"This seems like old times," said Fleet. "There are many outdoor games, but after all there is only one."
"There are many, and yet there's only one. There's a riddle for you--figure it out!" cried Pod.
After a while, breathing heavily from their exertions, for the morning was warm, Pod, Bert and Fleet decided to stop. Then Chot took the ball and threw for fifteen minutes to Tom, speeding them in as his arm grew more limber, until the ball became but a mere flash in the atmosphere as it passed from one chum to the other.
Then, practice over, the boys stretched themselves out in the shade of a big oak tree for an hour of solid comfort.
"If Dan, Randy and Wilkes were here, I'd be perfectly happy," said Bert. "But I suppose it's impossible for all of us to be together the whole year round."
"And I wouldn't mind in the least if Truem Wright were here," said Chot, which remark occasioned some surprise among his comrades.
"Well, I've forgotten the mean things he did," said Tom. "But I haven't taken him to my heart sufficiently to wish he was here at this moment."
"I look at it this way," said Chot. "Truem was a cad of the first water, as many boys are who have well-to-do parents, and have wanted for nothing during the time they are growing up to go to college. Unless such a boy has a strong grip on himself he'll grow supercilious, and may be led into doing spiteful things just as Truem was. We gave Truem what he deserved when we were in Bayville on our vacation that summer, and he took a strong dislike to us from that moment. But after he came to Winton his eyes gradually opened, and he saw that we were trying to act squarely with everyone. Then a longing for real companionship came into his heart, as it will sooner or later come to every boy who goes to the bad, and he finally mustered up the courage to tell us that he wanted us to be his friends. And I tell you, fellows, it takes a lot of courage to ask a thing like that of the boys who have been always on the other side, and whom you have been fighting for months. But Truem did it, and now, I say we should have enough interest in his future welfare to lead him along the right path, take him into our set, if need be, and show him that we are glad from the bottom of our hearts to help him. Those are my sentiments."