"Hallo!" exclaimed Sam.
"What's the matter with you?" asked Oscar.
"Nothing," replied his companion. "I forgot that you had been through college. Big words come easy to you since your association with those learned men, don't they? Well, good-night!"
The boys had by this time reached Oscar's gate. Bugle, hearing the sound of his master's voice, came over the fence without touching it, and was so demonstrative in his greeting that Oscar was obliged to seize him by the neck and hold him off.
Oscar wanted Sam to go in, but the latter declined. He knew that his friend would want to talk to his mother about his good fortune, and he wisely concluded that the presence of a third party might not be agreeable. He would see Oscar the next day, after school, he said, and listen to the rest of the narrative.
So Sam went home, and Oscar went into the house. He told his mother the same story he had told his companion, adding an item of information that astonished her not a little.
CHAPTER XVII. PAYING THE FIDDLER.
Let us now return to Leon and Frank, whom we left, at the close of the second chapter, hastening over the hills toward home, after spending the day in the woods.