Some were jealous, some were
outraged, some tried to pacify and persuade the
others. All were noisy. Lane Griffith stood by
his manager and stoutly declared the players
should play the positions to which they had been
assigned or not at all. And he was entering into
a hot argument with Tom Lindsay when the
Bogg's Farm team arrogantly put in an appearance.
The way that team from the country walked out
upon the field made a great difference. The spirit
of Madden's Hill roused to battle. The game began
swiftly and went on wildly. It ended almost
before the Hill boys realized it had commenced.
They did not know how they had won but they
gave Daddy Howarth credit for it. They had a
bonfire that night to celebrate the victory and
they talked baseball until their parents became
alarmed and hunted them up.
Madden's Hill practiced all that next week and
on Saturday beat the Seventh Ward team. In
four more weeks they had added half a dozen more
victories to their record. Their reputation went
abroad. They got uniforms, and baseball shoes
with spikes, and bats and balls and gloves. They
got a mask, but Sam Wickhart refused to catch
with it.
``Sam, one of these days you'll be stoppin' a
high inshoot with your eye,'' sagely remarked
Daddy Howarth. ``An' then where'll I get a
catcher for the Natchez game?''
Natchez was the one name on the lips of every
Madden's Hill boy.
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