the Shortstop (1992)

The Shortstop

ZANE GREY

*

CONTENTS

Chapter.

I PERSUADING MOTHER.

II RIDING AWAY.

III FAME.

IV VICISSITUDE.

V THE CRACK TEAM OF OHIO.

VI FIRST INNINGS.

VII MITTIE-MARU.

VIII ALONG THE RIVER.

IX ON THE ROAD.

X MARJORY AND POND-LILIES.

XI INSIDE BALL.

XII POPULARITY .

XIII SUNDAY BALL .

XIV WAITING IT OUT.

XV THE GREAT GAME.

XVI LAST INNINGS.

Chapter I.

PERSUADING MOTHER.

CHASE CALLOWAY hurried out of the factory door and bent his steps homeward. He wore a thoughtful, anxious look, as of one who expected trouble. Yet there was a briskness in his stride that showed the excitement under which he labored was not altogether unpleasant.

In truth, he had done a strange and momentous thing; he had asked the foreman for higher wages, and being peremptorily refused, had thrown up his place and was now on his way home to tell his mother.

He crossed the railroad tracks to make a short cut, and threaded his way through a maze of smoke-blackened buildings, to come into narrow street lined with frame houses. He entered a yard that could not boast of a fence, and approached a house as unprepossessing as its neighbors.

Chase hesitated on the steps, then opened the door. There was no one in the small, bare, clean kitchen. With a swing which had something of an air of finality about it, he threw his dinner-pail into a corner. "There ! " He said grimly, as if he had done with it. "Mother, where are you ?

Mrs. Alloway came in, a slight little woman, pale, with marks of care on her patient face. She greeted him with a smile, which faded quickly in surprise and dismay.

"You're home early, Chase," she said anxiously.

"Mother, I told you I was going to ask for more money. Well, I did. The foreman laughed at me and refused. So I threw up my job."

"My boy! My boy!" faltered Mrs. Alloway Chase was the only bread-winner in their household of three. His brother, a bright, studious boy of fifteen, was a cripple. Mrs. Alloway helped all she could with her needle, but earned little enough. The winter had been a hard one, and had left them with debts that must be paid. It was no wonder she gazed up at him in distressed silence.

" I've been sick of this job for a long time," went on Chase. " I've been doing a lot of thinking. There 's no chance for me in the factory. I'm not quick enough to catch the hang of mechanics. Here I am over seventeen and big and strong, and I'm making six dollars a week.

Think of it ! Why, if I had a chance - See here, mother, haven't I studied nights ever since I left school to go to work? IAEm no dummy. I can make something of myself. I want to get into business -business for myself, where I can buy and sell."

"My son, it takes money to go into business. Where on earth can you get any? " I'll make it," replied Chase, eagerly. A flush reddened his cheek. He would have been handsome then, but for his one defect, a crooked eye. "I'll make It. I need money quick -and I've hit on the way to make it.