The pennant

“Partly. It’s more though, for the two dollars a day you’ve agreed to pay me for rowing you over the pond. I can’t pick that up on the farm, you know.”

Dan took the light rod and instantly let out a few feet of the line. He dropped his oars as he did so and the skiff swung around before the gentle breeze that was blowing. Inten...

“You get some wood, Walter, and start a fire in the fireplace, while I am cleaning the fish and getting everything ready for dinner,” said Dan, as the two boys, with the fish th...

“They were clean enough just now, weren’t they? You put some potato on the plate on which I’d been eating potato and fish, didn’t you? I didn’t find any fault, did I?”

The young oarsman obediently swung the skiff about and started swiftly in pursuit of the reptile, but before the weeds were gained the snake disappeared and a further search fai...

When at last Walter and the Rodman nine came in from the field in order that the Benson players might have their share in the preliminary practice he laughed as he looked at the...

“That doesn’t look like it,” responded Dan quietly as the Rodman batter hit a little fly to the short-stop, who turned quickly and caught one of the runners. It was the first oc...

Silence speedily swept over the assembly as the next two batters both struck out. The third batter managed to send a slow roller toward first base, which speedily was taken by t...

“It is good, very good, indeed. It isn’t often a young pitcher can do so well as that, but I fancy he didn’t have any very skillful batters to face,” laughed Mr. Borden.

Bright and early the following morning, Mr. Borden, accompanied by Walter, went to Dan’s home. Eager as Walter was to talk about the prospect of his friend being enrolled as a p...

Dan was silent a moment, looking down at the ground at his feet. When he glanced at his friend again he said, “That’s too much, Walter. It’s too much for your father――――”

An hour had elapsed when Walter, who had not once left the piazza where he and his mother had been seated, exclaimed excitedly, “There he comes, mother! I hope he has had good l...

The summer days passed rapidly and Walter spent many of them in the company of Dan. One day while they were fishing on Six Town Pond the great snake was seen again and after a s...

“Hello――o――o, Dan!” Walter had exclaimed as he first caught sight of his friend in the doorway. “Come right in! I’m mighty glad to see you!” The impulsive Walter had leaped from...

“All right,” said Ned cheerily. “We’ll fix it up in a day or two. We ought to start right in on our inter-form games and find out what material we can count on for the spring.”

The following day proved to be rainy and the “trying out” of the prospective ball-players was consequently impossible. The day was filled, however, with novelty to Dan, who was...

It was so early in the school year that opportunities for talking over the new boys had of necessity been limited. The fact that Walter had a new roommate who was somewhat “gree...

Unaware of the expression on the face of Gus Kiggins, Walter said to Dan as the latter joined the group, “Didn’t I tell you? You’re all right, Dan.” Then, turning to his compani...

“You stirred up the animals, Walter,” said Hodge after Gus had taken his departure. “Don’t do it any more. Gussie is all right enough if you don’t bear on too hard. Look at the...

Dan had not taken any part in the bantering of the boys, but he none the less enjoyed their light and easy way of looking at life. It was all very different from his own early e...

“I guess that’s his name,” laughed Gus. “It rhymes with bawl. He ought never to have left his mother. He’s a mamma’s darling all right, though he seems to have taken you up in h...

The relations between Dan and Walter were daily becoming more strained. Gus Kiggins was a less frequent visitor than he had been formerly, but Dan was convinced that this simply...

Above the noisy greetings of the boys the sneering words of Gus Kiggins were plainly heard. Instinctively the boys turned and looked at Dan, but if he was aware of the taunt he...

“You liar! You mucker! You low-down telltale!” shouted Walter, looking straight into the face of his roommate. “I might have known you’d spy on me. That’s what all the fellows s...

“Well, I don’t know that I blame you,” laughed Walter. “He isn’t exactly the kind of a chap I’d like to run up against on a dark street when I was all alone.”

Dan and Ned proceeded directly to the dressing-room, the former somewhat downcast and the latter more lively even than he was wont to be. “How do you feel?” he laughingly inquir...

For a moment Ned stared blankly at his companion, and then said: “Dan, you certainly beat anything I ever saw or heard of. I don’t know which is the bigger fool, you or――――”

In a brief time the confusion spread over the entire assembly. Ned ran to his friend and the players of both teams swarmed upon the field. Even the spectators shared in the prev...

“I know I did; but you can believe me or not, I didn’t mean to. I’ll own up that I threw the ball hard, but I thought, of course, you saw me.”

As Dan was silent the troubled boy looked at his roommate in a manner that increased the uneasiness of both. As Dan glanced out the window a moment he saw Carlton Hall running a...

“I’m all right,” interrupted Carlton sharply. The little fellow’s face was still white and betrayed the pain he still was suffering, but the boy’s determination was so manifest...

Dan was motionless a moment as he stood facing the next batter, whom he knew to be the heaviest hitter on the opposing nine. It was plain too, that the crowd also was aware of t...