He made fun of the younger boy and "ragged" him when he was at work. Sometimes he got a laugh from his audience, but more often he didn't, for his humor was a bit heavy. His antagonism was largely personal, for he did not accept Laurie seriously as a rival.
He liked best of all to tease the other on the score of the latter's failure to make good his boast of transforming the impossible Kewpie Proudtree into a pitcher. Elk, like about every one else, had concluded that Laurie had given up that task in despair. But whereas the others had virtually forgotten the amusing episode, Elk remembered and dwelled on it whenever opportunity presented. That Laurie failed to react as Elk expected him to annoyed him considerably. Laurie always looked cheerfully untroubled by gibes on that subject. Any one but Elk would have recognized failure and switched to a more certain method, but Elk was not very quick of perception.
On a Saturday soon after the beginning of the month the Blue met Loring in a game remarkable for coincidences. Each team made eleven hits and eleven runs in the eleven innings that were
