Cole of Spyglass Mountain

COLE OF SPYGLASS MOUNTAIN
BY ARTHUR PRESTON HANKINS AUTHOR OF “THE JUBILEE GIRL” AND “THE HERITAGE OF THE HILLS”
NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1923
Copyright, 1923, By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc. PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY The Quinn & Boden Company BOOK MANUFACTURERS RAHWAY NEW JERSEY
TO MY FRIEND Maynard Shipley TO WHOM I AM INDEBTED FOR THE SCIENTIFIC MATERIAL IN THIS BOOK
COLE OF SPYGLASS MOUNTAIN
COLE OF SPYGLASS MOUNTAIN
FOUR boys, ranging from eleven to fifteen years of age, squatted close to earth in a wet, weed-rank city lot. It was spring, and the new warmth of the season’s birth was in the air. The lot was a vacant one, and perhaps would remain so for many years to come, because it was low, and the spring rains had made of it a veritable swamp.
One boy was master of ceremonies, and the eager eyes of his companions were fixed on a chip of wood that he held in his hand, four inches above the ground. The chip was perhaps five inches square, and over it crawled a slug, a slimy, repulsive, helpless creature of the earth. Limax Campestris was the slug’s rather important-sounding name, but of this the boys knew nothing.
“Aw, bet ye an agut he can’t get down!” volunteered one boy.
“Which one o’ yere agates?” asked the one who held the chip.
“My ole moony one,” was the reply. “Bet ye my moony agut against yer black-’n’-white one!”