Our Baseball Club and How It Won the Championship

I

Great Expectations

Alice Howell was flattening her pretty nose against the window pane as she looked ruefully out into the misty atmosphere that surrounded her father’s house in North Catalpa. It was eight o’clock in the morning, and the great baseball match was set for two o’clock, that afternoon. As soon as she had risen, Alice had run to the window to see what were the signs of the sky, for Alice was an ardent lover of the American game, and her heart was set on the great match that was to come off on the Agricultural Grounds, near Catalpa, that day. The sky was dull and lowering, and there was little chance that the game would be called.

“Your father, the Judge, says you should come to breakfast right away, miss,” said the little handmaid of the house.

Alice turned from the window with an impatient sigh, saying “Oh dear, Jessie, do you suppose the Jonesville Nine will come up to play the Catalpas, this afternoon?”

“ ’Deed I don’t know, miss. I hope so, for Miss Anstress has promised me that I shall go over to see the game if it is played, and goodness only knows when I shall get off again to see a baseball match if I don’t go today.”