him. He lived in half a dozen places, according to the condition of his finances, and picked up his precarious existence by working for anyone who would employ him. He might have had a steady situation more than once, but it was not in Blumpo’s composition to stick at one thing for any great length of time. We will learn much more concerning him as our story proceeds.
CHAPTER II.
MRS. FLEMING’S RUNAWAY HORSE
“Well, now that the midsummer holidays have really commenced, what do you intend to do with yourself, Jerry?” asked Harry, as they took it easy for a bit after leaving the vicinity of the town.
“I expect I’ll have to help on the farm – at least, I think I ought to help,” was the reply. “You know this is the busy season.”
Harry’s face fell a little at this reply. Evidently something was on his mind, and this answer did not harmonize with it.
“I’ll tell you what I would like mighty well,” put in Blumpo. “I would like to leave town and take to the woods.”
“Why, Blumpo, you must have been reading my thoughts!” cried Harry. “I was thinking exactly the same thing.”
“Take to the woods?” repeated Jerry. “What do you mean? Clear out from home entirely?”
“No, no,” laughed Harry. “I mean to go off for awhile – say, two or three weeks or a month. Sail up the lake and camp out, you know.”
“Oh!” Jerry’s face took on a pleased look. “I would like that myself, especially if we could go fishing and swimming whenever we wanted to.”
“I’ve had it in my mind for several days,” Harry continued, slowly. “I was going to speak of it yesterday, but I didn’t get the chance.”
“You mean you want me to go with you?” asked Jerry.
“Yes. Don’t you think your folks would let you?”
“They might. Who else would go along, do you think?”
“I haven’t thought of anyone else. We might ask – ” and Harry hesitated in thought.
“What’s the matter with asking me?” put in Blumpo, with a serenity that took away the lack of politeness in his remark. “I’m just as tired of Lakeview as anybody.”
Harry burst out laughing. The idea of asking Blumpo had never once entered his mind.
“It ain’t nothing to laugh at,” went on Blumpo, half angrily.
“Excuse me, Blumpo,” said Harry, stopping short. “I – that is – I wasn’t thinking of you when I made the remark.”
“I’m not rich, nor eddicated, as you call it, and all that, but I can hunt and fish, and so on, as good as the next feller, can’t I?”
“You certainly can,” put in Jerry, who had for a long time had a strange liking for the homeless youth.
“And I am as willing as the next one to do my full share of camp work – washing dishes and the like,” went on Blumpo. “You ain’t cut out for that,” he added, turning to the son of the rich shoe manufacturer.
“Maybe not, but I reckon I can do my full share of work,” laughed Harry. “I was not brought up with kid gloves on, you know.”
“One thing is certain,” mused Jerry. “I wouldn’t want to leave until I had rowed that race with Si Peters from Rockpoint.”
The race to which Jerry referred was one to take place on the following Saturday. Silas Peters was considered the best single-shell oarsman on the lower side of the lake, and he had challenged Jerry as a representative from the Lakeview Academy.
“You’ll win that race, suah,” put in Blumpo. “I’ll bet my hat on it.”
As Blumpo’s hat was of straw and full of holes, this made both Jerry and his friend burst into a fit of laughter.
“I don’t mean this hat. I mean my Sunday-go-to-meetin’ one,” said the homeless youth, hastily.
“Blumpo, on your honor, did you ever own two hats at once?” asked Harry gravely.
“Well, since you buckle me down, no,” was the low reply. “What’s the use? Can’t wear but one at a time.”
“That’s as true as you live,” returned Jerry.
The three boys talked over the subject of an outing for some time. All thought it a glorious idea, and Jerry said he would go if he possibly could.
All this time Jerry and Harry were rowing up the lake at a moderate rate of speed. Jerry loved the water, and spent nearly all of his spare time in the vicinity of the lake.
Presently Harry grew tired and Blumpo took his place at the oars.
“Here comes the Cutwater!” cried Harry, a few minutes later.
The Cutwater was a large sloop owned by one of the gentlemen living in Lakeview. As she came past, those in the row-boat noticed several young ladies on board, who were sailing the boat under directions of a young man named Clarence Conant.
Clarence had but little idea how a boat should be managed, and as the sloop went by Harry’s face grew troubled.
“Jerry, what do you think of that?”
Jerry stopped rowing for a moment to look at the sloop.
“A good lot of sail up, especially if it should blow up stronger,” he said.
“Just what I think.”
“That Clarence Conant don’t know nuffin’ about sailing,” snorted Blumpo Brown. “The ladies better beware how they go out with him.”
“I agree with you, Blumpo,” said Jerry, gravely.
The sloop now disappeared from sight around a turn in the lake at which several islands were situated.
A few minutes later the row-boat drew up to a small dock at the end of a well-kept garden.
This was Mrs. Fleming’s place, where Harry intended to stop on an errand for his mother and father.
He sprang on the dock and hurried toward the house, saying he would not be gone more than five minutes.
The two boys waited for him to return, and during the interval Jerry caught sight of the Cutwater up the lake and watched her progress with interest. The wind was getting stronger and the sloop carried more sail than was good for her. Soon she again disappeared, and Jerry turned toward the house, wondering what kept Harry so long.
“Must have been invited to lunch,” was Blumpo’s comment. “Pity he didn’t ask us in, too.”
“No, he wouldn’t stay and leave us here,” replied Jerry, “Most likely – hullo!”
Jerry sprang up in the row-boat in amazement. Down the garden path leading from the front of the house to the dock came a beautiful black horse on a gallop. On the animal’s back sat a little girl not more than eight years of age. The horse was running away with her, and she was clinging tightly to his mane.
“Oh, John, stop him!” she screamed.
“Whoa, Banker, whoa!” shouted a man who came running after the animal.
But the horse, a nervous creature, was frightened over something and would not stop.
He clattered on the dock, and the next instant went over into the lake with a loud splash, carrying the little girl with him.
CHAPTER III.
JERRY’S BRAVERY
Blumpo was so scared by the accident that he uttered a short yell.
“Fo’ the lan’ sake,” he moaned, in a shaking voice.
The horse disappeared from sight for a brief space of time and then came up and began to churn the water madly in an endeavor to save himself from drowning.
The little girl was nowhere