“Not exactly, although that is one way of selling pork by the yard,” returned Tom.  “I was thinking of what happened in our college town.  One of the boys went into a butcher’s shop, and asked for a yard of pork, and the butcher handed out three pig’s feet.”

“Oh, what a rusty joke, Tom!” exclaimed Sam.

“Well, I didn’t ask for the yard of pork; it was Dobson who did that,” returned Tom, coolly.

Having inspected the various improvements, the boys returned to the house, and then went upstairs for another short talk with their father.  In the midst of this, the family physician arrived.  When he had waited on the invalid, the boys called the doctor to one side, and asked him to tell them the truth regarding their parent.

“Oh, I think he’ll pull through all right,” said the doctor.  “But as I have told your uncle and your aunt, he must be kept quiet.  If you talk business to him, or excite him in any way, it is bound to make matters worse.”

“Then we’ll keep him just as quiet as possible,” returned Tom.  “If anything unusual occurs in his business, we won’t let him know anything about it.”

“That would be best,” answered the doctor, gravely; and took his departure.

Several days passed, and by that time the boys felt once more quite at home.  Once they went out in the touring car, taking their aunt and uncle along.

“It’s too bad we can’t take dad,” was Sam’s comment, “but the doctor says it won’t do.  We’ll have to leave him in charge of Aleck.”  The ride proved a most enjoyable one, and the older folks were much pleased by it.

“What do you say, Tom, if we go down to the river and have a swim?” proposed Sam, the next morning.  It was an unusually hot day, and the thought of getting into the cool water of the old swimming hole appealed strongly to the youth.

“Suits me,” returned his brother.  “We haven’t had a swim down there since last year.”

“You young gents want to be careful about that there swimmin’ hole,” put in Jack Ness, who had heard the talk.

“Why, what’s the matter now, Jack?”

“I dunno, exactly, but I hear some of the fellers sayin’ as how that swimmin’ hole wasn’t safe no more.  I think it’s on account of the tree roots a growin’ there.”

“We’ll be on our guard,” answered Sam, and a little later the two lads set off.  It was a long walk over the fields and through the patch of woods skirting the stream, and on arriving at the old swimming hole, Sam and Tom were glad enough to rest awhile before venturing into the water.  As my old readers know, the stream was a swiftly-flowing one, and the water was rather cool.

“Remember the day we flew over this way in the biplane?” said Tom.  “That sure was some adventure!”

“Yes, but it wasn’t a patch to the adventure we had when the biplane was wrecked,” returned his brother, referring to a happening which has been related in detail in “The Rover Boys in New York.”