There was a summer-house in the garden of Franz’s home which was never used, was rain-proof, and had a good door with a strong catch, but no lock and key or even a bolt.  Being near the dwelling it was secure, as no opposing schoolboy would dare go through the garden to break into their armory and carry off the weapons.

This suggestion was hailed with hearty appreciation, and in good spirits they drove nails into the walls and carried their helmets and beloved weapons one by one and put them in that place of refuge; then went to their suppers, and to prepare their lessons for the following day.

Their arrival in the school yard the next morning was announced by the laughter and jeers of their opponents.

“Say, did you imagine that your hog was Hector on the walls of Troy when it ran up the straw-heap?” shouted one.

“No, he thought he was Hercules, but found that instead of being strong enough to carry the hog, the hog had to carry him,” laughed another.

The three friends passed on into the schoolroom, red with anger but helpless to defend themselves; their tormentors following, for there was more sport in store which not one of them wished to miss.

Upon the great blackboard was a very fair picture in chalk of the exploit with the hog, and the laughing, jeering and shrill whistling were resumed when they saw the anger of the three friends.  The muscular and energetic Fritz rushed to the blackboard to rub out the offending cartoon, but his hands were held by the enemy, his struggles to release them were useless, and he went to his seat in anger and mortification.

At that moment the teacher came, and hearing the sound of weeping he asked the cause.  As Odysseus-Fritz was unable to speak for sobbing, the enemy had the welcome chance to give an account of the tilt between the “three-leaved clover” and the four-footed Hector, and as the wit of the school was spokesman, the story lost nothing of its mirth-provoking quality.

The teacher tried his best to look grave over the affair, but the narrative, together with its illustration on the blackboard, was too much for him and he took such a sudden and violent spell of coughing that he was compelled to put his handkerchief to his mouth and go outside the door.  Every boy in the room, including the three Grecian warriors, knew that he went out to indulge in the laughter that he could not restrain, and the enemy’s triumph was complete.

“You must rub that miserable sketch from the board,” he said upon his return, “and write in place of it, ’Do unto others as you would have them do to you,’ which will remain there until we need the board for an exercise.”

It was a great relief to the three friends that the summer holiday was so near at hand that there would be but little more time for the Trojans to trouble them.  Every boy in school had a plan in view as to the way the holiday was to be spent.