Page:Stanwood Pier--Crashaw brothers.djvu/26

10 Blanchard might be more approachable than either of those fellows. He said to him,—

"We’ve got a Fourth Form baseball nine that we think is pretty good, and we’d like  to challenge the Sixth Form to a game next Saturday. Do you think you could get up a  nine and play us?”

"I don’t see why not,” Blanchard replied. "It ought to be good sport. I'll ask Jim Payne and Fred Bell about it; they’re our  baseball stars. How does it come that you’re one? That’s one thing your brother never did, is n’t it?”

"Oh, Charley plays a little. But he never was very good at it. In the summer he sails  and plays tennis—and in the spring at St. John’s he rows. So he’s not had much chance  to play ball. But I always liked it.”

Blanchard looked at the boy’s eager face and honest eyes with a smile; somehow he found  himself liking young Edward Crashaw very  much—just as he had always liked Charles  Crashaw, even in conflict. But he could not forbear teasing Edward a little.