“Mostly water sports, but I suppose we could have some of the rest.  There will be races for motor-boats, shells, canoes, a tub race, and a swimming match.  We have a good stretch of river at our camp, and there is plenty of room.”

“And the affair takes place the day after tomorrow?”

“Yes, beginning at two in the afternoon.  That will give you time to get home after it is over, either by train or in your own boats.”

“Very well.  We will be on hand.  I cannot tell you whom we will send, for the doctor will have something to say about that, but there will be some of us there beyond a doubt.”

“You have a boy named Sheldon, who is a dandy at running a motor-boat, haven’t you?” the other boy asked.

“Yes, and he can get speed out of a canal-boat,” laughed Dick.  “Do you want him?”

“We certainly do,” said the other emphatically.  “We have heard of him, and we certainly want him.”

“Here he is now.  You can ask him yourself.”  The other boy was a bit surprised at seeing the very boy he had been talking about, and said: 

“But I thought you were bigger.  They said you were strong and wiry, and I expected to see a giant.  Why, you are no bigger than I am.  And you can run a motor-boat?”

“Certainly he can,” replied Dick.  “Size does not count in a thing like that.  Why, I am bigger than Jack, but he can beat me running a boat.  Then there is little Jesse W. Smith, who is the smallest thing in the way of a boy in the Academy, and he has beaten boys twice his size.”

“And you will be down?” to Jack himself.

“If I am chosen to represent the Hilltop boys, I will certainly be on hand,” Jack replied.  “I should like nothing better.”

Other boys now came up, and Percival told them about the regatta to be held at the other camp on the next day, but one, all of them being greatly excited over it.

“Even if we don’t take part I suppose we can go?” asked Billy Manners.  “There ought to be a lot of fun in it.”

“There will be if you race, Billy,” said Percival.  “There is going to be a tub race as one of the attractions.”

“Good enough!  I can win a tub race as well as anything else if I put my mind on it,” laughed Billy.  “I think I’ll enter for it.”

“Anything to make things lively,” said the messenger, and then he shortly took his leave, while the Hilltop boys were greatly excited over the coming contest wherein they hoped to take more than one prize.

CHAPTER XII

THE OWNER OF THE WATCH FOUND

On the second day following, a number of the Hilltop boys went down to the other camp to take part in the athletic games appointed for that day, and to witness the sports, the greater part of them being present.

The doctor had selected Jack Sheldon to take part in the motor-boat races, Percival as a runner and also a boatman, Harry, Arthur, and young Smith in the second-class motor-boats, Herring and one or two others as swimmers, and Billy Manners and Seymour to take part in the tub race, besides a few others in other contests.