A POPULAR BOY
“Frank, you’re a wonder; and I don’t care who hears me say it!”
exclaimed Minnie, as she saw a cloud of dust down the road, with a boy
on a motorcycle heading it. “Nobody but you would ever have thought of
such a splendid scheme!”
“Well, all I hope, then, is that it works,” replied the boy; “for
they’re just ready to take a whack at each other right now.”
He ran toward the noisy crowd, and shouted at the top of his voice:
“Here’s Cuthbert Lee come over to see us, fellows!”
Even the mention of the name of the most popular boy in all Bellport
acted as a soothing salve upon the excited minds of the wrangling lads.
They drew back just in time to avoid the first blow, which must have
precipitated the battle, and been followed by bloody noses and bruised
faces. Some of them even began to look ashamed to be caught in such a
business as creating bad feeling between the neighboring towns.
Cuthbert Lee was wise enough to know that nothing could be accomplished
by accusing his friends of wrongdoing. He began by asking the cause of
the trouble, and smoothing things down so ably that in a short time he
had the Bellport boys cheering him wildly.
“Don’t let anybody think Bellport has a case of cold feet,” he
declared. “We believe we’ve got the athletes to carry off some of those
prizes, anyhow, and we’re just going to prove it when the time comes.
I’ve watched every arrangement closely, boys, and I give you my solemn
word for it, I honestly believe the arrangements have all been made in
a spirit of fairness.”
“Hear! hear!” shouted a Columbia boy, beginning to be once more drawn
toward the old rivals of Bellport, whom they had cheered wildly many a
time after a game had been won or lost, and respected in the past as
true sport-lovers.
“Why,” continued Cuthbert, feeling that his case was already as good
as won, “at the meeting which I had the honor to attend, the gentleman
who offered these fine prizes was _very_ particular to say, time after
time, that he wanted the neighboring towns to feel that they had just
as good a chance to win as Columbia. He was so broad-minded, fellows,
that once our representative had to actually object, and say that
Bellport didn’t need to be favored. Does that look like the committee
meant to side-track us? I never knew of a fairer arrangement between
schools than the one governing this meet. And that’s positive truth,
believe me, fellows. You know I wouldn’t deceive you for anything in
the world.”
They began to look very foolish now and the Columbia boys were giving
Cuthbert Lee a salvo of loud cheers. Such friendly sentiments touched
their boyish hearts as nothing else could do.
“Let’s call it off, boys!” cried one Bellport fellow, who had been
among the noisiest of the disputants.
“I’m sorry we made the trouble at all!” said another, frankly.
“We’ve been a lot of silly jacks, that’s what!” cried a third; “and for
one I’m in favor of asking the pardon of every Columbia High fellow,
right here and now. Hear that, Frank Allen? It was all a mistake, and
we’re sorry.”
“We hope you’ll forget the unpleasantness, Columbia!”
“And let’s be better friends than ever because of it,” called out
Cuthbert Lee. “When we felt the disappointment of defeat on the
gridiron or the diamond I tell you it took a lot of the sting out of
it to hear fair and square Frank Allen and his crowd giving a bully
cheer for Bellport. And, fellows, we can’t afford to show such a nasty
little spirit as to believe those honest enemies of last summer and
fall could get down low enough to even think of cheating. Who’s with me
in giving three and a tiger right now for the boys of Columbia High?”
Well, they were given, and with a roar. Not a single Bellport boy felt
that he could afford to hold back when Cuthbert Lee led the shouting.
And in five minutes the change in the aspect of things on that athletic
field was magical. Instead of keeping together in a crowd, and
badgering the workers, the visitors separated, and each fellow seemed
to be the center of a group of Columbia students, both boys and girls,
as they watched the continuance of the practice games.
Good-natured chaffing had taken the place of jarring remarks intended
to cut to the quick. The clouds had rolled away, and a fair sky
overhead had succeeded the storm signals.
“That was the brightest thing you ever did, Frank,” remarked Cuthbert
Lee, as he stood with a number of others, and chatted together
concerning the various contests scheduled for the great athletic meet
on the following week.
“_One_ of them, perhaps,” remarked Minnie, proudly; at which there was
a general laugh from the boys and girls, and consequently more or less
blushing on the part of the pretty speaker.
“I’m glad I had the idea, anyway,” replied Frank; “because it began
to look as if there was going to be a riot, sure thing. When boys
get warmed up they never mince words; and I heard some pretty strong
language used. But it’s ended just as it should, and maybe has drawn
the rival schools closer together.”
“I guess they let off all their spare steam, anyhow,” remarked Ralph
Langworthy, who had been engaged in some of the sprinting trials, and
was showing considerable speed in the hundred-yard dash.
Evidently the news had reached Columbia, for men were constantly
arriving at the athletic field. They seemed anxious on coming, but soon
discovered that there must be some sort of mistake about the trouble
that had been reported imminent; for Columbia and Bellport had never
appeared so friendly as just then, and Chief Hogg was telling humorous
stories to the keeper of the grounds.
Lanky was very glum as he stood around. Frank could easily guess the
cause for this. Dora had stayed down in Columbia over the holiday,
instead of going back to the farm; and she was to be seen in the
society of the good-looking Walter Ackerman ’most all the morning.
Indeed, Frank, seeing her glance quickly toward his chum a number of
times, could understand that she was carrying on in this way simply to
annoy Lanky. And as he declined to notice her even a little bit, it
began to look as though the breach had grown too great to be easily
bridged.
“H’m!” said Frank to himself, “it doesn’t look as though Minnie had
been very successful in making Dora see how silly she was in quarreling
with poor Lanky, after he’s been taking her around everywhere since he
met her up on the farm, at the time we saved the house from burning
down. I must get her to try again, though. But in cases like this it
isn’t much use. Dora is set on snubbing him; and Lanky wouldn’t shake
hands with her, when she started to make up.”
Frank and Lanky managed to get together on the trip home, though a bevy
of girls walked close by; and Minnie doubtless wondered what important
business took Frank from her side even for five minutes.
“If you get a wire, call me up, Lanky, sure,” Frank was saying.
“Will I? Well, you can wager I will, right speedy now,” came the
answer. “I need your advice all the time, so’s to keep from makin’ a
botched job of this thing. I hope it comes by to-morrow, though, or
Saturday.”
“Well, if it don’t, I’ll be disappointed myself,” remarked Frank.
“For one thing,” the other went on, “those gyps aren’t a-goin’ to hang
around these diggings forever, you know.”
“Of course not,” agreed Frank.
“They’ll be foldin’ up their tents and silently stealin’ away, as the
poem has it,” Lanky continued; “and then where’d I be if I got word,
when it was too late, that the lost child did wear that same kind of a
little bonnet, with the blue ribbon on it?”
“Perhaps there might be some way to coax them to stay a while longer,”
suggested Frank, thoughtfully.
“How, for instance?” questioned Lanky, eagerly.
“Well, they’re sharp enough to know that with a big event coming off,
like our athletic meet, a crowd of people will be coming to Columbia;
and such a time is always good for horse trading, and such things. I’m
going to set the wheels going, so as to make them see this. One camp
is just as good as another to them, I guess, and so they’ll be glad to
stay over.”
“Well, if you ain’t the greatest hand at gettin’ up schemes I ever
knew!” declared Lanky, warmly, as he gripped his chum’s hand and shook
it. “Now, why didn’t I think of that plan? A gay old head I’ve got;
ain’t worth shucks sometimes. Reckon some people are just about right
in shaking such a fellow!” he added, gloomily.
“Cheer up!” said Frank, slapping him on the back. “All this is going
to be changed, just as if a wizard touched it with his magic wand. You
wait and see what’s going to happen. I just feel it in my bones.”
Lanky did brighten up a little; and then, as he happened to catch sight
of that aggravating couple ahead, Dora chattering away like a little
magpie, and that handsome curly head of Walter so close to her brown
tresses, he gritted his teeth again and lapsed into his former gloomy
state.
So Frank went back to Minnie and the laughing group of which the gay
girl was the center and the life.
No call came over the wire from Lanky that afternoon or evening, much
to Frank’s disappointment. And when he met his chum at school on
Wednesday morning, there was a skeptical look on the thin countenance
of Lanky that told of “hopes deferred making the heart sick.”
“No use talking,” the other declared, in a disgusted tone, “I’m a
regular Jonah nowadays. Never touch a thing but it flops upside-down.
Now, if it’d been only you connected with this racket, Frank, chances
are you’d ’a’ had a message before now; and the father and mother’d
be on their way here. But I’ve just queered the game, that’s what.
Everything’s against me, I do believe.”
“Oh! wait a while,” said Frank, encouragingly. “It’s plain that your
wire hasn’t reached the gentleman yet; because, if his little girl
hasn’t been found you can just believe that he’d seize on any chance to
hear news. And when he does get the telegram you’ll know it. If he’s
off somewhere, it may be several days before they can reach him; but it
will come, Lanky, it’s bound to come. So I say wait, and just hold your
horses the best you know how.”
“All right, Frank,” replied Lanky. “I’ll do the best I can; but I’m
badgered if I don’t feel sore, the way things are knocking me. But I’m
all trimmed for making that long run Saturday; and you and Bones’ll
have to hustle if you want to get home anywhere near my time; for I’m
going to show _somebody_ something, you understand!”