The Grammar School Boys in Summer Athletics | Page 3

and glanced at it. Then he rose,
remarking:
"You may stay here and get all the comfort you can out of nature, Dave.
But it's half past five and I guess the rest of us will want to be nearer to
the source of kitchen odors."
"Whew! If it's any such time as that I'm going to move fast," cried
Harry Hazelton, leaping to his feet. "At our house supper is on at six
o'clock, and anyone who gets in late has to take what's left."
"Are your folks so poor as that?" laughed Tom.
"Hardly," returned Harry. "But both dad and mother are sticklers for
everyone being in his seat on time."
By this time five of the chums had started across the broad, sunny field
toward the rather dusty road.
"Coming, Dave?" Dick called, looking back.
"Oh, yes," grunted Darrin. "But I hate to see all of you fellows running
as though you didn't know whether you'd ever get another meal."
"I wonder what is Dave's sudden grouch against the eats," Tom mused
aloud. "I've seen him at a few meals, and he was always a clever
performer."
"Probably Dave has been eating too much for this time of the year, and
has a touch of indigestion," Greg laughed.

Darrin overheard the discussion as he came along, but he did not
choose to enlighten his friends. However, unintentionally, Greg had
touched upon a part of the trouble. Dinner, that Sunday, at the Darrin
cottage, had been unusually tempting, and Dave had eaten heavily. For
that reason, when he had joined the crowd in the early afternoon, Dave
had felt just a bit sluggish. The walk out into the country had roused his
digestion a bit, and had left him in just that state where he could
contentedly lie on the grass and doze half of the time.
On this bright Sunday all six of our Grammar School boys had attended
church and Sunday school as usual. Then, the day being so fine, they
had met and gone away on this tramp, which had ended in a "resting
match" on the cool grass under the shade of trees.
All of our readers are familiar with these six fine American boys. Our
readers were first introduced to Dick & Co., as Prescott and his chums
were locally known, in the first volume in this series, "The Grammar
School Boys Of Gridley." Therein the reader made the acquaintance of
six average American boys of thirteen, and followed them through their
sports and adventures---which latter were many and startling indeed.
In the second volume of the series, "The Grammar School Boys
Snowbound," the same six were shown at winter sports just before
Christmas. The detection, on Main Street, of a trio of Christmas
shopping thieves led to a long chain of rousing adventures. Right after
Christmas, Dick & Co., securing permission from their parents, went
for a few days of forest camping in an old log cabin of which they had
been given the use. Another phase of their adventure with the shopping
district thieveries turned up in the woods and contributed greatly to the
excitement of their experience. While still camping in the old, but
weather-proof cabin, the Grammar School boys found themselves
snowbound in one of the greatest blizzards that had happened in that
section in years. Being hardy boys from much outdoor life, however,
Dick & Co., as our readers know, turned hardship into jolly fun, and
incidentally made a great discovery in the woods that turned their
camping expedition into the local sensation of the hour. The reader also
remembers how some of the poorer specimens of High School boys

and a few local young "toughs," under the leadership of Fred Ripley
and Bert Dodge, tried to drive them from their forest camp.
In the third volume of the series, "The Grammar School Boys In The
Woods," Dick Prescott and his chums, each now fourteen years of age,
found the most startling of all the exciting happenings that had been
crowded into their short lives. How they came upon two dangerous,
tattered specimens of humanity in the woods, how these two contrived
to make Dick and Greg take unwilling part in an attempt to rob one of
the local banks, the mystery of the haunted schoolhouse, and a host of
other lively incidents---all these are so familiar to the reader of these
volumes as to need no repetition. And Dick & Co., through the series of
exciting adventures they had encountered, had become the best-known
boys in and around the little city of Gridley. Being leaders of other
boys, they had naturally made some enemies, but that is to be expected
in the case of all who are born to lead, or who fit themselves for
leadership.
And now, on