Bobby Blake at Rockledge School; or, Winning the Medal of Honor

d town, and few people as yet owned automobiles. There were, therefore, not many garages, but plenty of rambling woodsheds and

stable, too. Michael Mulcahey was the coachman, and he liked boys just as much as Meena, the Swedish girl, disliked them. This fact was ever a bone of contention between the old c

Meena. "Me, I don't vant no boys aroundt. Michael, he voul

d Fred trailed through the back gate and down the lane, leaving the gate open. Later Meena had to run out and chase the chickens out of the

ight out into the country. There were plenty of houses lining this r

not a way attractive to automobiles, and it had

e our shoes," suggested Fred. "We'll go in swim

their stockings into their shoes, tied the laces together and slung them about their necks. The shoes kno

back. Bobby had once travelled west with his parents, and they had come bac

m the Empire State. You got to

the road to the creek-the boys were shrouded in them. They ran, scuff

se. Plunkits' was a big farm, and this end of it was not cultivated. If they went near the truck patches, some

really had no right to drive anybody away from the stream, for the farm bordered only one side of it. The c

dary of the Plunkit land, anyway, but thi

re we going to do?" asked Fred, as they trotted along th

es us, that's another

the smart one. Bu

too near," said

ose he is

. "He can lick either of us, Fred. And with the dog he can lick us bo

on Ap and fix him," sa

ed Bobby, cautiously. "You know-if you get into a fight, you'll ca

g to do if they pitch

led Bobby, "like Miss Rainey, o

et a punch in the nose, you can't turn your other nose-you have

along the hank. At the corner of the Plunkit fence there stood a

Fred Martin. "See those a

m are," admi

lare. Say! we're going to h

! don't go so fast, Fred," exclaimed the

g to be," returne

or pick apples on this side of the fence. Here's where we crawl through. Now! lots of the

lained Fred. But he followed Bobby through t

s forever "seeing consequences." He kept them both out of trouble very often b

ere there ever two boys who could walk as f

-water creek in which the pebbles and sand were plainly visible on

ke a goat!" declared Fred, shaking the can which h

ted Bobby. "I don't care if Meena does have th

ng down cross-legged on the grass under a spreading oak

twigs of the oak. A little breeze played with the blades of grass. A thrush sang his heart out, swinging on a cane across the stream. A locust whirred like a p

e," said Bobby. "I j

is at Rockledge," de

ow? You've nev

fore he went to college. He says Rockledge is right up on a bluff overlooking M

eys," said Bobby, grinning

ng his head. "Don't you suppose that's what's the matter at

in't nothing as good as going to boarding school. You se

and they are thinking of pu

hat, and I just went back over everything I've done this vacati

ind out soon enough what it is," said

I suppose they'll worry me to

sy woman she'd tell your fort

came around selling baskets last spring and wheedled that ten cents out of you? She only

day and have to swim across it; and you brought me a change of clothing from home? Huh!

deal. He and his chum had eaten up nearly the whole of Mee

e of those apples," de

ence. He believed that the Plunkits had no claim upon the fruit that overhung somebody else's la

they found that almost every one had been seized by a pr

boy, and ran down to the creek's edge

dvised Bobby, chuckling

decent apple," declar

seat on a strong limb. Several tempting looking "summer sweetnin's" were within his reac

bby, biting carefully

chum, and tossed Bobb

a distance, and a dog barked. "There's that A

anky boy of twelve, or so, and the big black and bro

t!" exclaimed Bobby