“I think maybe he works on one of the farms around here,” answered Fatty. “There are many hired men on the farms now. This is summer, and there’s lots of work for hired men. My father is going to get one. I help him but that isn’t enough, he says. What are you going to do?” he asked as Dick Kelly threw himself on the grass behind some bushes.

“Take a little rest in this shade,” Dick answered. Dick, too, was stout; not as fat as the Nolan boy, but stouter than either Teddy or Joe.

“I guess we can all take a rest,” agreed82 Teddy. “I wish I had a drink of water,” he went on as he wiped his sweaty forehead with his handkerchief.

82

“There’s a spring not far from here,” said Fatty. “It’s over that way—near those trees. I sometimes let our cows stop there and get drinks.”

“I wouldn’t want to drink from a spring if cows drank from it,” Teddy objected.

“There are two springs,” said the fat boy. “The big one is where the cows drink. I wouldn’t want to drink there, either. But there’s a smaller spring, above the one where I let the cows drink. That small spring is nice and clean.”

“We’ll go there after we rest,” decided Teddy.

Joe was fumbling in his pocket and soon brought out a little paper bag. He opened it, held it out to Teddy and said:

“Have some!”

“What are they?” asked Teddy.

83 “Gum drops. I bought them in Mrs. Traddle’s store while you and Dick were out looking at the deer’s hoof marks in the garden.”

83

“Thanks!” murmured Teddy as he began chewing some of the gum drops. “They’ll make me more thirsty. Candy always does. But it won’t matter as long as we’re near a spring.”

“Have some, Fatty!” Joe invited.

“Well—er—yes—thanks—I will. Maybe I oughtn’t to eat any. Candy makes you fatter they say, but I guess a couple of gum drops won’t, will they?”

“Try ’em and see!” suggested Joe.

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