Try to develop on the film of your memory the picture of a moderately expansive diamond and outfield, the grass exceptionally abundant on account of the adjacent moisture and the entire enclosure surrounded by the shapely maple and a variety of other trees adorned with vivid spring foliage. Include in the perspective the hurrying, foamy waters of the serpentine Otonabee River flanking the parkside before spreading wide to the harbor beyond and you glimpse the arena where Claudius O’Toole lost his first game to the merciless Bluejays and likewise his wager. These were the home grounds of the Peterborough Bluejays, and the players located on the chessboard as strategetically as might be, were there “with the lard in their hair,” eager to circumvent the Ottawa nine and provide an interesting _premiere_ that afternoon for their supporters who buzzed with expectancy and speculation, tier over tier, as the early innings progressed. Jim Skinner and E. T. Carr encouraged the Jays, and in the telegraph cupola where Tony Webster was at the key, sat Jimmie Anderson, Jack Tinning and John Melville, hoping to ticket the players to Western Ontario. Considerable betting and some odds had been laid here and there on the result among the fans and normal local adherents, and in several outside quarters anticipation was keen, but down in the reeds and stone piles beside the rushing eddies, where a large water snake and his partner were basking with several smaller amphibious creatures in the sunshine, nothing was known of all this. The pair in sable and bronze habiliments, displaying the activity and boldness peculiar to the breed in mating season and their need of food after long hibernation, were fearlessly foraging beside the sedge at the river’s edge, and woe betide the luckless chub in the shallows or lazy frog on shore caught napping. The ball ground outfield ran down close to the river, terminating at a high fence, and was uniform and level save for a few depressions in the black loam where was once a swamp. Owing to the dampness and shade the grass refused to grow hereabouts. The game progressed with tantalizing uncertainty until the pivotal seventh innings, the advantage resting first with the Bluejays and then with the Redskins. At this point the Ottawas gained the ascendancy with a batting rally and Spider O’Toole, who played deep centre field, worked closer in stimulating his men with “Ginger up Germany, to the youth at second--you can’t coax a living from the public on that form.” And again, to the young spitball pitcher, “Steady Slim, nice work lad, take your time, you have them coming and going as easy as pulling on an old glove.”