you'll hear from me!" answered Job Haskers, and strode off down the road in a thoroughly bad humor.
"Phew! but we are catching it all along the line," was Ben's comment. "First Plum and Poole, and now Haskers. Wonder what we'll strike next?"
"I didn't mean to hit anybody," said Dave. "How peppery he is!"
"And he thinks we took the apples from some orchard," added Sam.
"Well, such things have happened," observed Ben, with a grin.
"Which puts me in mind of another story," said Shadow. "There was a little boy, and his mother had been away nearly all day. 'Mamma,' said he when she came home, 'can I have two apples?' 'Won't one do?' she asked. 'No, I want two.' 'Very well,' said his mother. Then she saw him go to the basket and get one apple. 'I thought you wanted two,' she remarked. 'Oh,' he answered, 'I had the other one this morning!'"
Sam burst out laughing and so did the others. "I see the drift of that," said Sam. "You haven't forgotten when we went to Japlet's orchard after apples – "
"And the bull cornered Sam," said Ben. "Don't forget that, Sam."
"Nevertheless, Haskers is hard on us, and he had no business to call Dave down as he did, just for throwing the apple into the bushes."
"Perhaps he has found out something about that ram and how he got up in his room," whispered Ben, and then a laugh went up, in the midst of which the driver started up the carryall and the journey to Oak Hall was resumed.
Dave was on the watch, to catch his first sight of the school. They were passing through a bit of woodland. Now they made a turn, and rolled out in front of a broad campus lined on either side with a boxwood hedge. At each corner of the campus were clumps of monstrous oaks, the leaves of which had just begun to turn, and at the entrance were more of the same kind of trees.
The school itself was a thoroughly up-to-date structure, of brick and stone, laid out in the shape of a broad cross. The classrooms, the office, and the dining hall and kitchen were on the ground floor and the dormitories and private bedrooms and the bathrooms were above. Off to one side of the campus was the gymnasium, and down by the river were a boathouse and a row of bathing houses.
"Hurrah! Here we are at last!" cried Dave, and his heart gave a bound.
"Let us give 'em the old song, boys!" cried Sam Day, who was a good singer, and he at once started up the following, to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne":
"Oak Hall we never shall forget,
No matter where we roam;
It is the very best of schools,
To us it's just like home.
Then give three cheers, and let them ring
Throughout this world so wide,
To let the people know that we
Elect to here abide!"
They sang with a will, and when they had finished they added the old academy cry:
"Baseball!
Football!
Oak Hall
Has the call!
Biff! Boom! Bang! Whoop!"
"Hello! hello!" sang out a dozen voices from the campus. "Here come some more of the old students!"
"There's Dave Porter and Ben Basswood!"
"Hello, Dave, how do you feel after traveling across the Pacific?"
"Bring any of those South Sea Islanders with you?"
"Mighty glad to see you back, old man!"
So the cries rang on, as Dave and the others left the carryall. Dave was surrounded, and half a dozen tried to shake hands at once.
"We want you on the football team, Dave," said one.
"I'm glad to know you found your folks," added another.
"You've come back to stay now, haven't you?" asked a third.
Dave shook hands all around. As the school song had it, the place felt just like home. For the time being his heart was lighter than ever, and his return to Oak Hall filled him with more pleasure than words can express.
CHAPTER IV
IN THE DORMITORY
It took Dave several days to settle down and during that time he heard but little from Gus Plum and Nat Poole, who prudently kept their distance, awaiting the time when they might do Dave some injury.
During those days Roger Morr and Phil Lawrence arrived, both hale and hearty from their trip with Dave across the Pacific. The senator's son had spent two days in Washington with his father, while Phil had been settling up some affairs with his parent regarding the cargo of the Stormy Petrel.
"This is certainly like old times," remarked Roger, as the crowd sat in their dormitory. "I hope we have as much sport as we did last season."
"We will have, don't worry," answered Phil.
"Provided Job Haskers doesn't stop us," said Buster Beggs, who was lying across one of the beds. "Tell you what, boys, he is sharp on this term. Yesterday he caught me writing on the boathouse wall and he made me write 'chirography' five hundred times."
"Well, that's a good way to improve your handwriting," answered Dave, with a smile. "I've done a little of that sort of thing myself."
"He kept me in two hours yesterday, when I wanted to play football," growled Shadow Hamilton. "It was a burning shame."
"But what did you do?" questioned Roger.
"Oh, nothing much. Nat Poole was coming down the aisle and he made a face at me. I happened to stretch out my leg and Poole tripped and went flat. Then old Haskers said it was all my fault."
"And what did Poole say?" asked Sam, with interest.
"Oh, he threatened to punch me good – but he didn't do it. He started to quarrel after school, but Gus Plum called him off."
"Well, that was queer," observed Dave. "Generally Gus is out for a fight."
"Which puts me in mind of a story," came from Shadow. "A little – "
"Narrative No. 206," broke in Sam.
"You shan't keep me from telling it," went on Shadow, calmly. "A little man – "
"How small?" asked Roger, with a wink at the others.
"Oh, that hasn't anything to do with it. A little man once met another man – "
"Was the other man small, too?" questioned Phil, seriously.
"Never mind if he was or not. A little man once met another man who had a big bulldog with him – "
"What was the color of the bulldog?" asked Dave.
"What color? See here, I – "
"When you tell a story, Shadow, give us the details, by all means. Was he white or black, red or yellow? Or maybe he was cream-color, or sky-pink, or – "
"He was –
