the Midnight Sun
Plum had since reformed , but Nat was as overbearing and dictatorial as ever . The great cloud resting over Dave in those days was the question of his identity , and when some of his enemies spoke of him as `` that poorhouse nobody '' he resolved to find out who he really was . Getting a strange clew , he set forth on his travels , as described in `` Dave Porter in the South Seas , '' where he found his uncle , Dunston Porter . Then he came back to Oak Hall , as told of in `` Dave Porter 's Return to School , '' and next went to the Land of the Midnight Sun , as set forth in `` Dave Porter in the Far North , '' where he was gladdened by a long-hoped-for meeting with his father . `` They ca n't say I 'm a poorhouse nobody now , '' he told himself , and went back to Oak Hall once again , as set forth in `` Dave Porter and His Classmates . '' Here he made more friends than ever , but he likewise made enemies , the most bitter of the latter being one Link Merwell , the son of a ranch-owner of the West . Merwell did his best to get Dave into trouble , but in the end was exposed and had to leave the school .