half past four
`` Come along , Dick , or we 'll be late at school . '' Away the pair raced . Lessons went about as usual that afternoon with Old Dut 's class , which was surprising , as nearly every boy in the room had his mind much on baseball . Captain Dick Prescott , of the Central Grammar nine , had called practice for that afternoon , from half past four to six o'clock . At recess , that afternoon , a pleasant , somewhat rotund-looking man was seen engaged in conversation with Old Dut in a corner of the schoolyard . At the close of the afternoon session that same man stepped into the schoolroom , accepting the principal 's offer of a chair on the platform . `` Attention ! ''