s comrades from
Brill College, were going. He added that if Jack wanted to come home
to see him off, he could do so.

"And that's just what my dad says, too," said Fred, after both boys
had finished reading the letters. "Of course we'll go!"

"Ten horses couldn't hold me back," answered Jack.

"Well, if you fellows go, we're going, too," declared Randy, when the
matter was talked over.

"Bet your life!" added Andy slangily. "I want to know what dad has got
to say about all this."

Jack and Fred communicated at once with their sisters, and learned
that they, too, had received letters from home and were going to
depart for New York City at the earliest possible moment. It was then
arranged that the young folks should all leave together on the
following morning.

"Remember me to your fathers," said Colonel Colby, after they had
asked for and received permission to go. "Tell them they will hear
from me very shortly."

The two girls met the four boys at Haven Point, and Ruth, May, Gif,
and Spouter came to see them off.

"I've got a surprise for you," said Spouter, who had come to the
railroad station at Haven Point earlier than the others, in order to
obtain parlor-car seats for the party.

"What is that?" questioned Fred.

"When I came in for the seats, who do you think was just ahead of me
at the ticket window?"

"You don't mean Slugger and Nappy?" questioned Randy quickly.

"You've struck it!"

"What were they doing there?" asked Jack with interest.

"They were getting tickets for New York."

"Oh, dear! do you mean to say we've got to put up with those fellows
on this trip?" sighed Martha.

"You won't have to notice them, Martha," declared her brother.

"Don't worry but what we'll make them keep their distance," added
Fred.

The whole crowd looked around the depot, and presently made out
Slugger and Nappy at the far end of the platform. They were smoking
cigarettes and talking in low, earnest tones.

"I hope they didn't get seats in the parlor car," said Mary.

"I don't think they did," answered Spouter. "They're such smokers, I
guess they'd just as lief hang out in the smoking car."

In a few minutes the train came along, and, bidding their friends
good-bye, the Rovers got aboard and had a porter show them to their
seats. From the window Jack waved Ruth a good-bye, and then the long
train pulled out of Haven Point and began its trip to the metropolis.

It was rather a long journey, and it wa