Peter Keens was in most respects a very good boy; but he had one fault,
which, though it might not at first thought seem a very grave one, can
never be indulged in without bringing many worse ones in its train, and
sadly lowering the whole tone of a boy's character. He was full of
curiosity--that curiosity which leads one to be always prying into the
affairs of others. The boys at school of course knew his failing, and
found in it reason for playing many a trick upon him, which is not to be
wondered at. One day, when a number of the older boys had remained
after hours to consult on the formation of a club, he crept into the
entry and listened at the door. They found out that he was there, and
all got out of a window, and locked Peter in, keeping him prisoner until
after dark, when he was let out, frightened and hungry.
The next morning he was greeted on the play-ground by shouts of "Spell
it backward!" He could not guess what was meant, and was still more
puzzled as they continued to call him "Double--back--action,"
"Reversible-engine," and other bits of school-boy wit. He begged them to
tell him, and at last some one suggested, in a tone of great disgust,
"Spell your name backward, booby, and then you'll see."
He did, and he saw: _Keens_--backward.
But he was not yet ready to cultivate straightforward spelling. That
club still bothered him; he could not give up his strong desire to find
out its secrets. By dint of much listening and spying he gathered that
it was to meet one night in a barn belonging to the father of one of the
boys, and he made up his mind to be there. He crept near the door as
darkness closed in, and listened intently. They were inside surely, for
he could hear something moving about; but he wanted to hear more than
that, so he ventured to raise the wooden latch. It made no noise; he
cautiously opened the door a trifle, and peeped in. It was dark and
quiet, so he opened it wider. It gave a loud grating creak; a scurry of
quick footsteps sounded on the floor, and then a white thing suddenly
rose before him, tall and ghostly. In an agony of fright and horror, he
turned to run, but the thing with one fearful blow struck him down,
trampled heavily over him, and sped away with a loud "Ba-ha-ha-ha-a-a!"
As Peter limped home, muddy, battered, and bruised, he wondered if any
of the boys knew that Farmer Whippletree's wretched old billy-goat was
in the barn that night.
They did.
"How did you leave William, Peter?" he was asked at least twenty times
in the course of the next day. In the grammar class a boy who was called
on for a sentence wrote, "A villain is more worthy of respect than a
sneak."
"Oh no, not quite that," remarked the teacher, "but--neither can be a
gentleman."
On a morning in early July he received as usual the family mail from the
carrier at the door, and carried it to his mother, examining it as he
went. A postal card excited his curiosity; it was, he knew, from his
aunt, in whose company he was to go to the mountains, and he was anxious
to know what she said. But one of his friends was waiting for him to go
and catch crabs and minnows for an aquarium, and as the morning hours
are the best for such work, they were in a hurry. So he slipped it into
his pocket to read as he went along, intending to place it where it
might be found on the hall floor when he came back, that his mother
might be deceived into thinking it had been accidentally dropped there.
But he forgot all about it before they had gone twenty steps. He spent
the morning at the creek, and the afternoon at his friend's house,
returning home in the evening. As he passed through the hall to his
mother's room, the thought of it suddenly flashed on his mind. He felt
in his pocket, with a sinking at his heart, but the card was gone.
Where? He could not pretend to imagine, as he thought of the roundabout
ramble he had taken. He got up early the next morning, and carefully
hunted over every step of the ground, but all in vain. It would have
been well if he had gone at once to his mother, and confessed what he
had done; but he delayed, still cherishing a hope of finding what he had
lost, and the longer he waited, the more impossible it became to tell.
He remembered that a boy had once said to him, "A sneak is sure to be a
coward."
More than a week after this, Peter was sitting on the piazza one evening
after tea, reading to his mother, when his friend of the creek
expedition came in.
"Here is a card I found, addressed to you, Mrs. Keens," he said. "It
must be the one you were hunting for last week, Pete."
She took it in some surprise, failing to observe the color which mounted
to Peter's face as he saw it. As she read it, a troubled expression
overspread her own.
"Ten days old, this card," she exclaimed. "'Wednesday, the 14th'--what
does it mean, Peter?" She passed it to him, and he read as follows:
"_July_ 3.
"MY DEAR RUTH,--I write to give you ample notice of a change in our
plans in consequence of Robert's partner desiring to take a trip
late in the season, obliging us to go early. So Robert, having
finished his business in Canada, is to meet us on Wednesday, the
14th, at Plattsburg. Shall stop for Peter on the evening of the
13th. Please have him ready.
"KATHERINE."
This was the 13th. Peter stared at his mother in dismay.
"I do not quite understand yet," she said. "Where did you get this card,
Philip?"
"I found it just now in the arbor where I have my museum; it had slipped
behind a box. You lost it the day we played there, didn't you, Pete?"
"How came you to have it there, Peter?"
"I--it was in my pocket, ma'am, and I dropped it, I suppose."
"_Why_ was it in your pocket? Why didn't you bring it to me?"
"I wanted--I was just going to read it."
Phil touched his hat, and quietly took his departure. Mrs. Keens said no
more, but looked again at the dates on the card.
At this moment a hack drove up, from which issued a most astonishing
outpouring of noisy, laughing, chattering blue-flannelled boys, followed
by a mother who looked just merry enough to be commander of such a merry
crew.
"Hurrah! Hurrah! Pete, we're off! All ready? We can only stay two
hours."
"Such a tent--_big_, striped, and a flag to it; and--"
"Father's going to let us boys shoot with a gun."
"_Isn't_ it jolly to have two weeks less to wait?"
Peter did not look at all jolly, as through his half-bewildered mind
struggled a dim perception of the dire evil the loss of that card might
have worked for him. When the clamor of greeting and questioning had
somewhat subsided, Mrs. Keens said, slowly:
"No, Peter is _not_ ready;" and the tone of her voice sent a heavier
weight down into his heart, and a bigger lump into his throat. "Your
card has only just reached me, Katherine."
"Oh dear! dear!" His aunt shook her head in distress, and five boy faces
settled into blank dismay. "Why, why, surely you don't mean, Ruth--eh?
Can't you hurry things up a little? Boys don't need much, you know!
Or--can't he be sent after us?" Peter followed his mother to the
dining-room as she went to order a hasty lunch for the travellers.
"Mother, can't I?--_can't_ I?" he sobbed.
She put her arms around him, with streaming eyes, feeling the keenness
of the disappointment for him as deeply as he ever could feel it for
himself.
"Oh, my boy! my boy! my heart is sad and sore that you should be mean
and sly and deceitful, and not for once only, but as a habit. No, it is
your own doing, and you must abide by the consequences. I never could
have brought myself to punish you so, but you have punished yourself,
and I trust it may be the best thing which could have happened to you."
[Illustration: "WHAT ARE THE WILD WAVES SAYING?"--FROM A PAINTING BY
C. W. NICHOLLS.]