“Well, now, as to Chicago, Tommy,” answered Bob, “you said yourself you were going there, and you know what you were Saturday night!”
After the laughter had subsided they discussed the subject seriously and at length. In the end it was decided that if their parents would consent Nelson, Dan, and Tom were to join Bob at Erskine College three years from the approaching month—examination boards permitting. Incidentally it may be announced that their parents did consent, that examiners did permit, and that their plans succeeded. But that is a story all to itself and has nothing to do with the present narrative.
Mr. Clinton had been called in to aid in the matter of the silver loving-cup for the Careys and had attended to the selection of it on one of his trips to Boston. On Friday it arrived. Lack of funds had prohibited the purchase of anything very elaborate, but the gift was quite worthy of acceptance. It was a plain cup, in shape like a Greek vase, seven inches high. The handles were of ebony, and there was a little ebony stand for it to rest upon. The inscription had caused the Four not a little worry. As finally decided on it read:
To Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Carey
A TOKEN OF ESTEEM
AND GRATITUDE
FROM
The Four
August 18, 1904
Robert W. Hethington
Nelson E. Tilford
Daniel H. F. Speede
Thomas C. Ferris
They were hugely pleased with it and kept it a whole day to admire and exhibit. Then it went off by express, and in due time there came a reply which, as the Four had scattered, went from Chicago to Portland, to Boston, to New York, to Chicago, and from there came east again in Tom’s trunk to Hillton.
But, lest you make the mistake of thinking that final week a period of laziness, it should be said that the baseball diamond was worn almost bare of grass. Every morning and every afternoon the nine practised in preparation for the Wickasaw game. As for eight of the nine, they didn’t feel that life would be ruined even if Wickasaw did beat them. But Bob was of another sort; he had set his heart on winning and would go home feeling that the summer had ended in disgrace if Wickasaw again triumphed; and so the others caught some of the infection from him and labored zealously in the hottest kind of a sun morning and afternoon until Friday. On Friday there was only a half hour’s easy work, for Bob had his ideas on the subject of training. That night, about the camp-fire, the prospect was talked over and it was generally agreed that if Wells, who was again to pitch, didn’t go up in the air Chicora was pretty certain of victory. That, as events turned out, was a big “if.”