Arthur Stanwood Pier

“ Running the squad meant leading them in the pulling of chest-weights, stroking and coaching them on the rowing-machines, and afterwards taking them for a mile trot down the road. It was quite like being captain, and though Edward felt as he led his meagre band that perhaps not one of them would ever make the crew, he enjoyed being given a position of such responsibility. ”

“ And Durant clapped him on the shoulder just as Blanchard had done.
Charles Crashaw paused to survey his men and the enemy. There was Jackson, dishevelled, dirty, panting, but in the full flush of his strength; opposite him stood Edward, with his face white and drawn, betraying exhaustion and suffering. Charles looked along the line. His jocular word to Blanchard before the game had come true. He had found St. Timothy’s weak spot.
There were only a few minutes left before time would be called. Charles began to drive every play against his brother. ”

“ Edward answered.
“I suppose, with Sheldon gone, you’ll be needed in the boat about as much as on the nine,” Payne conceded. “I wish there were two of you, Edward.”
“I guess you think I’m a great deal better than I am.”
“No, I don’t. I remember the first time I ever saw you stand up to bat, and I knew right off what you could do. You can’t fool me; I know a natural-born hitter when I see one. It’s too bad to think of all that talent being wasted. ”

“ The rattle of talk and laughter was suddenly submerged in applause; ten little First Formers, clad in white gymnasium suits and carrying, each one, a pair of tiny Indian clubs, emerged from the stairway at the left and trotted forward in front of the rowing-machines. Then they began swinging their clubs, all keeping time together, their small bare arms twinkling, their chests out, some of them with smiling faces, some of them serious and intent. ”

“ John’s spectators were strolling toward the School; they looked at Edward with respectful curiosity; some of them, friends of Charles, sauntered up and were introduced; they had a pleasant word of reproach for Edward.
“You see,” Charles said, when at a corner of the big dormitory he and his brother stood at last alone, “it’s you who are the great man now, and they all want to look at you, in spite of the way you treated us. I guess it’s a good thing I’m not to be at St. John’s much longer: I’d find I was known just as the brother of the Crashaw at St. Timothy’s.” ”

“ I believe you can make it.”
“If I make the crew I can’t play baseball,” objected Edward.
“If you can make the crew I don’t see why you should want to play baseball,” replied Charles.
“Because it’s so much more fun.”
“You can’t tell how much fun rowing is from simply practising on a machine. It’s not a fair test. Besides, Ned, think what sport it would be for us to buck up against each other in a race. You’d have your chance maybe to get your revenge.” ”

“ On the next ball pitched he was off for second. Durant stood squarely in the way; Edward slid into him feet first just as he was catching the ball and upset him; and Edward was safe at second base amid the delighted shrieks of the Fourth Form and the violent demands of the Fifth and Sixth: “Put him out! Mucker ball! Take him out!”
Durant got to his feet, furious.
“Don’t play any of your dirty St. John’s tricks here,” said Durant.
“Dirty nothing!” said Edward, dusting off his clothes. If you stand square in the baseline, of course I’ll run into you.”
“Don’t be fresh,” Durant admonished him. ”

“ Edward said to Keating and Lawrence, “it was sandy of Sheldon to go into that thing all by himself. It took nerve.”
“Um,” said Lawrence. “Don’t see why he didn’t do better, though.”
Even on the next day, Easter Sunday, Edward’s pleasure was clouded. He had brought Sheldon up to his father and mother, and Mr. Crashaw had congratulated the boy on his athletic prowess.
Sheldon, without meaning to be ungracious, said, “Oh, I don’t deserve to be congratulated on that, Mr. Crashaw. Anybody can win an event if he’s the only one in it.” ”

“ Edward understood: he knew that a fellow who feels that he has been a quitter likes most of all to shut himself off from the world, and least of all to hear well-intended compliments. Sheldon was still in low spirits the next morning when Edward said good-bye to him.
At home the Crashaw family found Charles, who had arrived from St. John’s by an earlier train. Edward was disappointed by Charles’s nose, which looked just as swollen and distorted as when he had last seen it; and Mrs. Crashaw, quite unprepared for such a disfigurement, was shocked by it. ”

“ I guess he can do just about anything he wants to,” Edward thought one day as he sat in chapel and looked across the aisle at Durant’s resolute, fine profile and handsome head.
He was destined, he knew, to find out how well Durant could play football, and he did not relish that prospect. It was not so much that he shrank from a test which would demonstrate his own inferiority as that he dreaded the encounter with Durant’s sharp tongue; he felt sure that in the heat of the contest his opponent would become ugly. He expected to have jeering, sneering things said to him all through the game ”

“ But honestly, I wondered if you were getting on to hockey any better than you used to.”
“No. I ’m as much a chump as ever. I go out and play with little kids, and they stick me in to keep goal, and I fall all over myself when anybody comes at me with the puck. I’ll be glad when baseball begins again; I think that’s one thing anyway I can do.”
“You’d better take up rowing instead of baseball; you’re just the build for it, and it’s a great deal more fun.”
“How do you know?” Edward laughed. “You never played ball enough to find out.” ”

“ There was no keeping eyes in the boat then, least of all for Edward. Amid the wild, delighted shouts from the St. Timothy’s shore, Durant slackened the stroke while he and all his crew gazed at the St. John’s boat drifting astern. The St. John’s crew were resting on their oars, all but the stroke, who had collapsed utterly and seemed to have fallen forward almost against the coxswain.
“He’s a dead one!” screamed Gardner in his juvenile jubilation; he was only a Third Former after all. “He’s passed away! He’s all in!” ”

“ Keating was a new boy who did not know any Sixth Formers and looked upon them all as cold and snobbish.
“Not much they won’t,” said Lawrence, who was not a new boy. “They’ll think they can bat us all over the lot, and that it will give them something to jolly us about the rest of the year.”
“Well, maybe it will,” said Edward. “But it will be fun just the same—especially if the fellows in the Fourth who don’t play will come out on the side-lines and yell for us.”
Lawrence snickered to himself. “I tell you what would be great,” he said. “Let’s get a rise out of the Fifth Form. ”

“ Edward told of the altercation which they had had in the baseball game.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” Blanchard said. “Durant’s quick-tempered—terribly quick-tempered.”
“He thinks I’m fresh, I guess,” Edward answered. “He does n’t care for me anyhow; I know that. When we meet he nods in a way that makes me tired. If a fellow can’t smile a little when he nods, I’d rather have him cut me altogether.”
“Well,” Blanchard laughed, “you could n’t expect Durant to care for you very much, could you?” ”

“ The September afternoons were warm, too warm to encourage an interest in football; the boys played tennis and organized scrub baseball games. Edward and a tall slim fellow named Keating and a stocky pink-cheeked boy named Lawrence were the baseball enthusiasts of the Fourth Form; they happened to be assigned seats at the same table and early came to know one another. In all the study recesses they would be out passing a ball back and forth; in the afternoons they collected their friends and had scrub games in a corner of the big athletic field. ”

“ His nose was battered over to one side and was already thick and swollen. The doctor bathed his face from the pail of water that some one had brought, and then felt and pressed the injured nose.
“Hurt?” he said.
“Oh, some,” replied Charles.
“It’s broken; well, there’s not much that can be done for it just now.—One moment.”
Charles bore without wincing the treatment to which he was subjected. When it was over, he smiled at Edward, who had edged closer and got hold of his hand.
“Cheer up, Ned,” he said. “What are you looking so blue about? You fellows have a chance to beat us yet.” ”

“ Blanchard replied. “Only at left tackle, where Wallace and Crashaw have been alternating.”
“That’s just the place. If you pick your man now and keep him there right along, he’ll settle down to the position and play it better in the game.”
“I picked the man to-day.”
“I hope it’s Wallace.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you. It’s Crashaw.”
Durant’s face became glum. “I don't quite see why. Wallace is older, he’s had more experience; I’ve played against them both. This is Wallace’s last year, and I think he has a right to feel that he’s earned his chance.” ”

“ Edward, without opening his eyes, smiled a weary assent.
“Now,” Blanchard said, addressing the eleven, “I’ll tell you what I want you to do, fellows. It’s our kick-off this half, and we have the wind with us. We’ve got to keep St. John’s from running the ball back; when they kick we must get the ball inside their forty-yard line. And then we’re off for a touchdown. We can score in the first five minutes, if every man plays for all that’s in him.—Ned, I’ll give you a chance to run with the ball; Durant’s playing a bully game, opening up holes, and you ought to get through for your distance.” ”

“ Edward was thinking quickly, trying to imagine what was passing through Jackson’s mind. With two strikes called on him. Jackson would not intentionally give him his base on balls—especially as Blanchard, a strong batter, would follow him. Rather than take a chance of giving him his base, would n’t Jackson send him a straight ball—placing it as surely as possible right over the plate, trusting to the fielders if the batter hit it and to the umpire if the batter let it go?
“A straight ball,” Edward decided. “That’s what nine men out of ten would send.” ”

“ Stearns was at the bat. “There! If Stearns strikes out! He’s got to advance Warren to second! After him there are only Slade and Keating. We’ve got to have Edward in to hit the ball; it’s our only chance.” ”

“ Doctor; it’s no use. Durant, will you be captain?—Play hard, fellows; you can lick them.”
Durant and the doctor assisted him to the side-line, while St. John’s and St. Timothy’s alike applauded him. Carberry, his substitute, ran out and began limbering up and making practice passes with the ball. Blanchard stretched himself on a blanket on the ground and then drew Durant’s head down close to his.
“You’re captain now, and it’s all your game, Harry,” he said. “There’s just one thing; I believe young Crashaw will play better if you don’t scold him.” ”

“ The ball came low; he stepped forward, and then let it pass without swinging his bat.
“Ball three!” cried the umpire, and St. Timothy’s shouted.
“Good waiting, Edward!” called Payne from the first-base coaching line, where he was shifting from one foot to the other in excitement.
“Good boy, Edward!” called Bell from the third-base coaching line, where he was pacing back and forth in agitation.
Two strikes and three balls: it was a trying moment for every one. Jackson deliberated, shook his head at some signal from his catcher, settled himself twice into position. ”

“ It was quite a different method that Cole, the captain of the Corinthians, pursued. Cole had no great strength or skill as an oarsman, but he was most painstaking; and when he was not himself actively pulling weights or rowing, he was standing by, watching and criticizing and trying to teach the others—even the most unpromising. But when Sheldon had had enough of the weights and the rowing-machines, he would pick out some one—usually Edward—and say, “You run the rest of the squad to-day.” ”

“ John’s!” shouted the St. John’s Sixth Form, who were gathered together on the farther side of the rink. Then individually they called out their congratulations to Charles:—
“Great run, Charley! Do it again! You’ve got their nerve!”
Charles had been skating hard; he leaned forward, resting on his hockey-stick, and panted for breath. But a moment later, when the puck had been put in play, he seized it and started off as if to repeat his performance; he got by Sheldon in just the same way as before, and Lawrence remarked with chagrin, "He’s making a monkey of Sheldon.” ”

“ I'll ask Jim Payne and Fred Bell about it; they’re our baseball stars. How does it come that you’re one? That’s one thing your brother never did, is n’t it?”
"Oh, Charley plays a little. But he never was very good at it. In the summer he sails and plays tennis—and in the spring at St. John’s he rows. So he’s not had much chance to play ball. But I always liked it.”
Blanchard looked at the boy’s eager face and honest eyes with a smile; somehow he found himself liking young Edward Crashaw very much—just as he had always liked Charles Crashaw, even in conflict. ”

“ It silenced the scoffers for that inning; but at intervals afterward throughout the game, when nothing else occurred to them, and the Fourth Form was in the field or Edward was at the bat, they would start the chant, "Pishaw, P——shaw! Freshy Crashaw!"
Edward couldn't quite understand why they had singled him out as the object of their antipathy, but he tried to be cheerful, and he kept on playing just as hard as if his team stood a chance of winning. ”

“ Then Charles directed a play at Edward; Jackson opened up the hole and Dale rushed through for five yards.
“Stop them, Crashaw; you’ve got to stop them!” cried Durant passionately.
Charles Crashaw heard that too, and his eyes glittered.
Blanchard gave Edward a confiding pat on the shoulder. “All right, old man; all right,” said Blanchard’s quiet voice.
That generous confidence made Edward choke; he resolved to justify his captain’s faith. The next time he made a good tackle; and again St. John’s had to kick. The ball was St. Timothy’s in the middle of the field. ”

“ They reached the mile mark, the halfway point; the coxswain continued to report, “They’re hanging on, just where they were; we don’t shake ’em off.” His voice was getting more excited, more anxious. The shouts of the distant spectators came faintly to their ears—the shouts from both shores blending and indistinguishable. The pull was beginning to wear on Durant’s crew; Edward was breathing hard, and he heard Davis’s measured grunts behind him.
Durant muttered something to the coxswain; the coxswain through the megaphone strapped to his mouth interpreted it to the crew. ”