"Oh, yes; I'm easy," grinned Darrin.
"Can you see two young ladies, Richard?" asked Mrs. Prescott, looking into the room.
"Certainly, mother, if I get a chance. My vision is not impaired in the least," laughed Dick.
Mrs. Prescott stood aside to admit Laura and Belle, then followed them into the room.
"We came to make sure that Gridley is not to lose its great pitcher to-day," announced Laura.
"Then your father must have told you that I'd do," cried Dick, eagerly.
"Father?" pouted Miss Bentley. "You don't know him then. One can never get a word out of father about any of his patients. But he said we might call."
The visit of the girls brightened up twenty minutes of the morning.
"Of course," said Laura, as they rose to go, "you mustn't attempt to pitch if you really can't do it, or if it would hurt you for future games."
"I'm afraid the coach won't let me pitch, unless your father says
I can," murmured Dick, with a wry face.