“Well, what of it?  Isn’t it yours?”

“One share’s mine, the rest yours and Dick’s.”

“He needs it more’n I do.”

“Ford, did you know Dick was real bright?”

“’Cute little chap as I ever saw.  Why?”

“Well, he ought to go to school.”

“Why don’t he go?”

“He does, except in summer.  He might go to the academy if they’d take him and he had money enough.”

“What academy?”

“Why, Grantley, of course.  I’m going, and so are you and Frank.  Why shouldn’t Dick go?”

“You’re going?  Hurrah for that!  Why didn’t you say so before?”

“Wasn’t sure till this morning.  You fellows’ll be a long way ahead of me, but I mean to catch up.”

For a few minutes poor Dick was lost sight of in a storm of talk, but Dab came back to him with: 

“Dick’s folks are dreadful poor, but we might raise it.  Twenty dollars to begin with—­”

“I’ve ten dollars laid up, and I know mother’ll say pass it right in,” exclaimed Ford.

It was hardly likely Mrs. Foster would express her assent precisely in that way, but Frank added: 

“I think I can promise five.”

“I mean to speak to Ham Morris and mother about it,” said Dab.  “All I wanted was to fix it about the twenty to start on.”

“Frank,” shouted Ford, “let’s go right in and see our crowd.”

Ford was evidently excited, and it was hardly five minutes later when he wound up his story with: 

“Father, may I contribute my ten dollars to the Richard Lee Education Fund?”

“Of course, but he will need a good deal more than you boys can raise.”

“Why, father, the advertisement says half a year for a hundred and fifty.  He can board for less than we can.  Perhaps Mrs. Myers would let him work out a part of it.”

“I can spare as much as Ford can,” said Annie.

“Do you leave me out entirely?” asked her mother, with a smile that was even sweeter than usual.  As for sharp-eyed lawyer Foster, he had been hemming and coughing in an odd sort of way for a moment, and he had said, “I declare,” several times, but he now remarked, somewhat more to the purpose:  “I don’t believe in giving any man a better education than he will ever know what to do with, but then, this Dick Lee, and you boys,—­well, see what you can do, but no one must be allowed to contribute outside of the Foster and Kinzer families and Frank.  As for the rest, hem,—­ah, I think I’ll say there wont be any difficulty.”

“You, father?”

“Why not, Annie?  Do you s’pose I’m going to be beaten by a mere country boy like Dab Kinzer?”

“Father,” said Ford, “if you’d seen how Dick behaved, that night, out there on the ocean, in the ‘Swallow!’”

“Just as well, just as well, my son!”

“Hurrah!” shouted Ford, “then it’s all right, and Dick Lee’ll have a fair shake in the world.”