THE FUN OF HALLOWE'EN
"Hallowe'en to-morrow night, boys! So get ready for some real fun!"
"Right you are, Andy! Remember what fun we had last year in New York?"
"And what fun we had down on the farm two years ago, scaring Aleck Pop
and Jack Ness nearly to death?" broke in Fred.
"I don't know whether they'll let us have any fun around Colby Hall or
not," remarked Jack, but in such a tone of voice that all of the others
knew he was fooling.
Several days had passed since the target practice, and the boys were
gathered in the room used by Andy and Randy for studying. All were deep
in a discussion of what they might do on Hallowe'en, when there came a
knock on the door and Dan Soppinger came in.
"Excuse me for interrupting you," commenced Dan, "but I'm up against a
hard proposition. Can any of you tell me----"
"Gee! the Human Question Mark is at it again!" broke out Randy.
"Certainly we can tell you," put in Andy; "but please don't ask it."
"Three and three make six, three and three always have made six, and
three and three always will make six!" cried Fred in a girlish tone of
voice. "So what's the use of asking a question like that?"
"Who said anything about three and three making six?" snorted the Human
Question Mark. "What I was going to say was: Can any of you tell
me----"
"When Nero discovered the north pole?" interrupted Andy.
"No. He wants to know when Washington first crossed the Pacific in a
motor boat," came from Fred.
"No; that isn't it at all," declared Jack, seriously. "Dan wants to
know what kind of an automobile Noah took on the ark."
"Great Scott! What do you take me for?" groaned Dan Soppinger,
helplessly. "Here I come in to ask you a perfectly simple question, and
you start with a lot of foolishness."
"Why, my dear Dan, we are helping you all we can!" cried Andy in deeply
injured tones.
"I want to know when Florida was first settled and by whom!" cried Dan,
desperately. "I bet ten cents none of you know!"
"Oh, that's easy, Dan," answered Andy, gravely. "Florida was first
settled by the alligators, in the year one;" and at this remark there
was such a burst of laughter that the Human Question Mark gave it up in
despair and fled.
"I've got a great scheme for Hallowe'en," said Andy a little later. He
had been walking up and down the room trying to make up his mind what
they might do to have some fun. "I wonder if the girls over at
Clearwater Hall wouldn't lend us some dresses and some girls' hats for
the occasion."
"They might if we agreed to lend them some of our suits in exchange."
"Well, we could do that easily enough," answered Fred. "We hardly ever
have a chance to wear anything these days but our uniforms."
"What do you want to do, Andy--dress up as a girl?" questioned Jack.
"That's it. We might have dead loads of fun."
The matter was discussed for a time, and in the end a boy, who often
did errands for the cadets, was dispatched to Clearwater Hall with a
note to Ruth and her chums. The boy had performed this sort of service
before, and knew that he must deliver the note without allowing the
communication to go through the school office.
The messenger returned just as the cadets were on the point of
retiring, and brought back a letter from the girls in which they agreed
to let the boys have what they wanted in return for some suits of male
attire. It was agreed that the exchange be made in the afternoon,
directly after the school session.
The Rover boys and two of their friends walked to Haven Point, and
there invested some of their spending money in the hire of an
automobile. Then they rode back to the school, procured several bundles
of clothing, and set out for Clearwater Hall.
The girls were waiting for them at a spot secluded from observation,
and there an exchange of bundles took place, interspersed with a good
deal of laughing by the cadets and giggling on the part of the
Clearwater pupils.
"Oh, I'd love to see you dressed up as a girl!" cried Ruth to Jack.
"How about your being dressed up as a boy?" he returned.
"Oh, none of us will dare show ourselves outside the grounds," returned
Ruth, blushing. "Miss Garwood wouldn't permit it."
"Well, if we get the chance, we may come up as far as yonder side
fence," put in Fred. "If we do, we'll give you the signal--three long
whistles."
Nearly all of the cadets at Colby Hall were ready for Hallowe'en fun.
They dressed up in all sorts of disguises, including those of monks,
Indians, negroes, and ghosts. Lighted pumpkins with grinning faces cut
into them were likewise numerous; and one senior trailed around in a
silk gown which he had brought from home for this very occasion.
When the Rover boys appeared dressed as young ladies, with girls' hats
on their heads and parasols in their hands, they were greeted with a
loud cheer, and this was redoubled as they marched around the campus
arm in arm with several boys dressed as dudes, and one attired as an
admiral.
"Some class to the Rovers, and no mistake!" was Spouter's comment. He
had on a pair of long whiskers, a linen duster, farm boots, and a big
straw hat.
"How do you do, Uncle Si?" cried Andy, coming up to him and bowing.
"How is corn?"
"So high, by gosh! y'u can't see the house," answered Spouter in
country dialect. "Do tell, leetle gal! but y'u do look mighty purty,
y'u do!" and at this there was a general snicker.
At the first opportunity, the Rovers and several of their friends
slipped away from the campus and hurried off in the direction of
Clearwater Hall. They were lucky enough to meet a big wagon, the driver
of which was going to the next town to pick up some young folks for a
straw ride. This man took them to the young ladies' school just for the
sport of it.
When the Rovers gave the signal, Ruth and her friends came running
towards the side fence of the grounds. All were attired in male
costumes, wearing exaggerated collars, cuffs and neckties. In addition,
Ruth had on a big pair of pick-toed shoes and a silk hat many years out
of date. She also carried a silver-headed cane.
"Oh, don't you want to take us out for a walk?" questioned Andy, in a
high-pitched, feminine voice.
"Very sorry, my dear, very sorry," came from May Powell, in as deep a
voice as she could command. "I have important business to attend to."
"Oh, Jack, what an awfully big girl you do make!" screamed Ruth, when
she discovered his identity behind the little mask he wore. "I didn't
know you were so large."
"And what a little man you are," he answered, gaily.
"Don't say a word," she returned. "See these sleeves? They are all
rolled up; and I had to do the same with the trousers," and she laughed
merrily.
Although acting against the rules, the Rovers and their friends found
an opening in the fence, and for a brief quarter of an hour mingled
with the girls on the campus of the school. They had "a barrel of fun,"
to use Andy's way of expressing it, and left only because it was
getting late and they knew they would have to walk all the way back to
Colby Hall.
"This is about the best Hallowe'en fun we ever had," remarked Jack,
while he and the others were on the return to the school.
To make time, the boys did not take the regular road through Haven
Point to Colby Hall, but tramped along a back highway which was
considered something of a short cut. This presently brought them in
sight of a large farm which belonged to a hard-fisted man named Elias
Lacy.
"Say, we ought to call on old Lacy and give him a scare," said Randy,
coming to a halt near the farmhouse.
"It would serve him right!" answered Fred, promptly.
None of the Rovers had a kindly feeling for Elias Lacy, for the reason
that the old man had once caught them getting chestnuts from a tree on
the corner of his farm and had made them give up all the nuts they had
gathered and had then threatened them with the law if they dared to set
foot on his premises again.
"I know you cadets," he had snarled. "You are all a pack of petty
thieves! I want you to keep away from here."
He had suffered a great deal, some cadets, including Slugger Brown and
Nappy Martell, having at various times robbed him of his cherries, his
strawberries, and some melons. Of these depredations, however, the
Rovers knew nothing.
"Maybe Lacy isn't around," remarked Jack. "He may have gone to town."
They knew that the old man was a bachelor. He had two young men working
for him, and also a woman who came in during the day to do the
housework, but all of these went home at night.
"I see somebody moving around the house now," answered Randy. "It's
Lacy, too!"
"Let's knock on the door and pretend we are young ladies in distress,"
cried Randy. "Come on! I wonder what he'll do?"
"Don't ask him for any money. He won't give you a cent," chuckled Fred.
"Let's tell him some tramps stopped us and that we want him to go out
and fight the fellows," suggested one cadet. "That will show how brave
a man Lacy is. We can take off our masks."
So it was arranged, and in a minute more the boys were all on the front
piazza of the farmhouse ringing the old doorbell. There was a sound
within, and in a moment more Elias Lacy came to the door with a lamp in
one hand.
"What do you want?" he asked in astonishment, when he saw what looked
to be a number of well-dressed girls confronting him.
"Oh, Mr. Lacy, won't you please protect us?" pleaded Randy, in his best
feminine voice.
"Three murderous tramps are after us!" gasped Andy. "Oh, dear! I know I
shall faint!"
"The tramps wanted to rob us!" cried Jack.
"They are just outside your fence," put in Fred. "Please go out and
chase them away."
Elias Lacy was staggered. He placed his lamp on a little table near by,
and looked in wonder at the crowd before him.
"Three tramps, eh? An' goin' to rob you? Why, I never heard of sech a
thing!" he shrilled. "Mebbe I'd better git my gun."
"Oh, yes! yes! Get your gun, by all means! Get your gun! And maybe
you'd better get a sword, too!" cried Randy.
"Yes! Or a knife or a--a--razor," put in Andy.
"Now, now! don't git so excited!" cried the old man, for the boys
insisted upon clinging to his arms and to his shoulders. "Them tramps
ain't goin' to eat you up."
He was short-sighted, and, as the lamplight was poor, he had not
noticed the boys' somewhat crude make-up. He hurried into a room and
came forth presently carrying a shotgun. Then he walked back into his
kitchen.
"Great Cæsar! he's got his gun all right enough," said Jack in a low
voice.
"Maybe he'll use it on us when he discovers the trick," returned Fred.
"I'll git my lantern, an' then we kin go after them tramps," announced
Elias Lacy; and in a moment more he reappeared with a smoky lantern and
started for the front door. "Come on, an' show me where them tramps
are," he said, determinedly.