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Title: The Chums of Scranton High at Ice Hockey

Author: Donald Ferguson

Release Date: August 22, 2004 [EBook #13250]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHUMS OF SCRANTON HIGH ***

Produced by Al Haines

THE CHUMS OF SCRANTON HIGH

At Ice Hockey

BY

DONALD FERGUSON

THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING CO.

CLEVELAND, O. NEW YORK, N.Y.

Copyright, MCMXIX

by

THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING CO.

Printed in the United States of America

by

THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO.

CLEVELAND, O.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. GOOD TIMES COMING II. A BULL IN THE CHINA SHOP III. GIVING NICK A CHANCE IV. THE HOCKEY MATCH WITH A SCRATCH SEVEN V. THAD BRINGS SOME STARTLING NEWS VI. NOT GUILTY VII. TURNING A PAGE OF THE PAST VIII. OWEN DUGDALE'S ANNOUNCEMENT IX. AN ADVENTURE ON THE ROAD X. THE MYSTERY DEEPENS XI. A MOTHER'S SACRIFICE XII. TIP SATISFIES HIS CRAVING—AND LOSES XIII. THE LIVELY GAME WITH KEYPORT'S SEVEN XIV. ENCOURAGING NICK XV. WHERE THE SPARKS FLEW XVI. AT THE DEACON'S FIRESIDE XVII. A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY XVIII. IN A SAFE HARBOR AT LAST XIX. MEETING BELLEVILLE'S STRONG TEAM XX. NICK MAKES GOOD—CONCLUSION

THE CHUMS OF SCRANTON HIGH AT ICE HOCKEY

CHAPTER I

GOOD TIMES COMING

Hugh looked at the big thermometer alongside the Juggins' front door as he came out, and the mercury was still falling steadily.

"It's certainly a whole lot sharper than it was early this morning,
Thad. Feels to me as if the first cold wave of the winter had struck
Scranton."

"The ice on our flooded baseball field, and that out at Hobson's mill-pond ought to be in great shape after a hard freeze to-night, Hugh."

"We're in luck this time, chum Thad. Look at that sky, will you? Never a cloud in sight, and the sun going down yellow. Deacon Winslow, our reliable old weather prophet blacksmith, who always keeps a goose-bone hanging up in his smithy, to tell what sort of a winter we're going to get, says such a sign stands for cold and clear to-morrow after that kind of a sunset. Red means warmer, you know."

"I only hope it keeps on for forty-eight hours more, that's all I can say, Hugh. This being Thursday, it would fetch us to Saturday. I understand they're not meaning to let a single pair of steel runners on the baseball park, to mark the smooth surface of the new ice, until Saturday morning."

"Which will be a fine thing for our hockey try-out with the scratch
Seven, eh, Thad?"

"We want to test our team play before going up against the boys of Keyport High, that's a fact; and Scranton can put up a hard fighting bunch of irregulars. There are some mighty clever hockey players in and out of the high school, who are not on our Seven. I guess there ought to be a pretty lively game on Saturday; and there will be if several fellows I could mention line up against us."

The two boys who had just left the home of a schoolmate named Horatio Juggins were great friends. Although Hugh Morgan had seemed to jump into popular leadership among the boys of Scranton, soon after his folks came to reside in the town, he and Thad Stevens had become almost inseparables.

Indeed, some of the fellows often regarded them as "Damon and Pythias," or on occasions it might be "David and Jonathan." Both were of an athletic turn, and took prominent parts in all baseball games, and other strenuous outdoor sports indulged in by the boys of Scranton High; a record of which will be found in the several preceding books of this series, to which the new reader is referred, if he feels any curiosity concerning the earlier doings of this lively bunch.

Hugh was cool and calm in times when his chum would show visible signs of great excitement. He had drilled himself to control his temper under provocation, until he felt master of himself.

It was the 10th of January, and thus far the opportunities for skating that had come to the young people of that section of country where Scranton was located, had been almost nil; which would account for the enthusiasm of the lads when Thad announced how rapidly the thermometer was giving promise of a severe cold spell.

Scranton had two keen rivals for athletic honors. Allandale and Belleville High fellows had given them a hard run of it before they carried off the championship pennant of the county in baseball the preceding summer.

Then, in the late fall, there had been a wonderfully successful athletic tournament, inaugurated to celebrate the enclosing of the grounds outside Scranton with a high board-fence, and the building of a splendid grandstand, as well as rooms where the athletic participants in sports might dress in comfort.

With the coming of winter the big field thus enclosed had been properly flooded, so that it might afford a vast amount of healthy recreation to all Scranton boys and girls who loved to skate.

Hitherto they had been compelled to trudge all the way out to Hobson's mill-pond, and back, which was a long enough journey to keep many from ever thinking of indulging in what is, perhaps, the most cherished winter sport among youthful Americans.

The two friends had been asked around by the Juggins boy to inspect a wonderful assortment of treasure trove that an old and peculiar uncle, with a fad for collecting curios of every description, and who was at present out in India, had sent to his young nephew and namesake.

These consisted of scores of most interesting objects, besides several thousand rare postage stamps. Taken in all it was the greatest collection of stamps any of them had ever heard of. And the other things proved of such absorbing interest that Hugh and Thad had lingered until the afternoon was done, with supper not so far away but that they must hurry home.

Thad, apparently, had something on his mind which he wished to get rid of, judging from the way in which he several times looked queerly at his chum. Finally, as if determined to speak up, he started, half apologetically:

"Hugh, excuse me if I'm butting in where I have no business," he said; "but when I saw you talking so long with that town bully, Nick Lang, this afternoon, after we got out of school, I didn't know what to think. Was he threatening you about anything, Hugh? After that fine dressing-down you gave Nick last summer, when he forced you to fight him while we were out at that barn dance, I notice he keeps fairly mum when you're around."

Hugh chuckled, as though the recollection might not be wholly displeasing; though, truth to tell, that was the only fight he had been in since coming