"Ern Swanson is going to be the captain," said John Hop, with his ingratiating Oriental smile. "We just had an election and elected him." "But we already have a captain," protested Eveley, looking not without sympathy to the corner where Ivan Kerensky nursed his humiliation. "We didn't know Ern was coming in," said Alfredo Masseno, who had hurried up with half a dozen others to greet her. "Ern, he ought to be the captain. He's awful rough; and baseball, why, he eats baseball alive! And he won't come in unless he is the captain, and if he don't come with us he'll join the Red Dogs on National Avenue, and we want him with us because we have challenged them to a game and if they get Ern they'll lick us." Then the newly elected captain sauntered up, his good-natured face reflecting the glory of his new command as well as his natural Swedish temperament. "He doesn't look rough," said Eveley critically. "No'm, not when things suits him, but you ought to see him when he is mad. Golly! Why, even the cops lets that kid alone." "But it isn't parliamentary--I mean, it isn't proper to have one election after another like this. We chose one captain, and we ought to stand by him." "That wasn't no quorum what elected him, ma'm," said Ern Swanson, smiling broadly. "They was only eight in the club then, and now we got twenty-three. That little bunch o' Greasers couldn't represent us. No, ma'm. We want regular Americans at the head of this club, and so we had a regular election." Eveley knew this was dead against American principles, and she looked once more toward the sulking ex-captain. Then she remembered that he had won his own election in her absence by plain coercion, and decided to pass this one irregularity, but never again. "Very well, then," she said weakly, "have it your own way this time. But there must be no more elections until the right time. Now, what are you going to do? Have a practise game? Then suppose we let Ivan be captain of the second team, anyhow, and you can pick your men and have a good game." This seemed a simple proposition to Eveley in her innocence, but on a sudden, pandemonium reigned. The whole crowd of boys propelled itself violently into the air, and there was a shrieking of voices and a tossing of bats and gloves, and a seemingly endless number of arms flying about. From out the clamor Eveley could distinguish repeated hoarse roars of "Pi-i-i-i-tcher," "Pi-i-i-i-tcher," "Ca-a-a-a-a-atcher," "Ca-a-a-a-atcher," and she retired to a remote spot to await the proper moment for gathering up the remains. Being a lady, she could make no sense at all of the deadly uproar, and she was quite thrilled and charmed when of a sudden the tumult subsided, and she found that out of that apparently aimless clamor, two teams had been selected and the players assigned to their various positions on the field. It was black magic to her.