“Did dey?  Well, ’taint no use.  All I’s good for is eels and crabs and clams and sech.  Har dey come.  Oh, my!”

But Ford and Frank brought a fresh gust of enthusiasm with them, and they had Dick and his eels up from the grass in short order.  “We must see Mrs. Lee right away,” said Ford.  “It would never do to let Dick tell her.”

[Illustration:  “I HASN’T SAID HE MIGHT GO.”]

“Guess dat’s so,” said Dick.

Quite an embassy they made, those four boys, with Dab Kinzer for spokesman, and Dick half crouching behind him.  Mrs. Lee listened with open mouth while Dab unfolded his plan, but when he had finished she shut her lips firmly together.  They were not very thin and not at all used to being shut, and in another instant they opened again.

“Sho!  De boy!  Is dat you, Dick?  Dat’s wot comes of dressin’ on him up.  How’s he goin’ to git clo’es?  Wot’s he got to do wid de ’cad’my, anyhow?  Wot am I to do, yer, all alone, arter he’s gone, I’d like to know?  Who’s goin’ to run err’nds an’ do de choahs?  Wot’s de use ob bringin’ up a boy ‘n’ den hab ‘im go trapesin’ off to de ’cad’my?  Wot good ’ll it do ’im?”

“I tole yer so, Dab,” groaned poor Dick.  “It aint no use.  I ’most wish I was a eel.”

Dab was on the point of opening a whole broadside of eloquence when Ford Foster pinched his arm and whispered:  “Your mother’s coming, and our Annie’s with her.”

“Then let’s clear out.  She’s worth a ten-acre lot full of us.  Come on, boys.”

If Mrs. Lee was surprised by their very sudden retreat, she need not have been after she learned the cause of it.  She stood in wholesome awe of Mrs. Kinzer, and a “brush” with the portly widow, re-enforced by the sweet face of Annie Foster, was a pretty serious matter.  Still, she did not hesitate about beginning the skirmish, for her tongue was already a bit loosened.

“Wot’s dis yer, Mrs. Kinzer, ‘bout sendin’ away my Dick to a furrin ’cad’my?  Isn’t he most nigh nuff sp’iled a’ready?”

“Oh, it’s all arranged, nicely.  Miss Foster and I only came over to see what we could do about getting his clothes ready.  He must have things warm and nice, for the winters are cold up there.”

“I hasn’t said he might go,—­Dick, put down dem eels,—­an’ he hasn’t said he’d go,—­Dick, take off your hat,—­an’ his father—­”

“Now, Glorianna,” interrupted Mrs. Kinzer, calling Dick’s mother by her first name, “I’ve known you these forty years, and do you s’pose I’m going to argue about it?  Just tell us what Dick’ll need, and don’t let’s have any nonsense.  The money’s all provided.  How do you know what’ll become of him?  He may be governor yet—­”

“He mought preach.”

That idea had suddenly dawned upon the perplexed mind of Mrs. Lee, and Dick’s fate was settled.  She was prouder than ever of her boy, and, truth to tell, her opposition was only what Mrs. Kinzer had considered it, a piece of unaccountable “nonsense,” to be brushed away by such a hand as the widow’s.