ocking chorus:

"Oh, you Anvil!"

"There, you see," muttered Dutcher angrily, "you've gone and fastened
the nickname on me!"

"Anvil! Anvil!" yelled other tormentors.

"You're all of you about the meanest crowd of fellows I ever saw,"
grunted Hen, as he started slowly to skate away.

"And that's all the thanks you get, Dick, for trying to use him a bit
decently," jeered Greg Holmes.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry for the fellow," muttered Prescott. "Hen is one of
those fellows who are never popular with any crowd and can never
understand why."

Harry Hazelton and Dan Dalzell now skated up from town and joined their
chums. Dick & Co. were at last united.

"Let's try a two-mile swift skate up river, fellows," urged Dick.
"Ready? Go!"

Away went the six, moving along over the ice like young human
whirlwinds. Dick & Co. were known to be the best skaters of all the
Grammar School boys in town.

Dick & Co. will need no introduction to the readers of the first volume
in this series, entitled "THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS OF GRIDLEY." Our
readers have met all six of the young men, namely, Dick Prescott, Dave
Darrin, Greg Holmes, Dan Dalzell, Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton. It would
be hard to find six manlier boys of thirteen--now all of them close to
their fourteenth birthdays.

Readers of the previous volume know on what grounds it can be claimed
that these six were real leaders of the little Grammar School world of
Gridley. Dick & Co. were ardent lovers of all forms of outdoor sports.
All were keen for baseball. As runners these six youngsters were just
beginning to develop as a result of self-training. The September before
Dick Prescott had organized, at the Central Grammar School, a football
squad. Things were moving well in this line until delegations came over
from the North and South Grammars, to see about organizing a Grammar
School football league. The delegates from the two other schools,
however, displayed lack of harmony, and the football idea fell through.

Now, however, winter was on in earnest, and Dick & Co. were in their
element, for, of all sports, they loved those that went with winter. All
six were fearless coasters; no hill was too steep, too long or too
dangerous. On the ice Dick & Co. felt all the bounding pulse of life.

This day was the twenty-fourth of December. School had closed in order
to give the Gridley youngsters a free hand on the last day before
Christmas.

The river had been frozen in fine