The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-09-29

/ IKE TWO feet, but was probably only
| ten inches or so, and caught the ball.
There was a great clapping at this
among their crowd, and they gave
! their yell for the first time. 1t was:
"Helter SHELTER, hobble gobble, siss,
| boom, All! DEMO, DEMO, Rah, rah, rah!"
The left fielder, whose name was Turn
ner grinned at me like gargoyle. The
fellow was adisreputable-lookin chap
| and made me feel sick. | determined
that | would strike out seXt time be-
fore l would send hitin his direction;
but l changed my mind about this
later, as you will see.
At first l had put my sweater on
over my uniform, and 1 had my vest
on under that. l had been really chilly
while we had been waiting around for
the game to begin, but now | was get
ting warmed up. When l went back to
the corner where our fellows were
gathered l stripped off my sweater
and then l remembered for the first
time that | had forgotten to take off
my vest, which had my watch in it,
! 1t was a nice gold one, which one of
my dearest aunts had given me, and
wouldn't have lost it for anything
| We usually gave our valuables to
Anderson to keep. He had the deep
| est pockets, and the most of them, that
l ever saw in my life; but there was
Anderson 40 rods off under the trees
among all the ladies, and didn't want
| 20 take it clear over there. There was
safe dressing-room ia the school; but
| il was an eighth of mile across the
| green to the school building, and was
altogether too much excited to leave
everything just now and go over there.
Berrian, our scorer, was sitting right
here, and / believed the watch would
be secure enough under his care.
Il am going TO leave my watch in
my vest pocket" I said to Gardner,
our second" who was 'in the hole
and looking pretty anxious as the fellow
after me at the bat knocked little
! grounder right into the shortstop's
hands, thus making two out for us. Il
guess it will be safe enough. I'm too
hot to wear the vest, and Berrian's
right here"
''All correct said Gardner, alb
sently, and listening while Berrian
called Worthley to bat, Gardner on
deck and Niles N the hole. STILL" he
added, suddenly. you'd better give it
to Anderson. This is hard set around
| here"
"Nonsense!" l said, impatiently.
"Who could touch it while Berrian is
close by 500"
Gardner didn'tsay anything. Worth
ley had made base hit, and Gardner
was called to bat.
| pinned the vest together hastily.
Berrian was Industriously jotting
down the assists and put-outs. He
vowed now in an aside to me that the
umpire had just called two strikes on
Gardner when there had only been
one. He was getting very mad
Look out for my watch, Berrian,"
I said, confidentlally. at is under my
sweater, right in my vest-pocket
! there"
Then I settled down to the game.
Berrian was quivering with excite
ment. He probably knew as little of
what l had been saying to him as
| hen. Gardner was now on first base,
Worthley was stealing third, and Niles,
our short" a hard batsman, was up.
1t looked as though we might get in a
run. Niles gave a glorious hit; but it
veered off foul, and one of their long
legged fielders caught it, so that we
were without a run in spite of two men
on bases.
Turner was their first man at bat.
He was a clean hitter; and the first l
knew down came a swift ball in my di-
rection, considerably above my head,
melted, probably, by his example, l
gave jump into the air which must
have seemed as high as Turner's in the
field; and |, too, caught the ball, and in
my turn put him out.
Now l had a chance to grin knew
that l hadn't received Turner's grin
with much grace; but he received
mine, as the umpire called Out" with
really vicious scowl. | didn't care,
however, under the circumstances.
We got three men out in short order,
and the next inning opened without
run on either side.
We had advanced to the fourth in
ming, and the score stood three to two
in our favor, when it occurred to me
that | might as well look after my
watch. | strolled up to Berrian, there
fore, and remarked, casually: 81 sup
pos my watch is all right"
watch" he said, Grossly, keeping
me waiting while he put down an
error for Gardner. where in thunder
is your watch, anyway? haven't seen
it,"
l realized that he had paid no atten-
ton to what had said when | left the
watch, and thai he had not felt the
slightest responsibility for it. | began
to tumble nervOusly among the clothes
on the ground beside him. 1t had been
growing warmer steadily all the after
noon, and several sweaters and jerseys
had been piled on top of my things.
Just as | had eXcavated down to il |
heard my name called ''in the hole;"
hut | took my time to find out that the
vest had been unpinned, and that the
watch was missing. | searched wildly
around among he miscellaneous heap