LIVING IN THE COUNTRY--LIFE AT SCHOOL--THE HUT CLUB IS FORMED--THE
COMING OF THE CIRCUS
CHAPTER II.
ARCHIE LONGS FOR A CHANGE IN SURROUNDINGS--A TRIP TO NEW YORK WITH UNCLE
HENRY
CHAPTER III.
ARCHIE DETERMINES TO GO TO THE CITY TO WORK--LEAVING HOME AT NIGHT
CHAPTER IV.
WORKING ON A FARM TO EARN SOME MONEY--CRUEL TREATMENT
CHAPTER V.
THE NIGHT AMONG THE RUINS--THE CAMP-FIRE OF THE TRAMPS
CHAPTER VI.
STEALING A RIDE--KICKED OUT BY THE BRAKEMAN
CHAPTER VII.
ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK--A NIGHT IN A LODGING-HOUSE
CHAPTER VIII.
LOOKING FOR WORK--WASHING DISHES IN A BOWERY RESTAURANT
CHAPTER IX.
IN THE STREET AGAIN--THE POLICE STATION--VISITS THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE,
AND IS KINDLY RECEIVED BY THE EDITOR
CHAPTER X.
LIVING IN COMFORT AGAIN--FEATURED AS “THE BOY REPORTER”
CHAPTER XI.
A DAY AND A NIGHT IN CONEY ISLAND--RAIDING A GAMBLING DEN
CHAPTER XII.
A SUCCESSFUL REPORTER--THE EDITOR DECIDES TO SEND HIM AS CORRESPONDENT
TO THE PHILIPPINES--LEAVING NEW YORK--IN CHICAGO
CHAPTER XIII.
SAN FRANCISCO--THE TRANSPORT GONE--WORKING HIS WAY TO HONOLULU BY
PEELING VEGETABLES ON A PACIFIC LINER--THE CAPITAL OF HAWAII
CHAPTER XIV.
THE VOYAGE ON THE TRANSPORT--A STORM AT SEA--ARRIVAL IN MANILA
CHAPTER XV.
ARCHIE STARTS OUT ON AN EXPLORING TOUR, AND HAS SOME STRANGE ADVENTURES
AMONG THE NATIVES--SEIZED BY THE REBELS
CHAPTER XVI.
A PLEASANT CAPTOR--BRAVE BILL HICKSON ALLOWS ARCHIE TO ESCAPE--FIRST
GLIMPSE OF AGUINALDO
CHAPTER XVII.
ARRIVAL OF THE AMERICAN TROOPS--ARCHIE THE HERO OF THE REGIMENT
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE MARCH AFTER THE REBELS--THE FIRST BATTLE--ARCHIE WOUNDED
CHAPTER XIX.
RETURN TO MANILA--IN THE HOSPITAL--CONGRATULATED BY ALL--WRITING TO THE
PAPER OF HIS EXPERIENCES
CHAPTER XX.
AROUND THE ISLAND ON A WAR-SHIP--BOMBARDING A FILIPINO TOWN
CHAPTER XXI.
CONTINUING THE CRUISE--ANOTHER VILLAGE CAPTURED--THE ADMIRAL ARCHIE’S
FRIEND--A GREAT BATTLE AND AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY--LONGING TO BE HOME
AGAIN
CHAPTER XXII.
RETURN TO HEADQUARTERS--A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR, WITH PERMISSION TO
RETURN TO NEW YORK--BILL HICKSON GOES, TOO
CHAPTER XXIII.
HONG KONG--A HAPPY TIME IN TOKIO--HONOLULU AGAIN--ARRIVAL IN SAN
FRANCISCO, AND A GREAT RECEPTION BY THE PRESS--ARCHIE AND BILL ARRIVE IN
NEW YORK, AND ARE THE HEROES OF THE HOUR
CHAPTER XXIV.
DOING “SPECIAL” WORK UPON THE EVENING PAPER--INTERVIEWS WITH FAMOUS
MEN--CALLS UPON OLD FRIENDS
CHAPTER XXV.
PRIVATE SECRETARY TO A MILLIONAIRE--STUDYING AT EVENING SCHOOL--LIVING
AMID ELEGANT SURROUNDINGS
CHAPTER XXVI.
DECIDES TO VISIT HOME--A GREAT RECEPTION IN THE TOWN--A PUBLIC CHARACTER
NOW--DINNER TO THE HUT CLUB--DEMONSTRATION AT THE TOWN HALL--A TELEGRAM
FROM HIS EMPLOYER LEAVING FOR EUROPE
THE ADVENTURES OF A BOY REPORTER.
CHAPTER I.
LIVING IN THE COUNTRY--LIFE AT SCHOOL--THE HUT CLUB IS FORMED--THE
COMING OF THE CIRCUS.
“YES,” said Mrs. Dunn to her neighbour, Mrs. Sullivan, “we are expecting
great things of Archie, and yet we sometimes hardly know what to think
of the boy. He has the most remarkable ideas of things, and there seems
to be absolutely no limit to his ambition. He has long since determined
that he will some day be President, and he expects to enter politics the
day he is twenty-one.”
“Is that so, indeed,” said Mrs. Sullivan. “Well, we can never tell
what is going to come of our boys. As I says to Dannie to-day, says
I, ‘Dannie, you must do your best to be somebody and make something of
yourself, for you and Jack bees all that I has to depend upon now.’ But
Dannie pays no attention to my entreaties, and somehow it seems to me
that since Mr. Sullivan died the boys are gettin’ worse and worse. It’s
beyond me to control them, anyhow.”
“Oh, take heart, Mrs. Sullivan,” said Mrs. Dunn, “our boys will all turn
out well in the end, and all we can do is to bring them up in the best
way we know, and trust to them to take care of themselves after they
leave home. Now Dannie is certainly an industrious lad. I hear him
pounding nails all day long in the back yard, and he made a good job of
shingling the woodshed the other day. He seems made to be a carpenter.”
“Yes, I think so myself,” said the Widow Sullivan. “The whole lot of
them is out by the railroad now, building a hut. They’ve organised a
‘Hut Club’ to-day, and never a lick of work have I had out of them boys
since mornin’. They’ve always got something going on, and when I want
a bit of water from the well, or a little wood from the shed, they’re
never around.”
“Yes, but boys will be boys, Mrs. Sullivan, and we’d better keep them
contented at home as long as we can. They’ll be leaving us soon enough.
It seems that no boys are content to stay in town any longer; they’re
all anxious to be off to the city.”
“That’s true, that’s true, Mrs. Dunn,” said Mrs. Sullivan. “I must be
going now. I’m much obliged for the rain-water, and whenever you want a
bit of milk call over the fence, and I’ll bring it to you with pleasure.
It’s a good neighbour you are, Mrs. Dunn.”
And Mrs. Sullivan went slowly around the house and out at the front
gate, while good Mrs. Dunn returned to her ironing, a few clothes having
to be ready for Sunday.
While these mothers were discussing their boys, the youngsters
themselves were busy behind the barn, building a hut down near the
railway track. There were six of them altogether, the three extra ones,
besides Archie Dunn and the Sullivan boys, having come from across
the railway to play for the day. Two hours before they had solemnly
organised themselves into the “Hut Club,” each boy walking three times
around the block blindfolded, and swearing upon his return to be true
to all the rules and regulations of the organisation, which had been
written with chalk on the side of the barn. The regulations were
numerous, but the most important one was that no East Side boys were to
be allowed within the club-room when it was built, and that the club’s
policy should be one of warfare against the East Siders on every
occasion when they met. This fight against the East Side was, indeed,
responsible for the organisation of the club. It was felt necessary to
have some head to their forces, and some means of holding together. So
the club was organised, and now the next thing on the programme was the
erection of a hut to serve as a club-house. Archie Dunn, who had been
elected president, volunteered to get three boards and a hammer if the
other boys would each get two boards and some nails. This proposition
was agreed to, and when the boys returned from their foraging
expeditions it was found that there were more than enough boards to
build the hut, so the work began at once. Holes were dug in the ground,
and some posts planted as supports for the structure, and then the
boards were hastily nailed together from post to post. In three hours
the hut was practically completed, and it remained only to lay a floor
until they could hold their first meeting in the new club-house. The
floor itself was down by noon, and the club then served a memorable
dinner to mark the completion of the structure.
A hole was dug in the ground outside the door, and a furnace made. A
skillet was brought from Archie’s house, together with some dishes and a
coffee-pot, and Dan Sullivan brought some more dishes, and six eggs from
his nests under the barn. The boys were obliged to make several trips
to and from the houses, but finally nearly everything was ready, and the
eggs were carefully cooked by Archie, who was really a good housekeeper,
from long experience in the kitchen with his mother. Some potatoes were
fried in the grease remaining in the skillet after the eggs were cooked,
and then the feast began. The eggs may have been rather black with
grease, and the potatoes were certainly not done, but the boys all
pronounced it the finest meal of their lives, notwithstanding the bitter
coffee, and the dirty bread, which had been allowed to fall into the
gutter beside the railway track. They were eating in their own house,
and they had cooked in the open air, “just like tramps,” Harry Rafe
said, and it was little wonder that they enjoyed the novel experience.
The only trouble came when the meal was finished. No one wanted to
wash the dishes, and, finally, it was decided to return them to their
respective kitchens just as they were, and to let them be washed with
the rest of the dinner dishes at home. And this decision came near
putting an end to Hut Club dinners, for both Mrs. Dunn and the Widow
Sullivan were determined not to wash any more dirty dishes from the hut.
When the meal was over, the boys lounged about the hut, and Dan Sullivan
brought a lot of things from his sister’s playhouse with which to
furnish it more suitably. Archie Dunn brought a lot of hay from the loft
in his mother’s barn, and when a piece of old carpet was spread upon it
it made an acceptable couch. A piece of old carpet was laid in front of
the hut, too, where the boys could sit and watch the trains switching
back and forth on the railway, and the tramps who were heating coffee in
cans over by the cattle-pen.
Finally, some cattle arrived in the pen to be loaded into cars for the
city, and the boys had just decided to go and watch the men loading
them, when an engine came up the side-track with the most beautiful car
they had ever seen, behind it. The car was painted in all colours of the
rainbow, and in giant letters was printed the magic name of “The World’s
Greatest Show.”
The boys lost no time in getting down from the cattle-pen fence, and the
car had barely stopped when they were aboard. “Hooray,” shouted Charlie
Huffman, “we’ll all get jobs of passin’ bills.” And it was with this
end in view that they sought the advertising manager in the car, who
promised to give them all jobs when the circus came in two weeks.
The boys deluged him with questions of every sort. “Will there be any
elephants?” “Is there goin’ to be a parade?” and “Will there be any
trapeze performances?” The poor man was finally obliged to lock the
door to keep them out, and the boys stood about the car until nearly
six o’clock, admiring the paintings, and speculating as to whether they
would be able to work their way into the circus or not, when it finally
came. Their speculations were interrupted by the appearance on the scene
of the Widow Sullivan with a good-sized maple switch, which she used
to good effect in getting the two Sullivans and Archie Dunn home for
supper. For Mrs. Dunn had given Mrs. Sullivan instructions before she
started, so that when Archie complained that he had been whipped by
“that woman next door,” he received no sympathy whatever.
And when he went to bed at nine o’clock, he could hardly sleep for
thinking of the wonderful things which had happened this day. The coming
circus and the great Hut Club kept him awake until far after ten, so
that he got up too late for Sunday school the next morning, and was
punished accordingly.
The next week was a hard one at school, and the boys had but little
time to devote to the club. But after four o’clock in the afternoon
they sometimes got together and did various things which improved their
club-house. Some very fair chairs were constructed from empty soap
boxes, and various contrivances were put together to guard against the
intrusion of any East Siders or tramps while they were away at school.
There was no padlock used, and any one coming up to the hut would
imagine it a simple thing to enter--until he tried. But the boys had
fixed a secret cord which, when pulled, shifted the bar inside, and
every boy was sworn not to betray the existence of the cord.
The day set for the circus came nearer and nearer, and the boys began
to be anxious for fear the schools would not close, so that they could
attend. But the superintendent finally announced that they would; so
early on the eventful day the entire club was on the grounds, waiting
to get some work to do. Archie Dunn got the first job, being selected
to carry water for the elephant because he was stronger than any of the
others. But the rest were given something to do, and when the day was
over they had all seen the circus, and went to bed happy, to dream of
the great trip to be taken by the Hut Club on the next Saturday.