The prospect was not at all pleasing to Bobby and Fred, but above everything else they were loyal to the school, and if the newcomer would be a help to the Rockledge nine they were perfectly willing to forget their own feeling.
“So you see, Fred,” continued Frank, “you don’t want to hold any grudge you may have against Hicksley. I don’t know what your scrap was about and I don’t want to know, but whatever it is, forget it.”
“Sure I will,” said Fred heartily.
“You know how it was on the football team,” went on Frank. “There were fellows on that team that you didn’t like—Jinks, for instance—but you overlooked that feeling and played good football just the same. And we want to do the same thing on the nine.
“I’m especially anxious to get up a strong nine this year,” he continued, “because we’re going to have some pretty nifty teams against us. Belden has got two or three new fellows that they say are crackerjacks and they’ll give us all we want to do to beat ’em.
“Then, too, we’re going to have a little different scheme this season than we ever had before. While you hunters have been up in the woods shooting bears”—here he grinned—“I’ve been hustling around with a few others and organized a new league.”
“A new league!” exclaimed Bobby and Fred in the same breath.
“A new league!” repeated Skeets Brody and Sparrow Bangs, who had come up just in time to hear the last words. “What do you mean, Frank? Tell us all about it.”
They gathered about him, their eyes glistening.