Then Hans, grasping the hose, bounced to his feet, standing upright in the middle of the bed, and poured the stream of cold water down upon that struggling, squirming mass in the corner. “Oh, say, vot a shoke dot vos!” cried the Dutch boy, swaying the nozzle of the hose to evenly distribute the water over all the boys. “Ain’d you hafin’ fun mit us! I don’d belief you nefer seen der peat uf dese shoke before all your life in! You don’d vorget der fun vat you had mit us to-nighd a long dime in.” “Haw! haw! haw!” roared Ephraim. “Soak it to um, Hans! Ain’t they havin’ a regular picnic with us! Ho! ho! ho! This is more fun than hoein’ ’taters!” “Stop it!” cried Rattleton, gasping for breath. “You blundering Dutchman turn that hose——Woogh-uh-oogh-uh—oogh!” The stream from the hose had struck Harry full and fair in the mouth, and he was nearly drowned. “Oi’ll murther thot Dutch chaze!” shouted Mulloy. “Oi won’t lave a whole bone in his body! Oi’ll—— Wa-ow! Murther! Boo! Thot’s cold! It’s dead Oi am intoirely!” “Hello, Parney!” called Hans, mockingly; “how you don’d like dot ghost pusiness, hey? Don’d id peen vunny!” “Thunder and guns!” roared Browning. “This will give me another Arkansaw chill! Somebody will get hurt when I find out who put up this job on me!” Hodge and Diamond made a desperate attempt to get away, but Hans saw them, and gave them a straight shot that knocked them down again in the midst of the struggling, squirming, kicking and shouting lads. “Great Cæsar!” cried Kenneth St. Ives, as he untangled himself from the drenched and kicking mass. “The joke is on us!” “It looks that way from the road,” admitted Frank, who was laughing heartily as he crowded his body back into a corner to get away from the water. “That confounded Yankee was too sharp to be taken in, and he put up this job with Hans. Goodness! hear him laugh!” Ephraim was haw-hawing in a manner that told how delighted he was, and the roly-poly Dutch boy was dancing up and down on the bed, as he continued to drench the shivering, scrambling, shouting lads in the alcove. “Oh, don’d you think dese pen der most fun I efer had!” gurgled Hans. “Dese peen der vay to got a shoke a ghost on. Yaw! Vot do I think uf dese ghost pusiness now, hey?” “Haw! haw! haw!” roared Ephraim, holding onto his sides, and doubling up with laughter. “Gol darned ef this wouldn’t make a kaow larf! Give it to um, Hans!” “Oh, yaw, I peen goin’ to cool them down. After ’dese don’d you pelief me ven dey toldt you I vos scared mit a ghost. Hello, Raddleton! Oxcuse me uf you got der vay in. I didn’d seen you pime-py. You oxbect I vos havin’ a goot time, hey?” Harry had been untangling himself from the others, and now he tried to get up, but the stream of water struck him behind the ear, and keeled him over once more, plumping his head with great force fairly into Browning’s stomach.