The High School Boys Training Hike | Page 8

a
strangely odd character, kept Dick & Co. continually on the alert. In the
third volume of the vacation series, entitled "The High School Boys'
Fishing Trip," were chronicled the things that befell Dick & Co. while
away on a fishing expedition that became famous in the annals of
Gridley school days. This third volume was full to the brim with the
sort of adventures that boys most love. Some old enemies of Dick & Co.
appeared; how they were put to rout is well known to all our readers.
How Dick & Co. played a huge joke, and several smaller ones upon
their enemies, is described in that volume.

In this present volume will be recounted all that befell Dick & Co. in
August after completing their junior year in Gridley High School, just
as the preceding or third volume dealt with the happenings of July of
that same summer.
After that first halt Dick & Co. plodded on for another hour. But
Prescott, noting that Hazelton was still on the driver's seat of the camp
wagon, blandly inquired:
"Harry, if you sit up there, lazily holding the reins, how do you expect
to get your share of the training work of this hike?"
"Perhaps I'd rather have the comfort than the training work," laughed
Hazelton.
"That will never do!" smiled Dick. "Suppose you climb down and let
Danny Grin take your place at the reins until the next halt. I suspect
that Danny boy already has a few pebbles in his shoes, and that he'll be
glad enough to look over the world from the driver's seat."
"I'm willing to sacrifice myself for the good of the expedition,
anyway," sighed Dalzell, as Harry drew rein. "Come down with you,
Hazy, and begin to share the delights of this walking match!"
The change of drivers made, Dick & Co. plodded on again.
"It seems to me that we ought to put on more speed," suggested Dave
Darrin.
"Are you in a hurry to get somewhere, Darry?" drawled Tom Reade.
"No," Dave replied, "but, if we're out for training, it seems to me that
we had better do brisker walking than we're doing now, even if the
horse can't keep up with us."
"We're making about three miles and a half an hour," Dick responded.
"But will that be work enough to make us as hard as nails?" persisted
Darry.

"We're getting over the ground as fast as the troops of the regular army
usually travel," Prescott rejoined. "I believe our regulars are generally
regarded as rather perfect specimens in the walking line. We might
move along at a speed of six miles, and might keep it up for an hour.
Then we'd be footsore, and all in. If the first hour didn't do it, the
second hour would. But if we plug along in this deliberate fashion, and
get over fifteen, eighteen or twenty miles a day, and keep it up, I don't
believe any one of you fellows will complain, September first, that he
isn't as hard and solid as he wants to be---even for bucking the football
lines, of other high schools."
"I know that I can be satisfied with this gait," murmured Reade.
"If Darry wants to move faster," suggested Hazelton, "why not tell him
where to wait for us, and let him gallop ahead?"
"I'll stay with the rest of you," Darry retorted. "All I want to make sure
of is that we're going to get the most out of our training work this
summer."
"I'll tell you what you might do, Dave, by way of extra exercise and
hardening," offered Tom.
"What?" asked Dave suspiciously.
"I believe we're going to halt every hour for a brief rest"
"Yes."
"While the five of us are resting under the trees, Darry, you might
climb the trees, swinging from limb to limb and leaping from tree to
tree. Of course you'll select trees that are not directly over our heads."
"Humph!" retorted Dave.
"Try it, anyway," urged Tom, "it's fine exercise, even if you give it up
after a while."
"I'll try it as often as you do," Darrin agreed with a grin.

Their second halt found the high school boys more than six miles from
their starting point.
On this trip they were not heading in the direction they had followed on
their fishing trip. Instead, they were traveling in the opposite direction
from Gridley, through a fairly populous farming region.
At a quarter-past ten o'clock Dick called for another halt. The road map
that the boys had brought along showed them that they were now
eleven miles from Gridley.
"Pretty fair work," muttered Tom, "considering that these roads were
built by men who had never seen any better kind."
"We can more than double the distance," suggested Dave,