“Give me a start,” begged Bob.
“Go on!” yelled Jerry. “You’re not so fat as all that. We start even.”
“I’m entitled to a handicap,” insisted Bob.
The boys were laughing and shouting, and making considerable noise.
Bob insisted that he would not race unless he was given the advantage he claimed because of his stoutness, and finally Ned and Jerry agreed, letting Bob have his “head start.”
“Are you ready?” yelled Jerry.
“Let her go!” shouted Ned.
“Go!” cried Bob, and the three lads raced toward the piazza.
Ned and Jerry cut down Bob’s lead in a short time, and Jerry, by reason of slightly longer legs, soon passed Ned. They all three approached the porch, Jerry and Bob reaching it at the same moment. They were both going so fast they could not stop, and a moment later Bob tripped and would have fallen had he not given a jump up in the air, and landed on the porch. Then he slipped, and fell with a bang, spinning along the piazza floor, while Jerry and Ned, laughing and shouting, jumped up after him. Then, seizing him, one by each foot, [they pulled him the length of the smooth porch], which had no railing.
