boys laugh, and the next instant felt a shower of water on his back.
It made the tears come.

"Uhm-m-m--no fair splashin'," he whined.

Mealy put one foot in the water and drew it out quickly, gasping, "Oo!
I ain't goin' in. It's too cold for me. It'll bring my measles out."
He started--trembling--up the bank; then he heard a splashing behind
him.

"Come back here," cried Piggy, whose hands were uplifted; "come back
here and git in this water or I'll muddy you." Piggy's hands were full
of mud. He was about to throw it when the Jones boy pretended to laugh
and giggled, "Oh, I was just a-foolin'."

But he paused again at the water's edge, and Piggy, who had come up
close enough to touch the rickety lad, reached out a muddy hand and
dabbed the quaking boy's breast. The other boys roared with glee.
Mealy extended a deprecatory hand, and took Piggy's wet, glistening
arm and stumbled nervously into the stream, with an "Oo-oo!" at every
uncertain step. When the water came to Mealy's waist Abe cried, "Duck!
duck, or I'll splash you!" The boy sank down, with his teeth biting
his tongue as he said, "Oo! I wouldn't do you that way."

When the shock of the tepid water had spent itself, Mealy's grin
returned, and he shivered happily, "Oo--it's good, ain't it?"

Ten minutes later the boys were diving from the roots of the elm-tree
into the deep water on the other side of the creek. Ten minutes after
that they were sliding down a muddy toboggan which they had revived by