The Tramp Boys came over shortly after Disbrow had finished his breakfast with the Meadow-Brook Girls.
“Well, what’s the first thing on the program, P. E.?” questioned George.
“The first thing is to make the court usable. At present it is hopeless. If you will have your boys get to work on it, we may be able to have a try-out some time this afternoon. Got anything to mark the lines with!”
“No, I forgot the chalk.”
“Any flour in the camp?”
Miss Elting said there was. Disbrow said that when the court had been leveled off he would mark out the side lines and base lines with the flour, after which the girls would play a game for him. All that forenoon the boys worked at their task, and by luncheon time had done all the champion had suggested. The court, he said, was still in almost impossible shape, but that it was the best that could be had at that moment.
The hour following the luncheon was spent in conversation, after which Disbrow told the young women to go on the court and play out a set. At first they were nervous with the champion watching them, but after the first two games of the set their confidence returned, their nervousness disappeared and they went at their work with a vim. George chewed his hat brim nervously as they floundered about the court, but the face of the Englishman was impassive. He watched keenly, making no comment, but storing up data in his mind to be used later on when he should have really begun his instruction. Tommy and Harriet were playing together against Hazel and Jane, which arrangement the champion changed in the last half of the set.
The set came to an end suddenly through a fault of Jane’s, and the girls, flushed and excited, turned to their new instructor.
“Are we to play another game?” questioned Harriet.
“No.”