"We couldn't get back by the time recess is over," replied Purcell. "The end of recess would be when we _did_ get back, wouldn't it!" asked a senior. "Let's go, anyway!" urged another boy, restlessly. As students were allowed to spend their recess quietly on the near-by streets, if they preferred, the girls generally deserted the yard. The spirit of mischievous mutiny was getting loose among the young men. Nor will anyone who remembers his own school days wonder much at that. In June, when the end of the school year is all but at hand, restraints become trebly irksome. Dick's own face was glowing. As much as any boy there he wanted a swim, just now, down in Foster's Pond. Oh, how he wanted it! "See here, fellows," Prescott called to some of the nearest ones. "And you especially, Charley Grady, for you're studying to be a lawyer." "What has a lawyer to do with the aching desire for a swim?" inquired Grady. "Well, post us a bit," begged Dick. "What was it the great Burke had to say about punishing a community?" "Why," responded Grady thoughtfully, "Burke laid down a theory that has since become a principle in law. It was to the effect that a community cannot be indicted." "All of us fellows---_all_ of us might be called a community, don't you think?" queried Dick. "Why---er---aha---hem!" responded Grady. "Oh, come, now, drop the extras," ordered Dick. "Time is short. Are we a community, in a sort of legal sense? Just plain yes or no." "Well, then, yes!" decided Grady. "Whoop!" ejaculated Dick, placing his straw hat back on his head and starting on a sprint out of the yard. His chums followed. Some of the fellows who were nearer the gate tried to reach it first. In an instant, the flight was general. "Come on, Rip! You're not going to hang back on the crowd, are you?" uttered one boy, reproachfully. "Don't spoil the community idea." So Fred Ripely tagged on at the rear of the flight. "What is it, boys---a fire?" called Laura Bentley. A dozen girls had drawn in, pressing against the wall, to let this whirlwind of boys go by. "Tell you when we get back," Purcell called. "Time presses now." It took the leaders only about four minutes to reach Foster's Pond. Even Ripley and the other tail-enders were on hand about a minute later. There was a fine grove here, fringed by thick bushes, and no houses near. In a jiffy the High School boys were disrobing. "And the fellow who 'chaws' anyone else's clothes, to-day," proposed Dick, "is to be thrown in and kept in, when he's dressed!" "Hear! hear!" Dick was one of the first to get stripped. He started on a run, glided out over a log that lay from the bank, and plunged headlong into one of the deepest pools. Then up he came, spouting water. "Come on, in, fellows! The water's _grand_!" he yelled. Splash! splash! The surface of the pond at that point was churned white. The bobbing heads made one think of huckleberries bobbing on a bowl of milk.