Off they started, and Tommy was very glad, for he was afraid that his mother would worry. And, had he only known it, Mrs. Tiptop was very much alarmed when, after she and her husband and daughter had arrived at the new house, and had waited for some time, Tommy did not come. The other wagon-load of goods got there, and the driver of it said he had not seen the vehicle on which Tommy had started to ride to Riverdale; that is, not since it had started.
“Oh, I’m sure some accident has happened!” exclaimed Mrs. Tiptop. “Oh, this is dreadful!”
“Don’t worry,” advised her husband. “That was a very heavy load of goods, and perhaps the horses had to go slowly up the hills. If it doesn’t come soon, I’ll get a carriage and drive back along the road. But I’m sure it will come. Now we must see to getting the things put into the house from the wagon that is here.”
And it wasn’t very long after that before the delayed wagon, with Tommy up on the high seat, came rumbling along, and there was no further need of worrying.
“What in the world happened?” called Mrs. Tiptop, and Tommy told her everything, even to how he had made friends with the barking dog.
“But I’m sorry about my bat,” he added. “I may want to play ball this afternoon, and I haven’t a bat!”
“I guess you won’t have much chance to play ball this afternoon,” replied his father with a laugh. “But here, Tommy, is a quarter. You can go buy a new bat, and don’t get lost, for you don’t know the streets of this town yet.”
“A quarter bat! That’s fine!” exclaimed the lad. “The one that got run over was only a fifteen-cent one. Say, now I will have a good ball team!” And he hurried off to find a store where baseball goods were kept.
It was when he was going along the street, swinging the bat around in the air, and wondering how far he could knock a ball with it, that Tommy saw two boys, of about his own age, walking slowly ahead of him.
“I wonder who they are?” he mused. “I’d like to know them. Maybe they play ball. School must be out,” he added, as he saw some books slung in a strap across the shoulder of one boy. “I’m going to speak to them,” Tommy went on. “I’ll get to know them in school, anyhow, and I might as well begin now.”