“KANSAS”
Jack Borden had made the mistake of entering Maple Ridge in January
at the beginning of the Winter Term, for the boy who enters school
after his fellows seldom quite catches up. By the time of his arrival
friendships have been formed, elections have been held and the school
has shaken itself down, and the late arrival finds himself in the
position of a frog in a strange puddle. Jack had meant to enter Maple
Ridge in the autumn, but events had prohibited. One stroke of luck
had, however, befallen him. Sam Phillips’s room-mate, Storey, had been
forced to give up school because of illness, and Sam was in undisputed
possession of Number 12 South when Jack arrived on the scene. Therefore
Jack was put in with Sam, an arrangement that didn’t please Sam at
all. At first Sam, like most every other fellow at Maple Ridge, every
one of whom hailed from the Eastern States, and the most of them from
New England, viewed the Kansan with mingled curiosity and alarm. Jack
was the very first Westerner to invade Maple Ridge, and his coming
seemed revolutionary, a veritable shattering of precedent. There was
absolutely no telling what wild and gruesome things a Westerner might
do!
It wasn’t snobbishness that caused Maple Ridge to at first look askance
at Jack. It was rather a spirit of clannishness, due to the fact the
school was essentially New England, and that in almost every case when
a new student entered the other fellows either knew him personally or
knew who he was. Very likely he was fresh from one of the four or five
lower schools that fed Maple Ridge; quite possibly he was the second
or third or even fourth of his name to enter. Jack was an outsider
whom nobody had ever heard of, who had attended no school that anybody
knew of and who, as though to emphasize his oddity, came not only from
a place outside New England but from the West, a region treated of in
geographies and occasionally briefly visited by adventurous youths,
but a region quite outside the philosophy of Maple Ridge! And so at
first Jack was accorded an uneasy curiosity not unlike that which might
have been displayed toward an Indian or a cowboy.
Eventually, however, as the Kansan neither scalped Doctor Benedict,
indulged in war-whoops or behaved vastly different from themselves,
the others got over their alarm and accepted the newcomer if not
unreservedly at least with toleration and a display of respect. For a
time the name of Kansas had been applied to him, not at all in a sense
of ridicule, however, but that appellation was gradually being dropped.
In a manner Jack was, I fear, something of a disappointment to his
schoolmates. They were quite prepared to be shocked and scandalized by
the Westerner, and when no shocks were forthcoming they doubtless lost
much of their faith in the stories they had read about the Wild West.
Sam Phillips held his new and undesired room-mate at arms’ length for
quite a week. Sam was the third of his line who had attended Maple
Ridge and he was thoroughly imbued with the traditions of the school.
That the West should, as he slangily put it, “butt in” there filled
him with alarm and disgust. But Jack, who had far more tact than is
usually possessed by a boy of his years, refused to show that he was
aware of the school’s doubts and aloofness, went about his work and
play in a quiet, self-possessed manner and made no overtures to any
one, even Sam. He was never fresh, didn’t talk about the West or Kansas
unless questioned, and accepted the customs and manners of the school
without the lifting of an eyelash. In short, he showed himself to be a
thoroughly likeable chap, good-looking, wide-awake, self-respecting,
and not without a certain half-serious sense of humor that made a big
hit with Sam. At the end of the week Sam capitulated and, being a
warm-hearted, good-natured youth, his capitulation was thorough. At the
end of a fortnight the two were fast friends. It was that fact that
helped Jack with the rest of the school. Sam vouched for him and that
went a long way, for Sam was more or less of a school idol. You can’t
pitch your school nine to victory over its rival without being placed
on a pedestal, you see. If Sam liked Kansas and said so, why, Kansas
must be a pretty good sort, after all. Doubtless the wild and woolly
West wasn’t so wild and woolly as it was painted in the story books.
Secretly Jack was at first a trifle angry and later not a little amused
over the attitude of the school toward him. But at no time did he lose
either his temper or his sense of humor; a fact which proves him at the
outset an extremely level-headed, sensible chap!
After practice Jack and Sam returned together to the gymnasium, pausing
a moment on the terrace to watch a game of tennis that was in progress.
“How did you get on?” asked Sam as they continued up the path.
“All right, I think,” replied Jack. “I only had two chances in the
field and got them both.”
“That’s good, but let me tell you something, Jack. When you threw to
the plate on that short fly that time, you sent the ball to the right.
Never do that, my boy. Always put it to the left of the plate; that is,
your left. It’s better to put it yards too far to the left than three
feet too far the other way. You’ve got to consider the catcher, you
see. It’s a heap easier for him to step to his right for a throw-in
than to his left. Get that?”
“Yes. But the trouble is, Sam, that when you’re in a hurry and you’ve
got a long throw you can’t always put the ball just where you want it.”
“No, but the oftener you do the better chance you stand of making the
team. That’s the point, Jack. Every fielder slips up sometimes, but
it’s the fellow that slips up oftenest that sits on the bench when the
real games come along. When you throw in to the plate――which isn’t very
often, of course, since you’ll usually throw to an infielder――just glue
your eye to the catcher’s left and put your mind on getting the ball
there. And, by the way, never take your eye away from where the ball’s
going until it’s left your hand. Some fellows shift their eyes while
they’re throwing, and those chaps are never sure. We had a fellow on
the team last year named Crowder. Shay was trying him at third. He was
a hustling chap, all right, and a good batter; could stop almost any
ball within ten feet of his position, too; and about four times out of
five he threw to first as straight as a die; used to do some of the
prettiest throwing I ever saw. But when the fifth time came along, why,
the ball would go ten feet to one side or the other or six feet over
first baseman’s head; and by the time the ball was found the runner
would be sitting on third! Shay couldn’t make out what the trouble was
at first, but after awhile he found out. It seemed that Crowder would
get the ball, turn and find first and then throw like the mischief, and
always as his arm shot out he’d turn his head away. Ever play golf,
Jack?”
Jack shook his head. “No, but I’ve seen it played.”
“Well, it’s the same idea. You swing your club back and you keep your
eye right on the back of the ball――or just behind it――until you hit
it; and then you keep on looking at it until you’ve finished your
stroke; and then you keep on looking at it until it’s reached the
ground somewhere. You’re thinking two things. First, you’re thinking
that you’re going to bring the head of your club square against the
ball, and you do it. Then you’re thinking that that ball is going to
travel in a certain direction and land in a certain part of the course,
and it does. That’s where mind gets in its work, Jack. But just try
taking your eyes off that ball while you’re making the stroke. Result
is you hit behind it, or you top it, or maybe you just plumb miss it
altogether. Same way with throwing a baseball. Look where you want
the ball to land and then put your mind on it. I’d make a peach of a
pitcher if, every time I sent a ball away, I looked over my shoulder,
eh?”
“I see what you mean, of course,” replied Jack as they entered the
gymnasium. “I hadn’t just thought of that before, though. I’m much
obliged.”
“That’s all right,” responded Sam as they ran down the stairs to the
locker room. “You’ve got the making of a good player, I think, Jack,
and I want to see you get a place on the team. You bat mighty well
for a chap who hasn’t played much, and if you can do a little better
at that and play a good, steady, reliable game in the outfield, why,
I don’t see why Shay shouldn’t take you on. Anyhow, you can be pretty
sure of a place on the second team, for you can bat all around Cook.
Just you buckle down for the next two weeks and work hard, you wild
Westerner, and you’ll make good. Here, you, Ted Warner, move along and
make room for two gentlemen on that bench!”
“Hello, Sammy. How’s the Arm?” (Sam’s pitching arm was always referred
to in a manner of the deepest respect and reverence, and its welfare
was a matter of constant anxiety. The word Arm as Ted Warner pronounced
it began with a capital A.)
“Fine and dandy,” replied Sam. “You know Mr. Borden, don’t you, Ted?”
Ted shook hands with Jack.
“We’ve never been properly introduced yet,” he answered smilingly,
“but we’ve passed the time on the field, I think. How are you getting
on, Borden?”
“He’s doing finely,” replied Sam, saving Jack the trouble of answering.
“We’re going to have him on the first in a week or so.”
“I hope so, I’m sure,” said Ted politely. “I say, Sammy, come over
to the room tonight, will you? We want to fix up a batting-list for
Saturday’s game with the Towners. Dolph told me to tell you. Bring
Borden along if he cares to come.”
Ted slipped out of the last of his togs and, wrapping a bath towel
about him, nodded, smiled and turned toward the showers.
“That’s fine,” said Sam with satisfaction. “I’m glad he asked you over.”
“Why?”
“Because he and Dolph Jones room together, you see, and Dolph’s
captain, as you know. It doesn’t do a fellow any harm to know the
captain if he wants to make the team.” Sam grunted as he pulled his
shirt over his head. “Of course,” he went on as his head reappeared to
sight, “I don’t mean there’s any favoritism here; only that, all other
things being equal, you know, being a friend of Dolph’s might help a
little. Even a baseball captain’s human. See you later, Jack.”
Sam scurried toward the shower baths, leaving his room-mate to finish
his undressing leisurely and thoughtfully. He was quite as anxious to
get on the baseball team as Sam was to have him, but, he reflected with
a rueful smile, with all his inexperience behind him he doubted if even
a personal acquaintance with Captain Dolph Jones would place him there.
Still, if hard work could do the trick――――
He picked up his own towel, draped it about him and strode across the
locker room as resolutely as though baseball practice and not a hot and
cold shower bath awaited him.