"Oh, hello, Kent! Did you like the circus?"
"The best ever! You should have taken that ticket I wanted you to.
Didn't cost me anything but carrying water to the elephants."
"I can't take anything I don't pay for. I promised mother. You know how it is, Kent."
"I guess your mother fixed it so you'd miss lots of good times, all right—— Now, don't fly off the handle—look, I got a trick. I've rubbed my baseball with match heads, so's I can play catch at night. Try it?"
"Gosh, isn't that wonderful!" exclaimed Lydia. The boy, who was a little taller than Lydia, led the way to the open space between his home and Lydia's. Then he spun Lydia a brisk ball.
"It's like a shooting star," she cried, spinning back a quick overhand shot, "but it makes your hands smell like anything."
"Lydia," called her father from the bow window, "it's time to come in."
"All right!" Then aside to Kent, "I'll wait till he calls me twice more, Kent. Keep them coming."
"Lydia!"
"Yes, Dad. Not so hard, Kent. Don't throw curves, just because I can't."