were splashing about like birds, enjoying
a bath.

The crowd, which always assembles when this scene occurs in the park,
was looking on with huge enjoyment, staid business men and millionaire
merchants gathering to watch the boys at their sport. The lads
splashed and ducked each other, at times, in their eagerness, even
wetting the by-standers.

Suddenly there was that cry which, above all others, startles the
newsboys and bootblacks of New York.

"Cheese it, de cop!"

Some lookout, posted for that very purpose, had spied the approach of
the bluecoat, who came up on the run, seeing the crowd, for he knew
what it meant--that the boys were disobeying a city ordinance, and
bathing in the basin.

Instantly there was a rush on the part of the lads to get out, for to
be caught meant to be arrested and fined. The boys sprang over the
side of the basin, the crowd, laughing more heartily than ever, opening
to let them escape.

As luck would have it, two or three of the larger boys, in their
efforts to get away, ran toward the side of the fountain where Dick
stood. He tried to get out of their path, that he might not hamper
them in their escape, but there was a fat man behind him and Dick
stepped on his toes.

"Ouch! My gracious! That's my corn!" cried the man, limping away.

Dick started to apologize, but he had hardly begun it, when he was
fairly overwhelmed by the lads leaping from the basin. They did not
care where they landed, as long as they got away from the officer, and
they toppled on Dick, splashing water on him from the fountain, and
from their own dripping forms.

Dick was knocked down, and one of the boys fell on top of him, the
glittering drops splashing all about. Dick struggled to his feet,
trying to get rid of the water in his eyes that he might see which way
to go to run so as to get out of the way. But, just as he turned to
go, he felt some one seize him, and a voice exclaimed:

"Now I've got you, anyhow! Come along with me!"

"Where to? What for?" asked Dick, and he looked up to see that a
policeman had him by the shoulder.

"Where to? Why, the station house, of course. And what for? I guess
you don't have to ask that! I'll catch some more of you chaps for
takin' a dip in the basin the first chance I get, too! You got ahead
of me to-day."

"I wasn't in the basin," declared Dick.

"You wasn't? Say, what ye givin' me? Didn't I see ye runnin', an'
ain't ye all wet?"

"The w