And he never did.
That afternoon, the school baseball supremacy settled for the year, the School Team reassembled, Towners and Boarders together, and settled down to practice again. On Wednesday the Charlemont High School came out, and was beaten, 12 to 4, in a six-inning game. Sam pitched four innings and Prince finished. As Tyler Wicks was back in left field, Jack spent the afternoon looking on. Cook went in for two innings, but Jack’s turn didn’t come that day.
Midget Green almost wore himself out during that game, chasing the fouls that went into Finkler’s meadow, and the visitors had several sarcastic things to say about Maple Ridge’s baseball field. Four balls were lost utterly, a circumstance that caused Chester Harris, as manager, much annoyance. Chester had supplied himself with only a half dozen balls, and in the fifth inning was forced to send back to the gymnasium for more. Balls are expensive, too, and after the game Chester remarked gloomily that if Finkler would only sell his meadow it would pay them to buy it and quarry it for baseballs.
“It’s a nuisance,” agreed Dolph weariedly. “I think we ought to insist on Benny supplying the school with a decent field. There’s a perfectly good piece of land across the road there. Why doesn’t he buy that?”
“Can’t be did,” answered Gus Turnbull. “That land belongs to some one out west, and he won’t sell. I know, because my father and some other men tried to buy it a couple of years ago.”
“Well, Benny ought to find us a decent place somewhere,” responded Dolph.
“What we ought to do,” remarked Jack quietly, “is to get hold of that meadow.”
“What meadow?” asked Dolph impatiently. “Finkler’s?”
Jack nodded.