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Rh Soon Hans appeared with his ear coverings, and then the lads said good-bye. The whip cracked, and they were off on their outing. Little did they dream of how the holidays were to come to an abrupt end.

The road along the river was a rather rough one and they had to proceed slowly, for fear of, jouncing off part of the load. But the lads were in the best of spirits and as they rode along they; sang and cracked jokes to their hearts' content. Tom had the last of his "doctored" cigars with him and he passed this over to Jack Ness, and all had a hearty laugh when the hired man lit up and was treated to a dose of the "worms."

"By gum! I might have remembered about them cigars!" murmured the wagon driver. "I laffed at Ricks an' now you got the same laff on me!"

"Never mind, Jack, you buy something worth smoking, when you go to town," said Tom, and slyly slipped a silver quarter into the hired man's palm.

It was noon-time when they reached the spot where they could get the sailboat. This was hired from a man living in the vicinity, and that individual's wife supplied all hands with dinner, for, the boys did not want to touch their stores until