Page:The purple pennant (IA purplepennant00barb).pdf/111

Rh and presently reached his destination, a house at the corner of Troutman and B Streets. Dick Lovering's blue runabout was in front of the gate and Dick himself was sitting on the porch with Gordon Merrick. Gordon was a clean-cut, live-looking boy of sixteen, a clever first-baseman and an equally clever left end. He and Dick were close friends. They had evidently been awaiting Lanny's appearance, for they spied him the moment he came into sight and before he had reached the gate Gordon called eagerly: "All right, Lanny?"

"Fine! I'm the best little chauffeur in the Street Department!"

"Better not talk so loudly," cautioned Dick. "Do you have to have a license to run it?"

Lanny chuckled. "I guess so, but I've lost mine. Say, fellows, it's dead easy!" He seated himself on the top step and fanned himself with his cap. April was surprising Clearfield with a week of abnormally warm weather and this Saturday morning was the warmest of all. "The chap was awfully decent to me. It seems rather a shame to take him in the way I did. He let me get on it and run it and showed me all about it. Why, all you have to do" And thereupon Lanny went into technical details with enthusiasm and explained until Gordon shut him off.