The High School Boys Fishing Trip | Page 6

up. They, too, had to hear all about the bottle-breaking
trick.
"How did you ever come to think of a thing like that, Tom?" asked
Harry Hazelton.
"I thought of it before I tried it out at Dick's," Reade rejoined, and
explained how he had helped Timmy Finbrink out of a scrape.
"What did you say the fellow's name is, Tom?" Dick asked.
"His name is Timmy Finbrink," Reade rejoined, "and he looks the part.
Just one glance at Timmy, and you know that he's all that the name
implies."
Then followed, for the benefit of the two latest arrivals, the story of
Tom's attempt in the rear of the Prescott bookstore.
Harry and Dalzell duly admired the bruise on Tom's face.
"Now, be a gentleman, Tom," urged Harry mischievously, "and let us
have a good, satisfying look at your skinned knuckles."
"Umph!" grunted Reade.
"Or, at least," pursued Harry relentlessly, "tell us just what it was into
which you ran to get such a mark on your face."
"Umph!" retorted Reade once more. "Danny, in the name of mercy,
take that grin of yours around the corner and lose it!"
"I'll try," promised Dan, "provided you'll tell us who caught you last
night, and why he punched your face."
But Tom, knowing that he had them all wild with curiosity, refused to
reveal the secret.
"Now, let's get back to the big fishing trip," begged Greg Holmes.

"Dick, what's the plan?"
"We start to-morrow," Prescott rejoined.
"Humph!" grunted Holmes. "We knew that all along. What we want are
the particulars in detail."
"In the next place, then," Dick replied, "we shall devote a good deal of
our time, while away, to the pleasurable excitement of fishing."
"Perhaps you won't be able to get away," Greg retorted, "if you go on
stringing us in that fashion. I warn you that we're becoming impatient."
"That's right," nodded Dave Darrin. "Get down to actual particulars,
Dick."
"Well, then," Prescott resumed, "we meet at the same old grocery store
in the morning. There we stock up with food."
"Are we going to hire a horse and wagon for transporting our tent, cots,
bedding and food?" Dan asked.
"No," Dick replied. "I've been thinking that over, and the funds won't
stand it. So I've rented a push cart for two dollars. We can keep it as
long as we need it. The tent, folding cots, blankets, pillows and kitchen
utensils will go on the cart."
"Do we have to push that cart?" demanded Danny Grin, looking
displeased.
"We do, if we want the cart to go along with us," Dick admitted.
Danny Grin groaned dismally as he remarked:
"That one detail of the arrangements just about spoils all the pleasure of
the trip, then."
"No, it won't," Dick reported promptly. "I've looked into that. The
wheels are well greased---the axles, I mean. I've loaded the cart with

more weight than we shall put on it, and it pushes along very easily. If
we come to a bad stretch of road, then two fellows can manage the cart
at a time. The scheme saves us a lot of expense, fellows."
"Will all the food go on the cart, tool" asked Dave.
"Each one of us can carry some of the food," Dick replied.
Then his eye, roving from face to face, took in the fact that his chums
were not impressed with the proposed method of transportation.
"Cheer up, fellows," he begged. "You'll find that it will be pretty easy,
after all."
"I'd rather believe you, Dick, than have it proved to me," was Tom
Reade's dejected answer. "I thought we were going away for pleasure
and rest, but I suppose we can work our way if we have to."
None of these high school boys are strangers to our readers. Everyone
remembers the first really public appearance of Dick & Co., as set forth
in the first volume of the "Grammar School Boys Series." Then we met
them again in the first volume of the "High School Boys Series,"
entitled, "The High School Freshmen." That stormy first year of high
school life was one that Dick & Co. could never forget. In the second
volume, "The High School Pitcher," we found Dick & Co. actively
engaged in athletics, though in their sophomore year they did not
attempt to make the eleven, but waited until the spring to try for the
baseball nine. In the third volume, "The High School Left End," Dick &
Co. were shown in their struggles to make the eleven, against some
clever candidates, and also in the face of bitter opposition from a
certain clique of high school boys who considered themselves to be of
better social standing than Dick and his chosen comrades.
In the "_High School Boys' Vacation Series_" our