The Scranton High Chums on the Cinder Path | Page 2

days, since farmers had a habit of getting rid of their produce at
dawn, and driving off home while most schoolboys were indulging in
their last nap.
But, by various means, they had learned just where the nuts grew most
plentifully that season; and quite a list of available places had been
tabulated: to the Guernsey Woods for blacks; plenty of shagbarks, and
some sheilbarks to be gathered over at the old Morton Place, where no
one had lived these seven years now; and they said the chestnuts away
up in that region miles beyond the mill-pond was bearing a record crop
this season, as if to make amends for lean years a-plenty.
Scranton was one of the few places where the boys still yearned after a
goodly supply of freshly gathered nuts to carry them through a long and
severe winter. Somehow they vied with one another in the gathering of
the harvest of the woods, and often these outings yielded considerable
sport, besides being profitable to the nutters. On one momentous
occasion the boys had even discovered the hive of a colony of wild
bees, cut the tree down, fought the enraged denizens by means of
smoke and fire, and eventually carried home a wonderful stock of
dearly earned honey that would make the buckwheat cakes taste all the
sweeter that winter because of the multitude of swellings it cost the
proud possessors.
Hugh had been coaxed to join the party; not that he did not fully enjoy
such enterprises, but he had laid out another programme for that
afternoon. All through the morning these same lads had been hard at
work on the open field where Scranton played her baseball games, and
had such other gatherings as high-school fellows are addicted. Here a
fine new cinder path had been laid around the grounds, forming an oval
that measured just an eighth of a mile, to a fraction.

All through the livelong day on Saturdays, and in the afternoons during
weekdays, boys in strange-looking running costumes of various designs
could be seen diligently practicing at all manner of stunts, from
sprinting, leaping hurdles, engaging in the high jump, with the aid of
poles; throwing the hammer; and, in fact, every conceivable exercise
that would be apt to come under the head of a genuine athletic
tournament.
For, to tell the secret without any evasion, that was just what Scranton
designed to have inside of another week---a monster affair that
included entries from all other schools in the county, and which already
promised to be one of the greatest and most successful meets ever held.
Hugh and his chums were every one of them entered for several events;
indeed, it would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack to try
and find a single Scranton boy above the age of ten, and sound of wind,
who had not taken advantage of the generous invitation to place his
name on the records, and go in for training along a certain line. Those
who could not sprint, leap the bars, throw hammer or discus, or do any
other of the ordinary stunts, might, at least, have some chance of
winning a prize in the climbing of the greased pole, the catching of the
greased pig, the running of the obstacle race, or testing their ability to
hop in the three-legged race, where each couple of boys would have a
right and left leg bound together, and then attempt to cross a given line
ahead of all like competitors.
So even when they started out after lunch the whole five were a bit
tired; and a vast store of nuts, like the one they were fetching home,
cannot be gathered, no matter however plentiful they may be on ground
and trees, without considerable muscular effort on the part of the
ambitious collectors.
Consequently, every fellow was feeling pretty stiff and sore about the
time we overtake them on the way home. Besides, most of them had
zigzag scratches on face and hands by which to remember the
wonderfully successful expedition for several days. Then there was
Julius Hobson with a soiled handkerchief bound around his left thumb,
which he solicitously examined every little while. He had, somehow,

managed to catch a frisky little squirrel, which, wishing to take home,
he had imprisoned in one of his side pockets that had a flap; but,
desirous of fondling the furry little object, he had incautiously inserted
his bare hand once too often; for its long teeth, so useful for nut
cracking, went almost through his thumb, and gave his such an electric
shock that in the confusion the frightened animal managed to escape
once more to its native wilds.
Hugh, as he went along toward home, was really taking mental notes
concerning the