ALARIC TAKES A FIRST LESSON
On the day following that of the runaway, Esther Dale resumed her
position as a personally conducted tourist, and departed from San
Francisco, leaving Alaric to feel that he had lost the first real friend
he had ever known. Her influence remained with him, however, and as he
thought of her words and example his determination to enter upon some
different form of life became indelibly fixed.
That very day he drove again to the park, this time with only his groom
for company, and went directly to the place where the game of baseball
had been in progress the afternoon before. As he hoped, another was
about to begin, though there were not quite enough players to make two
full nines. Hearing one of the boys say this, and discovering an
acquaintance among them, Alaric jumped from his cart, and, going up to
him, asked to be allowed to fill one of the vacant positions.
Reg Barker was freckle-faced and red-headed, clad in flannels, with
sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and was adjusting a catcher's mask to
his face when Alaric approached. As the latter made known his desire,
Reg Barker, who was extremely jealous of the other's wealth and fame as
a traveller, regarded him for a moment with amazement, and then burst
into a shout of laughter.
"Hi, fellows!" he called, "here is a good one--best I ever heard! Here's
Allie Todd, kid gloves and all, wants to play first base. What do you
say--shall we give him a show?"
"Yes," shouted one; "No," cried another, as the boys crowded about the
two, gazing at Alaric curiously, as though he belonged to some different
species.
"We might make him captain of the nine," called out one boy, who had
just gone to the bat.
"No, he'd do better as umpire," suggested Reg Barker. "Don't you see
he's dressed for it? I don't know, though; I'm afraid that would come
under the head of cruelty to children, and we'd have the society down on
us."
As Alaric, with a crimson face and a choking in his throat, sought in
vain for some outlet of escape from his tormentors who surrounded him,
and at the same time longed with a bitter longing for the power to
annihilate them, a lad somewhat older than the others forced his way
through the throng and demanded to know what was the row. He was Dave
Carncross, the pitcher, and one of the best amateur players of his age
on the coast.
"It's Miss Allie Todd," explained Reg Barker, "and her ladyship is
offering to show us how to play ball."
"Shut up, Red Top," commanded the new-comer, threateningly. "When I want
any of your chaff I'll let you know." Then turning to Alaric, he said,
pleasantly, "Now, young un, tell me all about it yourself."
"There isn't much to tell," replied the boy, in a low tone, and with an
instinctive warming of his heart towards the sturdy lad who had come to
his rescue. "I wanted to learn how to play ball, and knowing Reg Barker,
asked him to teach me; that's all."
"And he insulted you, like the young brute he is. I see. Red Top, if
you won't learn manners any other way I shall have to thrash them into
you. So look out for yourself. Now, you new fellow, your name's Todd,
isn't it?"
"Yes."
"And your father is Amos Todd, the millionaire?"
Alaric admitted that such was the case.
"Well, I know you, or, rather, my father knows your father. In fact, I
think they have some business together; and after this whenever you
choose to come out here if I'm around I'll see that you are treated
decently. As for learning to play ball, the mere fact that you want to
shows that you are made of good stuff, and I don't mind giving you a
lesson right now. So, stand out here, and let's see if you can catch."
Thus saying, the stalwart young pitcher, who held a ball in his hand,
ran back a few rods, and, with a seemingly careless swing of his arm,
threw the ball straight and swift as an arrow directly at Alaric, who
instinctively held out his hands.
Had he undertaken to stop a spent cannon-ball the boy could hardly have
been more amazed at the result. As the ball dropped to the ground he
felt as though he had grasped a handful of red-hot coals. Both his kid
gloves were split right across the palms, and the smart of his hands was
so great that, in spite of his efforts to restrain them, unbidden tears
sprang to his eyes.
A shout of laughter arose from the spectators of this practical lesson;
but Dave Carncross, running up to him and recovering the dropped ball,
said, cheerily: "Never mind those duffers, young un. They couldn't do
any better themselves once, and you'll do better than any of them some
time. First lessons in experience always come high, and have to be paid
for on the spot; but they are worth the price, and you'll know better
next time than to stop a hot ball with stiff arms. What you want to do
is to let 'em give with the ball. See, like this."
Here Dave picked up a bat, struck the ball straight up in the air until
it seemed to be going out of sight, and running under it as it
descended, caught it as deftly and gently as though it had been a wad of
feathers.
"There," said he, "you have learned by experience the wrong way of
catching a ball, and seen the right way. I can't stop to teach you any
more now, for our game is waiting. What you want to do, though, is to go
down town and get a ball--a 'regulation dead,' mind--take it home, and
practise catching until you have learned the trick and covered your
hands with blisters. Then come back here, and I will show you something
else. Good-bye--so long!"
With this the good-natured fellow ran off to take his place in the
pitcher's box, leaving Alaric filled with gratitude, and glowing with
the first thrill of real boyish life that he had ever known. For a while
he stood and watched the game, his still-tingling hands causing him to
appreciate as never before the beauty of every successful catch that was
made. He wondered if pitching a ball could be as difficult as catching
one, or even any harder than it looked. It certainly appeared easy
enough. He admired the reckless manner in which the players flung
themselves at the bases, sliding along the ground as though bent on
ploughing it with their noses; while the ability to hit one of those
red-hot balls with a regulation bat seemed to him little short of
marvellous. In fact, our lad was, for the first time in his life,
viewing a game of baseball through his newly discovered loophole of
experience, and finding it a vastly different affair from the same scene
shrouded by an unrent veil of ignorance.
After he had driven away from the fascinating game, his mind was still
so full of it that when, in passing the children's playground, he was
invited by Miss Sue Barker, sister of red-headed Reg, to join in a game
of croquet, he declined, politely enough, but with such an unwonted tone
of contempt in his voice as caused the girl to stare after him in
amazement.
He procured a regulation baseball before going home, and then practised
with it in the court-yard behind the Todd palace until his hands were
red and swollen. Their condition was so noticeable at dinnertime that
his father inquired into the cause. When the boy confessed that he had
been practising with a baseball, his brother John laughed loud and long,
and asked him if he intended to become a professional.
His sister only said, "Oh, Allie! How can you care to do anything so
common? And where did you pick up the notion? I am sure you never saw
anything of the kind in France."
"No," replied the boy; "I only wish I had."
His father said, "It's all right, my son, so long as you play gently;
but you must be very careful not to over-exert yourself. Remember your
poor weak heart and the consequences of too violent exercise."
"Oh, bother my weak heart!" cried the boy, impatiently. "I don't believe
my heart's any weaker than anybody else's heart, and the doctor who said
so was an old muff."
At this unheard-of outbreak on the part of the long-suffering youngest
member of the family, John and Margaret glanced significantly at each
other, as though they suspected his mind was becoming affected as well
as his body; while his father said, soothingly, as though to an ailing
child:
"Well, well, Allie, let it go. I am sorry that you should forget your
manners; but if the subject is distasteful to you, we won't talk of it
any more."
"But I want to talk of it, father. I am sorry that I spoke as I did just
now; but you can't know what an unhappy thing it is to be living on in
the way I am, without doing anything that amounts to anything, or will
ever lead to anything. Won't you let me go on to a ranch, or somewhere
where I can learn to be a man?"
"Of course, my boy," replied Amos Todd, still speaking as soothingly as
he knew how. "I will let you go anywhere you please, and do what you
please, just as quickly as I can find the right person to take care of
you, and see that you do nothing injurious. How would you like to go to
France with Margaret and me this summer? I am thinking of making the
trip."
"I would rather go to China, or anywhere else in the world," replied the
boy, vehemently. "I am tired to death of France and Germany and
Switzerland and Italy, and all the other wretched European places, with
their _bads_ and _bains_ and _spas_ and Herr Doctors and _malades_. I
want to go into a world of live people, and strong people, and people
who don't know whether they have any hearts or not, and don't care."
"Well, well, son, I will try and arrange something for you, only don't
get excited," said Amos Todd, at the same time burying himself in his
evening paper so as to put an end to the uncomfortable interview.
In spite of the unsatisfactory ending of this conversation, Alaric felt
greatly encouraged by it, and during the week that followed he devoted
himself as assiduously to learning to catch a baseball as though that
were the one preparation needful for plunging into a world of live
people. Morning, noon, and evening he kept his groom so busy passing
ball with him that the exercising of the ponies was sadly neglected in
consequence. With all this practice, and in spite of bruised hands and
lame fingers, he at length became so expert that he began to think of
hunting up his friend Dave Carncross, and presenting himself for an
examination in the art of ball-catching.
Every now and then he asked his father if he had not thought of some
plan for him, and the invariable answer was: "It's all right, Allie;
I've got a scheme on foot that's working so that I can tell you about it
in a few days."
In the meantime the date of Amos Todd's departure for Europe with his
daughter was fixed. Shortly before its arrival the former called Alaric
aside, and, with a beaming face, announced that he had at length
succeeded in making most satisfactory arrangements.
"You said you wanted to go to China, you know," he continued; "so I have
laid out a fine trip for you to China, and India, and Egypt, and all
sorts of places, and persuaded a most excellent couple, a gentleman and
his wife, to go along and take care of you. He is a professor and she is
a doctor, so you will be well looked after, and won't have the least bit
of responsibility or worry."