CHAPTER XXIII

OUT AT THE PLATE!

Clearfield turned out well on Saturday for the first Springdale game, while the visitors swelled the proceeds by filling most of one whole section behind third base. The day was fair but rather too cool for the players, with a chilly east wind blowing down the field, a wind that puffed up the dust from the base-paths, whisked bits of paper around and interfered to some extent with the judging of flies in the out-*field. Springdale was in holiday mood, armed with a multitude of blue banners and accompanied by a thick sprinkling of blue-gowned young ladies whose enthusiasm was even more intense than that of their escorts. Clearfield's cheerers had to work hard to equal the slogans that came down from that third-base stand, and Toby Sears, cheer-leader, was forced to many appeals before he got the results he wanted.

Clearfield's line-up was the same she had pre-