y were lucky enough to meet a big wagon, the driver
of which was going to the next town to pick up some young folks for a
straw ride. This man took them to the young ladies' school just for the
sport of it.

When the Rovers gave the signal, Ruth and her friends came running
towards the side fence of the grounds. All were attired in male
costumes, wearing exaggerated collars, cuffs and neckties. In addition,
Ruth had on a big pair of pick-toed shoes and a silk hat many years out
of date. She also carried a silver-headed cane.

"Oh, don't you want to take us out for a walk?" questioned Andy, in a
high-pitched, feminine voice.

"Very sorry, my dear, very sorry," came from May Powell, in as deep a
voice as she could command. "I have important business to attend to."

"Oh, Jack, what an awfully big girl you do make!" screamed Ruth, when
she discovered his identity behind the little mask he wore. "I didn't
know you were so large."

"And what a little man you are," he answered, gaily.

"Don't say a word," she returned. "See these sleeves? They are all
rolled up; and I had to do the same with the trousers," and she laughed
merrily.

Although acting against the rules, the Rovers and their friends found
an opening in the fence, and for a brief quarter of an hour mingled
with the girls on the campus of the school. They had "a barrel of fun,"
to use Andy's way of expressing it, and left only because it was
getting late and they knew they would have to walk all the way back to
Colby Hall.

"This is about the best Hallowe'en fun we ever had," remarked Jack,
while he and the others were on the return to the school.

To make time, the boys did not take the regular road through Haven
Point to Colby Hall, but tramped along a back highway which was
considered something of a short cut. This presently brought them in
sight of a large farm which belonged to a hard-fisted man named Elias
Lacy.

"Say, we ought to call on old Lacy and give him a scare," said Randy,
coming to a halt near the farmhouse.

"It would serve him right!" answered Fred, promptly.

None of the Rovers had a kindly feeling for Elias Lacy, for the reason
that the old man had once caught them getting chestnuts from a tree on
the corner of his farm and had made them give up all the nuts they had
gathered and had then threatened them with the law if they dared to set
foot on his premises again.

"I know you cadets," he had snarled. "You are all a pack of petty