e name
of Priscilla Kent.

Two girls, sauntering down the path with their arms about each other,
met the approaching boys, and paused a moment to chat with them.

"Phil's sister is struck on our gay cowboy," observed Cooper, grinning.

"I rather guess Lela Barker is some smit on him, too," put in Sile
Crane. "That's sorter natteral, seein' as how he rescued her from
drowndin' when she was carried over the dam on a big ice-cake in the
Jinuary freshet. That sartainly made him the hero of Oakdale, and us
fellers who'd been sayin' he was a fake had to pull in our horns."

"The real hero of that occasion," declared Hooker maliciously, "was a
certain cheap chap by the name of Bunk Lander, who plunged into the
rapids below the dam, with a rope tied round his waist, and saved them
both."

"I wouldn't sneer about Lander, if I were you, Roy," said Eliot in
grave reproof. "I wouldn't call him cheap, for he's shown himself to
be a pretty decent fellow; and Stickney, whose store he once pilfered,
has given him a job on his new delivery wagon. There's evidently more
manhood and decency in Lander than any of us ever dreamed--except
Grant, who took up with him at the very beginning."

"And a fine pair people around here thought they were," flung back
Hooker exasperatedly. "Why, even you, yourself, didn't have much of
anything to say for Rod Grant at one time."

"I was mistaken in my estimation of him," confessed Roger
unhesitatingly. "I believe Stone was about the only person who really
sized Grant up right."

"And now, since he's become popular, this hero from Texas chooses
Springer for his chum instead of Stone," said Roy.

"He has a right to choose whoever he pleases," said Ben, flushing a
trifle. "We are still good friends. If he happens to find Springer
more congenial than I, as a chum, I'm not going to show any spleen
about it."

"It's my opinion," persisted Hooker, "that he has an object in his
friendliness with Phil Springer. He's got the idea into his head that
he can pitch, and he's using Phil to learn what he can. Well, we'll
see how much he does at it--we'll see."

The girls having passed on, the two boys now approached the group near
the steps. Springer was beaming as he came up.

"Say, Captain Eliot," he cried, "the old broncho bub-buster has got
onto the drop. He threw it first-rate to-day noon. I'll make a change
pitcher out of him yet."

"Oh, I'm destined to become another Mathewson, I opi