nsiderably over having young Jack leave
home.

"We'll have to explain the situation to them and get them to agree,"
answered Tom, firmly.

CHAPTER IV

JACK IN WALL STREET

"Just to think, Jack! a week from to-day we'll be on our way to Colby
Hall Military Academy."

"Yes, Fred. Doesn't it seem wonderful? I do hope we'll find the school
to our liking," returned Jack, with a serious look on his face. "It
would be too bad to go to some punk school."

"Oh, you can be sure that the school is all right; otherwise our
fathers wouldn't have picked it out for us," broke in Andy. "They know
what a good military academy is. Didn't they go to that famous old
Putnam Hall?"

"I wish we could have gone to Putnam Hall," added Randy. "From what dad
has told me, it must have been one dandy school."

"Well, we can't go to something that ain't," answered his twin with a
grin. "Putnam Hall doesn't exist any more. When it burnt to the ground,
Captain Putnam felt too old to have it rebuilt, and so he settled with
the insurance companies and retired."

"Gee! but won't we have dandy times if that school is what we hope
for?" cried Andy. "We'll make things hum, won't we?"

"Right you are!" came in a chorus from the others. And then, in sudden
high spirits, the boys began to wrestle with each other, ending up with
something of a pillow fight in which not only pillows but also bolsters
and numerous other articles were used as missiles.

After a never-to-be-forgotten vacation at Valley Brook Farm, the boys,
along with their sisters and their parents, had returned to their homes
in New York City. The Summer was almost at an end, and schools all over
were opening for the Fall and Winter term.

It had been no easy task for Dick, Tom, and Sam Rover to convince their
wives that it would be best to send the boys to some strict boarding
school instead of to the private school which they had been attending
in the metropolis. Gentle Dora Rover had cried a little at the thought
of having her only son Jack leave home, and Grace Rover had been
affected the same way at the thought of parting from her only boy Fred.

"But both of you will be better off than I shall be," had been Nellie
Rover's comment. "Each of you will have a daughter still at home, while
both of my twins will be gone and I'll have nobody;" and her eyes, too,
had filled with tears.

But with it all, the mothers were sensible women, and they agreed with
their husbands