“Darn it, Frank!” cried Ephraim, “ef the gals could hear yeou talk, I ruther guess they’d be keerful. But they can’t hear ye, so haow be yeou goin’ to do um any good?”
“I have thought of writing a play about it, or a book. If I wrote a book, it should be a novel and its title should be, ‘Harmless Flirting.’”
“You would waste your time, Merriwell,” said Hodge. “Your book would not be read by the ones for whom you wrote it. Such light-headed girls seldom read anything.”
“I am afraid you are right,” confessed Merry. “I am afraid girls will go on flirting with actors and strangers to their own sorrow and remorse.”
Frank picked up one of the letters from the table.
“Now here is something from a girl for whom I am sorry,” he said.
“DEAR MR. MERRIWELL: I suppose you will think me very foolish to write to you, but I saw you in your beautiful play ‘True Blue,’ last night, and I was perfectly charmed. It is a lovely play, and you act the part of _Dick Trueheart_ in a just perfectly splendid manner. My brother Tommy says you are a real Yale college man, and that you are just a peach. Tommy is fourteen. I am sixteen, but I’m real large for my age, so almost everybody thinks I am eighteen. I am going to see you again to-night. I wish I knew you. I think you must be awfully nice. I think actors are lovely, but papa says they are no good. He is a cross old patch. My mother is dead. I hope to go on the stage sometime and become a great actress, and wear diamonds and have flowers passed me over the footlights. I inclose a knot of blue and white ribbon. If you will wear it on your baseball uniform to-night I shall know you would like to become acquainted with me, and I will find a way to let you know my address before you leave St. Joseph. Oh, I do hope you will wear it! From your sincere admirer,
“Waal, by gum! she’s hit hard!” grinned Ephraim.
“She’s another little fool!” sneered Hodge.
“Now, I am sorry for Dora,” declared Frank. “Her little head is full of false notions, and she is very liable to make a big mistake on that very account. I wish I might warn Dora.”
“You can by wearing that knot of ribbon and becoming acquainted with her.”
“That is the very thing I will not do. I do not believe in becoming acquainted in such a manner.”