This book includes some of the beginning of baseball & the outbreak of the Civil War.

In the story, Daria Fisk got hit on the head by a baseball. Not only was she hot, but she was going to have a headache. She was almost 12 years old, almost too old for pinafores. She threw the ball, when a boy told her she had lost his ball. He had hit it right where he wanted it, under the oak tree...she just happened to be sitting there. The boy introduced himself as DJ Baxter, newly arrived from South Carolina. DJ thought that Daria should help look for his ball. She found it, at first thinking it was a rock. They agreed that they'd see each other the next day. Daria wondered about the South, DJ was used to the idea of slavery, but he didn't seem rich. When she got home, Daria asked her older sister, Tina, about the sewing circle she attended. Tina had learned a new stitch. Charles, her older brother, was 17 & was crazy about railroads, while her twin brother, David, was crazy about baseball. David had finished off the cherry pie. When Daria described the boy, David thought he had met him already, but insisted that his name was not DJ, but TJ. They decided that they'd find out tomorrow after lunch.