"There, you see," muttered Dutcher angrily, "you've gone and fastened the nickname on me!"
"Anvil! Anvil!" yelled other tormentors.
"You're all of you about the meanest crowd of fellows I ever saw," grunted Hen, as he started slowly to skate away.
"And that's all the thanks you get, Dick, for trying to use him a bit decently," jeered Greg Holmes.
"Oh, well, I'm sorry for the fellow," muttered Prescott. "Hen is one of those fellows who are never popular with any crowd and can never understand why."
Harry Hazelton and Dan Dalzell now skated up from town and joined their chums. Dick & Co. were at last united.
"Let's try a two-mile swift skate up river, fellows," urged Dick. "Ready? Go!"
Away went the six, moving along over the ice like young human whirlwinds. Dick & Co. were known to be the best skaters of all the Grammar School boys in town.
Dick & Co. will need no introduction to the readers of the first volume in this series, entitled "The Grammar School Boys of Gridley." Our readers have met all six of the young men, namely, Dick Prescott, Dave Darrin, Greg Holmes, Dan Dalzell, Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton. It would be hard to find six manlier boys of thirteen—now all of them close to their fourteenth birthdays.
Readers of the previous volume know on what grounds it can be claimed that these six were real leaders of the little Grammar School world of Gridley. Dick & Co. were ardent lovers of all forms of outdoor sports. All were keen for baseball. As runners these six youngsters were just beginning to develop as a result of self-training. The September before Dick Prescott had organized, at the Central Grammar School, a football squad. Things were moving well in this line until delegations came over from the North and South Grammars, to see about organizing a Grammar School football league. The delegates from the two other schools, however, displayed lack of harmony, and the football idea fell through.