"Oh, we can always trust Frank," replied Joe's sister.

Laughing, shouting, singing and blowing the horns, the party went on its
merry way, until the hotel was reached.

Everything was in readiness for the young people, for the arrangements
had been made in advance, and soon after the girls had "dolled-up," as
Joe put it, by which he meant arranged their hair, that had become blown
about under the scarfs they wore, they all sat down to a
bountifully-spread table.

"Reminds me of the dinner we had, after we won the pennant," said
Charlie Hall.

"Only it's so different," added Joe. "That was a hot night."

Talk and merry laughter, mingled with baseball conversation went around
the table. Joe did not care to "talk shop," but somehow or other, he
could not keep away from the subject that was nearest his heart. Nor
could Charlie, and the two shot diamond discussion back and forth, the
others joining in occasionally.

The meal was drawing to an end. Reggie Varley, pouring out a glass of
water, rose to his feet.

"Friends and fellow citizens," he began in a sort of "toastmaster
voice."

"Hear! Hear!" echoed Charlie, entering into the spirit of the occasion.

"We have with us this evening," went on Reggie, in the approved manner
of after-dinner introductions, "one whom you all well know, and whom it
is scarcely necessary to name----"

"Hear! Hear!" interrupted Charlie, pounding on the table with his knife
handle.

All eyes were turned toward Joe, who could not help blushing.

"I rise to propose the health of one whom we all know and love," went on
Reggie, "and to assure him that we all wish him well in his new place."

"Better wait until I get it," murmured Joe, to whom this was a great
surprise.

"To wish him all success," went on Reggie. "And I desire to add that, as
a token of our esteem, and the love in which we hold him, we wish to
present him this little token--and may it be a lucky omen for him when
he is pitching away in the big league," and with this Reggie handed to
Joe a stick-pin, in the shape of a baseball, the seams outlined in
diamonds, and a little ruby where the trademark would have been.

Poor Joe was taken quite by surprise.

"Speech! Speech!" came the general cry.

Joe fumbled the pin in his fingers, and for a moment there was a mist
before his eyes. This little surprise had been arranged by Reggie, and
he had quietly worked up the idea among Joe's many young friends, all of
whom had co