Hardly had the batting begun than this captain rose with some dignity to approach Meggy. “Sorry, dear child,” his air was patronizing, “but you’ll have to leave. This is our side of the diamond. Besides, you are in danger of being struck by a foul ball.”
“Oh! Thank you!” Meggy smiled sweetly. “I’m awfully good at ducking.”
“But you must leave!” The visiting captain’s tone was stern.
Meggy did not answer. Instead she turned her back upon him to cup her hands and shout across the diamond.
“Yoo-hoo! Johnny! Bring me that spade! There’s a dandelion, a great big one, here.”
The astonished Johnny did her bidding. The rival captain held his ground. A look of dread overspread his face. He seemed to be saying to himself, “What will this wild young creature do next?”
He did not have long to wait. Seizing the spade, Meggy hissed, “There! Right down there!” then sank her spade deep.
The captain made a move as if to stop her, opened his mouth as if to speak, then retired in apparent confusion.
There was no dandelion where Meggy sank her spade. The spot of gold that was a yellow “dannie” was fully a yard away. She did not trouble the dandelion at all. Instead, she sank her spade with a vicious poke of her stout young foot three times. Then, shouldering her spade as if it were a rifle, she marched back to her own bleachers and took up the task of cheer leader. She led the Hillcrest team to such a victory as the old town had never before witnessed. When the ninth inning was ended and Doug was borne in triumph off the field, the score stood 22 to 7 in favor of the home team. Doug, riding aloft on his fellow townsmen’s shoulders, was disturbed by a vague feeling that Meggy was far more richly deserving of this ride than he. But why? This he could not tell. That was to come later.
“Meggy, you’re holding something back,” Johnny insisted as he sat with Meg and Doug on Meg’s porch drinking lemonade late that evening.