“All right. I dare say four days won’t lose us much. I wonder, though, how we’re going to like sticking around that lobby when the hot weather comes. That won’t be so pleasant, eh?”
“I don’t believe the Adams Building will be hotter than any other place,” replied Joe. “Anyway, if we’re going to earn money we’ve got to work for it and put up with some things. I’ve got to be going now, Jack.”
“What’s your hurry? I haven’t seen you for an age!”
“I’ll drop around after supper if you can see folks then. But I want to go and give this nine-fifty to Mrs. Bennett. I guess she needs it worse than we do.”
Jack was back in school Monday morning, a bit weak in the legs, but otherwise as good as ever, or so he declared. He had two days of examinations to make up and, since he would not have been of much use to the team anyway, he stayed away from practice that afternoon and toiled over his papers in a deserted class-room under the eagle eye of one of the teachers.
On Tuesday there was only an hour of light work for the players. The Second Team ended its season with a game with the grammar school, which it won in a breath-taking tenth inning rally, and the diamond was given over to the workmen who were to put it in shape for the morrow’s battle.
Petersburg descended on Amesville the next day at noon and went to lunch at the principal hotel. She arrived nearly a hundred strong and armed with a multitude of gay banners, which she waved jubilantly as, luncheon over, the team and its followers took trolley cars to the field.
Petersburg had gone through a more than usually successful season, playing nineteen games, of which she had won twelve and tied one. In Calvert she had a pitcher of known ability who had last year proved a good deal of a riddle to Amesville’s batters, and her second-choice twirler, Gorman, had been coming fast during the last month and had only a week ago held Minton School to one hit. For the rest, Petersburg had an average team, with a fast, snappy infield and an outfield composed of two veterans and one newcomer. Petersburg had not gained the reputation of a hard-hitting outfit this year, but an analysis of the scores of past conflicts would have shown that she had usually secured hits when they were most needed.
Amesville, however, went into the game that afternoon with more confidence than usual. There had been seasons when she had had a strong pitching staff and a poor fielding team, seasons when she had been brilliant at fielding and weak at batting, and seasons when she could bat anything and had no talent in the box. But this year it was felt that the Brown-and-Blue was an evenly rounded nine with good pitchers, clever fielders, and the ability to bat, and most of the local rooters who filled the two stands behind first base and flowed over on to the field held that it was less a question of which team would win than what the score would be!