A son of the city : $b A story of boy lifeSeely, Herman Gastrell
General
A son of the city : $b A story of boy life
Seely, Herman Gastrell
Boys -- Juvenile fiction; City and town life -- Juvenile fiction
The victors swaggered woodenly around by the ice cream soda shop and art
stores to the home street. No cutting across the tracks for them now;
this was a march of triumph! The vanquished trailed sulkily along, some
twenty feet behind, giving vent now and then to cat-calls of defiance
and disgruntled suggestions that the game would have ended differently
if this or that member had played better. At the corner, Silvey turned.
"We licked you!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "We licked you! We
licked you!"
Shultz raised his voice above the clamor of his team. "Just wait until
we catch you alone. You'll be sorry!"
John shrugged his shoulders. "We'll all stick together coming home from
school. And if they catch just one of us, why, we can maul them, too."
For Shultz's declaration meant that the guerrilla warfare was in full
swing again.
Sid's muscles stiffened and his back began to ache. Silvey owned a
discolored spot over one eye where an opponent had tried to disable him
during a tense moment of the game. John's shin was badly bruised, and
Perry Alford had wrenched his ankle. The other members had minor hurts.
Only Red Brown had, by some miracle, come through the battle unscathed.
"We won," said Silvey happily, as they stopped in front of his house.
"Come on, now, all together!"
They broke into the "Tigers'" exultant war cry, which is very much the
same as that of the football team to which you belonged as a boy:
Sis-boom-bah!
Sis-boom-bah!
"Tigers," "Tigers,"
Rah, rah, rah!
Then they left for their several homes, too worn out to do anything but
rest.
Up in his room John threw himself on the bed with a sigh. His injured
leg hurt terribly--but they'd won. Pity Louise had missed the defeat of
the "Jeffersons." Why did women folks always have to go shopping,
anyway? Only spent a lot of money on hats and other foolishness.
He turned over wearily and found the yellow pig bank leering at him from
the bureau with hungry, malignant eyes. Where was that apportioned two
dollars which he was to earn by the end of the week? Four days had
already elapsed, and the beast's interior was as empty as it had been on
the toy-shop shelf. Why had he bought those lemon drops on Monday? And
the marbles and his rubber spear top? Was there anything left after the
shin-guard purchase? He sat up on the edge of the bed and rummaged in
his pockets. One lonely penny remained from his weekly allowance of a
quarter.
He dropped the coin into the long slot and shook the pig disgustedly.
Two dollars could never be earned by Saturday night. Not even if three
lawns were to be cut, and a half-dozen errands run for the neighbors. He
slammed the big china animal back on the bureau and went down to supper.
The lonely copper had seemed to make the beast sound more hollow than
ever as it rattled against the unglazed interior.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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