“You!” exclaimed Gus.
“Yes,” replied Dan. “I don’t want to play on the nine if there is any question about my right.”
“You’re all right,” said Hodge. “All you have to do is to saw wood.”
“I guess he can do that,” sneered Gus.
“He can, if he can do it as well as he can pitch—or stick hogs!” retorted Walter.
CHAPTER XIX
SCHOOL LIFE
“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 shoulders on him. No wonder he’s the next to the best boxer in school. The trouble with him is that he counted upon being the pitcher on the school nine next spring, that’s all. It’s a little bit rough, you know, to be waked up by an earthquake.”
“He stands about as much chance of being pitcher as I do of being King of Timbuctoo or of Oshkosh,” sniffed Walter.