thinking cap, and I'll fix 'em, and don't you forget it!"
That night the bully asked for permission to go to Cedarville on important business. He went alone, and once in the town hurried directly to the museum already mentioned. The proprietor had done little or no business in the village and was about to move to another place.
When Tad Sobber returned to Putnam Hall he carried under his arm a heavy pasteboard box which he carried with great care. This box he hid away in a corner of the barn, among some loose hay.
"I'm ready to fix the Rovers now," he told Nick Pell. "Keep your mouth shut but your eyes wide open."
"What are you going to do?"
"Just wait and see."
At the appointed time the Rovers and their chums assembled in the dormitory for the feast. A large quantity of good things had been procured, including chicken sandwiches, cake, oranges and lemonade. Tom had even had a dealer in Cedarville pack him up several bricks of ice-cream, and these now rested in some cracked ice in a washbowl.
"Say, but this is a touch of old times," said Sam. "Do you remember the first feast we had here, when Mumps got scared to death?"
