o have the same idea so many people have," laughed
Prescott. "They think that a man who does all his real work with
his brain isn't working at all, just because he doesn't get into
a perspiration and wilt his collar."

Splash! splash! Reade and Darrin were in the water racing upstream.

"I don't know when I've ever found so much happiness in a summer,"
asserted Greg, as he poised himself for a dive into the water.

"I wonder if Timmy Hinman ever had the nerve to stick to his father's
wagon long enough to get it back to Fenton," said Dave, as he
swam beside Reade.

"If he ever took that wagon home, I'll wager that he drove the
last few miles late at night, so that his 'society' friends wouldn't
have the shock of seeing him drive the peddling outfit that sustains
him," Reade replied.

"I'll never forget the younger Hinman's disgusted look when he
tried to drive the outfit from our camp, the other morning, with
his saddle mount tied behind and balking on the halter," grinned
Darry.

"I wonder why such fellows as Timothy Hinman were ever created,"
Tom went on. "Every time I think about the gentlemanly Timmy
I feel as though I wanted to kick something."

Only the day before, stopping at a postoffice on the route, as
had been arranged with Dr. Hewitt, Dick & Co. had received word
that the peddler was seriously ill with pneumonia, with all the
chances against his recovery.

"If the peddler should die," suggested Dave soberly, "do you believe
that Timmy Hinman will be able to face the thought of going to
work for a living?"

"It would be an awful fate," Tom declared grimly. "Timmy might
try to work, but I don't know whether he would be able to live
through the shock and shame of having to earn the money for paying
his own bills in life."

"There's that irrepressible Dick again!" called Greg five minutes
later.

"What's he up to now?" asked Tom, from further up the creek.

"He has had his rub-down, got his clothing on and is now at work
frying bacon and eggs."

"Then don't disturb him," begged Reade, "or he might fry short
of the quantity of food that is really going to be required."

Five minutes more, however, saw the last of the boys out of water
and rapidly getting themselves in shape to perform their own required
duties. There could be no idlers in the party when Dick & Co.
were away from home on a hike.

Yet, once breakfast had been disposed of, and the dishes washed,
there seemed something in th