The boys went fishing and swimming, and they also did some shooting at a target which they set up behind the barn, and whiled away, some time at boxing and in gymnastic exercises.

Dick also spent an hour in penning a long letter to Dora Stanhope, who, as my old readers are well aware, was his dearest girl friend.

Dora and her mother lived not far from Putnam Hall, and Dick and his brothers had become acquainted with her and her two cousins, Nellie and Grace Laning, when they had first gone to school.

The Rover boys had on several occasions saved Mrs.Stanhope from serious trouble, and for this the widow was very grateful.

She and her daughter had gone with them on the houseboat trip down the Ohio and the Mississippi, and Mrs.Laning and Nellie and Grace had likewise accompanied the party.