mine and rather a pal of
Josephine's, appeared at the house one evening and laid before me, in
his engaging, plausible fashion, a project which he and his wife and my
wife had cooked up between them. He and Josephine assured me, in the
first place, that I wouldn't have the least bother in the matter, and
that everything would be perfectly plain running for the reason that
Sam was intimate with the manager of the railroad, and that little Fred
had secured the requisite number of tickets for the game. Then he
proceeded to inform me that they had conceived the idea of going to see
the game at Springfield in a private special car; that the manager had
promised to let him have one, and that it would be much more jolly to
go with a few friends like that and have a luncheon comfortably served
by a caterer than to be lumped in the common cars with Tom, Dick, and
Harry, who were liable to be noisy students, or still more noisy
prize-fighters, and starve; that there were several people crazy to go
whom it would be very pleasant to have, notably Mrs. Guy Sloane and
Mrs. Walter Warner (nee Polly Flinders), and that the expense would be
comparatively trifling.

"I think it would be particularly nice, Fred, on Josie's account,"
added my wife. "I should ask two or three of her girls, and some boys
to match. She is inclined to be shy, and this would be just the
occasion to help her to feel at her ease with young men. Then I
thought you would like to have a chat with Polly Warner; you so rarely
see her now, and you and she used to get on so well together; and you
know Mrs. Guy Sloane always stimulates you. I think you would have a
very good time; and, as Sam says, it's a Dutch treat, so the expense
would fall on everybody alike."

Seeing that Josephine's heart was set on going in just that way, I did
not attempt to interpose objections. I took the liberty, however, of
remarking that, though we as the parents of one of the players had a
reason for going, I could not understand why a cultivated woman like
Mrs. Guy Sloane was willing, crazy indeed according to what they had
said, to take so much trouble to see a pack of college youths knock
each other about. In answer to this, Sam declared that every man,
woman, and child in the city who could possibly get away was going to
Springfield; that trains were to be run every fifteen minutes, and that
no less than twenty special private cars in addition to ours had been
chartered for th