"Wish we were in a carriage," observed Tom, after the turnout had gone on. "Then we might have gone for a drive together."
"I know what Tom would like," said Sam. "A nice buggy and a slow horse, and Nellie beside him----"
"Humph, please change the names to Sam and Grace and you'll hit it closer," answered Tom, his face growing red.
"I'm going to make up a poem about them some day," said Songbird. "I shall call it--let me see--ah, yes--The Three Fair Maidens of Cedarville."
"Don't!" cried Dick. "Songbird, if you dare to do anything like that----"
"You'll have to leave Dora out anyway," said Tom. "If you don't, Dick will get in your wool sure. He----"
"Say, what about Sobber and Pell?" broke in the eldest Rover, his face quite red. "I feel like punishing them for making the ladies drive into the ditch."
"We'll remember it," answered Sam. "If we catch them in Cedarville let's speak of it and see what they have to say for themselves."
"Speaking about a party," observed Songbird, as they approached the village, "do you realize that we haven't had any sort of a feast at the Hall since we got back to the grind?"
"Fred was saying the same thing only a few days ago," answered Tom. "We certainly ought to have some sort of a blow-out."
"Vot you vos going to plow owid?" asked Hans innocently.
"Blow out the stuffings from a mince pie, Hansy."
"Blow them into your stomach. Have a spread--a feast--a fill-up, so to speak--something to eat, cheese, sandwiches, cake, pie, pudding, jam, oranges, bananas, lard, salt, plum pudding, toothpicks, ice-cream, turnips, and other delicacies," went on the fun-loving Rover, rapidly.
"Ach, yah, I understand now, ain't it! I like dem feasts. Ve haf him in von of der pedrooms alretty yet, hey?"
"If the crowd is willing," said Sam. "For one, I vote in favor of it."
"Second the nomination," put in Tom, promptly. "It is elected by a unanimous vote we have a feast at the school, some night in the near future, at eleven o'clock, G. M."
The idea of a feast pleased all the boys. They always got enough to eat during regular meal hours at the Hall, but there was something enticing in the idea of having a feast on the sly some night in one of the dormitories. They had had a number of such in the past and these had been productive of a good deal of sport.