“Say,” cried Arthur, who had taken the card from Roy’s hand. “What does this mean? ‘There are two others like me in town?’ There wasn’t a bike in Mount Airy when we left.”
“That’s so. I wonder who have the others. I wish you had, for I don’t want to be the only one of our crowd to get my head broke.”
“Thank you for being so disinterested,” said Roy. “But if it is all the same to you I prefer to have my head as it is. But really, I must go home now. Bring him out this afternoon and let us see him throw you.”
When the boys went down stairs Joe stepped into the sitting-room to thank Uncle Joe for his beautiful gift. He came out looking more surprised and delighted than ever.
“Now that’s an uncle for a fellow to have,” said he. “I shouldn’t wonder if you fellows would find mates to my machine when you get home. I am going with you to see.”
“What makes you think that?” exclaimed Roy and Arthur in a breath.
“Why, I told Uncle Joe that you two had kindly invited me to come out where you could see me thrown, and he said you had better look out or you might be thrown yourselves. Now what did he mean by that?”
The eager boys did not stop to decide, but hurried back to the skiff and pulled for Roy’s home at the top of their speed. There another warm reception awaited them, and sure enough a mate to Joe Wayring’s wheel was found in Roy’s room; and tied to the brake was a card stating that it was a present from his mother. Of course the other wheel was found at Arthur’s home. The three were so nearly alike that if it had not been for the names and numbers engraved upon them it would have been difficult to tell them apart.
You may be sure that canoeing, boat-sailing, and every other sport connected with the water, was at a discount now. During the next two weeks the three friends were rarely seen upon the streets. They were practicing behind the evergreens on Mr. Wayring’s lawn, and every time the clanging of one of the gates gave notice of the approach of a visitor they would seize their wheels and run them around the corner of the house out of sight.
“No; we are not ashamed of them,” said Joe, in reply to a question his uncle propounded to him one day. “We are ashamed of our awkwardness, and don’t mean to give any of the fellows a chance to laugh at us. Wait until we can ride them ten feet without falling off, and then we will go outside the gate.”