The Putnam Hall Rebellion

“Good for you, Major Ruddy!” came from a pupil from another classroom.

“Crabtree and Cuddle have no right to do you out of your dinners,” added another.

“Make them give you what you pay for,” added a third.

The cries increased until it looked as if the demonstration in the mess hall would be greater than that which had occurred in the classroom. Pluxton Cuddle called for order, but even as he spoke a hot potato went sailing through the air and hit him in the shirt front. Then a shower of bread went up into the air, falling all around both Cuddle and Crabtree.

“Boys! boys!” gasped Josiah Crabtree, and now he turned pale, wondering what would happen next.

“Better give ’em something to eat, sah!” suggested the head waiter, a colored man. “Some of them hungry chaps look wicked, sah!”

“They have all been fed too much, that is the reason,” said Pluxton Cuddle. “I don’t mean to-day, I mean in general. However, perhaps it will be as well, just now, to let them have a – er – a light repast,” he went on stammeringly, for another hot potato had hit him on the shoulder.

“Boys!” called out Jack. “Stop throwing things. Mr. Crabtree wants to say something.” For he saw that the teacher wanted to speak to the assemblage.

“I – er – I wish to state,” began Josiah Crabtree, when the cadets settled down at Jack’s command, “that I – er – I did not intend to make you do without your dinner. I was – er – going to – er – let you come to the mess hall – er – after the other pupils had finished. But as it is – ” he gazed around somewhat helplessly, “I – er – I think you can stay. The waiters will bring in the dinner.” And he sat down and mopped his perspiring forehead with his handkerchief.

“Gosh! I’ll bet it was hard for him to come down!” whispered Dale to Pepper.

“He’s getting afraid of the crowd,” returned The Imp. “He was afraid we’d pass him the stuff on the table without waiting for plates!” And Pepper grinned suggestively.

The cadets had to wait a long time before they were served. Meanwhile Pluxton Cuddle consulted with the head waiter and paid a visit to the kitchen. As a result, when the dinner came in, the cadets found the food both scanty and exceedingly plain.

“Say, how is a chap to get along on this,” growled Stuffer. “I could eat twice as much!”

“Make the best of it this time,” said Jack. “We can hold a meeting after school and decide upon what to do in the future – if things don’t mend.”

The worst of it – to Stuffer’s mind – was that there was nothing but a little rice pudding for dessert. All of the cadets who had rebelled went from the mess room hungry – and out on the campus they discovered that the other cadets had fared little better.

“It’s Cuddle’s doings,” said one of the other students. “He’s a crank on the question of eating – thinks a man ought to eat next to nothing to be healthy and clear-minded.”

“Crabtree was willing enough to fall in with his views,” returned Pepper.

“That’s because he wanted to square up with you. Personally, Crabtree likes to eat as hearty a meal as anybody.”

“I know that.”

“I don’t know what we are coming to, if Captain Putnam or Mr. Strong don’t come back soon,” said another cadet. “We had a row in our classroom too.”

“Neither Crabtree nor Cuddle are fit to manage a school,” said Dale. “They may be good enough teachers, but they need somebody in authority over them.” And this statement hit the nail squarely on the head.

Reff Ritter was still disturbed, thinking that Crabtree might find out that he was guilty of throwing the inkwell, and he went around, “sounding” various cadets and getting them to promise not to mention the matter. He was chagrined to think that he had not been chosen leader in the rebellion, and was half inclined to draw away from Jack’s friends and form a party of his own.

“Ruddy wants to lead in everything,” he growled to Coulter. “It makes me sick!”

“Well, you can’t afford to go back on him now,” was the answer. “If you do he may take it in his head to let old Crabtree know about the inkwell, and then – ”

“Oh, he can lead if he wants the job so bad,” interrupted the bully hastily.

At the proper time the bell rang for the afternoon session and all of the cadets marched to their various classrooms as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Lessons were taken up where they had been dropped, but the boys found it hard to concentrate their minds on what they were studying or reciting. All felt that a storm – and a big one at that – was brewing.

Josiah Crabtree did not come into the classroom occupied by Jack and his chums, and Reff Ritter and his crowd. Instead he sent an under teacher, a meek man who did just what he was told, no more and no less. With this teacher the boys got along very well.

“Wish we could have him right along,” observed Stuffer.

“If you did have him you wouldn’t make much progress,” answered Jack. “He’s good enough for the lower classes, but that’s all. He doesn’t know half as much as Mr. Strong.”

When the cadets were dismissed for the day they hurried out on the campus, and here Jack asked all who were interested in what had occurred to attend a meeting at the boathouse. About three-quarters of the cadets responded, those holding back being the smaller lads and a few timid ones like Mumps.

At this meeting it came out that every class in the school had “caught it,” either from Josiah Crabtree or Pluxton Cuddle. Sharp words and almost blows had been exchanged in the classrooms, and every cadet had some fault to find with the food served for dinner.

“Cuddle not only wants to cut down the amount, but he wants the meats and other things cooked in a peculiar way,” said one cadet. “I have always been used to a good table and I am not going to stand for it.”

“Nor will I!” cried Stuffer. “Our parents pay for good board – and that means three square meals a day.”

“I understand Captain Putnam and Mr. Strong expect to be away for at least ten days,” said Henry Lee. “I am not going to starve myself for that length of time, even to please Crabtree and Cuddle.”

“Just what I say!” exclaimed Pepper.

“We are certainly entitled to as good a table as we have been having,” was Jack’s comment.

“Then, if we don’t get it, let’s strike!” cried Andy.

CHAPTER XV

WORDS AND BLOWS

The meeting at the boathouse lasted for nearly an hour, yet no definite conclusion was reached. Some of the boys wanted to wait and see what developed, while others were for taking the most drastic action immediately. At last it was voted to wait, and to leave the matter of what was to be done in the hands of a committee of five, of which Jack was the chairman. The other four members of this committee were Pepper, Dale, Bart Conners and a cadet named Barringer, a youth who had the distinction of being the first cadet enrolled at the Hall, and whose folks were warm personal friends of Captain Putnam.

“I am sure if we act with care and fairness Captain Putnam will uphold us,” said Frank Barringer. “But there must be no rowdyism. If there is I shall withdraw from the committee and from whatever is done.”

“I shall not favor rowdyism,” answered the young major. “But neither shall I allow Crabtree or Cuddle to walk over us.”

“Oh, I agree on that, Major Ruddy. Both of those teachers have been far too dictatorial. But it was a mistake to throw potatoes and bread around the dining room, and it was vile to throw an inkwell at Crabtree,” added Frank Barringer.

During the afternoon Josiah Crabtree drove to Cedarville in Captain Putnam’s coach. When he returned he had with him three men, burly individuals who looked like dock hands – and such they were.

“What are those men going to do here?” asked Andy of his chums.

“I can’t imagine,” answered Pepper. “If they were going to do some work they wouldn’t come at this time of day.”

“Let us see if Peleg Snuggers knows anything about it,” suggested Dale, and he and the others walked down to the barn, where they found the general utility man putting up the team the teacher had used.

“Come to help me, young gents?” asked Snuggers, with a grin.

“Peleg, we want to know what those three men came for?” said Dale.

“Oh!” The general utility man shrugged his shoulders. “Better go an’ ask Mr. Crabtree – he brung ’em.”