“Sure!” chorused Jerry and Bob, as they shook hands all around.
“But you won’t squeal on us any more when we have a midnight spread, or hoist the sacred picture on the flagpole; will you?” Ned demanded.
“I did squeal on you about that first spread, and I gave the proctor the key,” he confessed, “and I’m mighty sorry I did it. I was just mad. But I didn’t squeal about the picture!”
“I don’t know,” Frank replied, “but I don’t believe it was any of the fellows.”
There was an impromptu celebration of the victorious nine that evening, and Proctor Thornton was conveniently absent. Mr. Hobson was a guest of honor, and Frank, in a graceful speech, admitted his error in regard to the three chums, and announced that hereafter they would be his closest friends.
“And will they play in the last game against Kenwell?” some one asked.
“That’s what they will!” Frank answered, heartily.
Nothing outside the college routine happened in the following week at Boxwood Hall; but Frank and the three chums let their friendship grow, and the reconciliation meant much to both sides. Never before had the spirit of the college so manifested itself.
Mr. Hobson announced that he would stay to see the deciding game between Boxwood and Kenwell, which would take place on the Boxwood Hall grounds, they having won the toss.
“Luck sure is with us,” said Frank to Jerry when this matter had been settled. “Now we’ve got a week to do some hard practicing, and we must work hard, for we want to beat ’em bad.”
Seldom before had there been such a baseball team at Boxwood. Ned, Bob and Jerry seemed to fit right in the places of the lads who were deposed, at least temporarily, to make room for them. And the best of it was that there was no ill feeling. The lads who were not allowed to play rooted just as hard for the team as before.
Kenwell, it was said, was strengthening her nine, and the final game was likely to prove an exciting and hard one. Meanwhile, the talk of the college, when it was not about baseball, was about the reconciliation between Frank Watson and the chums.
It was the day of the great game. The stands on the Boxwood Hall diamond were filled with students, girls, men and women, for it was a big attraction, this championship contest, and drew from all over the neighborhood.