AN INTERESTING EPISODE.
Although the stock of the Catalpa Base Ball Club was divided among
many share-holders in the town of Catalpa, it was evident that the
mere holding, or non-holding, of shares made no difference with those
who were engaged in the active duties of playing. To be sure, the nine
had not yet begun their summer campaign. The first of April was early
enough for the beginning of outdoor practice, and active work in the
field would not open until the first of May; but enough had been done,
in the preliminary organization and preparing for the summer's work,
to test the temper of the members of the club. It was not a purely
business-like venture into which these young men had gone for the
purpose of making capital or money for themselves. They were burning
to retrieve the reputation of "Old Catalpa" as they called their town,
albeit it was one of the youngest in Northern Illinois.
And so, as Larry Boyne and Al Heaton were sitting on the rail fence
that encloses the Court House of Dean County, in Catalpa, discussing
the future prospects of the club, both were confidential and intimate
in their exchange of opinions concerning the members of the nine.
"No, I tell you that you are wrong, Al, in your estimate of Ben
Burton," said Larry, earnestly. "I do not think that I could be
prejudiced against Ben; and I try to judge him fairly; and so I cannot
bring myself to believe that he would be tricky, or that he would
undertake to play any foul game on me, or on anybody else, for that
matter. He is sullen and moody, at times, and I know that he took to
heart his defeat as candidate for captain of the club. I know that he
don't like me, although I don't know why he should dislike me, as he
certainly does."
"Pooh! Larry," was Albert's frank reply, "you know well enough that he
fancies that you are in his way as a suitor for the hand of a certain
young lady, whose name shall not be mentioned even in this very select
society. He knows that that young lady smiles on you in the most
bewitching way, and he knows--"
"Oh, see here, Al," interrupted Larry, with flaming cheeks, "you are
riding your horse with a free rein, don't you think so? I have no right
to think of any young lady with the seriousness you seem to put into
the matter. I am young, poor, and without friends or influence."
"Hold on there, Larry," cried young Heaton, warmly. "You have no right
to say that. You will never want for friends. You have a town-full of
them, and when you need any one to stand by and back you up in anything
you undertake, you can just put out your hand, without getting off of
this rail, to find one friend that will be the man to stand right there
as long as he is wanted."
Larry laid his hand on Albert's knee as he said, "I know that, Al, and
it is good to know it and to have you say it in that straightforward
way of yours, and I will say too, that your father called me into the
mill, the other day, and said pretty much the same thing to me; and
he told me that he should consider it a favor, or something of that
sort, if I would allow him to have a fatherly lookout for the folks at
home, while I am off, this summer, in case anything should happen." And
Larry's honest blue eyes filled with moisture as he looked far off over
the outlying prairie, in the vain effort to conceal how deeply he had
felt the kindness showed to him.
"That was very good of the Governor, I'm sure," said Albert, stoutly,
"and I don't care if he is my father of whom I am saying it. But it's
nothing more than fair for him, and for the rest of us who stay at
home, to do what we can to keep your mind at ease about your folks
while you are out in the ball field for the summer. But what I was
getting at is this: Ben Burton is down on you; he will try to get the
advantage of you, if he can; and, what is of more consequence to all of
us, he would not scruple to bring the whole club into disgrace for the
sake of gratifying any selfish purpose that he might happen to have in
view."
"But what evil purpose could he have?" demanded Larry.
"As I said before, I don't know. I don't want to do Ben an injustice,
but I do know that he is underhanded and mean. So you look out for him.
As far as his relations to you are concerned, I might say, if you were
not so everlastingly toploftical about it, that he is jealous of you on
account of your supposed good standing with Alice Howell--"
"Oh, hush-h-h-h!" cried Larry, looking around in unfeigned
consternation, to see if there were listeners near. "You really must
not mention that young lady's name in that manner, nor in any manner
connected with my own. It would be almost insulting to her, it would
fill the Judge with wrath (and I shouldn't blame him for being angry),
to know that gossiping young fellows like us were using his daughter's
name in this light fashion."
"And why, I should like to know?" answered Albert. "He need not put
on any high and mighty airs. I have heard my father say that when the
Howellses came here from Kentucky, when the Stone River country was
first settled, and old man Hixon was running his ferry across the
stream here, they were so poor that they wore bed-ticking clothes,
went barefoot, and lived on hog and hominy for many a year afterwards.
Side-meat was good enough for them then. The fat of the land is not
good enough for them now. It just makes me sick! Such airs!" And honest
Albert got down from the fence to give freer expression to his deep
disgust.
Larry went away from this casual meeting with his stanch friend Albert
with a sense of depression. His nature was unsuspicious and he chose
to think that all men were as honest and as frank as he certainly was.
Young Heaton's talk had shaken his faith in human nature as far as that
was represented in one man--Ben Burton, the open-eyed and bluff Ben
Burton. No wonder Larry repelled Al Heaton's notion that Ben "was not
altogether square" and should be watched.
Larry was to stop at Armstrong's blacksmith shop, on the north side, on
his way home, to have his horse shod. So, as he was leading the animal
across the bridge, lost in thought and dwelling somewhat darkly on his
conversation with Al Heaton, he did not notice that a young lady, very
charmingly dressed and daintily booted and gloved, was tripping along
toward him from the opposite side of the river, in the foot-walk that
skirted the lower side of the rickety old wooden bridge. He did not
look up until his steed, never very easily startled out of a heavy and
slouching gait, jumped wildly at a sudden flash from a sky-blue parasol
which the young lady deliberately shook at him.
"Whoa, Nance!" cried Larry, astonished at the beast's unprecedented
skittishness, "you old fool!" but here he stopped, for his eyes fell on
the bewitching apparition on the other side of the timbered rail, and
he colored deeply red as he beheld Miss Alice ready to giggle at his
confusion.
"Good day, Mr. Boyne," said the girl, "I am glad I have met you. I
wanted to ask you how the club is getting along, and if you think you
will be in good condition for the coming season. To be sure, papa tells
me that he has every confidence in your success; but then, papa is
hardly a judge in base ball matters, you know, although he has learned
a great deal lately, and so have many other people, and they all seem
very confident; but the wish is father to the thought, you know, and so
I thought I would like to see some one in whose judgment and candor I
could put a great deal of confidence, a very great deal, you know, and
see what he thinks about the prospect before us. I say 'us,' you see,
because it is a sort of town matter. Now isn't it?"
The young lady had rattled on in a random manner, as if she was giving
time for Larry to recover himself. Certainly, he needed time. He was
covered with blushes, not altogether becoming, for his natural color
was quite deep enough for all artistic considerations. But as he stood
there, cap in hand, the river breeze lightly lifting his brown curls
and fanning his hot cheeks, the maiden's bright eyes rested on the
picture with a certain sense of satisfaction, and she said to her most
secret and hidden inner self that there were very few handsomer
young men in the region than he who stood before her.
[Illustration: "I WANTED TO ASK YOU HOW THE CLUB IS GETTING
ALONG."--Page 64.]
Larry, laying his brown hand on the timber guard that capped the
railing betwixt them, said, "You startled me so, Miss Alice, that I
almost forgot my manners; and I haven't much. Oh, you wanted to know
about the prospects of the Catalpa Nine? Well, I do not think it would
be wise to build many hopes on the future until we have met at least
one of the best nines of the country about us. Some of our friends
think we are going to sweep the deck. Excuse the expression. And some
are even talking of our being the champion nine of the state."
"Why," said the girl, "don't you hope for the championship? Is not that
what you are going out to get?"
"Of course, Miss Alice, we hope for everything that is in sight, as
the saying is; but we cannot expect, with any sort of reason, for so
great success as that during our very first season. The matches are now
nearly all made up for the coming season, and if we were never so good
players, we should have no chance for the championship, I am afraid."
"I never thought of that," said Alice. "What an awful lot you know
about base ball. But then that is because you are a man. My papa says
that girls have no business learning about base ball. Now what do you
think, Mr. Boyne?"
"I am not used to being called 'Mr. Boyne' for one thing," replied
Larry, gallantly, "and I should feel very much honored indeed if Miss
Howell would remember that I am only 'Larry' the new third base man of
the Catalpa Nine."
The heavy rumble of a farm wagon driving up on the town end of the
bridge at that moment warned Larry that he must get out of the way. So,
with a few concise words as to the all-absorbing topic of the day, he
bowed, replaced his cap, and passed on to North Catalpa.
Sal Monnahan drove the sorrel horses that now came pounding along
the wooden way. When she reached her home in Oneosho Village, that
evening, she informed her nearest neighbor that she had seen "Larry
Boyne lallygagging with that high-strung darter of Judge Howell's, on
the North Catalpa bridge, that arternoon, and then when the gal came
off she looked as if she had been talking with her sweetheart, her eyes
were so shiny, just like dimonds, and her cheeks were as red as a poppy
in the corn. It do beat all how that young Irish feller gets on with
folks in town. Gals and fellers--all the same."
As for Larry, he went across the bridge, leading his nag, and walking
so lightly that it seemed to him that his steps were in the air. While
Armstrong was shoeing the horse and chatting the while with Larry, he
thought within himself that this was a particularly fine young fellow,
and that it was a pity that he was poor. Presently his thoughts took
shape and he said:
"Don't you think you are too smart a chap, Larry, to waste your time
playing base ball?"
"I am not going to waste much time playing, Tom. I know enough about
base ball to know that a player doesn't last as a good player more than
ten or twelve years. He is too young to play before he is seventeen
years old, and he is done for and is dropped out by the time he is
thirty. So if I had any notion of making ball-playing my calling in
life, I should have that fact in view to warn me. Oh, no Tom, I am only
making this a bridge to carry me over a hard place."
"That's good sense. I was afraid you were going off with the base ball
fever, and so never be fit for anything else. That's what will become
of some of those young kids over in town who don't think of anything,
from morning till night, but base ball. I always thought you had more
sense into you than most of the boys around here. You are older than
your years, Larry," and the plain-speaking blacksmith looked admiringly
in the young man's face, "older than your years."
"Older than your years." These words rang in Larry's ears as he swung
himself lightly into his saddle and ambled down the river road to Sugar
Grove.
The blacksmith looked after him and muttered to himself, "He is smart
enough to be anything in the way of a lawyer that there is in these
parts. And if he were to cast sheep's eyes on the Judge's daughter, or
on anybody else's daughter, for that matter, I just believe he would
win her in time. He's got such a taking way with him." And honest
Thomas Armstrong resumed his work with a mild glow of pleasure stealing
through him as he thought of Larry Boyne and his possibilities.