seats," he explained as he purchased
two score cards; "but I wanted you to get this thing in its entirety."

"You are the doctor," replied Miss Maitland, cheerfully; at which form
of acquiescence her companion regarded her in such surprise that she
burst into a laugh.

"I heard that just now," she confessed; "and it seemed to fit the case.
You know you are really prescribing this game as a cure for acute
Bostonitis."

"Right!" said he, laughing, "I fancy I was. But I didn't mean to be
unpleasantly Aesculapian."

"You weren't," she said. "And do you know, I think you were correct.
Even if you didn't consciously prescribe this as a remedy, I myself
admit--or I almost admit--that I was feeling the need of a tonic a
little different from any I had ever tried at home. And I believe this
is it."

Surely it was. They reached their seats, which they found back of
first base, and sat down between neighbors of uncommon parts. Next to
Helen was a large red man of Hibernian extraction, with a long upper
lip tamed but little by civilization or by razor; on his head he wore a
dilapidated cloth cap; he was, to appearances, driver for an ice
company or a brewery.

At Smith's elbow was a small, black-haired Jew with a pock-marked face.
In front of them were four people who could have been the shipping
clerk for a hardware house, his fiancee, who presided conceivably over
a switchboard in some uptown hotel, a gentleman who looked like a
college professor and who was probably night clerk in a drug store, and
lastly a chunky and well-fed person who, from his turning at once to
the cotton reports, could probably be put down as holding some
responsible position in a Wall Street house. The farther the eye
strayed, the more motley became the array, the more difficult any
generalization.

"It's really useless," said Smith, guessing the girl's thought. "If
any one's missing, it's because he's home sick in bed. Now, tell me
how much you need to be told."

Nearly everything, it seemed; so for the next ten minutes her companion
held forth in a compendious but concise exordium on the great American
game. During this interim the huge concrete stands filled entirely,
and the populace began to spill over onto the field.

"That means ground rules--hit into the crowd good for only two bases,"
said several critics, for the general information of an ambient air
fully as well informed as the speakers.

Down on the field the interesti