"No, sir. I--I--placed 'em there just for safekeeping," was the hesitating answer. "I didn't know that Lulu would disturb them."

"That's it, Dad. I'm sure Randy didn't want 'em disturbed."

"And what did you have to do with this, Andy?" demanded the father.

At this the boy addressed had nothing to say.

"He had nothing to do with it, Dad," answered Randy. "I got the mice and put 'em in the two boxes. I s'pose it wasn't just the right thing to put 'em in the pantry, but I give you my word I didn't think they'd be upset the way they were and be sent running all over the house. If Lulu hadn't touched the boxes, the mice would be there yet."

"Perhaps," answered Tom Rover, dryly. "Just the same, I think you placed the boxes there hoping that Lulu or the cook would have curiosity enough to see what they contained. As it is, your actions have upset the whole house, brought on the destruction of the fish-globe, and the cook is so upset that she has threatened to leave."

"Oh, she won't leave, Dad. She likes her big wages too well," remarked Andy, quickly.

"I don't know about that, Son. n.o.body is going to stand for your tricks much longer. They are getting altogether too numerous." Tom continued to look as stern as possible. "I've got to take both of you in hand, and that is all there is to it. You are growing wilder every day.

Something has got to be done. Now you go right upstairs and finish dressing, and don't dare to let me hear of any more tricks being played for the rest of this day, otherwise I'll not only give you a sound thrashing, but I'll cut off your spending money and do several other things that you won't like;" and, thus speaking, the father of the twins opened the door to the hall and shoved them both out towards the stairs with more force than they had felt for some time. The two lads lost no time in retiring to their bedroom.

"Say, Randy, I think you got off rather easily," remarked Andy, when they were alone.

"I think so myself," was the quick response. "I thought Dad would be so mad that he would give me one everlasting licking."

"Say! how did you make out?" questioned Fred, eagerly, as he came sneaking in, followed by Jack.

"You don't look as if you had suffered very much," was Jack's comment.

"I thought you'd come out looking as if you'd been through a threshing machine."

What Randy and Andy had to tell was quickly related. At the conclusion, Jack, who being somewhat older than any of the others, was looked upon as something of a leader, shook his head thoughtfully.

"I guess we had better pull in our horns a little, for a while at least," was his conclusion. "My father was mighty mad, too, and so was Fred's. If we don't look out, we'll all get in wrong. They didn't like that wetting business to start with."

While the boys were finishing their toilet and discussing the matter, their fathers were doing what they could to set matters to rights downstairs, and to pacify their Aunt Martha and also the cook and the hired girl. The cook was particularly wrought up.

"It ain't the first time nor the second time nor the third time that them boys have played tricks on us," she declared. "It's been nothin'

but one thing or 'nother ever since they came here--and last Summer it was the same way. The first thing you know, they'll be doin' somethin'

awful, and some of us'll get hurt. I think I had better leave."

"If she leaves, I'll leave too," declared the hired girl.

"Don't think of leaving," said Tom Rover. "I'll take those boys in hand and see to it that they don't bother you any more. If they do the least thing, I'll pack them back to our house in New York." And after a little more talk he succeeded in mollifying the cook and the hired girl to such an extent that they went back to their work. Then the fathers of the boys withdrew once more to the library.

"I don't know how you feel about it," began Tom, after he had picked up his comic paper once more and then thrown it aside in disgust. "I begin to think that the best thing I can do is to pack those twins off to Colby Hall."

"I don't know but what I agree with you, Tom," answered Sam. "And if you do send them, I think Fred might as well go along."

"Yes; and Jack also," added d.i.c.k. "Those boys will never want to be separated, and I don't know that we could do better than to place them under Larry Colby's care, especially if we let Larry know just how wild they are apt to be and tell him to take them in hand."

"Yes; I'd want Larry to know all about them," answered Tom. "And I'd want him to give me his word that he'd keep a sharp eye on Andy and Randy and punish them severely every time they broke any of the rules.

It's the only way to bring them up properly."

"All right then, Tom. If you think that way and d.i.c.k thinks the same, let's get right down to business and send a letter to Larry Colby to-night," said Sam.

"But what of the boys' mothers?" questioned d.i.c.k Rover. He knew that his wife Dora would grieve considerably 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 d.i.c.k, 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 n.o.body;" and her eyes, too, had filled with tears.

But with it all, the mothers were sensible women, and they agreed with their husbands that the boys needed to be placed under strict discipline and that this was not possible at the school which they had been attending.

"That school is altogether too fashionable," had been d.i.c.k Rover's comment. "They make regular dudes of the pupils and they think more of high collars and neckties and patent-leather shoes than they do of reading, writing and arithmetic. Now, I want Jack to get a good education and I want him to learn how to behave himself while he is getting it." And so, after several communications had pa.s.sed between the Rovers and Colonel Lawrence Colby, it was settled that the boys should be enlisted as cadets at Colby Hall.

"Cease firing!" cried Jack, when there came a lull in the pillow fight.

"The first thing you know somebody will come in here and we'll be in hot water again." The boys were up in Jack's bedroom, and all of their mothers were downstairs, talking over the question of the wardrobes the lads were to take along to school.

"All right, Commodore," answered Andy, gaily. "Out of the trenches, boys; the war is over!"

"Suits me," panted Randy, who was all out of wind from his exertions.

"Melt the cannons into telephones and send messages to the girls that the soldier boys are coming home," and at this remark there was a short laugh. Then all the boys proceeded to make themselves comfortable in various att.i.tudes around the bedroom.

"Say! I'm glad of one thing," remarked Fred; "and that is, we won't be utter strangers at Colby Hall. Spouter Powell will be there and so will Gif Garrison."

It may be as well to explain here that Spouter Powell, whose real first name was Richard, was the son of the Rovers' old friend, John Powell, commonly called Songbird. Richard Powell did not seem to have much of his father's ability to write verse, but he did have a great fondness for making speeches, whence had come his nickname of Spouter.