to the woods?" repeated Jerry. "What do you mean? Clear out from
home entirely?"

"No, no," laughed Harry. "I mean to go off for a while--say, two or three
weeks or a month. Sail up the lake and camp out, you know." "Oh!" Jerry's
face took on a pleased look. "I would like that myself, especially if we
could go fishing and swimming whenever we wanted to."

"I've had it in my mind for several days," Harry continued, slowly. "I was
going to speak of it yesterday, but I didn't get the chance."

"You mean you want me to go with you?" asked Jerry.

"Yes. Don't you think your folks would let you?"

"They might. Who else would go along, do you think?"

"I haven't thought of any one else. We might ask--" and Harry hesitated in
thought.

"What's the matter with asking me?" put in Blumpo, with a serenity that
took away the lack of politeness in his remark. "I'm just as tired of
Lakeview as anybody."

Harry burst out laughing. The idea of asking Blumpo had never once entered
his mind.

"It ain't nothing to laugh at," went on Blumpo, half angrily.

"Excuse me, Blumpo," said Harry, stopping short. "I--that is--I wasn't
thinking of you when I made the remark."

"I'm not rich, nor eddicated, as you call it, and all that, but I can hunt
and fish, and so on, as good as the next feller, can't I?"

"You certainly can," put in Jerry, who had for a long time had a strange
liking for the homeless youth.

"And I am as willing as the next one to do my full share of camp
work--washing dishes and the like," went on Blumpo. "You ain't cut out for
that," he added, turning to the son of the rich shoe manufacturer.

"Maybe not, but I reckon I can do my full share of work," laughed Harry.
"I was not brought up with kid gloves on, you know."

"One thing is certain," mused Jerry. "I wouldn't want to leave until I had
rowed that race with Si Peters from Rockpoint."

The race to which Jerry referred was one to take place on the following
Saturday. Silas Peters was considered the best single-shell oarsman on the
lower side of the lake, and he had challenged Jerry as a representative
from the Lakeview Academy.

"You'll win that race, suah," put in Blumpo. "I'll bet my hat on it."

As Blumpo's hat was of straw and full of holes, this made both Jerry and
his friend burst into a fit of laughter.

"I don't mean this hat. I mean my Sunday-go-to-meetin' one," said the
homeless youth, hastily.

"Blumpo, on your honor, did you ever own two