Читать книгу First Base Faulkner онлайн

51 страница из 60

How Joe cheered and shouted! And how all the others did, too; all save the handful of faithful Prestonians who had journeyed down with their team! There was still nearly fifteen minutes of actual time left and Amesville, encouraged, recovered from her confusion and took the whip-hand. Time and again Jack and Sidney Morris, working together as though they had played side by side for years, swept the enemy off its feet and rushed down the ice with the puck, eluding the defence more often than not, and making shot after shot at goal. That Preston Academy was only tallied on five times in that second half was only because neither Sidney nor Jack nor the other forwards, Hale and Simpson, who infrequently found an opportunity to bombard the net, were especially clever shots. But Amesville was well satisfied with the final result of the game. Seven to one was decisive enough to more than atone for the defeat at Preston Mills. Joe walked back with his hero and was as proud as Punch.

It was that evening that Joe voiced a regret that had been troubling him for some time. The two boys were in Joe’s room, and Jack, a bit lame and more or less bruised, was stretched on the bed, something that Aunt Sarah would not have approved of. Aunt Sarah, however, was getting used to having boys around and was making the discovery that laws made for grown-up folks cannot always be applied to youths. At first Jack’s almost daily appearance at the door, followed by his polite inquiry, “Is Joe in, Miss Teele?” was greeted by doubtful, sharp glances. Then Jack’s smiles melted the ice, and Aunt Sarah confided to Joe one day that that Strobe boy seemed real nice. A day or two later, Joe, returning from his newspaper delivering, found that a strip of gray linen had been laid over the stair carpet and continued along the upper hallway to his door. Aunt Sarah, while reconciled to visitors, was not going to have her carpet worn out.