Old Hardy Boys

Opuses

This summer, I picked up some old books at a flea market, two of which were first editions of The Hardy Boys. Tonight, I was reading The Tower Treasure and noticed something I had not noticed when reading the books as a boy, namely, that the farmers were pulling their wagons with horses. I did not remember that from the original series; still it was not out of place in a book written in 1927. But on a whim I checked a 1987 edition of the same book that I happen to possess and what did I not find? Chapter IV! Moreover, Chet’s “gay-looking speed-wagon” had become “The Queen.” There was no trace of the pointless prank the Hardys’ “chubby friend” played on the local “indolent” farmer, and he wasn’t even so “chubby” anymore. That is right chums, The Hardy Boys series was expurgated, to our loss, sometime during the 1960s!

A quick search revealed that others have figured out the same. Well, I shall enjoy reading this edition, for it surely holds some pleasant surprises.