“I’m awfully glad you’ve got here at last,” cried Joe, as he rushed up to Mabel and caught her by both hands. He would have liked very much to have kissed her, but did not dare do it in such a public place.
“Oh, what a grand trip we’ve had!” declared Clara, as she shook hands first with Jim and then with her brother. “I never had any idea our country was so big and so magnificent.”
“That’s just what Joe and I were remarking on our trip across the Rockies,” answered Jim. He could not take his eyes from the face of his chum’s sister. Clara looked the picture of health, showing that the trip from her little home town had done her a world of good.
But if Clara looked good, Mabel looked even better—at least in the eyes of Joe. He could not keep his gaze from her face. And she was certainly just as glad to see him.
“Ye-es, it was quite a trip, don’t you know,” remarked Reggie. “I met several bally good chaps on the way, so the time passed quickly enough. But I’m glad to be here, and hope that before long we’ll be on shipboard.”
“Oh, I’m so excited to think that I’m going to take a real ocean trip!” burst out Clara. “Just to think of it—a girl like me going around the world! I never dreamed I’d get that far.”
“And just think of the many queer sights we’ll 146 see!” broke in Mabel. “And the queer people we’ll meet!”
The girls were all on the qui vive with excitement in their anticipation of the delightful trip that lay before them, and there were no pauses in their conversation on the way to the hotel.
Here they were introduced to the other members of the party, which by this time had increased to large proportions, for beside the ladies who had accompanied the players across the continent, many others had followed the same plan as Mabel and Clara and joined their friends in San Francisco. Altogether, there were more than a hundred of the tourists, of whom perhaps a third were women.
All were out for a good time, and the atmosphere of good will and jollity was infectious. There was an utter absence of snobbery and affectation, and the boys were delighted to see how quickly the girls fell into the spirit of the gathering and with their own fun and high spirits added more than their quota to the general hilarity.