Page:Fairview Boys and their Rivals.djvu/87

Rh list. He felt a good deal better now, however, than he had done before.

Miss Williams was kinder to him. Jed Burr was uglier than ever.

Everybody looked forward to Saturday with a good deal of pleasure and excitement. About a dozen of the boys were going with the nutting party. They were to meet at a cross-roads just south of the town.

Bob, Frank and Sammy were on hand bright and early, each provided with a good-sized feed bag and some lunch. Jed and his friends came upon the scene a little later.

Tom Chubb arrived panting and late. He went on to tell one of his wonderful stories about a dream he had about being in a cocoanut forest, and hated to wake up from it.

"I say, Tom," remarked Frank, "youVe brought no bag."

"Me? Guess not," replied Tom, smartly, sticking his hands in his pockets, and strutting around.

"Why didn't you?" asked Bob.

"Oh, I carried things for some fellows once," chuckled Tom, "and I don't do it again in a hurry."

The boys laughed heartily at this hint of the time when some chums at Springville Academy got Tom to carry a heavy chain several miles to tap a bee-tree that did not exist.

"Besides," added Tom, "I'm too fat to climb trees, so I'm no use except to have fun with."

The party trooped down the pleasant country road, joking, singing, and hailing every farmer they met. Dick Hazelton met them about half a mile out of town.

"Here's our guide," shouted Sammy.

"Yes," cried Dick, "and I'm going to lead you to the biggest raft of hickory nuts you ever laid your eyes on."

"Jolly!" shouted Sammy, waving his cap in glee.