s business headquarters in St. Louis, for papa's
trade is shifting out that way."

"You don't mean it!" cried Joe, and some of his companions in the sleigh
wondered at the warmth of his tone.

"Oh, yes, I do," said Mabel. "So I shall see you play now and then; for
I'm as ardent a 'fan' as I ever was."

"That's good," returned Joe. "I'm glad I'm going to a major league--that
is, if they draft me," he added quickly. "I didn't know you might be out
there."

From then on the thought of going to St. Louis was more pleasant to Joe.

The sleigh ride was a great success in every particular. The young
people reached home rather late--or, rather early in the morning, happy
and not too tired.

"It was fine; wasn't it?" whispered Clara, as she and her brother
tip-toed their way into the house, so as not to awaken their parents.

"Dandy!" he answered softly.

"Weren't you surprised about the pin?"

"Of course I was."

"But you don't seem exactly happy. Is something worrying you? I heard
Mabel ask you the same thing."

"Did you?" inquired Joe, non-committally.

"Yes. Is anything the matter?"

"No, Sis. Get to bed. It's late."

Clara paused for a moment. She realized that Joe had not answered her
question as she would have liked.

"But I guess he's thinking of the change he may have to make," the
sister argued. "Joe is a fine fellow. He certainly has gone ahead in
baseball faster than he would have done in some other line of endeavor.
Well, it's good he likes it.

"And yet," she mused, as she went to her room, "I wonder what it is that
is worrying him?"

If she could have seen Joe, at that same moment, sitting on the edge of
a chair in his apartment, moodily staring at the wall, she would have
wondered more.

"What was his game?" thought Joe, as he recalled the scene with the man
at the hotel. "What was his object?"

But he could not answer his own question.

Joe's sleep was disturbed the remainder of that night--short as the
remainder was.

At breakfast table, the next morning, the story of the jolly sleigh ride
was told to Mr. and Mrs. Matson. Of course Joe said nothing of the
dispute with the surly man.

"And here's the pin they gave me," finished the young player as he
passed around the emblem that had been so unexpectedly presented to
him.

His mother was looking at it when the doorbell rang, and the maid, who
answered it, brought back a telegram.

"It's for Mr. Joseph," she announced.

Joe's f