't heard a word about it before. But then you get wind of
everything that's going on. Folks think they ought to ask your
advice on all sorts of subjects. That's what it means to be the most
popular boy in a town."

Hugh laughed.

"Thanks for the compliment, Thad," he said; "but just think of the
weight of responsibility I have to stagger under, even as the captain
of the Scranton Seven. Why, everybody stops me on the street, and
asks the most remarkable questions. They seem to think I'm gifted
with prophetic vision. They ask me to tell them just how badly we're
going to whip Keyport to-morrow morning, and lots of other things
that I know no more about than a baby might."

"Well, have you decided to give up trying to learn where the woman
with the little child came from?" asked Thad, again switching the
subject in an abrupt fashion he had.

"Oh! I don't know whether it will pay me to go out again, and try to
trace her back to Belleville, or some such place," said Hugh.
"Doctor Cadmus assured my mother she would certainly be in her
rational mind inside of two days at the longest. So I reckon I had
better lie on my oars, and wait. I've got plenty to bother about, as
it is, with that hot game coming off in the morning."

"Perhaps you're wise about that, Hugh. I know I'm a lot too
impatient by half, and can't bear to wait for things to come to me.
That's why I always stepped out to meet the ball when at bat; and I
often caught it before the break came to make it a sharp drop."

"Mother says she thinks her full name is Judith Walters, though, as
far as we know now, that doesn't help any. Still, if she didn't
recover, it might assist in finding her family, so they could take
the boy. He's a fine little chap, and I've already made great
friends with him."

"You say she keeps on speaking to someone she calls grandfather, who
seems likely to turn them both out of the house?" Thad persisted, as
though he might be trying to figure something out.

"Yes, and so we take it for granted there must be some sort of a
pitiful family tragedy about the whole affair," Hugh told him.
"Mother suspects she may have married some years ago against her
grandfather's will; and, losing her husband suddenly through
accident, she is now on her way back, to plead with a hard-hearted
old man for a place under his roof. But as you say there's no family
named Walters near here, and we certainly don't know of any girl
leaving her hom