"Whoa, there! Whoa! Ain't been waiting for me, have you?" he inquired genially, as he removed his straw hat to wipe his forehead.
"I've been waiting for you ever since I've known you," answered Specs. "What are those horses of yours—one cylinder or two?"
Mr. Langer smiled contentedly. "You might not think it," he observed, "but these here horses used to be fire horses in Elkana when they was young. And they're just as good a team to-day as that pair of plugs they got in our fire station." He climbed laboriously from his seat, with some intention of assisting the Scouts in loading the bags and baseball apparatus into the dray. But as the boys were tidily finishing the job before Mr. Langer fully made up his mind about the best way to begin, he thought better of his ambition, and leaned one arm on the wagon and went on with his conversation.
"Take that fire department in this here town," he ruminated, picking a spear of grass to chew between words. "Why, it ain't run like a fire department any more than it's run like a church." He squinted thoughtfully at a pebble in the road. "Come to think of it, there ain't much difference between that fire department and a church. There's just one man of the Second Reformed Church left in Lakeville to-day, and that's Pete Mullett, the janitor; and there's just one man left in the fire department, and that's Dave Hendershot, the driver."
Bunny pricked up his ears. "You don't mean there's only one man to hitch up the hose cart and put out the fire?"
Mr. Langer nodded. "Yep. Dave was left in charge, with three helpers, and they told him they wanted to go to Dunkirk. And Dave was good-natured, and they was just volunteers, anyhow, and he let 'em go. Of course, I'll be around to give Dave a hand, but that ain't no way to fight fires." Mr. Langer nodded more decisively than before and plucked a second blade of grass.
"Coming late, the way Royal Sheffield does, isn't playing the game either," said Specs suddenly. "We have just one minute more to wait. It's 9:29 already."
Bunny verified the time. As Specs said, the missing player had but a single minute of grace before the procession started toward the station.
"He may get here on time, even if we don't hustle him up," suggested S. S.
Bonfire Cree laughed. "He'd have missed the Harrison City game if the train hadn't been held up on account of a hot box."