back I'll talk nothing but Greek and Latin. I'm
getting French now from Ford, and Hindu from Frank Harley. Then I know
English, and slang, and Long-Islandish. Think of one man with seven
first-rate languages!"

But Dabney soon found himself unable to sit still, even at the
breakfast-table. Not that he got up hungry, for he had done his duty by
Miranda's cookery; but the house itself, big as it was, seemed too small
to hold him, with all his new prospects swelling within him. Perhaps,
moreover, the rest of the family felt that they would be better able to
discuss the important subject before them, after Dab had taken himself
out into the open air; for none of them tried to stay his going.

"This beats dreaming, all hollow," he said to himself, as he stood, with
his hands in his pockets, half way down to the gate between the two
gardens. "Now I'll see what can be done about that other matter."

Two plans in one head, and so young a head as that?

Yes; and it spoke well for Dab's heart, as well as his brains, that his
plan number two was not a selfish one. The substance of it came out in
the first five minutes of the talk he had, a trifle later, with Ford and
Frank, on the other side of the gate.

"Ford, you know there's twenty dollars left of the money the Frenchman
paid us for the bluefish."

"Well, what of it? Isn't it yours?"

"One share of it's mine. The rest is yours and Dick's."

"He needs it more'n I do."

"Ford, did you know Dick Lee was real bright?"

"'Cute little chap as ever I 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 if he had money enough to go with."

"Academy? 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, though. But I mean to catch up."

For a few minutes poor Dick was lost sight of in a perfect 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 saved up, and I know mother'll say 'Pass it right
in,'" exclaimed Ford.

It was hardly likely Mrs. Foster would express her assent in precisely
that way; but Frank Harley promptly added,--

"I think I can promise five."

"I mean to