"Click! click! click! click!" went the instrument.

Wild with excitement, everybody crowded closer to Harry, who, with
somewhat nervous fingers, slowly sent over the line of the Crooked Creek
Telegraph Company its first message.

When received on the other side, and translated from the dots and dashes
of the register, it read thus:

To Kate.--Ho-ow are you?

Directly the answer came swiftly from the practised fingers of Mr.
Lyons:

To Harry.--I am very well.

This message had no sooner been received and announced than Harry,
followed by every one else, rushed out of the house, and there, on the
other side of the creek, he saw his father and mother and Kate and all
the rest hurrying out of Aunt Judy's cabin.

Mr. Loudon waved his hat and shouted; "Hurrah!"

Harry and the Board answered with a wild "Hurrah!"

Then everybody took it up, and the woods rang with, "Hurrah! hurrah!
hurrah!"

The Crooked Creek Telegraph Line was a success.