and he took such a sudden and violent spell of coughing
that he was compelled to put his handkerchief to his mouth and go
outside the door. Every boy in the room, including the three Grecian
warriors, knew that he went out to indulge in the laughter that he could
not restrain, and the enemy's triumph was complete.

"You must rub that miserable sketch from the board," he said upon his
return, "and write in place of it, 'Do unto others as you would have
them do to you,' which will remain there until we need the board for an
exercise."

It was a great relief to the three friends that the summer holiday was
so near at hand that there would be but little more time for the
Trojans to trouble them. Every boy in school had a plan in view as to
the way the holiday was to be spent.

"We are going out to the woods every day," said one group of boys. "We
will take our luncheon and will fish in the brook, and find good places
to set snares in the fall."

"We are going to the woods, too," said another group, "and will gather
flowers to press for our herbariums."

But our three friends could overmatch all the pleasures mentioned by
their schoolmates, for they had the promise from their parents that they
should go to the city of Frankfort on the Main river to visit an aunt of
Fritz. Every day their schoolmates heard from some one of the three, or
perhaps from all, of the pleasures expected from their first journey,
and their visit to a city to remain a whole week. This again aroused the
jeers of the enemy which they bore bravely, knowing that it was only
envy; so went on serenely with their preparations for the visit.

Their homes were but a short distance apart, therefore out of school as
well as in they were much together and all their talk was upon the visit
to Frankfort, and of the things they would take, their plans subject to
change from day to day.

The father of Fritz took a Frankfort paper which the boy read carefully,
and reported the dangers of a great city to his comrades. From these
readings the three considered the city highly dangerous and they
resolved to go well prepared for any attack that might be made upon
them, either upon the journey or during their sojourn in the great city,
which its own paper denounced as wicked.

One morning he announced to his companions that he was well fixed to go,
for he had now a weapon which could be depended upon, and showed them an
old hunting-knife thick with rust, which he h