tremulous sigh and nodded his head slowly.
"Little did I think," he wailed, "when I fixed up this here mutual aid
society that I would be the first one to get the sick benefit."

Joseph Bogin ceased his agonizing rocking and turned fiercely to
Golnik.

"What d'ye mean, the first one?" he demanded. "Ain't I in on the sick
benefit also? Not alone would I draw a sick benefit, Golnik, but might
I would come in for the losing-one-eye benefit, maybe, the way I am
feeling now."

"You would what?" Birsky shouted. "You would come in for nothing,
Bogin! All you would come in for is losing your job, Bogin, if you
don't be careful what you are saying round here."

At this juncture Jonas Eschenbach bustled toward them and clapped his
hands loudly.

"Now, then, boys," he called, "the whole team should please get out on
the field."

He pointed to a tall, simian-armed operator who stood listening
intently to the conversation between Golnik and Birsky.

"You, there," Jonas said to him, "you would play right field--and get a
move on!"

The operator nodded solemnly and flipped his fingers in a deprecatory
gesture.

"It don't go so quick, Mr. Eschenbach," he said, "because, speaking for
myself and these other fellers here, Mr. Eschenbach, I would like to
ask Mr. Birsky something a question."

He paused impressively, and even Golnik ceased his moaning as the
remaining members of the baseball team gathered round their spokesman.

"I would like to ask," the operator continued, "supposing _Gott soll
hueten_ I am getting also _Makkas_ in this here baseball, Mr. Birsky,
which I would be losing time from the shop, Mr. Birsky, what for a sick
benefit do I draw?"

Birsky grew livid with indignation.

"What for a sick benefit do you draw?" he sputtered. "A question! You
don't draw nothing for a sick benefit." He appealed to Eschenbach, who
stood close by. "An idee, Mr. Eschenbach," he said. "Did y'ever hear
the like we should pay a sick benefit because some one gets hurted
_spieling_ from baseball already? The first thing you know, Mr.
Eschenbach, we would be called upon we should pay a benefit that a
feller breaks his fingers leading two aces and the ten of trumps, or
melding a round trip and a hundred aces, understand me; because, if a
feller behaves like a loafer, y'understand, he could injure himself
just so much in pinochle as in baseball."

"_Schon gut_, Mr. Birsky," the operator continued amid the approving
murmurs of his