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Rh tend the meet, they returned across the river and, a little later, witnessed the departure of the ball team for Springdale, doing their share of the cheering as the special trolley-car moved away from the Square. After all, only a small number of fellows accompanied the Nine, most of them, for one reason or another, deciding to stand by the Track Team. Dinner was early to-day and Perry was far from hungry. But Fudge, who had accepted Mrs. Hull's invitation, did full justice to the viands, as observed wonderingly and rather enviously by his host.

The program was to start at two-thirty and long before that the two boys were dressed and waiting. The day was fair and hot, unseasonably hot for so early in June. By a little after two the stands were already well sprinkled with spectators. The Springdale team was late in arriving and it was almost twenty minutes to three when the entrants in the hundred-yards-dash were summoned to the starting line. Perry, who had been restlessly circulating about the field for a half-hour, followed the others with his heart thumping uncomfortably. It suddenly occurred to him that he was about to take part in his first real race, and that his effort was to be witnessed by nearly a thousand persons. He looked across the field and down