not.
“That’s a good idea! Put it to vote,” said Gus, too kind-hearted to
shut the door on anyone.
“First I want to ask if all you fellows are ready to stand by Bob, out
of the club as well as in, for it won’t do much good to be kind to
him here and cut him at school and in the street,” said Ed, heartily
in earnest about the matter.
“I will!” cried Jack, ready to follow where his beloved friend led,
and the others nodded, unwilling to be outdone by the youngest
member.
“Good! With all of us to lend a hand, we can do a great deal; and I
tell you, boys, it is time, if we want to keep poor Bob straight. We
all turn our backs on him, so he loafs round the tavern, and goes
with fellows we don’t care to know. But he isn’t bad yet, and we
can keep him up, I’m sure, if we just try. I hope to get him into the
Lodge, and that will be half the battle, won’t it, Frank?” added Ed,
sure that this suggestion would have weight with the honorable
Chairman.
“Bring him along; I’m with you!” answered Frank, making up his
mind at once, for he had joined the Temperance Lodge four years
ago, and already six boys had followed his example.
“He is learning to smoke, but we’ll make him drop it before it leads
to worse. You can help him there, Admiral, if you only will,”
added Ed, giving a grateful look at one friend, and turning to the
other.
“I’m your man”; and Gus looked as if he knew what he promised,
for he had given up smoking to oblige his father, and kept his word
like a hero.
“You other fellows can do a good deal by just being kind and not
twitting him with old scrapes, and I’ll do anything I can for you all
to pay for this”; and Ed sat down with a beaming smile, feeling
that his cause was won.
The vote was taken, and all hands went up, for even surly Joe gave
in; so Bob and Tom were duly elected, and proved their gratitude
for the honor done them by becoming worthy members of the club.
It was only boys’ play now, but the kind heart and pure instincts of
one lad showed the others how to lend a helping hand to a
comrade in danger, and win him away from temptation to the
safer pastimes of their more guarded lives.
Well pleased with themselves–for every genuine act or word, no
matter how trifling it seems, leaves a sweet and strengthening
influence behind–the members settled down to the debate, which
was never very long, and often only an excuse for fun of all sorts.
“Ralph, Gus, and Ed are for, and Brickbat, Grif, and Chick against,
I suppose?” said Frank, surveying his company like a general
preparing for battle.
“No, sir! I believe in co-everything!” cried Chick, a mild youth,
who loyally escorted a chosen damsel home from school every
day.
A laugh greeted this bold declaration, and Chick sat down, red but
firm.
“I’ll speak for two since the Chairman can’t, and Jack won’t go
against those who pet him most to death,” said Joe, who, not being
a favorite with the girls, considered them a nuisance and lost no
opportunity of telling them so.
Fire away, then, since you are up; commanded Frank.
“Well,” began Joe, feeling too late how much he had undertaken,
“I don’t know a great deal about it, and I don’t care, but I do not
believe in having girls at college. They’d on’t belong there, nobody
wants ’em, and they’d better be at home darning their stockings.”
“Yours, too,” put in Ralph, who had heard that argument so often
he was tired of it.
“Of course; that’s what girls are for. I don’t mind ’em at school, but
I’d just as soon they had a room to themselves. We should get on
better.”
“You would if Mabel wasn’t in your class and always ahead of
you,” observed Ed, whose friend was a fine scholar, and he very
proud of the fact.