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FARM SPIES 



they must have thought a very weighty one. Mr. 

 Sprague had entirely forgotten that he had asked 

 them to find the bugs, and also his promise to take 

 them to the farmers' meeting. "Hm, boys will be 

 boys/' he murmured to himself, and turned again 



FIG. 51. "Under the old water oak sat the five boys." 



to his reading. If he .ever recalled his promise and 

 thought that the boys had taken it in jest, as he 

 meant it, he was mistaken. They were holding a 

 powwow for the purpose of devising ways and 

 means for finding out where the chinch-bugs stayed 

 during the winter. They had to go to school during 

 the week, but all of them felt sure that they 



