Putnam patriot., 1915-06-18
~Just a silver for me-" said Ivy. ~and

and there1l be some excitement. All the girls go You'll like it They're playing Mashalltown."
 Ivy went. looking the sacrtheial lamb. Five minutes after the game was called she pointed one tapering white finger in the direction of the pitchers mound
 Who's that2' she asked
 Pitcher" explained Papa Keller, laconically. Then. patiently. He throws the ball"
 oh, said Ivy. What did you say his name was2'
 T didn't say. But it's Rudie schlachweiler The boys call him Dutch Kind of pet, Dutch is"
 Rudie Schlaehweilerl" murmured Ivy. dreamily What a strong namel"
 Want some peanuts?" inquired her father.
 Does one eat peanuts at ball gamer"
 It ain't hardly legal if you don't" Pa Keller assured her.
 Two sacks" said Ivy. Papa. why do they cali it a diamond. and what are those brown bags at the corners. and what does it count if you hit the ball. and why do they rub their hands in the dust and then-er-spit on them and what salary does a pitcher get, and why does the red-haired man on the other side dance around like that between the second and third brown bag, and doesn't pitcher do anything but pitch, and wh-?' You're on" said papa
 After that Ivy didn't miss a game during all the time that the team played in the home town. She went without a new hat. and didn't care whether Jean Vatican got away with the goods or not. and forgot whether you played third hand high or low in bridge. She even became chummy with Undine Meyers. who wasn't her kind of a girl at all. Undine was thin in a voluptuous kind of way, if such a paradox can be, and she had red lips, and a rowing eye. and she ran around downtown without a hat more than was strictly necessary. But Un- dine and Ivy had two subjects in com-
 
 It is queer how the limelight will make heroes of us all.
 Now Pug" Coulan, who was red haired, and had shoulders like an OK, and arms that hung down to his knees, like those of an orang-outang. slaugh- tered beeves at the Chicago stock yards in winter. In the summer he slaughtered hearts. He wore mustard colored shirts that matched his hair, and his baseball stockings generally had a rip in them somewhere but when he was on tho diamond we were almost ashamed to look at undne so wholly did her heart shine in her eyes.
 Now wel have just another dash or two of local color. In small town the chances for hero worship are few. If it weren't for the travelling men our girls wouldn't know whether stripes or checks were the thing in gents suit ings. When the baseball season opened the girls swarmed on 1t. Those that didn't understand baseball pretended they did. When the team was out of town our form of greeting was changed from. Good morning." or 'Howdy-dol" to Whats the scorer" Every night the results of the games throughout the league were posted up on the blackboard in front of Schlag- CTS hardware store, and to see the way in which the crowd stood around it, and streamed across the street to- ward it, you'd have thought they were eritr ho, olr couches
 Going home in the street car after the game the girls used to gaze ador- ingly at the dirty faces of their sweat begrimed heroes, and then they'd rush home, have supper, change their dresses, do their hair and rush down town past the Parker hotel to mail their letters The baseball boys boarded over at the Griggs house, which is third-class, but they used their tooth-pieks and held the post mortem of the days game out in front of the Parker hotel, which is our lead ing hostelry. The post office receipts record for our town was broken dur ing the months of June, July and Au- gust.
 Mrs. Freddy Van Dyne started the trouble by having the team over to dinner Pug" Coulan and all. After all. why not? No foreign and impe- cunious princes penetrate as far inland as our town. They get only as far as New York, or Newport, where they are gobbled up by many-moneyed matrons. If Mrs. Freddy Van Dyne found the supply of available lions limited, why should she not try to content herself with a jackal OF so?
 Ivy was asken. Until then she had contented herse0 with gazing at her hero. She had become such hard ened baseball fan that she followed the game with a score card. accurately jot- ting down every play, and keeping her watch open on her knee
 She sat next to Rudie at dinner. Be- fore she had nibbled her second salted almond Ivy Keller and Rudie Schlach- weller understood each other. Rudie illustrated certain plays by drawing lines on the tablecloth with his knife and Ivy gazed, wide-eye5 and allowed her snun tn grow nold
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