To make the punishment more complete, Mr. Ripley had ordered his
son to make the long journey on foot over the hills to the railway
station. Only enough money had been handed the young man to buy
his railway ticket home. The dress suit case had been added
in order to make his progress more difficult.
"A young man who cannot treat the aged with proper respect must
be dealt with severely," said Lawyer Ripley to his son. "You
will reach home fagged out from your long tramp. For your fare,
until your mother and I return, you will have to depend on such
food as the servants at home can spare you from their larder.
Don't you dare order anything from the stores to be charged against
me. Now, go home, drowse out your summer in the hot town and
reflect on what a mean cad you have shown yourself to be to-day."
While Fred was thinking this all over he glanced up suddenly,
to see fourteen pairs of Gridley eyes fixed upon him. The young
people, as soon as they found themselves observed, immediately
turned their glances away from the sullen looking young pedestrian
from their school.
"I wonder what has happened to Fred Ripley?" Susie repeated, when
the object of their remark was some distance away. "Something
has gone very wrong with him. A blind man could see that much."
During this time Fred was thinking to himself:
"If the guv'nor subjects me to this degradation just for one sharp
answer to an old man, what would that same guv'nor do to me if
he knew all the things that I've been engaged in up here at the
lake? What if he knew that I hired that farmer's son to swim
under the float and attach that drag to the canoe? What would
the guv'nor do if he knew that I tried to wreck Prescott's outfit?"
Fred shivered at the mental prospect of his father's stern, grim
wrath.
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