Ralph Henry Barbour

“ Billy stopped and went and sat on the side porch, with his feet in the mignonette and the hoki-moki bat hugged to his triumphant breast, and dreamed dreams worthy of Cæsar or Napoleon.
The Broadport Juniors wanted to win to-day's game more than they wanted to win any other contest in a long and comprehensive schedule. The White Sox team was comprised of boys who lived on the Hill. The Hill was the town's patrician quarter. Just about every one who lived up there had an automobile and a chauffeur to drive it and wore his good clothes all the time. ”

“ We can— What is it, Billy? Don't bother me now!"
"I've got to, Arthur," said Billy, firmly, a tight clutch on the captain's arm. "You've got to listen a minute. If you want to win this, you must let me bat, Arthur. I can't help hitting with this bat, honest, and—"
"You're up, Waldo! Work him for a base. Get it somehow!" Arthur tugged impatiently, but Billy held like glue.
"You see, it's a hoki-moki wood bat, Arthur, and hoki-moki wood has a—a infinity for horse-hide. All you've got to do is just swing the bat, and the ball comes right up and hits it. ”

“ Humbleton came to call in the afternoon and brought Arthur with him. Arthur was fourteen and a youth of affairs and position in the community, as became the son of a bank treasurer. For one thing, Arthur was captain of the Broadport Junior Baseball Team. Billy and Arthur were graciously allowed to retire from the society of their elders to the sanctuary of the little side porch, where the chill of an easterly April breeze failed to penetrate. Billy was glad of the opportunity to talk to Arthur, for he had a request to make, and after several false starts he managed to make it. ”

“ The worst of it was that their opinion was justified, for the White Sox—the down-towners jeeringly called them the Silk Sox—beat almost every team they went up against! Last year the Juniors had played two contests with them and had been beaten decisively each time. And so Captain Arthur Humbleton and all the other boys of the Juniors and all their adherents—including mothers and brothers and sisters and an occasional father—were especially keen on a victory. ”

“ Don't never touch a hoki-moki fruit till it's purple, Billy."
Billy promised instantly. "Only," he added, "I might not know it, Captain Ezra, if I was to go to Pirate Key. Is it round? Does it grow on trees?"
"More square than round, you might say. It grows in clusters as big as that water-cask there. Hundreds of 'em together. An' they grow high, because, if they didn't, the wild horses would eat 'em when they was green an' die. That's one o' the wonders o' nature, Billy." ”

“ Practise is supposed to make perfect, but Billy was still a long way from perfection as a batsman. Nor could either he or Arthur Humbleton observe any great amount of improvement. But Billy persisted, consoling himself with rosy dreams of the future. Almost any day. now, the Molly and Kate might return, bearing Billy's Great Discovery. ”

“ Captain Ezra was smoking his pipe on the wharf when Billy arrived, breathless, on the scene.
"Well, well!" exclaimed the captain. "Ain't you round kind o' early?"
Hut there was scant time for amenities, and Billy plunged directly into business. "Are you going down South again, pretty soon, sir?" he inquired anxiously. The captain allowed that he was; as soon, in fact, as the new cargo was aboard, which, if he wasn't saddled with the laziest crew on record, ought to be in about four days. "And are you going to Pirate Key?" ”

“ Talkin' always gives me a powerful appetite. Sing out to Steve to start that galley fire an' get a hustle on him!"
Billy's thoughts dwelt a good deal for the rest of that day on Captain Ezra's interesting discourse, and when he went to sleep, it was to dream terribly complicated things about wild horses and hoki-moki trees and the fascinating inhabitants of Pirate Key, who wore the scantiest attires, but indulged themselves in traveling-bags! Sunday was always a hard day to live through, for after church and Sunday-school were over many empty hours stretched ahead. ”

“ Guess the only kind o' fruit a horse won't eat is cocoanuts." The captain filled his pipe leisurely and in silence. Then: "Another peculiar thing, Billy, is what you might call the—the affinity o' the hoki-moki tree an' them wild horses. They can't keep away from 'em, the horses can't. There's something about the—the tree itself that draws the horses; something in the wood, they say. You don't never find any bark on a hoki-moki tree low down, because the wild horses keeps rubbin' themselves against it. Seems like they just can't resist the—the sub-tile influence. ”

“ The captain nodded gravely. "Them Pirate Key folks lives a long time. They don't go to school until they're twenty. If they did, you see, they'd forget all they'd learned afore they was what you might call middle-aged."
Billy pondered that. Not going to school until one was twenty had much to be said in its favor. ”

“ Billy had to be content with that. Meanwhile, Waldo Hutchins had waited and walked. An attempted sacrifice, however, failed to work, and Waldo was cut off at second. The runner was safe on first. With one gone, the audience began to disperse slowly. Then the Juniors' right-fielder landed squarely and rapped past third, and hope crept back into the breasts of his team-mates. the departing onlookers paused in their exodus. The Sox second baseman let the throw from the pitcher pass unchallenged over his head, and the runners advanced to second and third. The cheering grew frantic. ”

“ I guess there ain't anything on that there island I couldn't have for the askin', Billy, the king an' me bein' so friendly. Tell you what I'll do, now. I'll get 'em to cut a piece o' that wood an' make the bat for you right there. How'll that be?"
Billy looked dubious. "Why, that's awfully kind, sir, but—but do you think they'd know how to make a baseball bat? Bats have to be made awf'ly particular. Captain Ezra, or else they aren't much good."
"Don't you worry about that, son. They have been makin' their own bats on Pirate Key for years, an' I guess there ain't no better ones to be had." ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1944, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 79 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”