:

"Now, what in the world made you two boys go on that camping
escapade? I want you to tell me that, Dick."

The boy hesitated a moment and then said:

"Why, I really don't know, Doctor--we just wanted to. You see, there
are so many things to see and listen to at night that way. Birds and
animals, I mean. Ned and I are going to be explorers some day, you
know."

"Hum!" said the doctor.

"Well, that will do for the present, Williams. I hope you understand
that you are escaping serious trouble very easily and that you mean
to be as good as you can for the rest of the time you are at the
school."

Fanner Field received Ned and Dick with an air of gruffness that was
belied by twinkling blue eyes and, when Ned had finished telling
his story and offered to pay for the chicken, said:

"Did you take that chicken out of my poultry-house?"

"Not exactly, but it's the same thing. We knew about it and helped
eat it."

"Was it tender?" asked the farmer.

"No, sir, it was the toughest thing I ever put in my mouth."

"I thought so. Why, that rooster was a regular antique. He must have
been a hundred years old. Next time you want a chicken for a late
supper, better let me choose it for you. Who helped you eat that
rooster?"

"Please don't ask us that. We'll tell you anything about ourselves,
but we can't give him away."

"Wouldn't think much of you if you did. No need of it anyhow. I know
who it was."

"He must have told you then, for we haven't told anybody."

"Do you remember that while you were cooking that rooster out in my
woods, Steve Daly, your companion, said he heard somebody in the
bushes and you said it was only a dog?"

"Yes, I remember it. I did say that."

"Well, I was that dog!"

"And you never told on us?" asked Dick. "Then you've been mighty
kind and I'm ashamed to look you in the face."

"Never be ashamed to look anyone in the face, my boy. It isn't good
to take even a little thing that doesn't belong to you, but that
won't happen again to you. But weren't you playing truant when you
had that tough supper in my woods? Doesn't your conscience trouble
you at all about that?"

"Not a bit," said Dick; "that wasn't mean."

It was fortunate for Dick's peace of mind that his conscience wasn't
troubled by mischief, for he was never out of it and was at the root
of about all the purely mischievous happenings at the school.

Even the lesson of the camping incident and the doctor's kindly talk
wo