g his freshman year on the class team, Joe was picked as one of the
pitchers for the varsity.

Then, indeed, he was proud and happy, but he knew it would not be as
easy as it had been at Excelsior Hall. Every step upward meant harder
work, but Joe welcomed the chance.

And when finally the deciding game came--the one with Princeton at the
Polo Grounds, New York--Joe had the proud distinction of pitching for
Yale--and he pitched to victory.

Joe's ambition, ever since he had taken an interest in baseball, had
been to become a professional player. His mother had hoped that he
would become a minister, or enter one of the more learned professions,
but, though Joe disappointed her hopes, there was some compensation.

"Better let the boy have his own way," Mr. Matson had said. "I would
rather see him a good ball player than a half-rate lawyer, or doctor;
and, after all, there is good money to be made on the diamond."

So, when Joe received an offer from the manager of one of the minor
league professional teams, he took it. In "Baseball Joe in the Central
League; Or, Making Good as a Professional Pitcher," the fourth volume of
the series, I related Joe's experiences when he got his start in
organized baseball. How he was instrumental in bringing back on the
right path a player who had gone wrong, and how he fought to the last,
until his team won the pennant--all that you will find set down in the
book.

I might add that Joe lived with his father, mother, and sister in the
town of Riverside, where Mr. Matson was employed in the Royal Harvester
Works, being an able inventor.

Joe had many friends in town, one in particular being Tom Davis, who had
gone to Excelsior Hall with him. Of late, however, Joe had not seen so
much of Tom, their occupations pursuing divergent paths.

It was while Joe was on his way to join the Pittston team, of the
Central League, that he made the acquaintance of Reggie Varley, a rich,
and somewhat dudish, young man; and the acquaintance was made in an odd
manner. For Reggie practically accused Joe of knowing something of some
jewelry that was missing from a valise.

Of course Joe did not take it, but for some time the theft remained
quite a mystery, until Joe solved the secret. From then on he and Reggie
were good friends, and Reggie's sister Mabel and Joe were----

Oh, well, what's the use of telling on a fellow? You wouldn't like it
yourself; would you?

The baseball season came to an end,