The High School Boys' Canoe Club

E-text prepared by Jim Ludwig
The High School Boys' Canoe Club or Dick & Co.'s Rivals on Lake Pleasant
By H. Irving Hancock
CHAPTERS I. The Splendid War Canoe II. RIP Tries Out His Bargain III. Buying Fuel for a Bonfire? IV. Hiram Pries a Secret Loose V. Birch Bark Merchants VI. Meeting the Fate of Greenhorns VII. Danny Grin is Silent VIII. What an Expert Can Do IX. Dick Trembles at His Nerve X. Putting Up a Big Scheme XI. All Ready to Race, But——- XII. Susie Discomfits a Boor XIII. The Ripley Heir Tries Coaxing XIV. The Liar has a Lie Ready XV. At the Greatest of Feasts XVI. A Scalp-Hunting Disappointment XVII. The Good Word by Wire XVIII. Won't Win Against a Mudscow XIX. What Ailed Gridley? XX. Dinky-Rat Hot Sail! XXI. Nature Has a Dismal Streak XXII. Fred is Grateful—-One Second! XXIII. Trentville, The Awesome XIV. Conclusion
It's the wreck of one of the grandest enterprises ever conceived by the human mind! complained Colonel W.P. Grundy, in a voice broken with emotion.
A group of small boys grinned, though they offered no audible comment.
Such defeats often—-usually, in fact—-come to those who try to educate the masses and bring popular intelligence to a higher level, was the colonel's declaration, as he wiped away a real or imaginary tear.
On a nearby lot stood a large show tent, so grayed and frayed, so altogether dingy as to suggest that it had seen some summers of service ere it became briefly the property of Colonel Grundy.
Near the entrance to the tent a temporary platform had been built of the board seats taken from the interior of the tent.
Near the platform stood a grim-visaged deputy sheriff, conversing with an auctioneer on whose face the grin had become chronic.
Some distance from the tent stood a group of perhaps forty men of the town of Gridley.
The whole outfit of junk won't bring five hundred dollars, predicted one of these men. How much did you say the judgments total?