“ The nearer they approached the farmhouse, the more Fred lagged. But suddenly, in the midst of the long cornfield, Master Martin uttered a cry.
"Look there, Bob!"
"What's the matter with you? I thought it was the dog."
"No, sir! See yonder, will you?"
"Nothing but a scarecrow," said Bobby.
"Yes. But it has clothes on it. I'm going to take them. I'm not going up to that house without anything more on me than what I've got."
Bobby began to chuckle at that. It seemed too funny for anything to rob a scarecrow. But Fred was pushing his way through the corn toward the absurd figure. ”

“ The door opened and Bill Bronson and Jack Jinks, from their room across the hall, looked in.
"Sleep with an eye open, you kids," Bill ordered, in a shrill whisper. "Something doing by and by."
"Oh, what, Bill?" cried Purdy, near the door.
"Somebody's got to ride the goat," chuckled the squint-eyed boy, looking over his chum's shoulder.
At that several of the others looked at Bobby and Fred, and chuckled. The two Clinton boys did not hear this by-play. Bill and his chum looked over at the newcomers with wide grins. ”

“ I do not believe there are fifty boys anywhere—in any school—any finer than my boys," declared the Doctor, with growing enthusiasm.
"And I have never presented the Medal of Honor to any of my boys with greater pride than I shall feel when I pin this star upon Robert Blake's coat this afternoon."
The school cheered again. Even Mr. Leith smiled at the enthusiasm displayed by the youngsters. They formed in line, Barry and Frank Durrock lifted Bobby to their shoulders, and the procession marched down stairs and out, and around the campus. ”

“ Your father and I have tried to teach you to be a manly, honorable boy. You are going where such virtues count for more than anything else.
"Be honest in everything; be kindly in your relations to the other boys; always remember that those weaker than yourself, either in body or in character, have a peculiar claim upon your forbearance. Father would not want you to be a mollycoddle but mother doesn't want you to be a bully.
"You will go to church and Sunday School up there at Rockledge just as you have here. Don't be afraid to show the other boys that you have been taught to pray. ”

“ The big dog followed his master. He was part Newfoundland and would have made a fine playmate for any boy, if he had not been trained to be ugly with all strangers. When he got through the fence and saw Bobby standing idly by, he growled at him.
"Look out, Bob!" shouted Fred. "He'll bite you."
"I'm not doing anything," said Bobby Blake. "And you had better not set your dog on me, Plunkit."
"You fellers are too fresh," said the farm boy. "My father says you're not to come around here—"
"Your father doesn't own this land, and your father doesn't own this creek," whipped in Fred, from the branch. ”

“ No, I won't," declared the pugnacious Fred. "Sparrow's trying to get out of it. I'll box him in the gym. But if he's got the pluck of a flea, he'll come down to the corner with his bare fists—and you and Bobby here are enough to see fair play."
"Whew!" whistled Shiner, his eyes dancing. "Do you mean it?"
"You'll find out that I do," threatened Fred, wagging his head.
"You sha'n't fight that way, Fred!" cried Bobby. "The School won't stand for it."
"You mean that bully, Barry Gray, won't stand for it. He always wants to boss."
"You game to see them through, Bobby?" demanded Shiner. ”

“ At once the latter put out his mittened hand and punched Bill between the eyes.
"Look out what you're doing!" yelled Bill, striking madly at his opponent.
In a moment they were at it! The poguey fight was on. The two erstwhile chums swung over the rungs of the horizontally laid ladder, like the famous Kilkenny cats, punched and kicked and batted at each other in a most ridiculous manner.
They couldn't hurt each other very much, save when they bumped heads, and that was not often. But they grew madder every moment. ”

“ There were certain set rules of Rockledge School that he would not break and that he kept Fred from breaking.
"There's no fun in getting caught and held up to the whole school as dishonorable," he told Fred. "We're expected to keep in bounds. We know the bounds well enough. And if we want to go out of them, we have only to ask, and give a good reason, to get permission to go farther."
"Aw, they treat us as if we were a lot of babies," growled Fred Martin.
"They do nothing of the kind," Bobby replied. "Doctor Raymond treats us as though we were gentlemen. He trusts to our honor. ”

“ He shuffled up to the place where Bobby stood. One look he gave and then vented his amazement in a long whistle.
"My goodness!" he muttered. "They've got us beaten before we even begin."
"Aren't we going to fight?" demanded Bobby, with energy.
"What! fight the whole bunch—just us few?"
"Of course. We've got the island—"
"And a fat time we'd have trying to keep it," grunted Max.
"Why, you're a quitter!" exclaimed the smaller boy, under his breath. He whirled and waved his hands to the boys below, busy making snowballs. "Get up here, fellows—in a hurry!" he cried. "Here come the Bedlamites." ”

“ In the second dormitory, where the smaller boys slept, in a pair of twin beds in one corner, Bobby and Fred were billeted.
"And no pillow fights, or other ructions, after 'lights out,' unless you ask the captain first," warned Pee Wee.
"Seems to me this captain has a lot to say around here," growled Fred.
"You bet he has. And what he says he means. And it's not healthy for anybody to do a thing when he says 'don't.'"
"Why not?" queried Master Fred.
Pee Wee grinned. "You try it if you like," he said. "Then you'll find out. Dr. Raymond says experience is the surest, if not the best, teacher." ”

“ So I can't go to boarding school with you," sighed Bobby.
"Well," said the restless Fred, "let's get a move on us if we're going to Plunkit's."
"We must get some lunch," said Bobby, starting up once more. "Say! has Meena got the toothache again?"
"She didn't have her head tied up. But she's real cross," admitted Fred.
"She'll have the toothache if I ask for lunch, I know," grumbled Bobby. "She always does. She says boys give her the toothache." ”

“ But the trio of younger boys withdrew. "Those fellows," said Pee Wee, "are always picking on fellows they think they can lick. If you don't toady to them, they'll treat you awfully mean!"
"I won't toady to anybody—not even to that captain," declared Fred.
"What! Barry Gray?" cried Pee Wee, in surprise.
"Yes. I don't like him—much," confessed the belligerent Fred.
"You'll be dreadfully lonesome, then," chuckled the fat boy. "For 'most every fellow in the school likes Barry. He's captain of the baseball team, and center in the football team. He can do anything, Barry can. ”

“ The fun of the "poguey fight" was not to end so quickly, however. Some of the bigger boys caught Pee Wee and Mouser Pryde, and fastened them into the harness and put the mufflers on their feet and hands.
The fat boy and his chum made no decided remonstrance, and when they were swung up, they made an earnest endeavor to give the fellows all the fun they were looking for. Their gyrations certainly were amusing, and Bobby and Fred laughed as loudly as any of the other boys. ”

“ The Lower School was solid for Bobby and many of the older lads admired the pluck and good humor of the boy from Clinton. His strongest partisans were Fred Martin and Sparrow Bangs, who admired him so much because he was so different from themselves, perhaps.
Pee Wee was Bobby's staunch champion, too. The fat boy boldly declared his admiration for the Clinton boy in any company.
"There isn't another boy like him," Pee Wee said in gymnasium one day, when Bobby was absent. "Say! there's not one of you big fellows but what he's done a favor for—and more than once. ”

“ They had learned many of the stock stories of school—legends of great fights with the boys of Belden School, or of mighty games at football or baseball or some other sport, in which victory had perched upon the banners of Rockledge.
The loyalty of boarding school boys is second only to family feeling or patriotic love for one's country. Bobby and Fred and the other boys of Dormitory Two were just at that age when the mind and heart are both most impressionable. ”

“ Can't you leave a peaceable fellow alone?"
He slammed the yellow-haired youth over the head, and struck him so hard that the pillow-case burst and the feathers began to fly. Bill uttered a roar of rage, and tried to seize him.
"Don't, Fred! Stop! Stop!" called Bobby, from the other end of the room.
Fred Martin had gone too far to stop now. He expected to take a thrashing for his boldness, but meanwhile he was filling Bronson's eyes and mouth with feathers.
Jack Jinks put out his foot and tripped the smaller boy up. Fred fell with Bill on top of him. The bigger boy began to use his fists. ”

“ With the experience they had had before, and the instruction of the Rockledge athletic teacher, for boys of their size, Bobby and Fred were quite proficient in the so-called manly art.
Sparring, as a game like baseball or tennis, is splendid exercise and good training for mind and temper. It may, or may not, lead to fisticuffs among boys. Certainly boys who spar together in a gymnasium are much less likely to have rude fights as the outgrowth of sudden temper. They respect each other's prowess too much. ”

“ That went with the winning of the medal without question.
"Wow!" sighed Pee Wee, "he can hit as hard as any fellow in the Lower School, when he boxes. And he's good fun, and is not afraid to get into a game of fun, even if the teachers scowl on it a little."
"Huh! I guess not," grunted Fred. "That's right about Bobby. He's not afraid of anything. That is, he's not afraid to do anything that isn't mean." ”

“ Mouser Pryde is chummed on me this year. We call him Mouser because he brought two white mice with him to school when he first came.
"Shiner and Harry Moore have the beds on your other side. Shiner's the chap you saw down stairs—Jimmy Ailshine. He's a good fellow, but awfully lazy," remarked the fat boy, with a sigh.
"What do you call yourself?" demanded Fred, rather impolitely.
"Oh, me? I'm not well—honest. And that stone bruise—"
It was then he began to favor the other foot, and Bobby giggled. Pee Wee looked at him solemnly. "What are you laughing at?" he asked. ”

“ Do you s'pose there will be some of the boys at the Rockledge station to meet us?"
"And a brass band, too, maybe—eh?" chuckled Bobby. "I guess nobody but the principal of the school knows we're coming, Fred. We'll be new boys, and the bigger fellows will boss us around at first."
"Huh! they can't boss me if I don't want to be bossed," declared the pugnacious Fred.
"Don't you begin to talk that way," advised his chum. "We'll have to be pretty small potatoes at first." ”

“ The Belden youngsters scrambled into their boats and pushed off from the island, while the Rockledge boys collected all the potatoes they could find, that had not burst, and enjoyed their delayed feast with the sauce of having won it by force of arms. ”

“ Bobby acknowledged the justice of this with a silent nod.
"Got to be something new, Bobby," urged Fred, with much belief in his chum's powers of invention. "You think of something."
"Might have a show," said Bobby.
"Aw—now—Bobby! you know that's no good," declared Fred. "We'd have to let a lot of the other fellows into it. Can't run a circus—not even a one-ring one—without a lot of performers. And they'd want the money split up. ”

“ Fred turned on him with his face as well as his hair aflame: "You're a healthy lieutenant, you are!" he snarled. "Why didn't Captain Gray leave a baby in command? Come on! you can fling snowballs, can't you, like Bobby says?"
"Well—But these fellers will surround the island and then they'll get us," croaked Max.
Sparrow laughed sneeringly. It was Bobby who replied.
"If you propose to run, you start now before the fight begins," he said, gravely. "Then they'll think we're sending a messenger for reënforcements, not that one of our side is a coward and is running away." ”