"It was a very enjoyable exhibition, d.i.c.k," said his father.

"And I suppose our son feels that he's a man now?" smiled Mrs.

Prescott.

"No; I'm not, mother, and I don't want to be in any hurry, either.

There's too much fun in being a boy. And now I've an appointment to meet a lot of the fellows."

"Don't let that appointment make you forget supper time," his mother called after him.

Spoff Henderson and Toby Ross were already at the place of appointment.

"Here comes d.i.c.k!" called Spoff. "Now, tell us."

"Wait until the crowd gets here." returned Prescott.

"Ain't you the mean one?" growled Toby. "And we ran all the way home and back."

"Too much hurry is said to be one of the greatest American sins,"

laughed d.i.c.k.

"Well, you're going to tell us, anyway, aren't you?" pressed Spoff.

"Yes; but give the crowd a chance to get here."

Dave and Dan came along, then Tom, Harry and Greg. Tolman and a few other fellows hurried up.

"You might tell us all about that business, now," suggested Tolman.

"I see some more fellows coming up the street," Prescott replied.

"I don't have to tell more than once."

Five minutes later there were more than thirty boys at the corner, and still others were in sight, coming from both ways.

"Say, get busy, Prescott!" called some of the newer corners.

"Let the crowd all get here," d.i.c.k insisted.

Presently the crowd numbered more than fifty a lot of their elders, seeing such an unusual crowd of youths on one corner, halted curiously near by. Then Reporter Len Spencer came along.

"What's all the excitement?" demanded Len, ever keen for local news. One of the boys exclaimed to him what was in the wind.

"Then you'd better hurry up with your statement, d.i.c.k," Len advised.

"There'll be a riot here soon."

"Five o'clock was the time named," Prescott rejoined.

Just then the town clock began to strike.

"It's five o'clock now, d.i.c.k," called Greg.

"Yes," nodded d.i.c.k, "and I'm ready at last to redeem my promise."

"He's going to tell us!"

"Hurrah!"

"Shut up! We want to hear."

"You are all a.s.sembled here," Prescott continued, "to hear just what it was that the man on the clubhouse steps said."

"Cut out the end-man explanations. Give us the kernel!" shouted one boy.

"What the man on the clubhouse steps said," d.i.c.k went ahead, "should be a model to everyone. It is of especial value to all who are tempted to talk too fast and then to think an hour later."

"Yes, but what _did_ he say---the man on the clubhouse steps?" howled Harry Hazelton.

"You will know, in a minute," d.i.c.k a.s.sured his hearers. "Yet, before telling you, I want to impress upon you that, whenever you are tempted to be angry, to be harsh in judgments, or when you can think only ill of your neighbor, then you should always hark back to just what the man on the clubhouse steps said."

There was a pause and silence, the latter broken by Danny Grin demanding impatiently:

"Well, what did he say?"

"You see," d.i.c.k explained, "the man was all alone on the clubhouse steps."

"Yes, yes."

"And he wasn't exactly sociable by nature."

"Go on!"

"As I have explained," smiled d.i.c.k Prescott, "the man on the clubhouse steps was alone, and-----"

"Get ahead faster!"

"So, being alone, he just naturally said-----"

"Well?" breathed the auditors. "Well?"

"He just naturally said---_nothing_!"

"What?"

d.i.c.k dodged back, laughing. There were a few indignant vocal explosions among the a.s.sembled youngsters, followed by dangerous calm and quiet.

"Whenever you find yourself under trying circ.u.mstances, or when anger is surging within you, fellows, believe me, you'll always find it wiser to say just what the man on the clubhouse steps said---which was nothing," d.i.c.k urged.

"And you got us all the way up here, at an appointed time, just to hear that?" demanded Spoff Henderson.