as rather perfect specimens in the walking
line. We might move along at a speed of six miles, and might
keep it up for an hour. Then we'd be footsore, and all in. If
the first hour didn't do it, the second hour would. But if we
plug along in this deliberate fashion, and get over fifteen, eighteen
or twenty miles a day, and keep it up, I don't believe any one
of you fellows will complain, September first, that he isn't as
hard and solid as he wants to be---even for bucking the football
lines, of other high schools."

"I know that I can be satisfied with this gait," murmured Reade.

"If Darry wants to move faster," suggested Hazelton, "why not
tell him where to wait for us, and let him gallop ahead?"

"I'll stay with the rest of you," Darry retorted. "All I want
to make sure of is that we're going to get the most out of our
training work this summer."

"I'll tell you what you might do, Dave, by way of extra exercise
and hardening," offered Tom.

"What?" asked Dave suspiciously.

"I believe we're going to halt every hour for a brief rest"

"Yes."

"While the five of us are resting under the trees, Darry, you
might climb the trees, swinging from limb to limb and leaping
from tree to tree. Of course you'll select trees that are not
directly over our heads."

"Humph!" retorted Dave.

"Try it, anyway," urged Tom, "it's fine exercise, even if you
give it up after a while."

"I'll try it as often as you do," Darrin agreed with a grin.

Their second halt found the high school boys more than six miles
from their starting point.

On this trip they were not heading in the direction they had followed
on their fishing trip. Instead, they were traveling in the opposite
direction from Gridley, through a fairly populous farming region.

At a quarter-past ten o'clock Dick called for another halt. The
road map that the boys had brought along showed them that they
were now eleven miles from Gridley.

"Pretty fair work," muttered Tom, "considering that these roads
were built by men who had never seen any better kind."

"We can more than double the distance," suggested Dave, "before
we go into camp for the night."

"If we hike a couple more miles this morning, then halt, get the
noon meal and rest until two o'clock," replied young Prescott,
"I think we shall do better."

"If we've gone only eleven miles," protested Darrin, "then I'm
certainly good for twenty-five miles in all to-day, and I believe
the rest o