"Then why don't you shed that terrible old red sweater?" suggested Elmer, though he knew beforehand that Ty would find lots of excuses for declining.
Winter and summer, Ty always wore that old flaming sweater when engaged in any outdoor game, whether it be skating, playing hockey, football, baseball, or even going fishing. The season seemed to make no difference to him, though some of his chums declared that the mere sight of the thing made them perspire.
"What, this!" he exclaimed, as though astonished that anyone should mention the subject. "Why, I just couldn't do a thing minus my jolly old sweater. It's been on all sorts of jobs with me. I look on it as my best friend. Nobody knows how many colds it's saved me from. I'd just feel lost without it on, that's what."
"But in hot weather like this it must make you swelter," continued Elmer.
"Not much it don't. Why, don't you know it keeps the warmth out? That's what I read once, and I believe in it, too. Besides, all the fellers have got so used to seeing me with it on that they'd pass me by if I dropped it," grinned Ty.
"That'th tho," remarked Ted.
No one suspected just then what an important part that same red sweater was to play in a game that might change Ty's mind, and that before many hours had passed.
The supper was pronounced prime, and a vote of thanks taken for the farmer who had once been a boy himself and could appreciate the appetite of five fellows who were camping out.
A tent had been brought along, and into this the five crowded when the hour had grown late, and everyone admitted that he was "real sleepy."
Nothing out of the way happened during the night. There were no wild animals of any consequence around that part of the country, although farther north hunters got deer, and even a black bear had been shot the previous spring. Now and then a sly fox would create a little excitement among the neighboring farmers by slipping into their henroosts and carrying off a fat fowl. Mink might be found along the smaller tributaries to the Sweetwater; muskrats were plentiful in the marsh land, and some smart trappers made quite a little sum taking these small animals during the season.