"Not a good scholar!" repeated Miss Bettina, catching those words correctly. "Did you not tell me you were the best scholar?"
"No. I said I was the best cricketer," responded Dick.
"Oh," said Miss Bettina, her face resuming its severity. "_That_ will do you no good, Richard."
"Aren't you deafer than before, Aunt Bett?"
"Am I what?" asked Miss Bettina. "_Darker!_ I never was dark yet. Not one of all the Davenal family had a skin as fair as mine. What put that fancy into your head, Master Richard?"
"I said deafer, Aunt Bett," repeated Richard. "I am sure you are just as deaf again as you were at Christmas! Uncle Richard, we had a boat-race yesterday. I was second oar."
"I don't like those boat-races," hastily interrupted Caroline.
"Girls never do," said Mr. Richard, loftily. "As if they'd like to blister their hands with the oars! Look at mine."
He extended his right hand, palm upwards, triumphant in blisters. Dr. Davenal spoke.
"I don't like boat-racing for you boys, either, Dick."
"Oh, it was prime, Uncle Richard! One of the boats tipped over, and the fellows got a ducking."
"That's just it," said Dr. Davenal. "Boats 'tip' over when you inexperienced young gentlemen least expect it. It has led to loss of life sometimes, Dick."
"Any muff can scramble out of the water, Uncle Richard. Some of us fellows can swim like an otter."
"And some can't swim at all, I suppose. What did Dr. Keen say when he heard of the boatful going over?"
Richard Davenal raised his honest, wide-open eyes to his uncle, some surprise in their depths. "It didn't get to Keen's ears, Uncle Richard! He knew nothing of the boat-race; we had it out of bounds. As if Keen wouldn't have stopped it for us, if he had known. He thought we were off to the cricket-field."
"Well, you must be a nice lot of boys!" cried Dr. Davenal, quaintly. "Does he give a prize for honour? You'd get it, Dick, if he did."
Dick laughed. "It's the same at all schools, Uncle Richard. If we let the masters into the secret of all our fun, mighty little of it should we get."
"I think they ought to be let into the fun that consists in going on the water. There's danger in that."
"Not a bit of it, Uncle Richard. It was the jolliest splash! The chief trouble was getting the dry things to put on. They had been laid up in the boxes ready to come home with us, and we had to put out no end of stratagem to get at them."