The meal was drawing to an end. Reggie Varley, pouring out a glass of water, rose to his feet.
"Friends and fellow citizens," he began in a sort of "toastmaster voice."
"Hear! Hear!" echoed Charlie, entering into the spirit of the occasion.
"We have with us this evening," went on Reggie, in the approved manner of after-dinner introductions, "one whom you all well know, and whom it is scarcely necessary to name——"
"Hear! Hear!" interrupted Charlie, pounding on the table with his knife handle.
All eyes were turned toward Joe, who could not help blushing.
"I rise to propose the health of one whom we all know and love," went on Reggie, "and to assure him that we all wish him well in his new place."
"Better wait until I get it," murmured Joe, to whom this was a great surprise.
"To wish him all success," went on Reggie. "And I desire to add that, as a token of our esteem, and the love in which we hold him, we wish to present him this little token—and may it be a lucky omen for him when he is pitching away in the big league," and with this Reggie handed to Joe a stick-pin, in the shape of a baseball, the seams outlined in diamonds, and a little ruby where the trademark would have been.
Poor Joe was taken quite by surprise.