r, after a
pause. "It won't be long now before we leave America. What do you say if
we do a little shopping, and buy some things for ourselves and for the
girls?"

"Say, that's queer! I was thinking the same thing." Jim paused for a
moment. "Won't it be fine to have the others with us again?"

"Yes; I'll be very glad to see Mabel, and glad to see Clara, too. I
suppose you've been getting letters pretty regularly, eh, Jim?"

"I don't believe I've been getting any more letters than you have, Joe,"
returned the other.

"Well, you're welcome to them, Jim. I wish you luck!" said Joe, and placed
a hand on his chum's shoulder. For a moment they looked into each other's
eyes, and each understood perfectly what was passing in the other's mind.
But Jim just then did not feel he could say too much.

"I'll be glad to see Reggie again, too," remarked Joe, after a moment of
silence. "He's something of a queer stick, but pretty good at that."

"Oh, he's all right, Joe," answered Jim. "As he grows older and sees more
of the seamy side of life, he'll get some of that nonsense knocked out of
him."

They ate their supper that night with a sense of relaxation to which they
had long been strangers. For the first time since they had gone to the
training camp at Texas in the spring, they were out of harness. There had
been the fierce, tense race for the pennant that had strained them to the
utmost.

Then, with only a few days intervening, had come the still more exciting
battle for the championship of the world. They had won and won gloriously,
but even then they had not felt wholly free, for the long trip across the
continent which they had just finished was then before them, and although
this struggle had been less close and important, it had still kept them on
edge and in training.

But now their strenuous year had ended. Before them lay a glorious trip
around the world, a voyage over summer seas, a pilgrimage through lands of
mystery and romance, the fulfillment of cherished dreams, and with them
were to go the two charming girls who represented to them all that was
worth while in life and who even now were hurrying toward them as fast as
steam could bring them.

"This is the end of a perfect day," hummed Jim, as he sat back and lighted
a cigar.

"You're wrong there, Jim," replied Joe, with a smile. "The perfect day
will be to-morrow."

"Right you are!"

Yet little did Baseball Joe and his chum dream of the many adventure