The High School building stood by itself in the centre of a block in the newer residence district of Amesville. It was a handsome structure of mottled, yellow-brown brick and sandstone, four stories in height. On the top floor was a large hall used for meetings and for morning drill. When, some six years before, the building had been planned those in charge of the work had believed that in providing that hall and supplying it with a modest amount of gymnastic paraphernalia they were providing liberally and for all time. To their surprise, no sooner was the building occupied than demands came for additional contrivances, and no sooner had those demands been satisfied than that troublesome body, the Alumni Association, put forth a plea for a baseball cage in the basement! It was over a year before the cage materialised, and another year before shower-baths and lockers were installed, but at the time of our story those things were long-established facts and youthful Amesville was deriding the cage as too small and the shower-baths as out of style! The basement of the school building was but half underground, and numerous windows supplied light on one side and one end of the cage. But in February the days were still short and the light did not last long, especially when, as on the fifteenth, the sun was hidden by dull clouds. Since, however, the first week of baseball practice was confined to setting-up exercises and dumb-bell work, light was not of great consequence. Exactly thirty-two boys reported that afternoon at a quarter to four in the cage. Of this number some fourteen or fifteen were holdovers from last season’s First and Second Teams, fellows like Sam Craig, “Buster” Healey, Sidney Morris, Toby Williams, Gordon Smith, and Jack Strobe. Tom Pollock was not present, since his duties at the store in which he was employed frequently kept him from participation in preliminary work. The coach, Mr. Talbot, was a wide-awake-looking man of some twenty-eight years, a former high school player and now a lawyer who, in spite of a growing practice, found time every year to take the baseball players in hand. Today Mr. Talbot gathered the candidates together and spoke energetically and to the point.