The boy who plays an honest game will do an honest business, and he'll
win over "the sneak."

If you are "a grown-up," read this book, and in doing so live over
again the joyous, gladsome days of your boyhood, and you will sigh, as
we do while writing this: "Would I were a boy again!"

We want the mother, as well as the father, to read this book, for it
will recall the brothers of far-off days, and bring her into closer
sympathy--we must not say "love," for that is already strong enough
--with the exuberance of her boys.

And the girls? Why, bless you! They, too, should read every scrap of
this book, for they will find in it many of their own games, and not
one that they could not play and enjoy, if circumstances permitted.

And the grand-parents? God bless them! Why, they'll enjoy it quite as
much as the young folks.





SPRING




CHAPTER I