By Sheer Pluck | Page 4

was too proud to eat and drink at other fellows' houses when he
could not ask them to do the same at his own. It was understood at Dr.
Parker's that Frank Hargate's people were poor, but it was known that
his father had been killed in battle. There are writers who depict boys
as worshipers of wealth, and many pictures have been drawn of the
slights and indignities to which boys, whose means are inferior to those
of their schoolfellows, are subject. I am happy to believe that this is a
libel. There are, it is true, toadies and tuft hunters among boys as
among men. That odious creature, the parasite of the Greek and Latin
plays, exists still, but I do not believe that a boy is one whit the less
liked, or is ever taunted with his poverty, provided he is a good fellow.
Most of the miseries endured by boys whose pocket money is less
abundant than that of their fellows are purely self inflicted. Boys and
men who are always on the lookout for slights will, of course, find
what they seek. But the lad who is not ashamed of what is no fault of
his own, who frankly and manfully says, "I can't afford it," will not find
that he is in any way looked down upon by those of his schoolfellows
whose good opinion is in the smallest degree worth having.
Certainly this was so in the case of Frank Hargate. He was never in the
slightest degree ashamed of saying, "I can't afford it;" and the fact that
he was the son of an officer killed in battle gave him a standing among
the best in the school in spite of his want of pocket money.
Frank was friends with many of the fishermen, and these would often
bring him strange fish and sea creatures brought up in their nets,
instead of throwing them back into the sea.
During the holidays he would sometimes go out with them for
twenty-four hours in their fishing-boats. His mother made no objection
to this, as she thought that the exercise and sea air were good for his

health, and that the change did him good. Frank himself was so fond of
the sea that he was half disposed to adopt it instead of the army as a
profession. But his mother was strongly opposed to the idea, and won
him to her way of thinking by pointing out that although a sailor visits
many ports he stays long at none of them, and that in the few hours'
leave he might occasionally obtain he would be unable to carry out his
favorite pursuits.
"Hargate," Ruthven, who was one of the oldest of the House boys, and
was about Frank's age, that is about fifteen years old, said a few days
after the match, "the Doctor has given Handcock and Jones and myself
leave to take a boat and go out this afternoon. We mean to start soon
after dinner, and shall take some lines and bait with us. We have got
leave till lockup, so we shall have a long afternoon of it. Will you come
with us?"
"Thank you, Ruthven," Frank said; "I should like it very much, but you
know I'm short of pocket money, and I can't pay my share of the boat,
so I would rather leave it alone."
"Oh, nonsense, Hargate!" Ruthven answered; "we know money is not
your strong point, but we really want you to go with us. You can
manage a boat better than any of us, and you will really oblige us if you
will go with us."
"Oh, if you put it in that way," Frank said, "I shall be glad to go with
you; but I do not think," he went on, looking at the sky, "that the
weather looks very settled. However, if you do not mind the chance of
a ducking, I don't."
"That's agreed then," Ruthven said; "will you meet us near the pier at
three o'clock?"
"All right. I'll be punctual."
At the appointed hour the four lads met on the beach. Ruthven and his
companions wanted to choose a light rowing boat, but Frank strongly
urged them to take a much larger and heavier one. "In the first place,"
he said, "the wind is blowing off shore, and although it's calm here it
will be rougher farther out; and, unless I'm mistaken, the wind is
getting up fast. Besides this it will be much more comfortable to fish
from a good sized boat."
His comrades grumbled at the extra labor which the large boat would
entail in rowing. However, they finally gave in and the boat was

launched.
"Look out, Master Hargate," the boatman said as they started; "you'd
best not