rong bed,
after all?"

"No, that was all right, Billy, but I have been here since," laughed
Jack, taking off his socks.

"Huh! And you found it out?"

"Quite so!" with another smile.

"How did you do it? Sit on it?"

"No, but you left the end of a string sticking out."

"How do you know I did it?" asked Billy.

"Because you are the only fellow that uses green cord in tying up
parcels. I have noticed that, among other things."

"Billy is a bit green himself when it comes to playing jokes on
observant boys," remarked Harry.

"But how did you happen to come up here ahead of time?" asked Billy,
paying no attention to Harry's observation.

"Accident, that's all. I wanted something."

"But I did not see you leave the room," said Billy. "You did not see me
at work?"

"No, but I saw you come in. Even then I did not suspect anything. I was
about to go up when you came in."

"And then you fixed my bed?" with a grunt.

"Certainly. What is good enough for me is equally good for you, isn't
it, my boy?"

"Yes, but, Jack, you offered to swap beds with him," chuckled Arthur.

"To be sure. I knew he would not take me up."

"And if he had?"

"Well, my side of the joke would have been off, but I would not have sat
on the bed."

"Well, but what was the racket?" asked Billy.

"Giant torpedo under the bed," said Jack. "That was an improvement on
your invention."

"Well, that's one on you!" said Harry with a broad grin.

"And it will be one on all of us if we don't get into bed before the
lights are turned off," added Arthur.

"Yes, that's all right and very funny and I acknowledge that Jack has
nicely got the best of me," said Billy somewhat dolefully, "but what am
I going to do? I can't go to sleep in a wet bed."

"I have an extra set of blankets and things," said Jack. "I saved them
out for you when I fixed your little joke to work backward. Here you are
and now hurry and get fixed."

"H'm! I bet you never had a thought of Jack in that line," said a boy of
the name of Sharpe. "Did you, now?"

"Well, no, I didn't," said Billy, making his bed with the dry blankets
and sheets. "That's one on me. Still, no one offered me any dry things
the other night."

"Nor me, either," said Jack. "I was to be put through the mill in fine
shape, but the joke went on the wrong tack."

"And several of us got on more tacks than one," rejoined Arthur. "I did,
at any rate."

"It just shows you that there is little use in t