywhere in sight.
"Did those rascally tramps follow us and watch their chance?"
demanded Dave Darrin hotly.
"I don't believe the tramps did it," spoke Prescott, in a very
quiet voice, though an angry flush rose to his face. "I believe
that we must look in a different direction for the offenders."
"The rah-rah hoodlums?" gasped Greg Holmes.
"Yes," Dick nodded.