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                          WHEN YOU WERE A BOY




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                      [Illustration: Frontispiece]




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                                WHEN YOU
                               WERE A BOY

                                   BY
                             EDWIN L. SABIN

                            WITH PICTURES BY
                          FREDERIC DORR STEELE

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                         [Illustration: Figure]

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                                New York
                       THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
              33-37 EAST 17TH STREET, UNION SQUARE (NORTH)




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             Copyright, 1905, by THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY

                                  ---

                        Published October, 1905




                The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A.




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             For permission to republish the following
             sketches the author is gratefully indebted
             to the Century Magazine, the Saturday Evening
             Post, Everybody’s Magazine, and the National
             Magazine.




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                                CONTENTS

                                   ❦


                                                  PAGE
                     I The Match Game               11
                    II You at School                39
                   III Chums                        65
                    IV In the Arena                 91
                     V The Circus                  111
                    VI When You Ran Away           135
                   VII Goin’ Fishin’               155
                  VIII In Society                  179
                    IX Middleton’s Hill            195
                     X Goin’ Swimmin’              219
                    XI The Sunday-School Picnic    239
                   XII The Old Muzzle-Loader       257
                  XIII A Boy’s Loves               277
                   XIV Noon                        297




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                             THE MATCH GAME




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                         [Illustration: “YOU”]




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                          WHEN YOU WERE A BOY




                             THE MATCH GAME


      “OUR” NINE

    Billy Lunt, c
    Fat Day, p
    Hen Schmidt, 1b
    Bob Leslie, 2b
    Hod O’Shea, 3b
    Chub Thornbury, ss
    Nixie Kemp, lf
    Tom Kemp, rf
    “You,” cf.

    “THEIR” NINE

    Spunk Carey, c
    Doc Kennedy, p
    Screw Major, 1b
    Ted Watson, 2b
    Red Conroy, 3b
    Slim Harding, ss
    Pete Jones, lf
    Tug McCormack, rf
    Ollie Hansen, cf

                       We:     5   9   9    8—31
                       They:  11  14   9   16—50


FAT DAY was captain and pitcher. He was captain because, if he was
_not_, he wouldn’t play, and inasmuch as he owned the ball, this would
have been disastrous; and he was pitcher because he was captain.

In the North Stars were other pitchers—seven of them! The only member
who did not aspire to pitch was Billy Lunt, and as catcher he occupied a
place, in “takin’ ’em off the bat,” too delightfully hazardous for him
to surrender, and too painful for anybody else to covet.


[Illustration: FAT DAY]


The organization of the North Stars was effected through verbal
contracts somewhat as follows:

“Say, we want you to be in our nine.”

“All right. Will you lemme pitch?”

“Naw; Fat’s pitcher, ’cause he’s captain; but you can play first.”

“Pooh! _Fat_ can’t pitch—”

“I can, too. I can pitch lots better’n _you_ can, anyhow.” (This from
Fat himself.)

“W-well, I’ll play first, then. I don’t care.”

Thus an adjustment was reached.

A proud moment for you was it when _your_ merits as a ball-player were
recognized, and you were engaged for center-field. Of course, secretly
you nourished the strong conviction that you were cut out for a pitcher.
Next to pitcher, you preferred short-stop, and next to short-stop, first
base. But these positions, and pretty much everything, in fact, had been
preempted; so, after the necessary haggling, you accepted center-field.

Speedily the North Star make-up was complete, and disappointed
applicants—those too little, too big, too late, or not good enough—were
busy sneering about it.


[Illustration: BILLY LUNT]


The equipment