Page:Stanwood Pier--Crashaw brothers.djvu/41

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THE GAME WITH THE SIXTH
25

“Oh, I’ve got to give something to somebody,” he cried, and broke away.

He saw the Sixth Former from whom he had taken the pocket-mirror leaving the field with Durant. For a moment he hesitated; Durant had spoken in a pretty nasty way to him during the game. But he ran up to them.

“Maybe I ought to apologize for snatching this the way I did,” he said, holding out the mirror. Then, because something in the expression of the boy who took it won his confidence, he added on a whimsical impulse, “I hope it has n’t inconvenienced you—my keeping it.”

“I have n’t especially cared to look at myself since then,” the boy confessed with a smile. “You were all right, Crashaw.”

Edward gave him a look of respect as he turned away.

“What was that?” asked Durant. And then Edward heard him continue in a loud, disgusted voice, “Shelly, do you know, that’s the freshest young pup!”

Instantly all the pleasant things went out