CHAPTER XVI.

THE PUPILS FOR THE NEXT YEAR.

As soon as the fathers of the last two recruits to the school had been landed, the Sylph went out to the lake again, and started on a long cruise, from which she did not return till after dark. The principal went ashore at Plattsburgh, and the boys took some more lessons in rowing.

At dinner and supper on this day, the Topovers were seated with the family, and were not required to sit at a second table. On the return, Kidd Digfield was sent to the pilot-house to take a lesson in steering, for any of the deck-hands were liable to be called upon to act as wheelmen. The reprobate was not willing to confess that he was delighted with this occupation, even though he had to act under the orders of Dory Dornwood.

He soon got the hang of the wheel; and because he was interested in his occupation, in spite of his efforts to appear otherwise, he was an apt scholar. It was not a difficult thing to learn, as long as a course was given to him; and he soon felt quite at home at the wheel.

"I rather like this thing," said Kidd, when he joined his associates on the lower deck. "I have steered the steamer nearly all the way since we left Plattsburgh."

"You are a traitor, Kidd Digfield!" was the reply with which the chief Topover received this manifestation of pride on the part of one of his band. "You will give us all away."

"What do you mean by traitor, Tom Topover?" demanded Kidd.

"Do you think I would let Dory Dornwood boss me?" growled Tom.

"He is the captain of the steamer; and I would rather have him boss me in the steamer, than have you do it in a sailboat, for he knows what he is about every time."

"All right! You have gone over to the enemy."

"What's the use to talk about bossing, Tom?" interposed Nim Splugger. "You want to be boss all the time; and, in a boat, you are ten times as rough with a fellow as Dory Dornwood. He is as polite as a dancing-master."

"Then you are going to leave me to fight this thing out alone?" demanded Tom, disgusted with the admissions of his friends. "You don't catch me bending my knee to Dory Dornwood."

"He don't ask any fellow to bend his knee to him. He shows you how to do a thing, and don't bully, like you do, Tom," added Kidd.

"If you think more of him than you do of me, you can throw me over," added Tom, with a show of meekness. "But I thought you were going to make the best of it till we had a good chance to make a strike."

"I am making the best of it, and I am getting along first-rate," added Kidd, as he turned upon his heel and walked away.

"When there is a chance to do any thing, you will find us there," added Nim Splugger. "But I think you are making a fool of yourself, by setting your teeth even against things you like. I have had a first-rate time to-day, and we are living as well as we should at the hotel."

"And when you go on shore you will be locked into a room with iron bars on the windows," sneered Tom.

"The room has a good bed, and every thing a fellow wants in it. The lock and the bars don't hurt me, but they will not be kept up a great while. I didn't expect to like it; but I do like it, and we are having plenty of fun every hour in the day."

"I don't want to cave in, but I like this thing as well as Kidd and Nim," added Pell Sankland.

"It is vacation now, and we are doing nothing but play with this steamer. What will you do when you are set down to your books, or made to shove a foreplane all the afternoon?" asked Tom, with the curl of disgust hanging about his lips still.

"What did we build the Thunderer for?" demanded Nim sharply.

"For fun, of course. We shouldn't have done it if it had been hard work."

"All the tools we had were a shingling-hatchet, a bucksaw, and a half-inch auger; and we worked for a week for the fun of it!" exclaimed Nim warmly. "Do you think there will be any less fun in working three or four hours in the afternoon with good tools, and machinery to help us?"

"It's no use to talk with you, Nim Splugger. You have sold out," replied Tom. "You want to be under Dory Dornwood's thumb; and you may do it if you like, I shall not."

"You will be under his thumb just as much as I am, whether you like it or not; and if you want to get licked into doing what you are told, like a contrary horse, you can do it if you like," answered Nim, as he turned on his heel, as his companion had done, and left the impracticable leader.

"Those fellows don't like to study their lessons any better than I do, and I guess they will have enough of it here," added Tom.

"We can all read, write, and cipher; and we don't have to study such things as we did at the town-school," replied Pell Sankland.

"I am not going to stay in this school any longer than I can help. As soon as I get a chance, I shall be among the missing, though all the rest of the fellows have deserted me," added Tom.

"I don't believe in kicking at nothing, Tom," argued Pell. "It only wrenches a fellow's foot. We have all had a good time since we were raked in, and I don't believe in making a row as long as things go well with us. You don't get such roast beef as we had for dinner to-day when you are at home, nor such puddings and pies."

"The grub is good enough, but I would rather be free than to be well fed. I must have my liberty."

"We have liberty enough for me on board of this steamer," said Pell, as in turn he, too, turned on his heel, and left the chief to his own reflections.

Tom Topover was restored to the room in which he had first been placed; and he had a good bed, though he was locked in, and the iron bars confronted him at the windows. As the recruits were not outwardly refractory, they were taken to the table in the house, with the others of the principal's family; for he regarded his students as a part of his family, and treated them as such.

Every day during the week the Sylph was moving about the lake. In conformity with his new idea, the principal was notifying the parents of the new pupils he had decided to accept for the term of the coming year. They were all the sons of poor people, and some of them were quite as hard boys as Tom Topover. In fact, he had selected them because they were not controllable by their parents and teachers. The Beech-Hill School was to assume the character, in part, of a reformatory institution.

The half of the school that remained over were in excellent discipline, and would give the principal no trouble. Three days before the term was to begin, there were still six vacancies in the roll, and the principal was in doubt. Just at this time he received a visit from the six young firemen, as he called them to distinguish them from the rest of the Topovers, with whom they had been associated. The principal was rather surprised to see them. He had learned from his sister, that they had been actively employed in rendering assistance to the Widow Sankland since the fire, not only in soliciting articles of clothing and food for them, but in sawing and splitting her wood, and doing other chores about the house. Two of them had even spent three days in taking care of the children when she was at work; for the fire, and the "advertising" it had given her, had brought her a considerable increase of customers.

"Well, boys, what can I do for you this time?" asked the principal, with a pleasant smile; for he was very kindly disposed towards them since he had heard of their good deeds.

"We are almost sorry that we were not captured with the rest of the Topovers, in the Goldwing," said Ash Burton, with a smile, to indicate that he did not quite mean what he said.

"If you had been, perhaps I should have prosecuted the whole of you," replied the captain, pleasantly. "But I don't quite understand the force of your remark."

"Tom Topover and the rest of them have been rewarded for their part in the affair by being admitted as pupils of the Beech-Hill Industrial School," continued Ash. "If we had been caught in the boat, and stuck to the lies Tom told, we might have been admitted also."

"Rewarded?" exclaimed Captain Gildrock. "They have been close prisoners since they were admitted. They are locked into their rooms at night, and the windows are protected with iron bars. Do you call that rewarding them?"

"I shouldn't care any thing about the barred windows if I could only be admitted," said Sam Spottwood. "I don't say that if stealing a boat is the way to get in, we shall try to get in that way; but some other fellows might say so."

"But all four of the original Topovers fought with all their might against the discipline, till we brought them to terms; and I am sure they do not consider their admission as a reward, but as a severe punishment, even worse than being brought up before a court."

"They have been in the school over a week, sir: do they still keep up the fight?" asked Ash.

"No: they have had enough of it, and are behaving very well," replied the principal thoughtfully.

"We have talked the matter over among ourselves, and with our parents. We all agree that the Topovers were lucky to get into the school, and we all wish we were in their shoes."

"Then I will admit you all," replied Captain Gildrock.

"Will you indeed, sir? We will not give you any trouble, and we won't run away if you don't lock us up nights!" exclaimed Sam.

The boys went home to inform their parents of the good news. They were all the children of parents who could not afford to pay their tuition in any school, whatever they might learn there; and, in this respect, they were within the rule the principal had laid down for his guidance. He had been thinking over this question of admission that day. He had already decided to receive ten refractory boys, and he thought this would be enough to enable him to try the question of reform.

He was not pleased with the statement that he had rewarded the Topovers by receiving them, and he was willing to do something to remove such a mistaken impression in the community. The ranks of both classes were full now, and he had only to think of the actual work of the first term. Before the end of the last week, the instructors arrived; and they were not especially pleased when they learned the character of some of the new scholars.

The principal explained his new idea to them, and they were willing to co-operate with him in carrying out his purpose. Mr. Brookbine, the master carpenter, was a disciplinarian himself; and he did not object to the original Topovers, or to the hard boys from Whitehall, Plattsburgh, and Burlington. He was confident that he could make them work. If they did not take kindly to the use of tools, he would set them to lugging lumber, or something of that sort, till they got over their sulkiness.

"As we used to say in the navy, we must keep every thing 'all taut,' and we shall get along very well," said the principal.