"It will be the best ever!" Tom declared, and they started with much enthusiasm, taking with them "Songbird" Powell, a school chum addicted to the making of doggerel which he called poetry, Fred Garrison, a plucky boy who had stood by them through thick and thin, and Hans Mueller, a German youth who was still struggling with the mysteries of the English tongue. With the boys went an old friend, Mrs. Stanhope, and her sister, Mrs. Laning. With Mrs. Stanhope was her only daughter Dora, whom Dick Rover considered the sweetest girl in the whole world, and Mrs. Laning had with her two daughters, Grace and Nellie, especial friends of Sam and Dick.
The trip on the houseboat proved a long and eventful one, and during that time the boys and their company fell in with Dan Baxter, Lew Flapp and several other enemies. On the Mississippi the craft was damaged, and while it was being repaired the party took a trip inland, as related in "The Rover Boys on the Plains." Then the houseboat was stolen, and what this led to has been related in detail in "The Rover Boys in Southern Waters." In that volume they brought to book several of the rascals who had annoyed them, and they caused Dan Baxter to feel so ashamed of himself that the bully made up his mind to reform.
Tired out from their long trip, the Rover boys were glad enough to get back home again. For nearly a week their friends remained with them at Valley Brook farm and then they departed, the Stanhopes and Lanings for their homes and Fred, Hans and Songbird for Putnam Hall.
"Of course you're coming back to the Hall?" Fred had said on leaving.
"Coming back?" had been Tom's answer. "Why, you couldn't keep us away with a Gatling gun!"
"To be sure we'll be back," answered Dick Rover.
"And we'll have the greatest times ever," chimed in Sam. "I am fairly aching to see the dear old school again."
"And Captain Putnam, and all the rest," continued Tom.
"And have some fun, eh, Tom?" and Sam poked his fun-loving brother in the ribs.
"Well, when we go back we've got to do some studying," Dick had put in. "Do you know what father said yesterday?"
"No, what?" came simultaneously from his brothers.
"He said we were getting too old to go to Putnam Hall--that we ought to be thinking of going to college, or of getting into business."