 This was the first time they had encountered a black man. Everyone was white those days in Freeport, and frankly in most of Maine. No one knew the name of the porter who brought them the baseballs, where he lived, whether he had boys of his own. No one even thought to ask. They were uncertain whether it had been in his plan all along to return a signed baseball, or if that came in response to their letter to the railroad. Most believed the former, especially when the balls kept coming. To those boys, a black man