“You’re only mad because you can’t go along, Ham Spink!” cried Snap.

“Bah!  I wouldn’t go with you!” retorted Ham Spink.  “When I go out I’ll do it in first-class style and with an A1 guide.  No little two-cent trip for me.”

Hamilton Spink was the son of a very aristocratic man who had come to Fairview a year before.  Ham, as all the boys called him, was very much of a dude and always thought himself superior to the regular town boys.  He smoked cigarettes and played pool and golf and rode horseback, and did as much “showing off” as he possibly could.  As a consequence the majority of the boys detested him.

“This isn’t a two-cent trip!” cried Shep.  “I don’t thank you to call it such.”

“I’ll call it what I please,” muttered the dudish youth.

“Oh, dry off and keep cool!” came from Whopper, and he allowed his oar to slip on purpose, sending a shower of water over the youth on the dock.

“Hi! hi! stop!” came angrily, as Ham backed away.  “How dare you do such a thing!” and the dudish boy got out a silk handkerchief and began to wipe the water from his face and high collar.

“Excuse me,” answered Whopper, drily.  “I beg two million pardons, Ham.  You see, I was holding the oar this way and I turned it so, and I—–­well, I declare, there she goes again!” And once more poor Ham received a shower of water over his rather elegant suit.

“I’ll—–­I’ll have, the constable lock you up!” spluttered the dudish boy, backing away rapidly.  “This is—–­er—–­outrageous—–­I’ll—–­ I’ll tell your folks!”

“That’s right, be a tattle-tale!” came from Giant, and then he began to sing softly.

“Ham in the pan!  Ham in the pan! 
Ham’s the best of meat!”

“Ham in the pan!  Ham in the pan! 
Ham is good and sweet!”

“You stop that!” roared Ham Spink, and then, as a dozen boys on the dock took up the darky song, he turned and strode away, with his rather short nose tilted high in the air.

“Do you think he’ll call on our folks about this?” whispered Whopper, somewhat anxiously.  “I shouldn’t like to leave under a cloud.”

“Oh! he hasn’t got backbone enough to make trouble,” answered Shep.  But Shep was mistaken, as we shall learn later.

The rowboat was now some distance from the dock, and with a final wave of the hand the boys began the journey to Lake Cameron.

In a straight line the lake was about ten miles from the town, but the river was a winding one, so they had a row of over thirteen miles before them.

“I hope we haven’t forgotten anything,” said Whopper.  “It would be a shame to have to go back, eh, fellows?”

“We are not going back,” returned Giant.  “If anything has been left behind we will have to get along without it.”

Having left the town behind, the boys reached a point on the stream where the trees and bushes were thick on either side.  They turned in toward the left bank, where the sun was not quite so strong, for in spite of the fact that it was fall it promised to be warm.