HOPE AND SUSPENSE 93 CHAPTER X. HOW THE GOOD NEWS CAME 102 CHAPTER XI. IN A NEW FIELD 117 CHAPTER XII. AFTER THE VICTORY 139 CHAPTER XIII. PRIDE HAS A FALL 146 CHAPTER XIV. A STRANGE MESSAGE FROM HOME 167 CHAPTER XV. MIKE COSTIGAN'S DISCOVERY 175 CHAPTER XVI. THE CONSPIRACY LAID OPEN 181 CHAPTER XVII. A FAMOUS VICTORY 188 OUR BASE BALL CLUB, _AND HOW IT WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP_. CHAPTER I. GREAT EXPECTATIONS. Alice Howell was flattening her pretty nose against the window pane as she looked ruefully out into the misty atmosphere that surrounded her father's house in North Catalpa. It was eight o'clock in the morning, and the great base ball match was set for two o'clock, that afternoon. As soon as she had risen, Alice had run to the window to see what were the signs of the sky, for Alice was an ardent lover of the American game, and her heart was set on the great match that was to come off on the Agricultural Grounds, near Catalpa, that day. The sky was dull and lowering, and there was little chance that the game would be called. "Your father, the Judge, says you should come to breakfast right away, miss," said the little handmaid of the house. Alice turned from the window with an impatient sigh, saying "Oh dear, Jessie, do you suppose the Jonesville Nine will come up to play the Catalpas, this afternoon?" "'Deed I don't know, miss. I hope so, for Miss Anstress has promised me that I shall go over to see the game if it is played, and goodness only knows when I shall get off again to see a base ball match if I don't go to-day." "But look at the weather! It's as dark as a pocket, and it looks as if it might rain at any moment. Oh dear! oh dear! it's too bad, so it is. And this is to be the last game of the season, and the decisive one, too." And so, more talking to herself than to the small servant who trotted behind her, with a sympathetic air, the pretty Miss Alice went to the breakfast-table where her father waited for her with an aspect of amused dignity. "One cannot see across the river for the fog, papa," said the girl, with a disconsolate tone, as she seated herself. "The fences are dripping with moisture, and the dam roars just as it always does when there is a rain-storm coming up. How very provoking!" "Well, and has my little girl forgotten that it was the day before yesterday that Farmer Boggs was in here from Sugar Grove and said that unless they had more rain before the frosts set in, it would be a hard year for winter wheat? And wasn't it my little girl who said that she wanted Stone River running full, this fall, in order that she might enjoy her new club skates when the ice came?"