Fast Nine; Or, a Challenge from Fairfield

The Sunflower River winds past Hickory Ridge, and that's where we find Elmer Chenowith and his friends returning from a fishing trip, their laughter carrying across the water. They've got a few days before the biggest game of the summer: a baseball showdown against the boys from Fairfield. But there's a problem. Matt Tubbs, the toughest bully in three counties, has gone and made himself a scout leader. The same Matt Tubbs who's made their lives miserable before. Yet something strange has happened. Tubbs has actually organized a troop of his own and issued a formal challenge. Could the scouting movement have changed him? Could this game actually be fair? Elmer thinks so, and maybe that's the most daring hope of all. What follows is a story about small-town rivalries, the ache of boyhood, and what it means to play hard when everything feels like it's on the line. Written in an era when a town's baseball team was a matter of local pride, this novel captures something timeless about loyalty, growing up, and believing people can be better than their worst moments.