"Good for you, Whopper!" said Charley enthusiastically.

"Ah, I could do that a thousand times in succession," answered the
youth given to exaggeration, coolly. "Why, don't you know that one day
there were six Tom cats on a fence and I took a snowball and hit 'em
all?"

"What, with one snowball?" queried the little lad called Giant.

"Sure thing, Giant."

"But how?"

"Why, I made the snowball bounce from the head of one Tom cat to the
head of the next," answered Whopper, unabashed.

"Well, if that isn't the worst yet!" roared Shep. "Say, we ought to
roll Whopper in the snow for that!"

"Right you are!" cried Snap. "Come on!"

"Hi! hold on!" yelled Whopper in alarm, but before he could resist he
was landed on his back in the snow, and the others proceeded to roll
him over "good," as Shep expressed it. The rolling process at an end,
a general snowball fight ensued between all of the boys, and also
several others who chanced to be passing.

The scene was the town of Fairview, a place containing a main street
and also another thoroughfare running to the tidy little railroad
depot, where eight trains stopped daily. The town was made up of