t to really forgive
me?" Jack heard him ask; not that he meant to play the part of
eavesdropper, but he chanced to be very close, and was unable to break
away from such an affecting scene.

"Never speak of it again to me," she told him. "It is buried forever,
all that is displeasing. We will forget it absolutely. In saving our
child you have nobly redeemed yourself in my eyes. I am proud of you,
Donald. But oh! I hope your hurts may not be serious."

"They could be ten times as serious and I would glory in them," he was
saying as Jack turned away; but he saw the man bend down and tenderly
kiss his wife, while her arms were about his neck.

Toby, too, had heard everything. He was the possessor of a very tender
heart, and as he trotted off at Jack's side he was making all sorts of
queer faces, which the other knew full well were meant to hide the fact
that his eyes were swimming in tears, and no boy likes it to be known
that he is actually crying.

"Did you ever hear of such a fine thing as that, Jack?" Toby was saying
between sniffles. "Why, it just goes away ahead of any story I ever
read. Think of that man we believed might be a city sport, bent on
bribing Fred to throw the great game, turning out to be his own dad! I
reckon he treated his poor wife right mean some years ago, and she's
never been able to think of him except as a bad egg. But say, he
certainly has come back in the last inning, and carried the game off
with a wonderful home-run hit."

"And Toby," remarked the delighted Jack, "we can easily understand now
why that man hung around the Badger cottage at the time we discovered
him leaning on the picket fence. He was hungering for a sight of his
wife's face, and counting the minutes until Fred could find some way to
introduce the subject to his mother."

"And then about little Barbara, I rather guess he was taken with her
pretty face and quaint speech," continued Toby, reflectively. "Why, at
the time he skipped out she could not have been any more than a baby.
Well, it's all been a drama equal to anything I ever saw shown in the
movies; and in the end everything has come out well. I feel like
shouting all the way home, I'm so tickled over it."

"Another thing pleases me," continued Jack. "We needn't be bothering our
heads over Fred turning traitor to his team after this."

"That's so!" echoed Steve.

"For one," added Toby, sagaciously, "I've had a hunch, Jack, you never
could bring yourself to beli