k, Tom! No favoritism!" cried Dick. "The only way to
make a boy thoroughly self-reliant is to make him take his own part."

"If we are going to send them off to boarding school, they might as
well go this Fall as any other time," remarked Sam Rover. "Have you any
idea when the term at Colby Hall begins, Dick?"

"About the middle of September."

"It's the middle of August now. That would give us a full month in
which to make arrangements and for them in which to get ready."

"Have you ever said anything to the twins about going to boarding
school, Tom?" questioned Sam.

"Oh, yes. They understand that they are to go to some place sooner or
later. Fred understands it, too, doesn't he?"

"Yes."

"And I told Jack only a short while ago that he must get ready to think
of leaving home," put in Dick Rover. "Of course, it will be rather hard
on the boys at first. They have never been away from us at all except
the two weeks when they were out in that boys' camp."

"They'll have to get used to it, just as we got used to it when father
went off to Africa and Uncle Randy sent us to Putnam Hall. Perhaps we
had better tell them----"

Sam Rover broke off short as a series of shrieks in a high-pitched
feminine voice issued from the pantry of the big farmhouse. An instant
later a hired girl, followed by a middle-aged cook, came flying forth
from the kitchen doorway.

"Oh, save me! Save me!" cried the hired girl, clutching her skirts
tightly around her ankles, "Save me!"

"Oh, Mr. Rover! Mr. Rover! It's those dreadful boys! I won't stay here
another minute!" screamed the cook, flourishing a big spoon in one hand
and a dish-cloth in the other. "It's outrageous! That's what it is! I'm
going to pack my trunk and leave this house right away!"

"What's the matter?" demanded Tom Rover, quickly.

"Are you hurt?" came anxiously from Dick.

"What have the boys done now?" questioned Sam.

"What have they done?" wailed the hired girl. "I just went into the
pantry and opened the closet door and out jumped about a thousand mice
at me!"

"Yes! and they are running all over the house!" broke in the cook
savagely. "One of 'em ran right over my foot and tried to bite me! I'm
going to pack my trunk and leave! I won't stay here another minute!"

CHAPTER II

SOMETHING OF THE PAST

At the announcement of the hired girl that their sons had let loose in
the farmhouse a thousand mice--more or less--the three Rover brothers
looke