“There’s no telling what Reggie will do,” laughed Joe. “He’s a law unto himself. All that he said in his telegram was that he was coming on. But it’s possible for him to get here this afternoon and I have a hunch that he’ll be here by the first train he could catch after he sent the wire.”
“Of course he’ll stay with us while he’s in town,” said his mother.
“You can be sure that Joe wouldn’t let Mabel’s brother go to a hotel,” put in Clara, demurely.
Joe pretended not to hear.
“I’ve got some other things to do too,” he said, as he rose from the table, “so I guess I’d better be starting.”
“What other things?” asked Clara.
“First of all, I’ve got to get some bamboo poles and rig up things for a moving picture stunt in the gymnasium,” replied her brother. “I met Dick Talbot this morning and he promised to come over and take a film of my curve ball in a day or two. Professor Crabbe is as hard to move as the rock of Gibraltar, but I guess he’ll pull in his horns after Dick and I show him a thing or two.” And much to their amusement, he told them of the controversy he had had with the doughty professor.
“Then too,” he went on, “I’ll have to practise like the mischief now until I receive notice to start for the training camp. A good deal depends on first impressions, and I want to show McRae that he hasn’t picked a lemon.”
“Oh, dear,” sighed Mrs. Matson, “I hate to hear you talk of going away. I grudge every day you’re away from Riverside.”