“The game would have gone to smash long ago if it hadn’t been for the strong foundation laid for it by famous old teams like yours,” he asserted. “As for me, I’ll never forget as long as I live that I’ve shaken hands with one of the old Red Stockings of sixty-nine.”
Joe was in high spirits after his visitor left. The chance meeting had braced him like a tonic. If he had been the least bit superstitious, he might have been inclined to look upon it as more than a coincidence.
Here he is, on his way to join the most famous team of the present. At the very start of his journey he meets a member of the most famous team of the past.
Is it an omen of coming triumph? At any rate, it is an inspiration.
That night in his sleep Joe pitched the Giants to victory!
[CHAPTER XV]
A CHARMING VISION
“Only a dream,” commented Joe, as he was dressing the next morning, “and they say dreams go by contraries. Let’s hope that won’t hold true in this case. If I could only strike out Wagner on the field as easily as I did in my sleep, there’d be nothing to the race except the Giants.”
He was sorry that he could not see Wilson opposite him at breakfast as he had been at supper on the night before, but he supplemented the absence of the veteran by a newspaper which he propped up before him as he sipped his coffee. Mrs. Matson had always objected to this at home, on the ground that it was unsociable, and Joe had respected her wishes; but just now he had no one to consult except himself, and he did as he chose. Joe had a shrewd idea that all women felt the same way and resented having a rival in the newspaper. Probably Mabel herself—— But pshaw! that thought didn’t bother him. Who would want to look at an old newspaper when opposite him at the table was something so much better to look at, something that wore fetching little boudoir caps and all sorts of dainty frilly things, something with brown eyes and wavy hair, something that laughed and teased and bewitched while it poured the coffee?