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some business matter. Since that time the two men had been at daggers
drawn during office hours and only coldly civil at other times. Steve
was forbidden to set foot in Tom's house and Tom was as strictly
prohibited from entering Steve's. Had the fathers had their way at the
beginning of the quarrel the boys would have ceased then and there to
have anything to do with each other. But they had been close friends
ever since primary school days and, while they reluctantly respected the
dictum as to visiting at each other's residences, they had firmly refused
to give up the friendship, and their fathers had finally been forced to
sanction what they could not prevent.
At the time this story opens, the quarrel between the two men, each a
prominent and well-to-do member of the community, still continued,
but its edge had been dulled by time. Both Mr. Edwards and Mr. Hall
took active parts in municipal affairs and so were forced to meet often
and to even serve together on various committees. They almost
invariably took opposite sides on every question, but they did not allow
their personal quarrel to interfere with their public duties.
The boys had at first found the condition of affairs very irksome, but
had eventually got used to it. It was hard not to be able to run in and out
of each other's houses as they had done when they had first known each
other, but there were plenty of opportunities to be together away from
home and they made the most of them and were well-nigh inseparable.
Mr. Edwards had declared, when announcing the fact in the preceding
spring, that Steve was to go to boarding school, that he was sending the
boy away to remove him from the questionable association of Tom
Hall. But Steve gave little credence to that statement, for he knew that
secretly his father thought very well of Tom. The real reason was that
Steve had not been making good progress at high school, owing
principally to the fact that he gave too much time to athletics and not
enough to study. Mr. Edwards concluded that at a boarding school
Steve would be under a stricter discipline and would profit by it.
Steve's mother had died many years before, and his father, while
perfectly able to command a large army of employees, was rather
helpless when it came to exercising a proper authority over one
sixteen-year-old boy!

Naturally enough, Tom, when he had learned of his chum's impending
departure in the fall for boarding school, began a vigorous campaign to
secure parental permission to accompany him. Mrs. Hall had soon
yielded, but Mr. Hall had held out stubbornly until almost the last
moment. "I guess," he had said more than once, "you see enough of that
Edwards boy without going off to the same boarding school with him!
If you want to go to some other school I'll consider it, Tom, but I'm
blessed if I'll have you tagging after Steve Edwards the way you
propose!" But in the end he, too, capitulated, though with ill-grace, and
for a week there were not two busier persons in all Tannersville than
Steve and Tom. Steve had taken time by the forelock and had
accumulated most of the necessary outfit, but Tom had to attend to all
his wants in six weekdays, and there was much scurrying around the
shops by the two lads, much hurry and worry and bustle in the Hall
mansion. You had to take with you such a lot of silly truck, you see! Or,
at least, that is the way Tom put it. The catalogue informed them that
they must provide their own sheets, pillow-cases, spreads, towels,
napkins and laundry bags, as well as take with them a knife, fork and
spoon each. Steve sarcastically wondered if the school gave them beds
to sleep in! The situation was further complicated by the eleventh-hour
discovery on the part of Mrs. Hall that Tom's clothing, while quite good
enough for Tannersville, would never do for Brimfield Academy, and
poor Tom had to be fitted to new suits of clothes and shoes and hats
and various other articles of apparel.
They were to leave early Monday morning, for in that way they could
reach Brimfield before dark. Both boys, who had set their hearts on a
night in a sleeping-car, with all its exciting possibilities, begged to be
allowed to make their start Monday evening, which would allow them
to arrive at school Tuesday forenoon in plenty of time. But neither
Steve's father nor Tom's would listen to the suggestion.
"Then I'll get there a whole day before school opens," grumbled Tom,
"and have to stay there all alone Monday night."
"It won't hurt you