“Oh, you’d manage to get on all right,” returned the other, quickly. “Cheer up, old fellow. It’s always darkest just before dawn. You’ll get a letter any day now, and perhaps written by the one you are longing to hear from most. Try and put it out of your mind for a bit, and think of the great times we expect to have on the river.”
“That’s always the way with you, Frank. You manage to chase away the blues better than any medicine made. I’m going to laugh, and try to forget my troubles for a little while. Yes, the letter is on the way now, I don’t doubt; but oh! how the days drag along, waiting for news,” sighed Ralph.
“Here comes Helen. Now we’ll go inside and have her give us some music that is bound to liven us up. I just feel like singing, and it will do you good,” cried Frank.
Ralph was nothing loath. There was an attraction about Frank’s charming sister that always appealed to the homeless lad. So they were soon gathered about the piano, and joining voices in such old favorites as “Tenting To-night,” “I Know a Bank,” “Upidee,” and many others.
“Now, let’s wind up with the ‘Red, White and Blue,’” said Frank, when Ralph had declared he must be going.
So, as on many a hard fought athletic field, the familiar words of the grand old tune rolled out—always a favorite with these students of the famous high school bearing the same cherished name:
“O, Columbia, the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine of each patriot’s devotion,
A world offers homage to thee!”