ndianapolis of the American Association.

"When I got home that night I had to tell my dad about it, because I was
to leave for Indianapolis the very next day. Oh, that was a terrible
night! Finally, Dad said, 'Now listen, I've told you time and time again
that I don't want you to be a professional ballplayer. But you've got
your mind made up. Now I'm going to tell you something: when you cross
that threshold, don't come back. I don't ever want to see you again.'"

"No!" said Ozma with a start. "No way! No father would say such a thing
to his own son!"

"That was just what my father said to me," said Rube sadly. "He didn't
want me to come home again. I was excommunicated from the family."

"That's awful!" said Lisa. "Parents do have a certain responsibility
toward any children that they brought into the world! He was a skinflint
and a creep!"

"Yes," agreed Rube. "His actions that day were like those of a regular
skunk!"

"I've known some very nice skunks in my day," said Hootsey.

"In any case," said the shadow, not wanting to get into a debate about
his use of the word _skunk_, "I was as shocked as you all seem to be.

"'You don't mean that, Dad!" I said.

"'Yes, I do.'

"'Well,' I replied. 'I'm going. And some day you'll be proud of me.'

"'Proud!' he said. 'You're breaking my heart, and I don't ever want to
see you again.'

"'I will not break your heart,' I said. 'I'll add more years to your
life. You wait and see.'

"And so it was that I went to Indianapolis. They optioned me out to
Canton in the Central League for the rest of the 1907 season, and I won
twenty-three games with them, which was one-third of all the games the
Canton Club won that year."

"Good for you, Rube!" said Elephant, genuinely proud of his new friend.

"The next year--that would have been 1908--I went to Spring Training
with the Indianapolis Club. We went to French Lick Springs, Indiana.
After three weeks there we went back to Indianapolis and played a few
exhibition games before the season opened. Well, believe it or not, the
first club to come in for an exhibition game was the Cleveland team:
Napoleon Lajoie, Terry Turner, Elmer Flick, George Stovall and the whole
bunch that I used to carry bats for. When they came on the field I was
already warming up.

"'Hey!' a couple of them yelled at me. 'What are you doing here? Are you
the bat boy here?'

"'No,' I smugly replied. 'I am the pitcher.'

"'You, a pitcher?' they jeere