"See here, fellows," Prescott called to some of the nearest ones.
"And you especially, Charley Grady, for you're studying to be
a lawyer."

"What has a lawyer to do with the aching desire for a swim?" inquired
Grady.

"Well, post us a bit," begged Dick. "What was it the great Burke
had to say about punishing a community?"

"Why," responded Grady thoughtfully, "Burke laid down a theory
that has since become a principle in law. It was to the effect
that a community cannot be indicted."

"All of us fellows---_all_ of us might be called a community,
don't you think?" queried Dick.

"Why---er---aha---hem!" responded Grady.

"Oh, come, now, drop the extras," ordered Dick. "Time is short.
Are we a community, in a sort of legal sense? Just plain yes
or no."

"Well, then, yes!" decided Grady.

"Whoop!" ejaculated Dick, placing his straw hat back on his head
and starting on a sprint out of the yard. His chums followed.
Some of the fellows who were nearer the gate tried to reach it
first. In an instant, the flight was general.

"Come on, Rip! You're not going to hang back on the crowd, are
you?" uttered one boy, reproachfully. "Don't spoil the community
idea."

So Fred Ripely tagged on at the rear of the flight.

"What is it, boys---a fire?" called Laura Bentley. A dozen girls
had drawn in, pressing against the wall, to let this whirlwind
of boys go by.

"Tell you when we get back," Purcell called. "Time presses now."

It took the leaders only about four minutes to reach Foster's
Pond. Even Ripley and the other tail-enders were on hand about
a minute later. There was a fine grove here, fringed by thick
bushes, and no houses near. In a jiffy the High School boys were
disrobing.

"And the fellow who 'chaws' anyone else's clothes, to-day," proposed
Dick, "is to be thrown in and kept in, when he's dressed!"

"Hear! hear!"

Dick was one of the first to get stripped. He started on a run,
glided out over a log that lay from the bank, and plunged headlong
into one of the deepest pools. Then up he came, spouting water.

"Come on, in, fellows! The water's _grand_!" he yelled.

Splash! splash! The surface of the pond at that point was churned
white. The bobbing heads made one think of huckleberries bobbing
on a bowl of milk.

Splash! splash! More were diving in. And now the fun and the
frolic went swiftly to their height.

"This is the real thing!" vented one ecstatic swimmer. "Down
wit