The Outdoor Chums on a Houseboat; Or, The Rivals of the Mississippi

great news, and you're just keeping it

just dancing with a big secret. But wait up; here comes Jerry acr

es, and whose last name was Milton, laughe

four members of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club, who call themselves the Outdoor Chum

luff made frantic gestures for a fourth lad, jus

t something unusual was brewing, for he started

ell me you've made up your minds where the club is going to put in the vacation just ahead of us

d," said Frank Langdon, who was just a little taller, and more manly-looking than any oth

my Uncle Felix, down in New Orleans; and he made the queerest offer you ever heard about. You see, through my mother he must have learned about some of the adventures t

he sudden outlook; "a voyage down the Mississippi? What on; a floati

years. For some reason, that he doesn't take the trouble to explain, he wants it brought down to New Orleans, where he's recoveri

e habit of being impetuous, though at heart he was as true as ste

current, at least this one doesn't, I know; and so it just has to wander down the river. That takes a heap of time; and four h

is good-natured face. "But after we get there, how do you suppose we're ever to get back hom

all get back home safe in good time. And, as he's got bushels of money,

houseboat now

. Paul. There was an order on him to deliver the boat to us w

cried Bluff, throwing his cap up in the a

ich old bachelor has been knocking aroun

possess the knowledge. Perhaps he was willing that his three chums should live in expectation, a

ill, "there was one funny

e a cruise in the houseboat of a million

allows aboard his boat, and wants to impress upon us all that

ssippi is a tramp's paradise, and that they just swarm down there. It's only rig

lace, have I, Frank? Here Bluff keeps on getting more and more e

scrumptious. Me for the first choice of bunks aboard! Wonder if he has silk eiderdown quilts for covers. Yum! yum! we're just the luckiest lot of

f lantern slides in my pocket; and I'd hate to have them broken;" but the observing Frank detected what seemed

ra Club, and was something of an expert at snapping pictures to commemo

g strangers aboard unless they brought

Marcus Stackpole, who seems to be some sort of particular enemy of my uncle

queer, now,"

to be a thief, and he thinks he's run away with some of

d his eyebrows as h

ver to my rooms, where we can read the letter again, and take a look

g the road that ran beside the little river. And as they are trudging along, indulging in considerable excited talk, w

d, Gun and Camera Club." In the second story are given some of the wonderful happenings that befell them while camping on an island in Camelot Lake, which had, up to that time, been shunned by most p

ost roamed over a certain section of the country some miles away from the town of Centerville; and the four boys determined to find out the truth of this rumor

things happened to them on a Florida river, as well as upon the great Mexican gulf, have been told in

ld animals that Will was always anxious to take pictures of, at no matter what risk to himself. You can find all these narrated at length in

some of his chums, coming this way, Frank!" remarked

he rich man's son, Oswald Fredericks. They had never actually come to blows, but for some reason the other had shown jealousy toward F

narrow part of the road, too, where the river

e, and wait for the procession to pass by; do you? I guess four of us ought t

icks would try anything l

ke him; but he got going with a fast set, and I had to cut him dead. He isn't al

e to go after our houseboat, and I've often heard him tell about the dandy craft his father owns, us

as we did," said Bluff in a low voice, for the other party was now quite close by

o mischief. He had noticed that they kept their head

wo parties were passing, some of the others gave Oswald a sudden shove, as doubtless

dge of the bank into the river, made a few wild movements of his arms, as though seeking something to stay his own progre

then a splash announced that he had pl