readily enough, for his greatest delight was to spread
information. "The committee on sports has arranged several comical
entertainments. There's going to be several sack races to begin with;
climbing the greased pole for another thing; catching a greased pig for
another; and a three-foot race to wind up with."

"A three-foot race!" repeated the gentleman:
"I don't know that I've ever heard of that; would you mind explaining a
little further, my lad?"

"Oh! the contestants are entered in pairs, you see," Semi-Colon told him.
"They are bound together that way, one fellow having his left leg
fastened to his partner's right. It's a great sight to see how they
blunder along, and fall all over themselves. I know some fellows who
have been practicing the stunt; but even then, in the excitement they're
apt to get into a terrible muss."

"Well, all that ought to keep the people in good humor while the time is
passing, I should think," the stranger remarked, laughingly. "And now,
would you mind telling me a little about the rules of the great race? I
understand that the course covers twenty-five miles in all?"

"Yes, sir, if any contestant chooses to go over the entire distance," he
was informed by the willing Semi-Colon, who kept one anxious eye on the
spot where the various runners were now gathering, as though the time for
starting might be drawing very close now.

"What do you mean by saying that, please? Is there any way by which they
may shorten the distance?" continued the gentleman.

"That's just it, sir; at the upper end they can cut off three miles by
taking a short-cut through the woods and along the border of a marsh,
coming out on the other road at the toll-gate, and then turning toward
home."

"I understand what you mean, and I suppose that every one will undertake
that shortening of the journey?"

"Well, I hear there's some talk of a Mechanicsburg fellow who means to
run it out on the road all the way," Semi-Colon told his persistent
questioner.

"What reason would he have for doing so, son?"

"The old one of the hare and the tortoise, sir," the Riverport student
remarked, with a shrewd look. "You see, there's always some chance that
the fellows who try to make that cut-off may get confused, and lose their
way. If they strike the other road below the toll-gate, why they're
compelled to go all the way back so as to register."

"Register!" exclaimed the other, in a puzzled tone.

"Why, it's