And that is what Professor Snodgrass tried to do on the way back in the boat. Using some of the pins which he carried with him to impale his butterfly specimens on the stretching boards, as he sometimes did when afield without waiting to get back to his laboratory, he endeavored to so conceal the rents in his garments that the sharp-eyed, but lovable, housekeeper would not notice them.
Ned, Bob and Jerry helped by turns, though it cannot be said that the combined result was very satisfactory from a sartorial standpoint.
“You can’t notice them very much now; can you?” asked the professor, turning slowly about on the dock so the boys could observe him.
“Well, a few show,” said Ned, truthfully enough.
“I--I think I’ll stay out until it gets dark,” said the little scientist, who seemed to stand in some awe of his housekeeper. “Then she won’t see them, and I can send the suit to the tailor in the morning.”
“That might be a good idea,” agreed Jerry, trying not to laugh.
What the outcome of the professor’s accident was the boys did not learn, as they plunged into a series of busy times that afternoon and did not see the little scientist for several days except at the lectures they had with him in one period.
“Let’s go and watch the football practice,” suggested Jerry after they had left Mr. Snodgrass at the dock, repeating his determination to stay out until darkness had fallen so he might escape the eyes of his housekeeper.
“That’s a go,” agreed Bob. Ned nodded assent.
The varsity and the scrubs were hard at work on the gridiron when the three chums reached the grounds. Ted Newton was working his men strenuously, while the coaches were first begging the scrubs to hold the varsity in order to develop a good offense, and alternating that with fierce demands for the varsity to rip up the unfortunate substitutes.
“I sort of wish I was in there,” remarked Jerry, as he saw the snappy playing. “It’s great.”
“We can go in for it next year,” suggested Bob. “It’s better to start on baseball in the spring and get worked up to football.”
“Look at that fellow go!” cried Ned, as one of the scrubs intercepted a forward pass, and dashed down the line fifty yards for a touchdown against the varsity.