STRUGGLING UPWARD

OR

LUKE LARKIN'S LUCK


BY HORATIO ALGER, JR.



CHAPTER I

THE WATERBURY WATCH


One Saturday afternoon in January a lively and animated
group of boys were gathered on the western side of a large pond
in the village of Groveton. Prominent among them was a tall,
pleasant-looking young man of twenty-two, the teacher of the
Center Grammar School, Frederic Hooper, A. B., a recent graduate
of Yale College. Evidently there was something of importance
on foot. What it was may be learned from the words of the teacher.

"Now, boys," he said, holding in his hand a Waterbury watch, of
neat pattern, "I offer this watch as a prize to the boy who will
skate across the pond and back in the least time. You will all
start together, at a given signal, and make your way to the mark
which I have placed at the western end of the lake, skate around
it, and return to this point. Do you fully understand?"