Page "History of baseball in the United States" Paragraph 4

In 1828, an article published in a Hagerstown, Maryland, newspaper briefly describes a young girl who's drawn away from her daily chores to play a familiar game with her friends.

In " A Village Sketch ," author Miss Mitford wrote: " Then comes a sun-burnt gipsy of six, beginning to grow tall and thin and to find the cares of the world gathering about her ; with a pitcher in one hand, a mop in the other, an old straw bonnet of ambiguous shape, half hiding her tangled hair ; a tattered stuff petticoat once green, hanging below an equally tattered cotton frock, once purple ; her longing eyes fixed on a game of baseball at the corner of the green till she reaches the cottage door, flings down the mop and pitcher and darts off to her companions quite regardless of the storm of scolding with which the mother follows her runaway steps.