This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
312
THE EIGHT-OARED VICTORS

well, next year, and we're not greenies any more."

"I guess you never were," admitted his rival.

"And now let's go see the girls, and tell them how sorry we are that we beat them," proposed Sid.

If the girls felt badly they did not show it much.

"What I can't understand," said Phil, a little later, when he and his chums, and his sister and her chums were talking it all over at a little supper in Haddonfield, "what I can't understand is how Boswell knew Ruth had lost her pin, and wanted to give her another."

"He didn't know it—stupid!" exclaimed Ruth, with a blush. "Only Tom knew it."

"But Boswell was going to give you a pin."

"Oh, can't a fellow give a girl a pin without knowing that she has lost one or you making a fuss over it?" asked Sid.

"But—but——" faltered Phil.

"He heard that I was fond of old-fashioned jewelry," explained Ruth, blushing, "and I suppose, instead of—er—well—say candy, he hunted up an old-style pin. He had bought one for his mother from Mendez, and wanted one for me. It was lucky that Blasdell did not pawn my pin with the other stuff. Instead he sold it to Mendez, who, in turn, sold it to Mr. Boswell, and Tom—well, Tom did the rest."

"And you were without grandmother's pin all