"No," assented Frank. "I'm glad we did decide to come, but I can hardly realize it yet."
Indeed the change had come about so quickly that they could hardly comprehend it. Once they had asked their father's permission to depart for the prairie land, and had received his consent, matters had moved swiftly.
They had arranged with Doctor Doolittle not to lose their places in class, and to be given the proper examinations later so as to gain their promotion in the Fall. Then they had begun to pack, and Billy had wired his uncle that he and his friends were coming.
But there was despair in the hearts of the chums whom Frank and Andy left behind.
"Oh, say, what do you want to desert for?" wailed Jack Sanderson.
"Just when the baseball season is at its best, too," added Ward. "I know we'll funk in most of the big games we play now."
"Nonsense!" laughed Frank. "You'll do all the better."
"We will not!" insisted John North, but Frank and Andy had gone too far now to turn back, and their preparations went on apace.
"Well, there's one thing about it," said Duke Yardly, a day or so before the time set for Frank and Andy to leave. "We'll have to give 'em a bang-up farewell spread."
"That's what!" agreed the others, and a "bang-up" spread it was, too, especially when some one insisted on setting off a "flower pot" of red fire without removing the cover. There was an explosion that brought every professor out on the run, but no damage was done, save that Jack Sanderson had his eyebrows singed.