The fall tennis tournament began the day following. Both Tad and Rodney had entered, Rodney at Tad’s earnest . “You see,” Tad had explained, “I want to feel that there’s some one in the tournament I can beat!” This was sheer , however, since in the two or three contests which the two had waged together Rodney had easily shown his superiority, in spite of the fact that he seemed to have lost some of his former . There were nearly a hundred entrants, and, since it was a handicap affair, some very good matches were played the first part of the week. Rodney met and defeated Sanderson, the First Form president, on Tuesday, while Tad, who had a bye, didn’t meet his first until Wednesday. Then he barely scraped through, losing one set, two games to[183] six, pulling out of the next, six to four, and finally winning the third, nine to seven. Owing to the of , which had ceased to be a joke, since by the middle of the week twenty boys were down with the , the original drawings for the tournament were sadly with, and match after match had to be . Even the class football teams suffered, the First Form team being shorn of five of its players and having to give up practice for the time, and the Second Form team being scarcely better off. In order to keep the disease from spreading any further the placed a ban on visiting. But in spite of that precaution new cases cropped out day by day, and fellows were seen surreptitiously feeling their necks and testing themselves with and lemons. Even the school team was not , for Jim Peterson was missing from practice on Thursday, and showed that James was in his room in East Hall, his tied up in cotton and gauze. Westcott’s escaped the malady, although there was an anxious time when Warren Hoyt had a sore throat, and Pete Greenough moved out of[184] Number 2, bag and baggage, until the doctor his fears. Tad declared that for his part he’d rather like to have mumps so that he wouldn’t have to attend recitations for a week or so, but it was noticed that when Warren was under suspicion Tad gave him a very wide .
The tennis tournament dragged along to the middle of the second week. Tad met his Waterloo on Friday when he was opposed to a Fourth Form youth named Wallace. Wallace played at scratch, and Tad’s one-half of fifteen couldn’t save him from a severe drubbing. Rodney lasted until Tuesday and the semi-final round, and put up a game fight against Billings. Rodney, like Tad, had a handicap of one-half of fifteen, and Jack played at scratch. It was the latter’s service that finally won for him. After getting the first set, 6–4, Jack let down, and Rodney captured the first three games before Jack recovered. Then, on his own service, Jack secured the fourth game and the sixth. Rodney got away with the fifth and seventh, and then broke through Jack’s service and won the eighth, winning the set 6–2, much to the[185] surprise of the gallery, which included Tad and the twins, and Jack as well. The third set see-sawed, Jack winning on his service and Rodney on his, until the games stood seven all. Then Jack’s age and experience told and he wore his opponent out. Rodney lost the next game 15–40, and then, on his own service, gave Jack an by double faulting, smashed the next return out of court and was 0–30 before he knew what had happened. But after that he managed to draw even by two fine serves that Jack failed to handle, and the game stayed at deuce for fully ten minutes. When finally Jack sent a swift ball across the court that Rodney missed by a hair’s breadth and so ended the match, there was a good round of applause for both players. Jack reached a brown hand across the net and said, as Rodney shook it:
“Finally, Jack sent a swift ball across the court”
“Sorry, Rod. You deserved to win. You gave me the hardest I ever had, I think.”
“Thanks,” replied Rodney. “Glad you won though, Jack. Hope you keep going, too. Only——”
[186]
“What?” asked Jack, with a smile, as he the net, towel in hand.
“Only I’m sorry you won’t be here next year,” said Rodney. “I’d like to try you then.”
“Try me in the spring,” laughed Jack. “I wouldn’t wonder if you could do it then, Rod!”
Rodney was glad he had secured a cut from football practice that afternoon, for he was pretty well worn out. However, a shower helped matters a deal, and after they were dressed he and Jack strolled down the hill to Doolittle’s and Jack treated to . On Friday, Jack met Hanford, the school champion. Rodney didn’t see that match, for it was played during football practice, but most of the other Vests were on hand to applaud and encourage their leader. In the finals the match was three sets out of five, and Jack, who started off with a rush, played Hanford off his feet for two sets and seemed, as Tad put it when he related the details later to Rodney, to have the title “agitated to an emulsion.” But Hanford wormed out of the third set 7–5, secured the fourth 9–7, and then ran away with the deciding[187] set, allowing Jack but three games, and securing his right to the championship for another year.
On Monday, Matty had announced that Mrs. Binner had consented to the proposed expedition to Finger Rock, and that Miss Mapes, the piano teacher, had obligingly transferred the Saturday morning lesson to Friday afternoon. between the twins and Tad had followed at during the week, and at a little before nine on Saturday morning the five set off on the picnic. The had been thoughtfully divided into separate packages and each of the party carried one. Kitty, for once minus his beloved turtle-neck sweater, led the way at a business-like pace which soon drew of protest from Tad.
“Look here, Kitty,” he said when they had traversed perhaps a mile of the way, “this isn’t any cross country race, you know. We aren’t trying to establish a new record. I love to walk, but I don’t want to it. I’ve been warned by the doctors not to overtax my strength. Let’s pause here a minute and admire the beautiful view. Let’s pause several[188] minutes. I’m in no hurry. In fact I love to pause!”
Rodney and the twins seemed as willing as Tad to seat themselves on a rock beside the road. Kitty blinked in mild surprise. “I wasn’t walking fast, was I?” he asked .
“What do you call it?” panted Tad.
“Why—er—I call that just an .”
“An amble! Jumping Jehosophat! I’d like to see you when you were in a hurry then!”
Kitty smiled .
“You can see the Rock now,” said May to Rodney, and his four companions obligingly it out to him. As, however, he attempted to follow each finger and attend to all directions at once, it was several minutes before he actually discerned the object of their journey. When he did it looked rather disappointing. From a distance of three and a half miles Finger Rock was merely a point against the sky, its base hidden by a belt of woods that intervened. Presently they went on again, more now, Kitty looking around every little while to make certain that[189] the pace was not exhausting his companions. He held for a quarter of a mile on the benefits of walking, and instructed the others how to hold their bodies, how to move their legs, and which part of the foot to walk on in order to the greatest good from the exercise. Tad listened with suspiciously profound attention, but the others soon wearied. When Kitty had concluded, Tad undertook to walk according to instructions received and the result was so mirth provoking that Matty had to sit down on a beside the road and recover. Kitty, however, only smiled tolerantly. He was quite accustomed to having his hobby made sport of. It didn’t hurt him any if others played the fool.
It had been quite nippy when they had started out, but as the sun climbed higher the chill gave way to a warmth and the frozen surface of the road began to , making the walking rather slippery in places. A was a mass of gold, across a field to the left, and further inland the edge of the forest showed all shades of vermillion and and russet yellow and green. On the river side of the hill a[190] rocky pasture had grown up in young oaks, and these supplied a tone of brown-pink, as Matty, who in paints, called it, that quite drove that young lady to despair.
“Isn’t it wonderful, May?” she exclaimed. “Did you ever see such a color? I—I wouldn’t know how to get it at all.”
“I’ll pick a few leaves for you,” volunteered Tad,............