"I've been studying until all the words on a page seem to run
together, and I don't know one word from another," complained
Dave.

"Then drop study---if you dare to!"

"I'm thinking of it," proposed Darrin seriously. "Actually, I've
been boning so that the whole thing gets on my nerves, and stays
there like a cargo of lead."

"Let's pledge ourselves, then, not to study on the fifteenth or
the sixteenth," urged Dick.

"I'll go you, right off, on that," cried Darrin eagerly.

"And we'll spend those two days in the open air, roaming around,
and trying to enjoy ourselves," added Prescott.

"Enjoy ourselves---with all the load of suspense hanging over
our heads?" gasped Darrin.

"Well, we'll try it anyway."

To most people in and around Gridley the world, in these few days,
seemed to bob along very much as usual. Dick and Dave, however,
knew better.

At last came the evening of the sixteenth! Both anxious boys
turned in early, though neither expected to sleep much. Both,
however, were soon in the land of Nod.

But Dick awoke at half-past four on the morning of the fateful
seventeenth. By five o'clock he knew that he wasn't going to
sleep any more. So he got up and dressed.

Dave Darrin was in his bath, that same morning, before four o'clock.
Then he, too, dressed, and wondered whether every other fellow
who was going into the contest to-day felt as restless.

The mothers of both boys were astir almost as early. Mothers
can't take these examinations, but mothers know what a son's
suspense means.

Dick and Dave met at the station a full twenty minutes before
train time.

CHAPTER XIX

Tom Reade Bosses the Job

"Ugh!" shivered Dave, as the chums met on the platform. "It's
cold out here!"

"Come inside, then, and get warm. But you're a great athlete,
to mind an ordinary December morning," laughed Dick Prescott.

Together they stepped into the waiting room.

"What time does our train go?" asked Dave, though he had known the
time of this train for the last week.

"Seven-forty," replied Dick.

"And it's seven-twenty, now. Whew, what a await!"

"I could have stayed home a little longer," nodded Dick. "Only
I told father and mother that I'd feel more like being started
if I got down here this far on the way."

"Sure thing," nodded Dave sympathetically. "My Dad had to hold
on to me to stop my leaving the house an hour earlier than I did."

Both boys laughed, though not very hear