the ball and the large amount of fun there is wrapped up in it. They dilate upon the proficiency they have already attained in throwing, catching and batting, and patronize Harry a trifle perhaps, because of his inexperience.
"Why can't we have a game of barn-ball, now?" asks the unsophisticated Harry.
"Oh, don't you know nuthin'?' There isn't any barn," answers Dick.
"I'll tell you what we can do," says the inventive Tom. "Come on, Dick; you and I will throw and catch, just as we did the other day, and Harry can stand between us with the club. Now, Dick, when I throw to you, Harry can face me and try to hit the ball, and when you throw to me he can turn your way and strike at it. If Harry misses the ball, and either of us catches it before it hits the ground or on the first bound, he's out and the fellow who catches him out takes the club. If he hits the ball far enough to get to that rock over there and back before one of us gets the ball and hits him with it, he counts one tally; but if one of us hits him with the ball, he's out. See?" And thus the game of "One Old Cat" was born, and the fourth step has been evolved, with Three Boys, a Bat, a Ball and a Base.
The evolution of the next step in the game of Base Ball was natural and easy. It was a very simple sequence of One Old Cat. It grew out of the fact that Jim came along and wanted to play with the others.
"That's dead easy," says the resourceful Tom. "We'll just add another base, get another club, and there you are. All the difference there will be is that when
