ROBERT W. HETHINGTON NELSON E. TILFORD DANIEL H. F. SPEEDE THOMAS C. FERRIS They were hugely pleased with it and kept it a whole day to admire and exhibit. Then it went off by express, and in due time there came a reply which, as the Four had scattered, went from Chicago to Portland, to Boston, to New York, to Chicago, and from there came east again in Tom’s trunk to Hillton. But, lest you make the mistake of thinking that final week a period of laziness, it should be said that the baseball diamond was worn almost bare of grass. Every morning and every afternoon the nine practised in preparation for the Wickasaw game. As for eight of the nine, they didn’t feel that life would be ruined even if Wickasaw did beat them. But Bob was of another sort; he had set his heart on winning and would go home feeling that the summer had ended in disgrace if Wickasaw again triumphed; and so the others caught some of the infection from him and labored zealously in the hottest kind of a sun morning and afternoon until Friday. On Friday there was only a half hour’s easy work, for Bob had his ideas on the subject of training. That night, about the camp-fire, the prospect was talked over and it was generally agreed that if Wells, who was again to pitch, didn’t go up in the air Chicora was pretty certain of victory. That, as events turned out, was a big “if.” CHAPTER XXII NARRATES THE PROGRESS OF THE CONTEST WITH WICKASAW, AND WITNESSES THE DISINTEGRATION OF ONE WELLS TILFORD, c.f. SPEEDE, 1b. CARTER, 2b. RIDLEY, r.f. LOOM, ss. BRYANT, l.f. HETHINGTON, c. VAN RODEN, 3b. WELLS, p. That’s the way the names were written in the score-book by the Official Scorer, Mr. “Babe” Fowler, who sat on a soap-box and looked and felt vastly important. Behind him and about him--sometimes, much to his wrath, interfering with his view of the proceedings--sat and stood the boys of Camp Chicora. Across the plate were the supporters of Wickasaw, while here and there, wherever shade was to be found, were spectators from the Inn, the village, Camp Trescott, and the smaller hotels and boarding-houses around. Behind Bob stood one of the Trescott councilors, Mr. Downer, who was to umpire. Mr. Clinton, and Mr. Powers of Wickasaw, watched the contest side by side from under the latter’s big linen umbrella.