think-tanks, and it fits in, a lot of it, like they were toddlin'
around Toronto to-day."

"It certainly does--some of it," said Walter. "I wonder if they ever
played baseball in those days?"

"Not so far as I can make out," answered William. "Half their time
they were fighting, and the other half making love: that is, most of
'em. Our friend Bill Shakespeare and a few others were writing plays
and acting them too."

Walter stood at the door for a minute and watched William as the latter
walked away from the Emporium that evening, and to himself he said,
"He's a corker that one; but there's a heap of boy in him. If there
wasn't, that stuff he's carrying around in his brain would soon drive
him to the daffy house."

The great day arrived at last, and William, keen for business and a new
experience, reported early at the baseball grounds, where Walter
Wadsworth supplied him and a dozen other boys with uniforms of white
cotton. The caps bore in letters of gold an appeal to buy a certain
baking powder, and on the back of the coats, in black letters, was an
announcement regarding the charms of a particular brand of chewing
tobacco.

"It's a shame," said William with sarcasm, "that there ain't any
reading on the pants."

"Yes, it is too bad," answered Walter, solemnly, "but you can never get
everything you want in this world. I get the caps and the suits free
for the advertising they have on 'em; they're not so bad, it might be
worse."

"It might be," answered William, "but not much," as he departed for his
section of the grand stand with a basket hanging from his neck and a
small megaphone attached to one wrist with a strap. In the stand,
William's courage deserted him for a few minutes: the crowd was large
and included many ladies. The lad was uncomfortable; his voice seemed
to have deserted him utterly. All the fine things he had meant to say
were for the moment forgotten. It was not until a woman had purchased
a bag of peanuts, and a man a cigar, that William became convinced that
his goods were wanted, and that restored some of his usual confidence.
He began to call out his wares and found that sales were easily made,
though not so rapidly as he had hoped. But as the game progressed, his
courage steadily rose. The Toronto team was playing that of Buffalo,
an ancient and honorable enemy, and the game, in its initial stages,
was very close. With the score one to one in the third innings,
William fo