home? Indeed, yes! And so, gathering at the flag-pole, they raised
their voices in three lugubrious groans for “the Mollycoddles!” And Mr.
Haskins groaned as loudly as any.
Two days later the tennis tournament started. In order to swell the
number of entries, Sam had allowed Steve to persuade him to be his
partner in the doubles. Sam had never played tennis but three or four
times in his life, but Steve got him out of bed at half-past five on
two mornings and tried to teach him the game. The attempt was not
greatly successful, however, and Steve and Sam, giving fifteen, were
speedily eliminated from the contest. Even Steve’s excellent playing
couldn’t quite make up for Sam’s earnest but futile efforts. The boys
who watched the two councillors play against George Porter and Ned
Welch had difficulty in keeping from laughing at Sam’s wild attempts
and awkward blunders. Finally, discovering that Sam, too, thought he
was funny, they had their laughs and Sam didn’t mind at all. Millson
Charrit, the Indians’ clever shortstop, captured first place in the
singles, and Porter and Welch finally won the doubles championship, but
not until Joe Groom and Tom Crossbush, giving half-fifteen, had run the
last set to 8-all.
Then came the Annual Field Day, with nine events, including a mile and
seven-eighths cross-country run. There was broad- and high-jumping,
pole-vaulting, sprinting, shot-putting, discus-throwing, and
low-hurdling. There were no remarkable records established, although
Gerald Jones did better the camp record for the pole-vault. Perhaps
the surprise of the afternoon occurred when Billy White, thirteen
years old, romped in twenty yards ahead of his nearest competitor in
the cross-country run. For that Billy got his name burned on a nice
clean pine panel and hung in the “Trophy Room,” by which name a certain
section of wall in The Wigwam was known. To be sure, Billy had not
bettered the existing record, but he had come within a few strides of
equalling it, and, in view of his age, his performance was considered
worthy of perpetuation in the annals of camp athletics.
Meanwhile the Indians continued to pin defeats on their baseball
rivals, although their games with the Mascots were never certain
victories until the last man was out. The Mascots gave Mr. Gifford’s
team several warm brushes, and occasionally won a contest, but three
times out of five George Porter’s pitching decided the day. The
Brownies, ever hopeful, went down to defeat regularly and cheerfully.
That is not quite true, though, for the Brownies did win two games that
summer, beating both the Mascots and the Indians.
It was shortly after the Field Day and well along toward the last of
August that Sam received, one morning, a letter from Tom Pollock. Tom
wrote that he and Sid Morris were coming up to pay a visit if Sam could
find a place for them to sleep, either at camp or nearby. In some
perplexity Sam consulted Mr. Langham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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