"That's all hunky dory," an expression he used when he was well satisfied, and when the committee which the boys had sent to thank him for his kind thought appeared, he said:
"That's all right, boys; that's the best fun I get, doing something for you fellows."
After that, McCormack's were the only records to be heard in that club room. Every boy played his favorite, time and again.
"I wonder if he sings much better than his records," said Tommy Hefnan.
"Of course," retorted Dick Brian. "That is foolish question four million and two."
"O! I don't know," said Tommy. "I heard some records that were better than the performer. You remember that war song we had last year? Well, I heard his Nibbs himself sing it at a vaudeville show, and I liked the record better."
"Well, his Nibbs isn't McCormack," snapped Dick, "and you'll see the difference when you hear him."
So the boys were pretty well worked up over the concert, and awaited it eagerly. Most of them were in moderate circumstances and the limit of their entertainment was the movies. For them to see the great McCormack was what in the old days it meant to the country lads to see Barnum's Circus.
There were, as we have said, ninety boys in the Club, from eleven to fifteen years of age. When they got to sixteen, they were obliged to drop membership, and were encouraged to join the older boys' club, which admitted those from sixteen to nineteen. Most of the lads did that. In Father Boone's time, however, the boys hated to leave the younger club. It was amusing to see the growing youngsters torn between two emotions. On the one hand, every boy wanted to be big, to get closer to manhood. On the other, he dreaded the loss of the Club. For Father Boone certainly made it a very desirable place. It was because membership was so highly regarded that he was able to set a high standard for his boys and keep them up to it.
For every vacancy there was a score on the waiting list. Every mother in the parish wanted her boy to get into the Club. Frequently the director would be stopped in the street by a good mother who would say to him, "Father, my boy Jimmie is one of the best boys in the parish. Won't you please have him in mind for the next vacancy?"