Part 25 (2/2)

”Wow!” yelled Ed. ”Here comes another tub to go through!”

They had reached the end of the ”washboard” and once more the three boys were tossed up and down, and from side to side, while rus.h.i.+ng water under them seemed to give the effect of being put through a boiler of suds.

”Look out! Here's something new!” yelled Ed, a moment later, and, sure enough, they emerged, after a trip up and down, and around corners, upon a scrubbing board, made of gla.s.s, under which water was rus.h.i.+ng with such effect that it seemed as if they were going to be soaked.

”This is great!” cried Jack, as he reached it. ”I thought I was in for it that time, but it's all to the soap and starch; that's what!”

His companions, and many others, followed, and, a moment later, they were facing what looked like two rolls, such as collars and cuffs are run through.

”Do we go through them?” gasped Jack, halting a moment as he got on his feet after the slide down the scrubbing board.

”Sure--go ahead,” said Walter.

”Oh, mercy! He won't really go through those rolls, will he?” gasped Belle.

The rolls did look formidable, and they were whirling around at a rapid rate.

”Be a sport,” called Ed. ”When you've been rolled out you'll be all right, Jack.”

”All right--you go ahead,” retorted Jack, stepping back. ”You can have my place.”

”It's all right, fellows--go ahead,” one of the attendants a.s.sured them. Jack faced the revolving rolls. The attendant gave him a gentle push, and, before Jack knew it he was swallowed up in the whirling cylinders.

”Oh!” screamed Bess. ”He'll be killed!”

But neither she nor the others could see what happened, for Jack vanished, and, after him went Walter and Ed.

Once through the rolls, they were tossed with considerable force into a wringer ten times the size of the one through which they had just pa.s.sed. Like the first the rolls were upright, and not horizontal.

They seemed to be made of rubber, and were more real than the first.

Jack tried to hold back, but it was of no use. He had been tossed fairly into the big wringer, and, a moment later, he found himself being drawn through. To his surprise the rolls were of straw, covered with cotton-batting, and they compressed sufficiently to allow him to go through easily.

”Come on, fellows!” Jack tried to call to his chums, but his mouth was stopped for an instant by the soft rolls. Besides, there was no need for his invitation, since Ed and Walter, whether they wanted to or not, found themselves being drawn in with irresistible force.

By this time the girls had run up, not without some little alarm, and they saw the boys come through the rolls.

”Oh--they--they're all--all right,” gasped Belle, her hand on her heart.

”Of course,” cried Jack, with a laugh. ”We're most done, ladies. Then it will be your turn.”

”Never!” declared Cora.

”Oh, you'll like it, ladies,” the attendant a.s.sured them. ”Next comes the blueing water,” and Jack and his friends, together with a number of other persons who were undertaking the ordeal, were once more on a moving sidewalk, sliding up and down, from side to side, and over a ma.s.s of blue, rus.h.i.+ng water, which, seen through the sections of the walk, looked as if, every minute, it would surge up all about their feet. But they were as dry as the proverbial bone.

”Now if you will kindly step this way you will be hung out to dry,”

called the attendant, and a door opened, and the boys with several others were fairly shot out into a yard, where they saw what they supposed were persons hanging over clothes lines.

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