ouse, and old
Pond will be awful mad, because he'll have to tote it all the way back
himself. He's too stingy to hire a teamster to take it back."

"And that's your idea of fun is it?" demanded Dick.

"Sure!" grinned Toby.

"It might be for a seven-year-old, but it sounds pretty stupid for an
eighth grader."

"What do you want me to do, then--set old Pond's house a-fire?" queried
Toby with an injured air.

"We'll have to take down a lot of signs and change 'em," proposed Ned
Allen.

"What do you think of that, Dick?" asked Spoff Henderson.

"That sounds kiddish, too, doesn't it?" objected Dick. "And the trick is
at least three times as old as Gridley."

"We can slip in at the back of George Farmer's place," suggested Wrecker
Lane. "You know, he's always bragging about the fine milk he serves.
Well, if we can get in at the cooling trough in his yard we can empty
half the milk out of each big can and fill it up with water. Then won't
he hear a row from his customers about watered milk?"

That brought a guffaw from some of the youngsters, but Dick shook his
head.

"That's kiddish, too," he remarked.

"Say, what do you call kiddish tricks?" Hoof Sadby wanted to know.

"Why, things that have been done, over and over again, by small boys.
All the tricks you fellows have named have been done by our
grandfathers. That's why I call 'em kiddish. A fellow who can't think up
a new one is only a kid. Use your brains, fellows."

"Well, if you're so all-fired smart, you tell us a new one that has some
ginger in it," growled Wrecker.

"I told you that I hadn't any," retorted Dick. "I admit that I'm dull.
But, if I do play any tricks to-night, they'll have to be just a little
bit new. Boys of our age haven't any business traveling around with
Hallowe'en jokes that are so old that they've voted and worn whiskers
for forty years. It isn't showing proper respect for old age."

"Dick has a few new ones in his tank. Don't you worry about that,"
muttered some of the wise ones. "You just find Dick & Co. on the street
to-night, and stick to 'em, and you'll see plenty of fun happening."

"I'll tell you something else that we fellows are growing a bit too old
for, too, if you want to know," Dick offered presently, for the crowd
still insisted on hanging out close to this usually fertile leader in
fun.

"Fire away," groaned Spoff.

"Well, then, I mean the kind of tricks that destroy people's property.
The fellow that shies