“I was at the upper end of it once,” Ned stated, “but I didn’t get near Boxwood. And so the dear old professor has settled down. Well, we sure did have good times with him!”
“That’s right!” agreed Jerry. “Maybe we’ll get a chance to run up and see him.”
“I hope so,” remarked Bob. “Look! Here’s the professor’s name in the list of the faculty,” and he pointed it out in the catalogue. “He’s got half the letters of the alphabet after it, too.”
This was not strictly true, though Professor Snodgrass had received many degrees from prominent colleges for his scientific work. He had written several books, too, on various subjects connected with “bugology,” as the boys called it.
After some discussion of the new position which had been accepted by their friend, the professor, and some reminiscent talk of the times they had spent with him, Jerry and Bob went to their respective homes, agreeing to go for another automobile ride on the morrow.
“Well, what shall we do now?” asked Jerry of his chums one afternoon, several days after the receipt of the letter from Professor Snodgrass. “I don’t just fancy any more autoing for the present.”
“What’s the matter with a ride in the motor boat?” asked Bob, for the boys owned one. It was kept in the boathouse near the residence of Mrs. Hopkins.
“We can drop down the river to Anderson’s place and----”
“No, but you thought it all right. Come on.”
The boys started for Jerry’s home, and at the foot of the long, green lawn that led up to the front porch Ned cried:
“I’ll race you to the front steps to see who pays for the ice cream sodas. Last man there pays!”
“Go on!” yelled Jerry. “You’re not so fat as all that. We start even.”
“I’m entitled to a handicap,” insisted Bob.
The boys were laughing and shouting, and making considerable noise.
Bob insisted that he would not race unless he was given the advantage he claimed because of his stoutness, and finally Ned and Jerry agreed, letting Bob have his “head start.”
“Go!” cried Bob, and the three lads raced toward the piazza.
Ned and Jerry cut down Bob’s lead in a short time, and Jerry, by reason of slightly longer legs, soon passed Ned. They all three approached the porch, Jerry and Bob reaching it at the same moment. They were both going so fast they could not stop, and a moment later Bob tripped and would have fallen had he not given a jump up in the air, and landed on the porch. Then he slipped, and fell with a bang, spinning along the piazza floor, while Jerry and Ned, laughing and shouting, jumped up after him. Then, seizing him, one by each foot, they pulled him the length of the smooth porch, which had no railing.