The Rover Boys at School | Page 4

and had
there made a fortune in the mines. Returning to the East, he had
married and settled down in New York City, and there, the three boys
had been born.
An epidemic of fever had taken off Mrs. Rover when Richard was but
ten years of age. The shock had come so suddenly that Anderson Rover
was dazed, and for several weeks the man knew not what to do. "Take
all of the money I made in the West, but give me back my wife!" he
said broken-heartedly, but this could not be, and soon after he left his
three boys in charge of a housekeeper and set off to tour Europe,
thinking that a change of scene would prove a benefit.
When he came back he seemed a changed man. He was restless, and
could not remain at home for more than a few weeks at a time. He
placed the boys at a boarding school in New York and returned to the
West, where he made another strike in the gold mines; and when he
came back once more he was reported to be worth between two and
three hundred thousand dollars.
But now a new idea had came into his head. He had been reading up on
Africa, and had reached the conclusion that there must be gold in the
great unexplored regions of that country. He determined to go to Africa,
fit out an exploration, and try his luck.
"It will not cost me over ten to twenty thousand dollars," he said to his

brother Randolph. "And it may make me a millionaire."
"If you are bound to go, I will not stop you," had been Randolph
Rover's reply. "But what of your boys in the meanwhile?"
This was a serious question, for Anderson Rover knew well the risk he
was running, knew well that many a white man had gone into the
interior of Africa never to return. At last it was settled that Randolph
Rover should become Dick, Tom, and Sam's temporary guardian. This
accomplished, Anderson Rover set off and that was the last any of his
family had ever heard of him.
Was he dead or alive? Hundreds of times had the boys and their uncle
pondered that question. Each mail was watched with anxiety, but day
after day brought no news, until the waiting became an old story, and
all settled down to the dismal conviction that the daring explorer must
be dead. He had landed and gone into the interior with three white men
and twenty natives, and that was all that could be ascertained
concerning him.
At the time of Anderson Rover's departure Randolph had been on the
point of purchasing a farm of two hundred acres in the Mohawk Valley
of New York State. The land had not changed hands until a year later,
however, and then Dick, Tom, and Sam were called upon to give up
their life in the metropolis and settle down in the country, a mile away
from the village of Dexter Corners.
For a month things had gone very well, for all was new, and it seemed
like a "picnic," to use Tom's way of expressing it. They had run over
the farm from end to end, climbed to the roof of the barn, explored the
brook, and Sam had broken his arm by falling from the top of a cherry
tree. But after that the novelty wore, away, and the boys began to fret.
"They want something to do," thought Randolph Rover, and set them to
work studying scientific farming, as he called it. At this Dick made
some progress, but the uncle could do nothing with Tom and Sam.
Then the last two broke loose and began to play pranks on everybody
that came along, and life became little short of a burden to the studious

Randolph and, his quiet-minded spouse.
"I must send them off to a boarding school, or somewhere," Randolph
Rover would say, but he kept putting the matter off, hoping against
hope that he might soon hear from his lost brother.
CHAPTER II
AN ENCOUNTER ON THE ROAD
"I'll race you to the path," said Sam, when the woodshed was left
behind.
"All right," answered Tom, who was always ready to run. "Toe the
mark here. Now then -- one, two, three! Go!"
And away they went across the meadow, leaping two ditches with the
agility of a pair of deer, and tearing through the small brush beyond
regardless of the briers and the rents their nether garments might
sustain. At first Tom took the lead, but Sam speedily overhauled and
then passed him.
"It's no use -- you always could outrun me," panted Tom, as he came to
a stop when Sam crossed the footpath ten yards ahead