otees, of expectorating on the outer surface of the ball before
delivering the same in the direction of the batsman.

I succeeded in inducing my young friends to allow me to drill them in
the choraled cheer. As I remarked repeatedly to them: "Why noise at all,
young gentlemen? But if we must have noise let us have it in an orderly
fashion and in accordance with the best traditions of the Anglo-Saxon
race, from which all of us have or have not sprung as the case may
be--to wit, as follows: Huzza! Huzza! Huzza! Tiger!" But, with the
exception of one or two lads of a docile demeanour, I made no noticeable
headway in my project for substituting cricket for baseball.

Nor did my recommendation of the adoption of a uniform attire for all
the lads attending the private school maintained by St. Barnabas' meet
with any more favourable reception. Personally I was greatly attracted
to the costume provided at Eton. It impressed me that the short,
close-buttoned jacket, exposing the sturdy legs, and so forth, the neat
linen collar and cuffs, and the becoming black tie, the whole being
surmounted by the high hat, with its air of dignity, all combined to
form ideal apparel for the growing lad. Some of the mothers to whom I
broached the thought viewed it with considerable enthusiasm, but among
the boys themselves an unaccountable opposition immediately developed.

The male parents likewise were practically united in their objections.
One husband and father, whose name I shall purposely withhold, actually
sent me word he would swear out an injunction against me should I
undertake to dress his innocent offspring up as a monkey-on-a-stick--the
objectionable phraseology being his, not mine. In all charity I was
constrained to believe that this gentleman's nature was of a coarse
fibre. Had he, I asked myself dispassionately, had he no veneration for
the hallowed memories and customs of a great English institution of
learning? I was impelled to answer in the negative.

Thus time wore on until the beginning of the mid-year vacation drew near
apace. It was at this juncture that the idea of an organisation similar
in character to the Boy Scouts occurred to me. I decided to borrow the
plan, with certain modifications, confining the membership exclusively
to our best families.

Accordingly, on the first Saturday afternoon in the month of May I
called a chosen group of lads together and explained to them my purpose,
finding to my gratification