cher one base. The man realized, however, that a
sacrifice in this inning, with two men already out, would not be so
advantageous as before. He made an heroic attempt, resulting in a
clean drive that hummed past Reddy like a Mauser bullet, and chose a
path exactly between Jumbo and Tug. It was evident that no Kingston
man could stop it in time to throw either to first base or home ahead
of a Charleston man; but since Kingston could not put the side out
before a run was scored, the Charlestonians cheerfully consented to
put themselves out; that is, the base-runner on second, making a
furious dash for third, ran ker-plunk into the ball, which recorded
itself on his funny-bone.

When he fell to the ground yelping with torment, I am afraid that
the Kingstonians showed little of the Good Samaritan spirit, for the
ball-nine and the Kingston sympathizers in the crowd indulged in
a jubilation such as a Roman throng gave vent to when a favorite
gladiator had floored some new savage.

The Kingston men came in from the field arm in arm, but it was not
long before they were once more sauntering out into the field, for not
one of them reached first base.

A game without runs is not usually half so interesting to the crowd as
one in which there is free batting and a generous sprinkling of runs.
The average spectator is not sport enough to feel sorry for the
pitcher when a home run has been knocked over the fence, or to feel
sorry for a fielder who lets a ball through his fingers and sends the
base-runners on their way rejoicing. To your thorough sport, though,
a scientific, well-balanced game is the most interesting. He likes to
see runs earned, if scored at all, and has sympathy but no interest
for a pitcher who permits himself to be knocked out of the box.

A more nicely balanced game than this between Kingston and Charleston
could hardly be imagined, and there was something in the air or in
the game that made the young teams play like veterans. Each worked
together like a clock of nine cog-wheels.

Though the next four innings were altogether different from one
another in batting and fielding, they were exactly alike in that they
were all totaled at the bottom of the column, with a large blank
goose-egg.

At the opening of the ninth inning even the uncultured members of the
crowd--those unscientific ingoramuses that had voted the game a dull
one because no one had made the circuit of the bases--even these sat
up and breath