t us. We had a league now, and this was the
championship game for the pennant.

"It was right funny the first time we beat a native team. Of course, we
got together and cheered 'em. They thought we were cheering ourselves,
so they got red in the face, rushed together and whooped it up for
themselves for about half an hour."

The Blight almost laughed.

"We used to have to carry our guns around with us at first when we went
to other places, and we came near having several fights."

"Oh!" said the Blight excitedly. "Do you think there might be a fight
this afternoon?"

"Don't know," I said, shaking my head. "It's pretty hard for eighteen
people to fight when nine of them are policemen and there are forty more
around. Still the crowd might take a hand."

This, I saw, quite thrilled the Blight and she was in good spirits when
we started out.

"Marston doesn't pitch this afternoon," I said to the little sister. "He
plays first base. He's saving himself for the tournament. He's done too
much already." The Blight merely turned her head while I was speaking.
"And the Hon. Sam will not act as umpire. He wants to save his
voice--and his head."

The seats in the "grandstand" were in the sun now, so I left the
girls in a deserted band-stand that stood on stilts under trees on the
southern side of the field, and on a line midway between third base and
the position of short-stop. Now there is no enthusiasm in any sport that
equals the excitement aroused by a rural base-ball game and I never
saw the enthusiasm of that game outdone except by the excitement of the
tournament that followed that afternoon. The game was close and
Marston and I assuredly were stars--Marston one of the first magnitude.
"Goose-egg" on one side matched "goose-egg" on the other until the end
of the fifth inning, when the engineer knocked a home-run. Spectators
threw their hats into the trees, yelled themselves hoarse, and I saw
several old mountaineers who understood no more of base-ball than of the
lost _digamma_ in Greek going wild with the general contagion. During
these innings I had "assisted" in two doubles and had fired in three
"daisy cutters" to first myself in spite of the guying I got from the
opposing rooters.

"Four-eyes" they called me on account of my spectacles until a new
nickname came at the last half of the ninth inning, when we were in
the field with the score four to three in our favor. It was then that
a small, fat boy with a p