After that scarcely a day went by without seeing Gerald and Harry on the river, and by degrees the former got so that he could paddle very well indeed. One day they accepted a challenge of two Third Class fellows, and raced them from Flat Island to the boathouse, a distance of nearly an eighth of a mile, and beat them handily. But usually their canoeing took place before recitations in the morning, or after dinner, when each had an hour of freedom, for Gerald’s afternoons were pretty well occupied.
The Fourth Class team had played three games with outside nines, and although they had lost two of them, the experience had done them good, and developed team-play. The third contest, that with Greenburg Grammar School, they had won in the last inning by a single tally. The inter-class series was due the first week in June, and already fellows had begun to wear their class colors and speculate as to the outcome. It was generally conceded that Second would win the championship but the real interest lay in the game between Third and Fourth. Third had, as usual, the advantage of age and experience, but, again as usual, it was Fourth who made the greater preparation, who practised most, and who excelled in enthusiasm. Nowadays little was talked of save baseball, although for a few days preceding the dual track and field meeting with Broadwood, the runners and jumpers and weight men claimed some attention.
The meet was at Broadwood, and Yardley’s team went over well supported. The track meet was the one athletic event of the school year which could be absolutely depended on to add to the Blue’s laurels, and this year’s contest was no exception. Yardley won decisively, 89 to 54. Tom did himself proud, winning two firsts and a fourth, or 11 points in all, and establishing a new dual record for the 16-pound shot of 41 feet 4 inches. First place in the hammer throw also went to him, while the broad jump, which he entered to fill the card, netted him one point. Tom was the hero of the day, and Yardley journeyed home happy and triumphant.
[CHAPTER XVII]
THE CLASS GAMES
“Well, it’s certainly a cinch to get out a paper during the baseball season,” laughed Alf, as he turned the leaves of the Yardley Scholiast, the weekly paper published by the students. The Scholiast was playfully referred to as “the School weakly,” but it was in reality a very good example of its kind of journalism. “Look here,” continued Alf, holding up the sheet. “Here’s three pages of baseball; the two Varsity games and six miscellaneous, every last one of them in full detail. That’s an easy way to fill a paper,” he declared in disgust.
“And the rest of the paper all advertising, I suppose,” said Tom, who was stretched out along the window seat, with one foot on the sill.
“Pretty near. Here’s a highly-colored account of the Track Meet, with a whole lot of slush about you, and an editorial about the circus.”
“An editorial about the circus?” asked Dan in surprise. “What’s that for?”