the worst of the muck away.

"Never mind bothering yourself about that; I guess I can attend to it
when I get home. It wouldn't have happened anyway if I hadn't met you on
the road," said Ferd, with a return of his bitterness.

Dick looked at him queerly, and then threw down the rough wiper he had
been using.

"I guess you're right. And as I didn't do anything to trouble you it
looks as if you just wanted to knock me into the ditch. It's a case of
the biter bitten, Ferd. When you see me helping you pull your old
machine out of the ditch again you'll know it."

Filled with indignation he turned and walked rapidly away, leaving the
other looking after him, still angry and yet perhaps somewhat ashamed in
the bargain.

This was not the first time these two lads found themselves facing one
another with fire in their eyes.

In school they seemed to be constantly ranged on opposite sides, and
the rivalry had extended into many of the natural pastimes indulged in
by growing boys, from baseball in the summer to football in the autumn
and skating and hockey in the winter.

The rivalry seemed unequal from one point of view, since Ferd was the
only son of Archibald Graylock, proprietor of the big department store
in the town, and known as a wealthy man; while Dick lived in an humble
cottage with his mother, a widow, and their circumstances had been
growing more and more straightened during the last year, so that our
hero was seriously contemplating giving up all hope of attending school
again in the fall, and seeking a position.

Dick's father had been a carpenter known for his many good qualities; he
had by frugality and prudence saved a sum which had been invested as he
thought judiciously, and would serve as a means of support to his little
family in case anything happened to him.

Seriously injured in an accident he had lingered for nearly a year and
then been taken, leaving the mother and son to face the world. For
several years things went along smoothly, for Mrs. Morrison was an
excellent housekeeper, and could make a dollar go a great ways without
appearing to be niggardly; but unexpected misfortune overtook them, and
the company in which most of the carpenter's savings had been invested
struck a reef, so that not only did the little income cease from this
source but there was danger that the principal might also be lost.

This was the serious condition of affairs in Dick's home at the time he
met his bitter ri