Tom Reade, "Rip is walking
all the way to the Land of Sweet Tempers. Probably he's doing
it on a wager, and is just beginning to realize what a long road
lies ahead of him. I wonder if he'll, arrive at his destination
during his lifetime?"

Fred's shoes, usually so highly polished, were already thick with
dust. His collar, ordinarily stiff and immaculate, was sadly
wilted and wrinkled. His whole air was one of mingled dejection
and rage.

"I wonder what can have happened to him?" asked Susie curiously.

"I think his conscience may be chasing him," smiled Dick.

What really had happened was that Squire Ripley had been present
when his son had made a very disrespectful answer to a white-haired
man, one of the guests at the Lakeview House where the Ripleys
were stopping.

In a great rage the lawyer had decided to send his son home for
that act of gross disrespect to the aged.

To make the punishment more complete, Mr. Ripley had ordered his
son to make the long journey on foot over the hills to the railway
station. Only enough money had been handed the young man to buy
his railway ticket home. The dress suit case had been added
in order to make his progress more difficult.

"A young man who cannot treat the aged with proper respect must
be dealt with severely," said Lawyer Ripley to his son. "You
will reach home fagged out from your long tramp. For your fare,
until your mother and I return, you will have to depend on such
food as the servants at home can spare you from their larder.
Don't you dare order anything from the stores to be charged against
me. Now, go home, drowse out your summer in the hot town and
reflect on what a mean cad you have shown yourself to be to-day."

While Fred was thinking this all over he glanced up suddenly,
to see fourteen pairs of Gridley eyes fixed upon him. The young
people, as soon as they found themselves observed, immediately
turned their glances away from the sullen looking young pedestrian
from their school.

"I wonder what has happened to Fred Ripley?" Susie repeated, when
the object of their remark was some distance away. "Something
has gone very wrong with him. A blind man could see that much."

During this time Fred was thinking to himself:

"If the guv'nor subjects me to this degradation just for one sharp
answer to an old man, what would that same guv'nor do to me if
he knew all the things that I've been engaged in up here at the
lake? What if he knew