“Well, in a few weeks I’ll be hiking it for New Haven,” said Joe, half talking to himself. “It’s going to be awful lonesome at first. I won’t know a soul there. It isn’t like going up from some prep school, with a lot of your own chums. Well, I’ve got to grin and bear it, and if I do get a chance for the ’varsity nine—oh, won’t I jump at it!”
He was lost in pleasant reflections for a moment, and then went on, still talking to himself, and calling to the horse now and then, for the steed, realizing that he had an easy master behind him, was inclined to slow down to a walk every now and then.
“There are bound to be lessons, of course,” said Joe. “And lectures on things I don’t care any more about than the man in the moon does. I suppose, though, I’ve got to swallow ’em. But if I can get on the diamond once in a while it won’t be so bad. The worst of it is, though, that ball playing won’t begin until April at the earliest, and there’s all winter to live through. I’m not going in for football. Well, I guess I can stand it.”
Once more Joe was off in a day-dream, in fancy seeing himself standing in the box before yelling thousands, winding up to deliver a swiftly-curving ball to the batter on whom “three and two” had been called, with the bases full, two men out and his team but one run ahead in the final inning.
“Oh! that’s what life is!” exclaimed Joe, half aloud, and at his words the horse started to trot. “That’s what makes me willing to stand four years at Yale—if I have to. And yet——”
Joe did not complete his sentence. As he swung around a bend in the road his attention was fully taken by a surprising scene just ahead of him.
A horse, attached to a carriage, was being driven down the road, and, just as Joe came in sight, the animal, for some unaccountable reason, suddenly swerved to the left. One of the wheels caught in a rut, there was a snapping, cracking sound, the wheel was “dished,” and the carriage settled down on one side.
“Whoa! Whoa!” yelled Joe, fearing the horse would bolt and that perhaps a woman might be in the carriage, the top of which was up. The lad was about to spring from his own vehicle and rush to the aid of the occupant of the other, when he saw a man leap out.
With one bound the man was at the head of his steed, holding him from running away, but there was no need, for the horse, after a calm look around, seemed to resign himself to his fate.
“Jove!” ejaculated Joe. “That was quick work. That fellow is in training, whoever he is.”