[Big Six]

Canal Dover, Ohio
August 27, 1898

The western sky was beginning to turn pink as the young couple walked slowly down Wooster Avenue.

"You can't be late for the train, Charlie." Kate Black gently scolded the young man on whose arm she was strolling, smiling sweetly up at him.

"Mr. Cross knows I'm here, remember? And I'm not pitching tomorrow, so who cares if I'm back late?" Charlie grinned mischievously from under the brim of his straw boater.

Gil Cross had given the Watchmakers' newest twirler permission to take the train down to Dover to fetch some of his belongings. Charlie needed more than the contents of the single bag he'd packed when he was called up to Canton, because he was going to be spending the remainder of the season with the "big club."

Naturally, Charlie wanted to spend as much time as he could with "his girl," as Kate was now known to everybody around town. Carefree evenings like this one would be rare now, and they wanted to enjoy every minute they had.

"You can't make Mr. Cross angry, Charlie. He didn't have to let you leave the team to come home, after all."

"I won't make him angry," Charlie replied. "If he didn't get angry at me after the way I pitched yesterday, he won't get angry about much."

Charlie had taken his licks in his 1898 Canton debut, allowing seven runs and twelve hits in six innings before he left the game for a pinch hitter. His control, which had been impeccable during the Township League season, seemed to abandon him against the faster company he faced now.

Kate's eyes softened, and she patted his arm with her gloved fingers. "You just had some bad luck; that's all. It had been a week since you pitched last. You aren't used to waiting that long between games."

Charlie nodded. "You're right. I didn't have a very good 'feel' for my pitches. And batters in the Buckeye League don't swing at the bad ones the way they do in Canal Dover."

The couple strolled along in companionable silence for a few minutes. Then Charlie, in a voice barely above a whisper, asked the question that had been on his mind all afternoon and evening long.

"Have you decided about school yet, Kate?"

She nodded slightly, and turned her face up toward his. "I have. Charlie, I'm afraid if I don't go to Mount Holyoke, I'll spend my whole life wondering what it would have been like...what I would have learned."

Charlie smiled. Kate had given him exactly the answer he'd expected.

"I know, Kate. You need to get away from Canal Dover for a while, just like I am. Maybe I'm only in Canton, but it's still not Canal Dover."

Kate smiled again, and her whole body seemed to relax a bit more now. She'd told him about Mount Holyoke, and he seemed genuinely happy for her. "You know, I'll be home for Christmas vacation, and the term will end in June. And I'll have time to write you lots of letters, I promise."

"I'll write you, too. Maybe I'll go back and finish school myself. A college girl shouldn't go around with a fellow who doesn't even have a high school diploma." Charlie smiled sheepishly; he'd made it to eleventh grade before the ball fields beckoned him and now, with Kate going off to Mount Holyoke, he felt a bit self-conscious about his lack of further educational achievements.

"Don't be silly. Go back to school for you, not for me," Kate said.

"I'll need something to do while you're gone. I might as well spend the time bettering myself."

"And I'll be back home before you know it." Kate smiled even more endearingly than usual.

"By the time I'm home next spring, you'll have won ten games."