Carter had the style and finish, but the Captain had the nerve That in base-ball oft had helped him solve a pitcher's meanest curve! And he seemed to know the angles just as well as "You-Know Me." That he wasn't a beginner was as plain as plain could be. 'Round the table stood the bettors, looking on with eager eyes, While first one and then another certain seemed to take the prize. On the wire the clustered buttons sat like sparrows in a row, 'Neath the lights that gleamed and glistened while there outside fell the snow. Carter stood about and chattered just as Carter always will (If you have a talking parrot you can never keep him still) Anson only laughed and listened, saying as he chalked his cue: "Frogs' legs measured up in inches don't tell what the frog can do, "When it comes to jumping, Carter, and the best fish in the brook Finds at last he's met his master when he grabs the angler's hook. Talking does not win at billiards, nor at any other game, When you come to count your buttons, then perhaps you'll think the same." Went the buttons up together, one by one, upon the string, Like two yachts that skim the waters, they were racing wing and wing. Hushed was all the noisy clamor and the room was as still as death, As they stood and watched the players chalk their cues with bated breath. "Even up!" the marker shouted, and the buttons on the line Counted up stood right together--each had stopped at forty-nine. It was Anson's shot--a hard one--as the balls before him lay, And he stopped to count the chances--then he chalked his cue to play. "Call it off; I'll give you fifty," said George Wheelock, sitting near. He had found the stakes for Carter and his voice was low and clear. "Take your stakes down, Captain Anson, and take fifty 'plunks' of mine." With a nod the Cap consented; Carter's backers bought the wine. In that billiard-room of Slosson's, Carter argued half the night, While the snowflakes drifted earthward like a mantle soft and white. And he swore that he'd have won it if it wasn't for a miss That he'd made up in the corner when he'd played to get a "kiss." Now it may be that he would have, but I'm still inclined to believe That he weakened o'er the billiards that he found up Anson's sleeve. For I've noticed that the "sucker," or the chap you're thinking one, Proves the "shark" that gets the money, "doing" 'stead of being "done."