oasted of a good nine, with
whom the St. Louis team expected to cross bats a number of times during
the training season. Then, too, in nearby towns, were other teams, some
of them semi-professional, who would be called on to sacrifice
themselves that the Cardinals might have something to bring out their
own strong and weak points.

"Let's go over to the grounds," suggested Joe.

"I'm with you," agreed Rad.

"Say, you fellows won't be so anxious to head for the diamond a little
later in the season," remarked "Doc" Mullin, one of the outfielders.
"You'll be only too glad to give it the pass-up; won't they?" he
appealed to Roger Boswell, the trainer and assistant manager.

"Well, I like to see young fellows enthusiastic," said Boswell, who had
been a star catcher in his day. But age, and an increasing deposit of
fat, had put him out of the game. Now he coached the youngsters, and
when "Muggins," as Mr. Watson was playfully called, was not on hand he
managed the games from the bench. He was a star at that sort of thing.

"Go to it, boys," he advised Joe and Rad, with a friendly nod. "You
can't get too much baseball when you're young."

The diamond at Reedville was nothing to boast of, but it would serve
well enough for practice. And the grandstand was only a frail, wooden
affair, nothing like the big one at Robison Field, in St. Louis.

Joe and Rad walked about the field, and longed for the time when they
would be out on it in uniform.

"Which will be about to-morrow," spoke Rad, as Joe mentioned his desire.
"We'll start in at light work, batting fungo and the like, limbering up
our legs, and then we'll do hard work."

"I guess so," agreed Joe.

The weather could not have been better. The sun shone warmly from a
blue sky, and there was a balmy spiciness to the southern wind.

Rad and Joe walked about town, made a few purchases, and were turning
back to the hotel when they saw "Cosey" Campbell, the third baseman,
standing in front of a men's furnishing store.

"I say, fellows, come here," he called to the two. They came. "Do you
think that necktie is too bright for a fellow?" went on Campbell,
pointing to a decidedly gaudy one in the show window.

"Well, it depends on who's going to wear it," replied Rad, cautiously.

"Why, I am, of course," was the surprised answer. "Who'd you s'pose?"

"I didn't know but what you were buying it to use for a foul line flag,"
chuckled Rad, for Campbell's weakness for scarfs