Each boy who hired such a locker, of course, carried the key to the same; and when engaged in practice work rested easy in the belief that his street garments were securely taken care of.

There was also a shower-bath and a pool in the building, as well as several other conveniences that could be used in the summer time during the hot weather.  The boys arranged to take turns in shifts with regard to keeping the building clean, and thus far the scheme had worked very well; for the town did not care to go to the extra expense of hiring a custodian.

Besides this, a high fence was ordered to be built around the entire grounds, for most other towns had their athletic fields enclosed.  It would keep the rowdy element from disturbing the players when any game was in progress; and, as a small admission fee might often be asked, having one or two gates through which admission to the grounds could be obtained would facilitate matters greatly.

But this was not all.  Scranton had awakened to the fact that Nature had been rather unkind to her young people, in that there was no large lake, or even so much as a small river close by her borders.  When the boys and girls of the town felt inclined to skate after a sharp freeze along about New Year’s Day, they had to walk all the way out to Hobson’s mill-pond, situated between half and two-thirds of a mile away.  This was not so bad for some of the sturdy chaps, but there were others who disliked taking such long tramps, especially after violent exercising for hours, it might be, on the ice.

So, after mature deliberation, and receiving valuable suggestions from Mr. Leonard, as well as others who had seen similar things successfully carried out in various places, it had been arranged to flood the field after winter had fully set in.  Then, during the time of severe weather, the young folks would have a splendid sheet of ice right at their doors, a comfortable retreat into which they could go to warm up, or to put on and remove their skates.

Here various games were expected to be indulged in, as the weather permitted; and already a fine hockey Seven had been organized, under the leadership of Hugh Morgan, with a promise of many exciting games against rival teams.

The high board fence was being erected, but would hardly be completed before Spring; still, it gave an air of business to the grounds, and the boys had already begun to congratulate themselves over the great stride forward Scranton had taken in the way of catering to her rising population.

Of course, there were those in the town—­you can always find a few in every community—­who seriously objected to so much “good money being wasted,” as they termed it, on such trivial things, when Scranton really needed an up-to-date library building in place of the poor apology for one that had to serve.

These people, doubtless from worthy motives, though they were short-sighted in their opposition, lost no opportunity for running down the entire enterprise.  The person who, perhaps, had more influence than any of the others, and was more vehement in deriding the “foolish expenditure of funds along such silly lines, instead of trying to elevate the standard of reading among Scranton’s young people,” was the rich widow, Mrs. Jardine.