The next morning the boys woke to the realization that it was St. Valentine’s Day. There were valentines in their mail, valentines that had been slipped slyly into their pockets, valentines that had found their way under their pillows.
Some of them were the grotesque “comics” that were on sale in the village stationery store, while others were mere scrawls adorned with so-called pictures, and had been made by the boys themselves with pen and pencil.
There was not much art about them, but there was a good deal of fun, and that was all the boys were looking for. Most of them were based on nicknames that the boys carried or on some event in their lives that was known to the rest.
Mouser, for instance, was pictured with his own face on the body of a mouse who was creeping toward a cage in which a big piece of cheese was temptingly displayed.
Skeets was buzzing about as a big mosquito, over the bald head of a fat man, who was getting ready to crash him as soon as he should settle down.
Fred’s red head had been drawn in red ink, and above his flaming mop one boy was holding a frying pan and another was breaking eggs to cook an omelet.
The boys had learned from Fred of the time when Bobby had coasted down the Trent Street hill and gone head over heels into the drift. Bobby’s head could not be seen but his two heels were waving wildly in the air and on one of them was the word “Bobby” and on the other “Blake.”
Of course Pee Wee had not been overlooked. He was shown as a big fat boy, and each of his knees had a dog’s head on it. The dogs were barking furiously. This was supposed to indicate his “barked” shins.
Because Billy Bassett was always asking questions with his conundrums, he was shown as a great big question mark with the word “guess” underneath.
Sparrow Bangs sat on a branch with a flock of birds, singing with all his might, while in the bushes a hunter was taking careful aim and getting ready to fire.