“Good morning!” grunted Dan. “I’ve a good mind to choke you, you deceitful pup!” To prove his inclination he reached for Gerald, but that youth was too quick for him and was in the middle of the floor in an instant. Then Kendall came in and they settled themselves on the bed and talked it all over. Dan felt too rested to be angry, and when Ned broached the programme for the day he was surprisingly complaisant. The rest of them, Ned explained, had to go back in time for recitations. But Payson wanted Dan to stay in Lloyd and take things easy. The others would be back again by five o’clock. They would all spend the night here and return to Yardley in the morning in plenty of time for luncheon. What did Dan say? Dan said: “All right. Tell Payson I slept like a top and am feeling fine. I’ll call him up after a while and talk with him myself, though. I guess there isn’t really anything for me to do at school. Now how about breakfast?” They all ate hungrily, Gerald brought the car around at half-past eight and he and Ned and Kendall set off for school. As the car sped out of sight they turned and waved at Dan on the porch. And Dan waved back gayly, and then, thrusting his hands into his pockets and whistling a tune, set off along the quiet street with a delicious feeling of playing “hookey.” He had the whole day ahead of him and nothing to do but eat and loaf! No lessons, no practice, no problems to settle with Payson or Cowles, no nothing! It was simply fine! Presently he came to a little bridge with stone parapets that seemed just fashioned for idlers like he. He seated himself on one of them, his feet dangling above the little stream that went gurgling by to turn and twist its way through a meadow. Once he saw a fish and he wished he had a hook and line. Then he gathered chips of mortar from the wall, dropped them into the water and watched them go sidling down to the bottom. The sun was warm, although a light breeze rustled the dead leaves in the roadway. The sky was blue overhead, and Dan thought thankfully, “A fine day to-morrow for the game.” Then with a start he realized that he had quite forgotten all about the game for hours! Hadn’t once thought of it since getting out of bed! And even now it didn’t trouble him. They might win it. If they didn’t――why, there you were! After all, it was no matter of life or death. Games had been lost before. To be sure, he was captain and he meant to do all he could to win, but if he failed, why, he still would have done the best he knew how; and that, he told himself philosophically, was all anyone could do. And then a pair of crows came sailing overhead, cawing loudly, and he forgot again about the game. Almost before he knew it, it was noon. A bell somewhere in the little village struck twelve. He pulled himself lazily off the wall and ambled back to the inn. There was time before dinner to call up Mr. Payson, and he did it.