It was a very open fall that first year of Frank's at Queen's School, and despite the fact that the boys who were inclined to the game of hockey prayed fervently for good ice, Jack Frost held off. Several times it threatened to freeze up, and there was a great polishing and sharpening of skates and seeing to the leather straps.

"When the ice comes we'll get up a hockey team," said Frank to Jimmy one day, meeting him in the yard. "Neither of us will get a chance at the school team, so we might as well have some fun ourselves."

"And who will we play with, I'd like to know, supposing the ice did come, and supposing we could get up a team?"

"I'll bet you the best hockey stick in Milton that there'll be lots of chances. There'll be so many scrub sevens out that there won't be enough ice. Are you game for it?"

"Sure thing," said Jimmy. "We can rope Lewis in. There's a fellow in my entry named Hazard who drops in evenings to borrow a book. He says he can skate. Lewis isn't a half bad skater, and he's so fat that he would naturally get in the way of the puck without being very quick. So he would be a good goal tender."

"Good enough," returned Frank. "That makes four, and we can pick three other fellows up somewhere. Be on the look out and I'll keep my eye out, too. Meantime, pray for the ice."

But all things, as the copybooks say, come to him who waits. About the middle of December sharper weather came on, and then one afternoon the mercury began to slide down the tube of the thermometer. At six o'clock in the evening it stood at zero, and the boys covered the distance from their rooms to the dining hall supper table and back in record time, owing to the biting air.

Frank was over to see Jimmy that night and reported that the big thermometer that his father had given him, and which hung outside his window, registered seven below.

"And it's going down further, and what's equally good, there hasn't been a bit of wind since the cold snap came."

"And what has wind to do with it?" inquired Lewis.

"Hasn't anything to do with the freezing, but with wind the ice is rough. I met Potter coming up from the ice just before dark and he says it's like glass, and is so thick now he could hardly punch his heel through it."

"Sounds good," said Jimmy. "We will then, to-night, organize the great Armstrong hockey club."

"No, don't call it after me. I may not be good enough to stick on. But we've got to have a name. Suggest something, Lewis."

"Well," said the goal-tender-to-be, "I guess we might as well call it the Lollipops. Sweet things on the end of a stick, you know."

"Hurray for the goal-tender. Lollipops it will be! The Lollipop Hockey Club of Queen's School. First practice to-morrow afternoon at three thirty. How does that hit you?" said Frank.

"All right for me," said Jimmy.

"And me, too," piped up Lewis. "I'll show you the way to stop 'em. If you can get them past your Uncle Dudley, you will be going some."

"All right, Fatty," said Jimmy. "If you play half as well as you talk we will have the real thing in a hockey team."

Frank's prediction came true about the freeze, and what it would do. Before the thermometer got through on its shivering downward course it touched ten below, some time during the night, and then travelled upward again; but by the middle of the next forenoon it was back to ten degrees above. It was still pretty nippy, but just the right brace was in the air for violent exercise. The boys could hardly wait for the middle of the afternoon to come around. Some of them had already been on the glittering surface of the river, and reported it like glass, and four inches thick.

Frank had selected a place about a hundred yards up the river for the site of his rink. It was a spot in a small cove, pretty well sheltered by trees and protected from the sharp winds which blew across the more exposed parts of the river. For the first day the Lollipops and a dozen others of the class, any one in fact who came along, contented themselves with tearing up and down the ice and shooting a puck between piles of coats which did duty for a cage. Wearying of this unorganized exercise after a while, Jimmy, Lewis and Frank picked up their coats and started up the river in the direction of Warwick, five miles away.

They swung along easily, enjoying the freshness and crispness of the air, and the really wonderful ice under foot. Half way up to the rival school they met several of the skaters from that school, among them big Channing of the football team, who nodded pleasantly to Jimmy and came to a halt.

"Are you going to have a hockey team down there this year?" Channing asked, nodding his head in the direction of Queen's. "If you are, we want to get a game or two."

"Yes, there will be a school team I guess, particularly if the ice holds out, but we are only Freshmen and will probably not get a chance at it," said Jimmy. "They had a team last year, didn't they?"

"Yes, but we beat it 15 to 4, and we want to get a chance to do it again. It might help Queen's to put a few lively young Freshmen on it. I'd advise you to try."

"We have, or are going to have a team of our own, and we will masquerade under the splendid name of the Lollipops. We'll give you a game when we learn how to stand on our skates," said Frank, laughingly.

"All right, Lollipops, that's a go, in case Dixon can't get a classy seven together."

"Chip Dixon, is he the captain?" said Frank, quickly.

"Yes, I think I heard he was elected. He's about the roughest player Queen's has had on the team, but when he roughed it we roughed it, and the result was while he was doing nothing else but roughing it, we were playing a little hockey. Dixon was one of the best players on Queen's, but lost his temper and hit one of our forwards a deliberate blow over the arm with his stick. It came to be pretty nearly a general row all around. Our fellows are just aching to get at Queen's again."

"Well, you'd better send a challenge down. I'm not on good terms with Mr. Dixon," said Frank. "Perhaps he will take you on. But if he doesn't, we'll put you on our schedule when we learn to toddle around and hang onto a stick."

The group parted company. When the trio returned to the float, scores of fellows were darting around here and there on their skates, and a large bonfire had been built on the bank, which threw a cheerful light over the sparkling ice and helped to dispel the darkness which had already begun to fall.

Before night came on, however, our founders of the Lollipop Club had laid out their rink in the little cove. They set down four blocks of wood about five inches in diameter, two at each end of the "grounds," chipping out little pockets in the ice, into which the blocks were set. Then they filled these pockets with water.

"Those posts will be as steady as the gate posts of Queen's School by to-morrow morning," observed Frank, "if nobody bothers them. It will certainly make a dandy place to play," he added, looking around. "It's just off the line of travel, enough so it won't interfere with general skating, and our posts will be in no one's way."

Every one was well tired that night. The unusual exercise of skating and the violent way most of them had gone into it left them with aching bones and muscles. After supper Frank and Jimmy went around, and completed the Lollipop seven from the ranks of Freshmen they knew.

"When we get started, I'll bet we have dozens more than we want. And when they see Lewis on the job they'll pay us money to let them in with us."

The weather held sharp and clear, and the following morning two inches more had been added to the river's coating. It was now safe beyond any doubt. Frank, during the forenoon, was down to the river to see how the marks they had set were standing. He reported that they were as stiff as rocks. They were like posts which had been let down through the ice and anchored in the mud of the river.

That afternoon the Lollipops made their descent on Wampaug river in full force. Jimmy had succeeded in finding a couple of other Freshmen for substitutes to complete the quota of players. When the news of the formation of a Freshman team was noised around, it was evident that there would be no trouble in finding plenty of opponents, for every one on the river had a stick, and the novelty of gliding up and down merely for skating's sake had passed. Frank was besieged by applicants. So they rushed down across the field, got into their skates at the boat-house float, and struck up the river to a chatter of excitement at the beginning the club was to have.

"Well, what do you think of that for a nerve?" cried Frank, as coming around a curve from the float which had hidden the "grounds" that they had laid out the night before, they saw that the place was already occupied. "And, by George, it's Chip Dixon. I'll be jiggered if it isn't."

The Lollipops skated up slowly, but their arrival seemed to have no effect on the boys who were occupying their rink. Frank recognized, besides Chip, several of the Gamma Tau men, among them Cuthbert of the nine, who had been after candidates for the society not so long before, Boston Wheeler, the fullback of the eleven, and several others. They paid not the slightest attention to the real proprietors of the territory, but kept on gaily with their play.

A slashing drive sent the puck to the river bank, and while some one was recovering it Frank sculled slowly over to Chip and said, "I think you have our 'grounds,' haven't you? We laid these out last night, and planted the markers."

"Oh, is that so?" said Chip, indifferently. "Very nice of you. We like the place very much, indeed."

"But it is ours, and we want to play. It isn't the regular practice place of the school team, is it?"

"Our regular practice place is wherever we want to play, so run along, Freshie, and don't bother us. All right, I've got you"—this to a mate who sent the puck spinning across the ice in Chip's direction. Thereafter Chip was busily engaged, and paid no attention whatever to the Lollipops, who stood around glumly, hardly daring to break out into open revolt.

"Dixon has done this for spite and nothing else," said Jimmy. "The Wee One told me that the school team generally practises just below the boat-house float. I'd like to knock his head off," and Jimmy grabbed his stick and swung it around him vigorously. "I'll get even with him for this, see if I don't."

"He's got it in for both of us," said Frank, who had now turned his back on the players. "We can't make a fuss, although we do know he has chucked us out of our own place. Come on, let's go up the river and find another place where——"

Frank had not done speaking when a terrific collision sent him sprawling on his face, and as he got to his feet again a sarcastic voice said: "Can't you keep out of the way? Can't you give us room to play our game?"

It was Chip, who had deliberately run into Frank when the latter was unprepared and given him a nasty fall. Blood was trickling from a cut over Frank's eye where he had struck the ice. The sight of the blood made Jimmy wild with anger. He helped Frank to get his balance and then turned on Chip, who had started to skate away.

"That was a contemptible trick, Dixon," he said, "and for two pins I'd punch your head for you, although you are the captain."

Chip heard and wheeled like a flash. He drove straight at Jimmy, and swung his stick at the latter's head. Jimmy saw him coming in time, sidestepped the rush, stuck out his foot, and Dixon went head over heels sprawling on the ice. Jimmy followed him, just as eager as Chip was to settle the matter there and then with blows, but Chip had received a tumble which took a good deal of the fight out of him, and by the time he had regained his feet a crowd of boys were in between the two.

"You'll pay for this, you red-headed little chump," said Chip, savagely, rubbing his bumped skull. "I'll pound you within an inch of your life if I ever catch you where your friends can't interfere."

"It's your friends who are interfering," said Jimmy, coolly, holding his ground. "I'll settle it right now if you wish, you cowardly bully." And Jimmy threw his stick on the ice, his eyes blazing.

Frank, who had recovered from his cruel fall, skated over to Jimmy and slipped his arm around him, saying: "Don't mind about it, Jimmy. He isn't worth while. Let's go up the river and pick out another place, and have our little fun, for there isn't much daylight left. Come on, Lollipops." Jimmy picked up his stick slowly, keeping a savage eye on Dixon, and somewhat reluctantly followed Frank and the others a hundred yards or so up-stream. The encounter had been watched by a score or more of boys, none of whom cared much about Chip's way of doing things. But they were much attracted to the young Freshman who had dared the mighty Dixon in his own lair. So they followed Frank and Jimmy to the new place, where coat-markers were laid down. In the vigorous play that followed, the clash of the afternoon was soon forgotten.

"I was a fool to get mad," said Jimmy as they trudged homeward over the frozen ground, "but he set me boiling, and I lost my red head entirely."

"I'm afraid he'll try to get you some time and may do you some harm."

"Not he. I can take care of myself, and don't you worry about that, Frank. I believe he has a yellow streak in him. I'm ready for him any time."

And at about the same time Chip Dixon was travelling back to the yard in a group of his cronies. "I'll get that red-headed guy some day and knock that carroty nut clean off his shoulders," said Chip. But at the moment he said it, he wondered a little if it might not be a pretty hard job.