The victory is complete! Old Catalpa to the front! Glory enough for one day! Following is the score by innings:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 total. Catalpas 1 0 0 4 0 1 1 0 1 8 Galenas 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 The Galenas will banquet the Catalpas at the Quapaw House, this evening, when a right royal time is expected.
“And now for the championship of the State, dad?” shouted Tom Selby, exultingly, as his father descended from the carriage of the Judge. Alice, who was beaming with delight, could hardly speak her joy. The great contest was over, and the home nine would come back covered with glory. But she shook her head at Tom’s vainglorious remark. The league games were all made up for the season, she knew, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to secure a challenge from any club in the league. Oh, no, she couldn’t think of it. Tom must not think of it, at least, not until another summer.
The good doctor smiled at the lad’s enthusiasm and said that glory enough for one day meant glory enough for one season. There were other contests before the home nine, and they could be content, or they should be, to wear the laurels already won, whatever happened to them hereafter. They could not lose any prestige by any manner of means.
When Judge Howell arrived by the early evening train from Pawpaw, he was surprised to see the dingy flag of The Catalpa Leaf drooping lazily from its staff. He had not forgotten that the second game in the Northern District Championship was to have been played that afternoon; and he remembered his daughter’s prediction of success. But it seemed incredible that this should have actually come to pass. As he alighted from the train, his judicial dignity a little soiled by travel and perspiration, he was met by Rough and Ready, who, with a slight touch of his coonskin cap, the only recognition of high station of which he was ever capable, said, “Any baggage, Jedge? carry it as cheap as anybody. Our nine has flaxed out the Galenas—eight to three! Big thing, Jedge! Lemme take that gripsack. Great day for old Catalpa, Jedge. Your darter, she said as how she allowed that you mought like to get the news straight, so I told her I’d come up and tell you quick. Thank you, Jedge.” And, dropping a silver quarter into his pocket, Rough and Ready turned and collared a stranger from whom he wrested his valise and marched triumphantly down into the town.
When the Judge, clothed once more in the dignity of cleanliness and his home headship, heard that night from the animated lips of his daughter the story of the winning of the championship, he said, with an air of graceful condescension, “It was a famous victory, Alice. We have reason to be proud of our nine; and I will venture to say that when we get the full particulars of the game, we shall find that that fine-looking young fellow, Lawrence Boyne, contributed the largest share to the triumph.”
When the details of the game were brought to Catalpa, next day, in a letter to The Leaf, it was found that the Judge knew just what he was talking about.
But greater news than this came with Larry Boyne and Hiram Porter, a week or two later. The nine had been playing a few games along the river towns and had rested for a day or two in Rock Island, after playing the Dacotahs of that city. Several of the nine took advantage of a lull in their engagements to visit Catalpa. Mr. Heaton and Albert had returned home, and Larry and Hiram had gone to Chicago on some mysterious errand, nobody knew just what. Neddie Ellis was one of those who had come back to Catalpa while the time was passing before they should play the new series of games beginning with the Moline club. Neddie looked very wise when asked where Larry and Hiram had gone, and Albert Heaton assumed a most important air whenever he said anything about the doings of the two absent members of the nine.
But it all came out in due time. Captain Porter and his trusty lieutenant arrived by the noon train, and before the sun had set everybody in Catalpa knew that a match had been arranged between the Catalpa nine and the Calumet club for the State Championship. It was indeed wonderful news, and nothing since the war had happened to stir the population of that region as the intelligence. There were divers opinions regarding this unexpected development. Many thought that it was indiscreet for so young and green a club as the Catalpas to challenge the Calumets—the famous and renowned Calumets. Then there were others who thought that it was presumptuous for the Catalpa boys even so much as to ask any leading club to play them merely because a triumph had been unexpectedly achieved in Galena. But all agreed that it was a great feather in the cap of “our nine” that the Chicago club should have accepted the challenge, or should have agreed to meet them on any terms whatever.
“I am not certain whether I am glad or sorry that our nine will play the Calumets, papa,” said Alice Howell. “I mean that I cannot tell yet whether I shall be disappointed if they lose. I depend a great deal on my impressions, you know, and I haven’t any as yet.”
The Judge smiled at his daughter’s odd notion of waiting for impressions, and replied, “I do not wait for any inspiration on the subject, my child. I am sure that the Catalpa nine will be badly beaten. I don’t know much about baseball, but I do know enough to know that the Calumet club has been in the newspapers for a long time as the great baseball club of the northwest.”
“That’s so, papa,” sighed Alice, “and I have dreadful forebodings when I think of the risk that they
