Doing his best

Front matter

By the same Author.

JACK HAZARD AND HIS FORTUNES.

i vol. i6mo $i-50

II Contests

Chapter Page

I. , A School-House Thirty Years ago . . 7

II. Jack's First Day at School . . 17

III. " Step Hen " Treadwell and the Big Boys 26

IY. How Byron Dinks kept School ... 33

Y. A new " Tie " between Jack and Phin . 43

YI. How Jack got into a Fight ... 50

VII. Master Dinks takes a Hand ... 55

VIII. An Unexpected Meeting .... 63

IX. In the Evening 69

X. Jack's Good Fortune 76

XI. The Adventure at the Village Tavern 82

XII. The Best-natured Man in the World . 89

XIII. Annie Felton's Home .... 96

XI Y. Moses brings Good News . . . .102

XV. Good-natured John Wilkins once more 109

XYI. The Strange Visitor 118

XVII. Percy Lanman's School . . . . 123

XVIII. The Boys go into Business .... 128 iv CONTENTS.

XIX. The Sugar-Bush 132

XX. The Great Scheme .... 141

XXI. The Caravan 147

XXII. Breaking the Colt . . . . ' 153

XXIII. Going to the Menagerie . . . 158

XXIV. In the Tent 165

XXV. The Pipkins ride the Young Elephant 172

XXVI. How Phin saw the "Zebray" . .180

XXVII. Extra Performance by the Old Elephant 184

XXVIII. The Catastrophe 186

XXIX. An Elephant Hunt, and what followed 192

XXX. Phin's Progress 200

XXXI. Business Prospects .... 207

XXXII. The Raccoon Hunt 213

XXXIII. The 'Coon that Lion treed . . 219

XXXIV. Phin's Revenge 223

XXXV. How Phin and Lion were welcomed 228

XXXVI. Dr. Lamont's Little Game . . .234

XXXVII. Why Phin was late .... 240

XXXVIII. Discovery . 246

XXXIX. Mr. Chatford explains . . . 251

XL. Another Little Secret .... 257

XLI. Jack's Journey 264

XLII. Who won at Last 273

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page The Old Elephant's Extra Performance . . Frontispiece.

Snapping the Whip 28

How Step Hen helped 30

Master Dinks's School 40

The Battle 53

Rather Rough 60

"Take him off!" 87

"Jest a good-natered Trick, ye know" . . . 110

A Recognition 116

Gathering the Sap 134

"Sugaring off" in the Woods 138

The 'Lectrical 'Lixir Man 162

The Young Elephant's Ague-Fit 178

The Elephant Hunt 194

Caught 205

Jack and Snowfoot 211

The 'Coon that Lion treed 222

The Prince in his Castle 230

The Doctor's Little Game • 236

Jack sets out on his Journey 266

"Why don't you hitch up, Phin?" .... 278

DOING HIS BEST.

CHAPTEE I

A SCHOOL-HOUSE THIRTY YEARS AGO.

EACON* CHATFOED

reached up to the old-fashioned clock-case, opened it, and took out a key.

" Here, boys ! " he cried to the youngsters in the kitchen, " which of you is going to unlock the school-house and build a good fire for the master this morning? I guess you are the lad, Phineas ! "

" Let the master build his own fires," muttered Phineas. "Masters always have done it in our deestrict, and they will, for all me."

" I '11 do it," said one of his companions, stepping forward.

" I '11 go too, if Jack does ! " and Phineas sprang to get possession of the key. A scuffle ensued, for it was already in Jack's hand, and he was not inclined to give it up.

" There, there, boys ! " said the deacon, " it 's nothing you need quarrel about. Both go, if you want to. The school-house may need brushing up a little, for though it was left in good order when Annie's school closed, some roguish boys have been in at one of the windows since. I meant to have it seen to, but forgot all about it."

" The day you 've looked forward to so long, Jack, has come at last," said Mrs. Chatford, smiling. " I wish Phineas was half as eager for school as you are."

" Maybe I should n't care any more about it than he does, if I had had as much of it," said Jack. " I' ve a good deal of lost time to make up."

" You 've been making it up pretty well since you came to live with us, I should think, by Annie's account. She says you can do as hard sums as Phineas can, — and I know you can read as well."

" Ho ! " sneered Phineas, enviously ; " guess you don't know ! You have n't heard me read as well as I can ; and as for ciphering, — I can cipher him into the middle of next week ! I can cipher his legs off!"

" I hope you won't try," replied Jack ; " I 've no legs to spare ! "

" Phin 's great at bragging," said the elder son, Moses, good-naturedly. " But if he don't take care, before winter 's over he won't be in sight of Jack's coat-tails, in ciphering or anything else."

Phin, not knowing what else to say, fell back upon a celebrated blunder of Jack's, asking derisively, " Eead the Bible much lately, Jack ? Say ! do ye remember Joseph's 'coat of many collars ' ? O Jack!"

Jack paid no attention to this taunt ; but, hastily changing his coat and vest, combing his hair, and taking his books and slate under his arm, he started for the school-house, accompanied by Phin.

" There comes old Lion ! " cried Phin. " Don't send him back ! I tell you ! le's make him lie down under our seat, and then, if the master goes to lick us, set him on ! "

But Jack did not seem to regard this lively idea as altogether practicable. Calling the dog to his side, he began to reason with him.

" See here, old fellow ! you 're a mighty knowing dog, but you 're not quite up to the spelling-book ; do you think you are ? Did n't know we were going to school, did you ? 'T would make the children laugh and play, to see a dog at school. Don't be silly. Good by ! "

" I believe he understands you ! " said Phin. Indeed, the dog, after standing for some time and watching the boys as they went down the road, turned about and trotted homewards, like the reasonable dog he was. " I '11 be inside the school-house first," then said Phin. " Bet my knife against yours."

" 0, pshaw ! you know I can run faster than you can. I don't want to get your knife away from you," said Jack.

But Phin insisted. " Come, you don't dare take me up!" He spoke so confidently, that Jack, never suspecting the treachery that might lurk behind the wager, accepted it ; and at the word " Now ! " from Phin, they started. Jack soon outstripped him; and Phin, laughing, fell into a slow walk.

" I '11 have a good fire by the time you get there ! " cried Jack from a distance of several rods, and felt in his pocket for the key. Not finding it, he explored his other pockets. " Hullo, Phin ! have you seen the key?"

" I saw you put it in your pocket ; and now, if you have lost it — "

" You 've got it, you rogue ! "

Phin laughed. "Now who'll be in the school-house first ? Jack ! What do you say now ? "

"I say you 're a first-class pickpocket. Never mind. I will win the bet now ! "

" You can't get in without the key ! " " See if I can't ! "

" Hold on ! " shouted Phin, as Jack began to run again. " I '11 go back home ! I '11 throw the key into the ditch, if you don't wait for me ! "

Deaf to these boyish threats, Jack kept on running, and soon reached the old red brick school-house at the corners. It stood a little back from the two roads which there crossed each other ; but there was no fence, no yard about it, only a strip of hard-trodden ground before the door, in the angle formed by the two streets. The roadside was the play-ground. Not a shade tree was near. Behind the school-house was a field, enclosed by a zigzag fence. This came up to opposite corners of the house, the brick walls of which completed the enclosure, and made a saving of rails.

Jack tried the padlock on the door, and, finding that it could not be opened without a key, took a convenient rail from the fence, and put it up to one of the windows. These were placed high, to prevent schoolchildren within from looking out, and rogues without from getting in. He climbed up the rail, and found that the window-fastenings had already been forced, as Mr. Chatford conjectured. He raised the sash, and, entering head foremost, let himself down by his hands upon a broad desk or counter within.

" 0, that ain't fair ! " cried Phin, coming around the corner just in time to see the pair of legs disappear ; « breaking into a winder ! I should think you 'd tried that once too often a'ready ! Got took up for it, any way. I bet I 'd be in the door first ; and here I am ! I '11 take that knife, if you please," added Master Chatford, confidently putting out his hand as he came ' in through the entry.

" You thought I w T as going to call on you for your knife, and said that to get the start of me," laughed Jack. " But I don't want your knife."

" Do you know, that 's Squire Peternot's lot behind the school-house, an,d it's his rail you took ? Better look out for the old man ; he 's got a grudge against you ! " said Phin.

DOING HIS BEST.

" I was just going to put the rail back and bring in my books/' said Jack.

" Put 'em on this desk, and hurry, or some other fellers '11 be here. This is the boys' side, and these are the best seats in the house, — close to the door ; we can cut out first when school 's dismissed."

Jack was not anxious to share that privilege with Phin ; indeed, he would have preferred not to sit with that young gentleman in school. But Phin, notwithstanding his taunts and sneers, had a vast respect for Jack's courage and prowess, and determined to make him his champion that winter against the oppression of the big boys. So, while Jack was preparing to kindle a fire in the great oblong stove that stood on a broad brick hearth in the centre of the room, Phin placed the books on a shelf under the counter, and, to establish still more securely their claim to the spot, set up his slate, on which he had written, in a coarse, uneven hand, this notice to all whom it might concern : —

The counter extended about three sides of the room, sloping from a level strip against the wall, and jutting over a bench of heavy plank. The strip was just wide enough to hold inkstands and books, while the counter was designed for a writing-desk. The narrow edge of it also served as the back to the pupils' seats when their faces were turned towards the centre of the room. When one wished to turn the other way, he lifted his legs, made a pivot of his spinal column, whirled about on the bench, to which his trousers assisted in giving a notable polish, dropped his lower extremities under the counter, and was supposed to be absorbed in his studies with his face towards the wall.

Before the bench was a narrow aisle, just wide enough for a file of pupils to pass through ; and still inside of that was a low bench for the smaller ones, extending, like the other, about three sides of the room, except where a passage was cut through it midway, for the use of those occupying the seats behind it. This low bench had a back to it, very convenient for the big boys behind to rest their feet upon, — too much so sometimes for the satisfaction of the little ones, who did not like the feeling of muddy boot-soles and square toes against their sides and shoulders. It was considered a point of discipline in those days not to permit the big boys to annoy the small ones in that way.

All this wood- work was of soft pine, which offered tempting facilities to youthful artists for practice with their jack-knives. There was hardly a square foot of bench or counter in which some ingenious blade had not hollowed out an imaginary canoe, or carved coarse images of tomahawks, horses, and canal-boats, 1 — not to mention fox-and-geese boards, and many a hack and cut made in the mere effervescence of youthful spirits, without apparent artistic design.

The foundations of the house having yielded a little, the end walls were diversified by two surprising cracks, running in irregular lines from top to bottom. These had been filled with mortar, making the red brick-work look as if severed by streaks of dingy gray lightning ; and the house had been kept from tumbling by two iron rods passed crosswise through it and made fast outside the walls. The rods served also to encourage in the pupils the performance of gymnastic feats ; and Phin told Jack that often, in the absence of the master, he had seen a dozen or twenty boys hanging and swinging from them like so many monkeys.

The boys could at first discover very few marks of mischief done by the rogues who had forced the window-fastenings. The master's table was placed legs upward on the stove; and on the blackboard was scrawled this imperfectly spelled and recklessly punctuated sentence : " Multiply cation, Is, vexasion devizon Is, as, Bad, the, rule of, 3 It, pusles Me, and, practis, Makes, Me, Mad."

And now, Jack having succeeded in starting a fire in the stove, a more serious piece of mischief was discovered. The smoke poured out into the room, and, looking up, he saw that an elbow of the pipe was wanting. Search was made for it with tearful eyes in vain, until Phin suggested that it must be " up garret."

Over one corner of the room was a scuttle, the lid of which was imperfectly closed ; and Jack, convinced that the missing elbow was there, made a spring for it. From the counter he swung himself upon the iron rod, and from the iron rod he managed to reach the opening above it.

" It 's dark as Egypt up here ! " he cried, pushing back the lid, and thrusting his head into the hole. Getting his feet upon the rod, he stood up, with the upper half of his body in the black attic, and felt all about as far as his hands could reach. Soon Phin heard something rattle ; and then Jack cried, " Here it is ! catch it ! "

Down came the elbow, and after it the old school-house broom. "Here's something else," said Jack, " I don't know what. Look ! "

" It 's the old iron basin they keep water in on the stove," said Phin. " The shovel and poker must be up there too ; I don't see them anywhere."

Shovel and poker were both found ; and at last Jack, with dusty coat and tumbled hair, dropped from the rod.

" I never should have thought of looking up there for anything," he said.

" Nor I," said Phin ; " but one noon two winters ago, some fellers threw the master's hat up there while he was talking with the girls in the entry. He did n't miss it till school was out at night, when all the scholars had gone home ; he looked and looked for it, and finally went to his boarding-place with his red silk handkerchief tied over his head. He came to the school-house next morning, with three big hickory whips on his shoulder; and there was his hat on the table, just where he had left it ! It was all a mystery to him, and would have been to this day, I suppose, if he had n't licked the truth out of the fellers that looked guilty."

Chapter II

jack's fikst day at school.

While Phin was telling this story, Jack had placed the table under the opening in the stove-pipe, got upon it, and restored the elbow. Just as he was getting down, half a dozen boys with books and slates under their arms came stamping and shouting into the room.

" Hullo ! " said one of them, making a rush for the seats Phin had chosen, " I guess not ! "

" Not what, Lon Gannett ? " demanded Phin.

" I guess Phin Chatford and Jack Hazard don't o-c-k-e-p-y this seat ! Me and Eant come early a purpose to git it, did n't we, Eant ? "

"So did we. Come !" screamed Phin, "let our books be ! — Jack ! Jack ! don't let him ! "

"Look here, young man!" said Jack, "what right have you to that seat ? "

" I Ve as much right to it as you have," muttered Lon ; " who be you ? "

" It seems I 'm a foolish sort of fellow," replied Jack. " I was so green as to believe Phin when he said there was honor among the boys here, and that if one laid claim to a seat by putting his books in it, the others would respect that claim. I don't care anything about the seat."

" Nor I," said Lon. " Come, Kant, le's go over in the corner here."

" Don't touch any of my things again ! " said Phin, threateningly, replacing his books ; u if you clo you '11 ketch it!"

" Yes, you feel perty smart now you 've got another boy to back ye ! " said Lon. " Say ! is it true the trustees have hired that Dinks feller, Peternot's nephew, to teach the school ? He 's no great shakes ! "

" He 11 makes shakes of you 'fore the winter 's out," said Phin, inclined to defend his father's choice of a teacher. " Anyhow, he 's the best that offered himself."

More boys came in, with more stamping and shouting ; then the girls began to arrive ; and soon the school-room was pretty well filled with pupils, talking, laughing, drumming on the stove-pipe, throwing caps, opening and shutting the windows, playing tag, and making miscellaneous confusion. All at once there was a hush. A young man with a complacent smile and a good many pimples on his face, a large breastpin in his shirt, and a heavy ruler in his hand, had entered unobserved. This was Mr. Byron Dinks, the new master.

The boys seemed to feel a sudden need of fresh air, and rushed out to enjoy it. Gathering in a group a few rods from the school-house, the largest among them held a council.

" See that big ruler ? " said one. « I should n't like to get it over my head ! "

"Who's afraid?" said another. "I could twist that out of his hand quicker 'n lightning and lay it over his own head ! He 'd better not begin savage with us ! "

"You 'd better be careful how you begin with him/' said Moses Chatford, who had just arrived. " Boys can just as well have a pleasant school as a hard one, if they try. Where 's Jack ? "

" He went over to Sellick's to wash his hands, after mending the stove-pipe/' said Phin. " There he comes. Hullo ! what ye laughing at, Jack ? "

" At one of Sellick's stories/' said Jack, coming up. " About the rods that hold the school-house together. He says the iron expands in hot weather, or when there 's a hot fire in the stove, and then the cracks open a little ; then the cold tightens them up again."

" That 's a philosophical fact," said Moses. " Nothing to laugh at."

" But hear the rest of it. He says he used to go to school in just such a school-house. A master taught there once who could n't govern the school ; the children behaved so they drove him almost distracted, and he determined to quit, but he meant to have his revenge first. So one cold day he shut all the windows and the outside door, and built up a rousing fire, and by heating the rods opened the cracks; then he made all the children put their fingers in the cracks ; — they thought it fun ! But all of a sudden he let the cold air in, and all the fingers got pinched, and all the children were caught ! Then he took his hat and overcoat and nobody ever saw him again. The children screamed all together so loud they were heard all over town, and everybody came running, and every parent caught every child by the legs and pulled, but the cracks nipped so close not a finger could be pulled out ; and as nobody understood the philosophical fact about expanding the rods by making a big fire, the house had to be taken to pieces to save the children ! But I can't tell the story as he did," added Jack.

" One of Sellick's big lies/' said Lon Gannett. " Hullo ! there 's the ruler ! "

" Eap — rap — rap-rap-rap ! " went the ruler on the side of the door-post ; at which signal the boys went straggling in to their seats.

" A little less noise ! " cried the new master, rapping sharply on the table. "Take your seats! School has begun ! "

The forenoon was mostly taken up in arranging classes. This was no easy task, as the school contained pupils of every age and degree, from the sixyear-old learning his letters, up to the big girl and boy of seventeen and eighteen studying the "back part of the 'rithm'tic " and natural philosophy. To add to the teacher's perplexity, pupils who should have been in the same class had in many cases brought different books, which " their folks " expected them to use, in order to save the expense of new ones.

" Who 's brought g'ographies ? " said Mr. Byron

Dinks. " Hush ! we must have less noise ! " Kap, rap ! on the table. " All them that intend to study g'ography this winter will step out into the middle of the floor."

About a dozen boys and girls of various ages obeyed this summons, and arranged themselves in a line, toeing a crack before the stove. Some were bright and alert, others were dull looking, careless, and slouching. A few had complete books and atlases, some had torn books, and some had no books at all.

" Olney's, — that's right," said the master, begin - ing with one of the large girls. " How far have you studied ? "

"I've* been through it once," she replied with a simper.

" You 11 go into the first class. — See here, you little shaver ! " — turning sharply on a very small boy behind him, — " if you don't keep still I '11 put you into the stove ! head first ! — Olney's, — all got Olney's ? What 's this ? You 11 have to get a new one ; you can't expect to get along with a piece of a book."

" There 's only twenty-one pages of my book gone," said the pupil thus addressed. "Our folks said T needn't begin to study it till the others got up to page twenty-two, then I could pitch in."

" You 've no book at all," said the master, passing on to another.

" Ma said she guessed mabby I could look over with some other boy till she could get money to buy one " was the answer, with a hanging head.

" So, you 're coming to school, are ye ? " said Mr. Dinks, with a sarcastic smile, arriving at Jack. " I hope you will try to behave yourself."

Jack made no reply, but turned fiery red at this insinuating remark.

" ' Moses Chatford/ " said Byron, reading the name written on the fly-leaf of Jack's geography. " You 're going to use his book, are you ? "

" He don't study g'ography this winter," said Jack.

" Well, how much have you ever studied it ? "

" I never studied it at all in school."

" What did you study last winter ? "

" I did n't go to school last winter."

« Well, the winter before ? "

" I did n't go to school then, either."

" When did you go to school ? " demanded Mr. Pinks in a loud voice.

Jack felt all eyes fixed upon him, while he stammered, " Four winters ago."

" How much have you ever been to school in your life ? "

" About seven weeks."

" How happens it you never went any more ? Where was ye brought up ? "

" I never had much chance for schooling," said Jack, his spirit rising ; " and when I might have gone to school a little more, the master imposed upon me because I was ignorant, and that discouraged me."

Jack looked so straight into Byron's eyes as he said this, that that gentleman changed color in his turn.

" Hush, I say ! " as a titter ran round the room. " Can you read ? "

"A little."

" Let me hear you. Begin there."

Jack was inclined to dash the book back into the master's face, when he saw the lesson that was given him. But checking the ugly impulse, he read : " B, a, ba ; b, e, be ; b, i, bi ; b, o, bo ; b, u, bu ; b, y, by. C, a, ca ; c, e, ce ; c, i, ci ; c, o, co ; c, u, cu ; c, y, cy."

" That will do," said the master, smiling, while the whole school laughed. "You read very well. Try this paragraph in your g'ography ; see if you can read that."

Jack had been afraid that he would be afraid to read before large boys and girls who had been to school all their lives ; but now he feared nothing ; he felt angrily defiant of everybody. He took the book, and read the paragraph through very much as he would have sawed a stick of wood to order ; acquitting himself so much better, on the whole, than was expected, that the laughing ceased, and the master looked rather chagrined.

" If you have never been to school, where have you learned so much ? "

" At Mr. Chatford's, this last summer," said Jack. " Miss Felton gave me private lessons ; and Moses has helped me a good deal."

"So have I," spoke up Phineas. "I've showed him about his sums."

" You can put him in almost any class, and he 11 do, he '11 come along/' said Moses from his seat. " He knows about as much as any boy of his age ; and he can learn as fast as anybody I ever saw."

At this moment, the " little shaver " on the front seat, who had made a disturbance before, being at his mischief again, the master suddenly pounced upon him.

" I told you I 'd put you in the stove ! " Clutching him by the arm with one hand, he threw open the stove-door with the other, exposing a bed of burning coals. " Now you go ! "

The child screamed and struggled in a paroxysm of fear, while some of the other children laughed, knowing of course that the master would not execute so horrible a threat. He seemed for a moment intent on stuffing the little fellow into the fire ; then, relenting, he said, " Will you keep still, if I '11 let you go ? — What are you laughing at ? " turning to another little boy.

" You would n't put him in ! you w^ould n't dare to," said the latter, with a knowing smile.

" I would n't, hey ? You 11 sing another tune when I 've burnt all the hair off your head ! " And, catching up the second boy, Byron swung him in the air, then brought him down head foremost to the very mouth of the stove. The youngster's wisdom forsook him at sight of the glowing coals, and he too began to struggle and scream with all his might. Having established the discipline of the little ones in this humane and pleasant manner, the master dropped his second victim, with a warning to take care how he behaved, or his hair would surely get a scorching, and then proceeded with the organization of his classes.