A PLEASANT SURPRISE
As Phil and Ted, laden with packages and bags, came in sight of the station on the following morning, they gasped in amazement.
Every member of Parker School seemed to be there, and when the boys and girls beheld their two popular schoolmates, they rushed for them in a body, surrounding and cheering them, while the members of the baseball team seized the luggage from their hands, escorting them in triumph to the station.
“Look out for the bears! Hope your crops are bumpers! Show ’em what a tenderfoot can do!” were among the comments and bits of advice with which Phil and Ted were deluged as their friends crowded about and grasped their hands.
“Here, come back with those bags! No tricks with them,” called Ted, anxiously, as he noticed that he and his brother were being separated from their belongings by those who were eager to bid them godspeed.
So dense was the throng about the boys, however, that the behest could not be obeyed, and they seemed in imminent danger either of being forced to start without their luggage or of being compelled to miss the train.
But as the locomotive whistled for the station, the crowd fell back, cheering and shouting their good-byes, while those with the bags and other things closed in, rushing into the train with them.
As the bell clanged its signal for departure, there was a hurried leave-taking by members of the team, then the ball players scrambled from the car, and as Phil and Ted appeared on the rear platform, waving their hats, the boys and girls about the station gave three lusty cheers and then burst into singing “For he’s a jolly good fellow.”
Until they could no longer see or hear their former schoolmates, the boys stood on the platform. When at last they turned and entered the car, they took their seats in silence, each too deeply moved to trust himself to speak.
“It’s a good thing Momsy and the girls said good-bye to us at home,” observed Phil, after a few minutes. “They couldn’t have put a word in edgewise.”