up from the boys. Willie experienced his first bitterness
as a manager. Out of forty aspirants for the Madden's Hill team he
could choose but nine to play the game. And as a conscientious manager
he could use no favorites. Willie picked the best players and assigned
them to positions that, in his judgment, were the best suited to them.
Bob Irvine wanted to play first base and he was down for right field.
Sam Wickhart thought he was the fastest fielder, and Willie had him
slated to catch. Tom Lindsay's feelings were hurt because he was not to
play in the infield. Eddie Curtis suffered a fall in pride when he
discovered he was not down to play second base. Jake Thomas, Tay-Tay
Mohler and Brick Grace all wanted to pitch. The manager had chosen
Frank Price for that important position, and Frank's one ambition was
to be a shortstop.

So there was a deadlock. For a while there seemed no possibility of a
game. Willie sat on the bench, the center of a crowd of discontented,
quarreling boys. Some were jealous, some were outraged, some tried to
pacify and persuade the others. All were noisy. Lane Griffith stood
by his manager and stoutly declared the players should play the
positions to which they had been assigned or not at all. And he was
entering into a hot argument with Tom Lindsay when the Bogg's Farm team
arrogantly put in an appearance.

The way that team from the country walked out upon the field made a
great difference. The spirit of Madden's Hill roused to battle. The
game began swiftly and went on wildly. It ended almost before the Hill
boys realized it had commenced. They did not know how they had won but
they gave Daddy Howarth credit for it. They had a bonfire that night
to celebrate the victory and they talked baseball until their parents
became alarmed and hunted them up.

Madden's Hill practiced all that next week and on Saturday beat the
Seventh Ward team. In four more weeks they had added half a dozen more
victories to their record. Their reputation went abroad. They got
uniforms, and baseball shoes with spikes, and bats and balls and
gloves. They got a mask, but Sam Wickhart refused to catch with it.

"Sam, one of these days you'll be stoppin' a high inshoot with your
eye," sagely remarked Daddy Howarth. "An' then where'll I get a
catcher for the Natchez game?"

Natchez was the one name on the lips of every Madden's Hill boy. For
Natchez had the great team of the town and, roused b