The Rover Boys at School; Or, The Cadets of Putnam Hall Read online

  Produced by Sean Pobuda

  THE ROVER BOYS AT SCHOOL

  Or

  THE CADETS OF PUTNAM HALL

  By Arthur M. Winfield(Edward Stratemeyer)

  INTRODUCTION

  My Dear Boys:

  "The Rover Boys at School" has been written that those of you whohave never put in a term or more at an American military academyfor boys may gain some insight into the workings of such aninstitution.

  While Putnam Hall is not the real name of the particular place oflearning I had in mind while penning this tale for your amusementand instruction, there is really such a school, and dear CaptainPutnam is a living person, as are also the lively, wide-awake,fun-loving Rover brothers, Dick, Tom, and Sam, and theirschoolfellows, Larry, Fred, and Frank. The same can be said, to acertain degree, of the bully Dan Baxter, and his toady, the sneak,commonly known as "Mumps."

  The present story is complete in itself, but it is written as thefirst of a series, to be followed by "The Rover Boys on the Ocean"and "The Rover Boys in the Jungle," in both of which volumes wewill again meet many of our former characters.

  Trusting that this tale will find as much favor in your hands ashave my previous stories, I remain,

  Affectionately and sincerely yours,

  EDWARD STRATEMEYER

  CHAPTER I

  INTRODUCING THE ROVER BOYS

  "Hurrah, Sam, it is settled at last that we are to go to boardingschool!"

  "Are you certain, Tom? Don't let me raise any false hopes."

  "Yes, I am certain, for I heard Uncle Randolph tell Aunt Marthathat he wouldn't keep us in the house another week. He said hewould rather put up with the Central Park menagerie--think ofthat!" and Tom Rover began to laugh.

  "That's rather rough on us, but I don't know but what we deserveit," answered Sam Rover, Tom's younger brother. "We have beengiving it pretty strong lately, with playing tricks on Sarah thecook, Jack the hired man, and Uncle Randolph's pet dog Alexander.But then we had to do something--or go into a dry rot. Life inthe country is all well enough, but it's mighty slow for me."

  "I guess it is slow for anybody brought up in New York, Sam. Why,the first week I spent here I thought the stillness would kill me.I couldn't actually go to sleep because it was so quiet. I wishuncle and aunt would move to the city. They have money enough."

  "Aunt Martha likes to be quiet, and uncle is too much wrapped up inthe art of scientific farming, as he calls it. I'll wager he'll stayon this farm experimenting and writing works on agriculture until hedies. Well, it's a good enough way to do, I suppose, but it wouldn'tsuit me. I want to see something of life--as father did."

  "So do I. Perhaps we'll see something when we get to boardingschool."

  "Where are we to go?"

  "I don't know. Some strict institution, you can be sure of that. UncleRandolph told aunty it was time the three of us were taken in hand. Hesaid Dick wasn't so bad, but you and I--"

  "Were the bother of his life, eh?"

  "Something about like that. He doesn't see any fun in tricks. Heexpects us to just walk around the farm, or study, and, above allthings, keep quiet, so that his scientific investigations are notdisturbed. Why doesn't he let us go out riding, or boating on theriver, or down to the village to play baseball with the rest ofthe fellows? A real live American boy can't be still all the time,and he ought to know it," and, with a decided shake of his curlyhead, Tom Rover took a baseball from his pocket and began to throwit up against the side of the farmhouse, catching it each time asit came down.

  Tom had thrown the ball up just four times when a pair of blindsto an upper window flew open with a crash, and the head of astern-looking elderly gentleman appeared. The gentleman had grayhair, very much tumbled, and wore big spectacles.

  "Hi! hi! boys, what does this mean?" came in a high-pitched voice."What are you hammering on the house for, when I am just in themidst of a deep problem concerning the rotation of crops on ahillside with northern exposure?"

  "Excuse me, Uncle Randolph, I didn't think to disturb you,"answered Tom meekly. "I'll put the ball away."

  "You never stop to think, Thomas. Give me that ball."

  "Oh, let me keep it, Uncle Randolph! I won't throw it against thehouse again, honor bright."

  "You'll forget that promise in ten minutes, Thomas; I know youwell. Throw the ball up," and Mr. Randolph Rover held out his hands.

  "All right, then; here you go," answered Tom, somewhat put out tothus lose a ball which had cost him his week's spending, money;and he sent the sphere flying upward at a smart speed. Mr. Rovermade a clutch for it, but the ball slipped through his hands andlanded plump on his nose.

  "Oh!" he cried, and disappeared from sight, but reappeared amoment later, to shake his fist at Tom.

  "You young rascal! You did that on purpose!" he spluttered, andbrought forth his handkerchief, for his nose had begun to bleed."Was anyone ever tormented so by three boys?"

  "Now you are in for it again, Tom," whispered Sam.

  "I didn't mean to hit you, Uncle Randolph. Why didn't you catchit on the fly?"

  "On the fly?" repeated the uncle. "Do you suppose I am accustomedto catching cannon balls?"

  "Didn't you ever play baseball?"

  "Never. I spent my time in some useful study." The elderlygentleman continued to keep his handkerchief to his nose, andadjusted his glasses.

  "Thank fortune, you are all going to go to boarding school nextweek, and we will once more have a little peace and quietnessaround Valley Brook!"

  "Where are we to go, Uncle Randolph?" asked Sam.

  "You will learn that Monday morning, when you start off."

  "It wouldn't hurt to tell us now," grumbled Tom.

  "You must learn to be patient, Thomas. My one hope is that lifeat boarding school makes a real man of you."

  "Of course we are all to go together?"

  "Yes, you are to go together, although I can get along withRichard very well, he is so much more quiet and studious than youor Samuel."

  "I reckon he takes after you, Uncle Randolph."

  "If so, he might do worse. By the way, what were both of youdoing here?"

  "Nothing," came from Sam.

  "We haven't anything to do. This farm is the slowest place onearth," added Tom.

  "Why do you not study the scientific and agricultural works that Imentioned to you? See what I have done for scientific farming."

  "I don't want to be a farmer," said Tom. "I'd rather be asailor."

  "A sailor!" gasped Randolph Rover. "Of all things! Why, a sailoris the merest nobody on earth!"

  "I guess you mean on the sea, uncle," said Sam with a grin.

  "Don't joke me, Samuel. Yes, Thomas--the calling of a sailoramounts to absolutely nothing. Scientific farming is the thing!Nothing more noble on the face of the earth than to till thesoil."

  "I never saw you behind a plow, Uncle Randolph," answered Tom,with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "Besides, I heard you say thatthe farm ran behind last year."

  "Tut, tut, boy! You know nothing about it. I made a slightmiscalculation in crops, that was all. But this year we shall dobetter."

  "You lost money year before last, too," commented Sam.

  "Who told you that?"

  "Mr. Woddie, the storekeeper at the Corners."

  "Mr. Woddie may understand storekeeping, but he knows nothing offarming, scientific or otherwise. I spent several thousands ofdollars in experimenting, but the money was not lost. We shallsoon have grand results. I shall astonish the whole of New YorkState at the next meeting of our agricultural society," and Mr.Randol
ph Rover waved his hand grandiloquently. It was easy to seethat scientific farming was his hobby.

  "Randolph!" It was the voice of Mrs. Rover, who now appearedbeside her husband. "What is the matter with your nose?"

  "Tom hit me with his ball. It is all right now, although it didbleed some."

  "The bad boy! But it is just like him. Sarah has given noticethat she will leave at the end of her month. She says she can'tstand the pranks Tom and Sam play on her."

  "She need not go--for the boys are going to boarding school, youknow."

  "She says you promised to send them off before."

  "Well, they shall go this time, rest assured of that. I cannotstand their racing up and down stairs, and their noise, anylonger. They go Monday morning."

  "Better send them off tomorrow."

  "Well--er--that is rather sudden."

  "Sarah's month is up Friday. She will surely go unless the boysare out of the house. And she is the best cook I have ever had."

  "Excepting when she burnt the custard pies," put in Tom.

  "And when she salted the rice pudding!" added Sam.

  "Silence, both of you. Randolph, do send them off."

  "Very well, I will. Boys, you must go away from the house for anhour or two."

  "Can we go fishing or swimming?" asked Tom.

  "No, I don't want you to go near the river, you may get drowned."

  "We can both swim," ventured Sam.

  "Never mind--it is not safe--and your poor father left you inmy care."

  "Can we go down to the village?"

  "No, you might get into bad company there."

  "Then where shall we go?" came from both boys simultaneously.

  Randolph Rover scratched his head in perplexity. He had never hadany children of his own, and to manage his brother's offspring wasclearly beyond him. "You might go down to the cornfield, andstudy the formation of the ears--"

  "Send them blackberrying," suggested Mrs. Rover. "We want theberries for pies tomorrow, and it will give them something to do."

  "Very well; boys, you may go blackberrying. And mind you keep outof mischief."

  "We'll mind," answered Tom. "But you might let me have thatball."

  "I will give it to you in the morning," answered Randolph Rover, andturned away from the window with his wife.

  As soon as they were out of sight, Tom threw up both hands inmock tragedy, "Alack, Horatio, this excitement killeth me!" hecried in a stage whisper. "Sent blackberrying to keep us out ofmischief! Sam, what are we coming to?"

  "Well, it's better than moping around doing nothing. For my part,I am glad we are to go to boarding school, and the sooner thebetter. But I would like to know where to?"

  "If only we were going to a military academy!"

  "Hurrah! Just the thing! But no such luck. Get the berrybaskets and let us be off. By the way, where is Dick?"

  "Gone to the village for the mail. There he comes down the roadnow," and Tom pointed to a distant path back of the meadows.

  The two boys hurried into a woodshed behind the large farmhouseand procured a basket and two tin pails. With these in hand theyset off in the direction of the berry patch, situated along thepath that Dick Rover was pursuing, their intention being to headoff their brother and see if he had any letters for them.

  Of the three Rover boys, Richard, commonly called Dick, was theeldest. He was sixteen, tall, slender, and had dark eyes and darkhair. He was a rather quiet boy, one who loved to read and study,although he was not above having a good time now and then, whenhe felt like "breaking loose," as Tom expressed it.

  Next to Richard came Tom, a year younger, as merry a lad as therewas ever to be found, full of life and "go," not above playing allsorts of tricks on people, but with a heart of gold, as even hisuncle and aunt felt bound to admit.

  Sam was the youngest. He was but fourteen, but of the same heightand general appearance as Tom, and the pair might readily havebeen taken for twins. He was not as full of pranks as Tom, butexcelled his brothers in many outdoor sports.

  The history of the three Rover boys was a curious one. They werethe only children of one Anderson Rover, a gentleman who had beenwidely known as a mineral expert, gold mine proprietor, andtraveler. Mr. Anderson Rover had gone to California a poor youngman and had there made a fortune in the mines. Returning to theEast, he had married and settled down in New York City, and there,the three boys had been born.

  An epidemic of fever had taken off Mrs. Rover when Richard was butten years of age. The shock had come so suddenly that AndersonRover was dazed, and for several weeks the man knew not what todo. "Take all of the money I made in the West, but give me backmy wife!" he said broken-heartedly, but this could not be, andsoon after he left his three boys in charge of a housekeeper andset off to tour Europe, thinking that a change of scene wouldprove a benefit.

  When he came back he seemed a changed man. He was restless, andcould not remain at home for more than a few weeks at a time. Heplaced the boys at a boarding school in New York and returned tothe West, where he made another strike in the gold mines; and whenhe came back once more he was reported to be worth between two andthree hundred thousand dollars.

  But now a new idea had came into his head. He had been reading upon Africa, and had reached the conclusion that there must be goldin the great unexplored regions of that country. He determined togo to Africa, fit out an exploration, and try his luck.

  "It will not cost me over ten to twenty thousand dollars," he saidto his brother Randolph. "And it may make me a millionaire."

  "If you are bound to go, I will not stop you," had been RandolphRover's reply. "But what of your boys in the meanwhile?"

  This was a serious question, for Anderson Rover knew well the riskhe was running, knew well that many a white man had gone into theinterior of Africa never to return. At last it was settled thatRandolph Rover should become Dick, Tom, and Sam's temporaryguardian. This accomplished, Anderson Rover set off and that wasthe last any of his family had ever heard of him.

  Was he dead or alive? Hundreds of times had the boys and theiruncle pondered that question. Each mail was watched with anxiety,but day after day brought no news, until the waiting became an oldstory, and all settled down to the dismal conviction that thedaring explorer must be dead. He had landed and gone into theinterior with three white men and twenty natives, and that was allthat could be ascertained concerning him.

  At the time of Anderson Rover's departure Randolph had been on thepoint of purchasing a farm of two hundred acres in the MohawkValley of New York State. The land had not changed hands until ayear later, however, and then Dick, Tom, and Sam were called uponto give up their life in the metropolis and settle down in thecountry, a mile away from the village of Dexter Corners.

  For a month things had gone very well, for all was new, and itseemed like a "picnic," to use Tom's way of expressing it. Theyhad run over the farm from end to end, climbed to the roof of thebarn, explored the brook, and Sam had broken his arm by fallingfrom the top of a cherry tree. But after that the novelty woreaway, and the boys began to fret.

  "They want something to do," thought Randolph Rover, and set themto work studying scientific farming, as he called it. At thisDick made some progress, but the uncle could do nothing with Tomand Sam. Then the last two broke loose and began to play prankson everybody that came along, and life became little short of aburden to the studious Randolph and, his quiet-minded spouse.

  "I must send them off to a boarding school, or somewhere,"Randolph Rover would say, but he kept putting the matter off,hoping against hope that he might soon hear from his lost brother.