The noonday practice in the cage was producing results for Joe and Jack. It would have been strange if it had not, for when you put in from fifteen to twenty minutes six times a week doing nothing but trying to bring a poised bat against a thrown ball you’ve simply got to learn something! And Joe learned that the time to judge a pitched ball was just before it reached the plate and not when it left the pitcher’s glove, and that “the shorter the swing the surer the hit.” They took turns standing in front of the wall at one end of the baseball cage and trying to hit everything that came. At first they made no special effort to direct the hits. The game was to let no ball get past. It was fine training for the eye, there could be no doubt of that, and very soon the one who pitched had to use all his cunning to get the ball by the bat. Then the batter tried to put the ball always toward the pitcher, and after he had gained proficiency at that he attempted to hit it to the left or the right. Naturally enough it was Jack who showed the most cleverness at this, and when they had been holding these batting practices for some three weeks his ability to hit every offering and tap it away to any corner of the cage he liked was almost startling. The boys usually had an audience of from one or two to a dozen, who, coming first to make fun, finally watched with interest and admiration. Many were the requests from the spectators to be allowed to try their skill, but Joe and Jack, by then very earnest at their work, refused to be interfered with. Two other fellows appeared one day with bat and ball and insisted on sharing the cage. But their enthusiasm was short-lived. They came the next day and the third day following that, but never again. For a time Joe was deeply disappointed, even disgruntled, because that practice in the cage failed to bring about any improvement on the field. The fact puzzled Jack, too, and he had no very good explanation to offer. The best he could do was to lay it to the difference of conditions. Joe agreed that that was probably it and wanted to know what use there was in keeping on with the cage stunt. But he did keep on, nevertheless, and at last, just when he was reaching a stage of abject hopelessness, the practice bore fruit.