om a
second-string team and gave me a chance to make good on the Giants. He
took a chance in offering me a three-year contract in place of one. I'm
getting four thousand, five hundred a year, which is a good big sum
whatever way you look at it. And you remember how promptly he came across
with that thousand dollars for winning twenty games last season."

"We remember that, don't we, Momsey?" said Clara, patting her mother's
hand.

"I should say we did," replied Mrs. Matson, while a suspicious moisture
came into her eyes. "Will we ever forget the day when we opened that
letter from the dear boy, and the thousand-dollar bill fell out on the
table? It gave us all the happiest time we have had in all our lives."

Jim, too, mentally blessed that big bill which had brought the Matson
family to witness the World's Series games and so had enabled him to meet
Joe's charming sister. Perhaps that vivacious young lady read what was
passing in his mind, for her eyes suddenly dropped as they met Jim's
eloquent ones.

Joe flushed at this reference to his generosity, and Clara was quick to
cover her own slight confusion by rallying her brother.

"He's blushing!" she declared.

"I'm not," denied Joe stoutly, getting still redder.

"You are so," averred his sister in mock alarm. "Stop it, Joe, before it
gets to your hair. I don't want a red-headed brother."

Joe made a dash at his tormentor, but she eluded him and got into another
room.

"Come along, Jim," said Joe, picking up his cap. "Let's warm up a little.
We want to keep our salary wings in good condition, and maybe the open
air will help to get the bad taste of the new league out of our mouths."

They went into an open lot near by and had a half-hour's practice,
pitching to each other at a moderate pace, only now and then unlimbering
some of the fast balls that had been wont to stand opposing batters "on
their heads" in the exciting games of the season just ended.

"How does the old soup bone feel?" inquired Jim.

"Fine as silk," replied Joe; "I was afraid I might have strained it in
that last game. But it feels as strong now as it did at the beginning of
the season."

They had supper a little earlier than usual that night, for with the
exception of Joe's father, who was busy on a new invention, they were all
going to a show that evening at the Riverside Opera House. It promised to
be an interesting entertainment, for the names of several popular actors
appeared on