ere announced. "Fifteen!" shouted Si
Carew. "Eight!" called little Cal Woody.

"Oh, pshaw!" laughed Will Rogers. "You fellows are so excited that I
don't believe any one of you could say his A B C's straight through.
Keep quiet for a moment and let me count them. One, two, three, four,
fi-- There! I believe I've missed one already. One, two, three--"

"Here's a letter for you, Will," shouted Hal Bacon, who had been to the
post-office, and came running breathlessly in at that moment. "What's
all this I hear about bicycles? Oh, my eye! What a lot! How did they get
here?"

"Just wheeled themselves up from New York," laughed Will, at the same
time tearing open his letter, which was postmarked at that city. After a
hasty glance at its contents, he called for silence, and read the
following:

_William Rogers, Esq., Captain Berks Ready Rangers_:

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of 10th inst. with check for three hundred
and fifty dollars enclosed, is at hand, and contents noted. As per
request I forward by freight, charges prepaid, three hundred and
fifty dollars' worth of bicycles, or ten (10) in all.

I am greatly pleased at the energy and perseverance shown by the
Rangers in earning this sum of money, which I may as well admit is
larger than I believed they would raise, and I congratulate them
most heartily upon their success.

Tom does not expect to spend this summer in Berks, but is making
arrangements for a most delightful outing elsewhere. In it he
hopes his fellow Rangers will be able to join him. It is nothing
more nor less than a-- But I must not anticipate, nor rob him of
the pleasure of telling you his plans himself.

With best wishes for the continued prosperity and happiness of the
Ready Rangers, I remain,

Sincerely their friend,
L. A. BURGESS.

"Ten bicycles for three hundred and fifty dollars!" cried "Cracker" Bob
Jones. "And all of 'em first-class, A No. 1 machines. That beats
anything I ever heard of. If Mr. Burgess has got any more to sell at the
same price I'd like to take them off his hands, that's all."

"But he hasn't," declared Will Rogers. "Don't you remember that ten was
the exact number he happened to have?"

"And it's the exact number that happens to make just one apiece for us,"
commented Abe Cruger. "Seems to me that's about as big a piece of luck
as I ever ran across."

"If it is luck," added Hal Bacon, shrew