E-text prepared by Al Haines Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 18587-h.htm or 18587-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/5/8/18587/18587-h/18587-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/5/8/18587/18587-h.zip) THE CHUMS OF SCRANTON HIGH Or Hugh Morgan's Uphill Fight by DONALD FERGUSON [Frontispiece: "Are you through?" demanded, Hugh sternly.] The Goldsmith Publishing Co. Cleveland Made in U. S. A. Copyright, 1919 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. A FENCE WITH A HISTORY II. THE BOYS OF OLD SCRANTON III. HUGH SHOULDERS A HEAVY TASK IV. IN FOR A FROLIC V. THE TRAGIC AFFAIR ON THE ROAD VI. MAKING A GOOD JOB OF IT VII. CALLED OUT FOR PRACTICE VIII. THAD MAKES A DISCOVERY IX. JUST BETWEEN CHUMS X. A VISITOR FROM BELLEVILLE HIGH XI. HUGH'S PETS IN DANGER XII. THE TRAP XIII. A COLD RECEPTION XIV. NICK AS A GAP-STOPPER XV. PRETTY POLLY UNDER SUSPICION XVI. THE RESCUE AT HOBSON'S MILL-POND XVII. LITTLE BRUTUS AND HIS "COLLECTION" XVIII. A STRAIGHT DRIVE FOR THE TRUTH XIX. HUGH REACHES HIS GOAL XX. LOOKING FORWARD--CONCLUSION THE CHUMS OF SCRANTON HIGH CHAPTER I A FENCE WITH A HISTORY "The best day so far this spring, fellows!" "It feels mighty much like baseball weather, for a fact, Otto!" "True for you, K. K., though there's still just a little tang to this April air." "What of that, Eli? The big leagues have opened shop all over the land, and the city papers are already full of baseball scores, and diamond lore. We ought to be getting busy ourselves in little old Scranton." "Allandale High is practicing. Sandy Dowd and I saw a bunch of the boys out on their field after school yesterday, didn't we, Sandy?" "That's right, we did. And I understand Belleville expects to put an extra hard-hitting nine in the game this season. They're still sore over the terrible drubbing Allandale gave them last summer." "Since Scranton has now become a member of the Three-Town League, taking the place of Lawrence when that nine dropped out, seems to me we ought to lose no time if we expect to commence practicing. That same Allandale team swept the circuit, you remember, like a hurricane." "We've plenty of good material, fellows, believe me, right here in Scranton High. And somehow I've got a hunch that we're going to make even mighty Allandale take a tumble before the season gets old." "Don't boast too soon, Eli Griffin. That's a wee Yankee trick you must have inherited from your forebears." "Easy for you to say that, Andy McGuffey. Why, you're a regular old pessimist, like all your canny Scotch ancestors were. You love to look at the world through smoked glasses. On my part, I prefer to use rose-colored ones, and expect the best sort of things to happen, even if I do get fooled lots of times."