"I say, I wonder why you don't give up playing base ball, since you find so little fun in it. 'Pears to me you are all the time out 'o sorts—like. You don't enjoy good health, Ben, and that's what is the matter along of you. Now, why do you think that the Calumets are going to get away with us, to-morrow?"
But before Ben could form a reply and cover the confusion that crept over his face, Neddie Ellis, who was the universal favorite of the club, broke in with, "Oh, I say, boys, do you know what these Chicago people call us? why they call us 'The Cats.' That's short for Catalpas, I suppose. We ought to call the Calumets 'The Cads,' and I guess that would be getting even."
Under cover of the laugh which this sally raised, Hiram, Larry, and young Heaton departed to fulfil their engagement on the north side, Ben Burton looking after them with a darkened countenance.
"Ben is angry because he is not invited to Judge Morris's," said Larry, as the three young fellows stepped lightly off in search of a street car. "He has a jealous temper, and the least thing that looks like a slight sets him off."
"Well," said Albert, "Alice said that the Judge would have liked to have invited the whole nine, if he had had room to entertain them properly; but he hadn't, and so he invited only those with whom the governor was most acquainted."
"To say nothing of Miss Alice?" added Hiram, slyly.
Albert admitted that Miss Alice's wishes were consulted in the matter, and that it was only natural that she, being a visitor, should indicate her preferences in the matter.
"What does it signify, anyhow?" said Larry, a little impatiently. "It seems to me that Ben Burton is ready to fly out at the least provocation. I almost wish we had never thought of going over to Judge Morris's. I am sure I have tried my level best to keep the peace with Ben, but he seems to grow more and more cantankerous every day. To think of raising a breeze over such a trifle as this of our going out to dinner without him! It makes me ashamed of my companionship with him."
The conversation was stopped by their entering a street car where they were entertained by the audible comments of the passengers on the wonderful game that had been played that afternoon. Base ball in Chicago is one of the favorite pastimes of the people. But there was so much of the element of unexpectedness in the result of that day's game that it set the tongues of everybody to wagging. Unknown and in silence, the champions of the Catalpa Nine heard themselves and their playing discussed with great freedom and animation. The general verdict was that "The Cats" would, next day, receive their reward in the shape of a "basket of goose eggs" with which they would depart for home, sadder and wiser for their visit.
"What do you think of that for an opinion, Larry?" asked Hiram, laughingly, as they alighted from the car, one block from their destination. "What do you think of the woman in the corner who said that the Calumets were only encouraging us on to our defeat?"