Henry tried to explain to his friend that he ought to be working, but there was actually no time. And when he found himself seated on the bleachers and the stunts began, he forgot everything in the world except the exciting events before his eyes.
Henry had no pencil, but he had an excellent memory. He repeated over and over, the name of each winner as it appeared on the huge signboard.
It was nearly eleven o'clock when the free-for-all running race was announced.
"What do they mean—free-for-all?" asked Henry of a small boy at his side.
"Why, just anybody," explained the boy, curiously. "Didn't you ever see one? Didn't you see the one last year?"
"No," said Henry.
The boy laughed. "That was a funny one," he said. "There was a college runner in it, and a couple of fat men, and some girls—lots of people. And the little colored boy over there won it. You just ought to have seen that boy run! He went so fast you couldn't see his legs. Beat the college runner, you know."
Henry gazed at the winner of last year's race. He was smaller than Henry, but apparently older. In a few minutes Henry had quietly left his place on the bleachers. When the boy turned to speak to him again, he was gone.
He had gone, in fact, to the dressing room, where boys of all sizes were putting on sandals and running trunks.
A man stepped up to him quickly.