Matthew M. Colton

“ He certainly was "coming" like a locomotive, his thin legs flying and his arms working like flails. A hundred yards from the finish Hillard caught Peckham, but the little whitehead was still legging it ten yards in front of him. And now Hillard settled down to do his best. Slowly he came up on Tommy Brown while the school yelled its applause, but those thin, flying shanks still continued to move with unbroken rhythm, and despite Hillard's greatest efforts he could not overhaul the Freshman who, with a great burst of speed, broke the tape six feet ahead of the champion. ”

“ Tompkins, seeing his opportunity, was away to the side of the field from which the play had come like the wind, every man Jack of the First eleven having been carried in the direction of Hillard. Before they could bring themselves to a halt, and turn on their tracks, Tompkins had gathered speed. Once a tackle got a hand on him, but he shook it off, and with a clear field carried the ball across the goal line, touched it down behind the posts, and sat there upon it, grinning like a Cheshire cat. ”

“ But as every one was trying for the Gamma, the Alpha got the second run of fellows until now it isn't an honor to belong to it, and the fellows who don't get Gamma turn the other down flat, preferring to have nothing."
"Seems like a chance for a third," observed Frank. "Wonder it hasn't been started."
"No one has the nerve to start it," said Lewis. "They growl and growl at the Gamma like nice little dogs, but they never bite."
"Gee whiz, it's nearly practice time," cried Jimmy. "We go out from four to five every day, and we've just time to make it. Stop your prinking, and come along. ”

“ Just cast your eye on Jimmy," said Frank. "Jimmy grew bigger every day of football and he is as hard as a stone wall. Feel his muscles. Come on, Jimmy, show the lady." And Jimmy obligingly flexed his biceps and offered the bunched-up knot of muscles as a proof of his growing power.
"And look at David there. He's going to be the champion strong man of Queen's, if he doesn't look out. He spends all his spare time down at the gym. You should see him dipping on the parallel bars and doing stunts on the flying rings. Patsy has to actually drive him out of the place," which was a fact. ”

“ It might only be Jimmy's imagination in his excitement.
"All I've got to say to you," said Horton to his charges when they were dressed and ready, "is to attend to business and play as a team, and think about what you are doing. These fellows are bigger than you, and you will have to outwit them. Use your heads and keep together. Now, skip."
In the first collision of the game, the big fellows from Barrows swept the lighter Queen's School back as though they were made of paper, and screams of delight rose from the stand where had gathered the hosts of Barrows. ”

“ All of a sudden, Frank began to look for the Wee One. A terrible thought came to him that he might still be in his room. "Where is Patterson?" he cried frantically, hoping to hear an answer from the Wee One from some safe position on the ground, but there was no answer. It was with a white face that he turned to Mr. Parks, and said: "Patterson must be in his room; he's not down here." ”

“ If we can only force Chip to drop his grudge against Turner, and get down to business, we might still have a fighting chance, but it's hopeless I'm afraid. The whole of Gamma Tau is behind him. And the worst of it is he's knocked poor Jimmy, and has done it so cleverly that even Horton thinks Jimmy's unreliable in a tight pinch, and if there's anything Horton won't forgive a man for, it is to fail when he is most needed. With no one strong enough to push his case and the captain and Dixon dead against him, there's not much more chance for Turner now. ”

“ Nature had done her share in the first place with a tract of land almost as level as a floor and some thirty acres in extent, but the hand of man completed the job, and the playground was one of the show places of Queen's School. Its rather low level, as it bordered on the Wampaug river, insured a greenness of verdure no matter how dry the season. Trained ground keepers kept the place like a gentleman's garden. ”

“ It was a very open fall that first year of Frank's at Queen's School, and despite the fact that the boys who were inclined to the game of hockey prayed fervently for good ice, Jack Frost held off. Several times it threatened to freeze up, and there was a great polishing and sharpening of skates and seeing to the leather straps.
"When the ice comes we'll get up a hockey team," said Frank to Jimmy one day, meeting him in the yard. "Neither of us will get a chance at the school team, so we might as well have some fun ourselves." ”

“ It was a wonderful kick, and a great yell rose from the Warwick sympathizers, who believed that Warwick had scored so soon.
"What are they shouting about?" said the Codfish, contemptuously. "They'd better read the rule book. It isn't a score."
"It went between the posts, fair and square," said David.
"Oh, but you can't score a goal from a kick-off," said Frank. "The ball will have to come back,—there, you see the referee is bringing it back to the center of the field. Mr. Mitchell will have to do it over again." ”

“ The katydids kept up their ceaseless argument in the great elms overhead as Frank and Jimmy walked slowly arm in arm down the yard. Lewis had dashed off to his room to do some long over-due work on a recitation for the early morning hour.
From the other side of the yard came the sound of singing.
"That's the Glee Club tuning up," said Jimmy. "They sing out of doors until it gets too cold to be comfortable." ”

“ You know that Chip Dixon [Pg 213] would rather stick me than have me in Gamma Tau," said Frank.
"Perhaps so, but he isn't all of the Society. There are some good fellows in it, and they don't take his view. What would you do if it were offered to you, Frank?"
"I don't want it, and I wouldn't take an election."
"Yes, but Alpha Beta is the only other; you're sure to get asked by their scouts. I wonder they haven't been around yet."
"I don't want Alpha Beta either. I don't see that it is necessary for me to be in a society, is it? What good is Alpha, anyway?" ”

“ It was a pretty run, and brought the ball out of danger for a little while.
There was great excitement in both stands as the two teams lined up for the scrimmage. Frank found himself holding onto the seat desperately as the lines crouched, and his jaw was chattering. He could see out of the corner of his eye the tense look on the faces of the other fellows. ”

“ Frank Armstrong, have got to decide that tie," added Jimmy. "You look like a winner now. Come on, I'll go a part way up. I won't go all the way because I want to see the finish. I'm going to stand about fifty yards from the finish and as you pass me I'm going to yell at the top of my lungs, GO! That will be a signal for you to put everything you have left into the business. Don't forget, put everything you have in you into these skates. I'll yell loud enough to wake the dead." ”

“ The Monday following the interview between Frank, the Wee One and Chip Dixon, found things moving very much better down at football practice. Horton turned up with a smiling face at the gymnasium that afternoon while the squad was dressing. "Boys," he said, "we are going to let bygones be bygones. You've been playing worse ball than you knew, and after that awful game on Saturday I thought we might as well all go over to the river and jump in. But that isn't the way to win out." ”

“ Football takes most all a fellow's time just about now."
"It was about football that we came over to see you," said Frank, speaking now for the first time.
"Is that so? It's a little late to be going out for the squad," said Dixon, "and, besides that, I'm not the captain."
"I'm aware of that," retorted Frank, "and I'm not going out for the squad this year. We are interested in a fellow who is now on the squad."
"What do you think of Jimmy Turner, that young Freshman who has been showing up so well lately?" broke in the Wee One.
"He'll be good by-and-by, but he is punk now on handling the ball. ”

“ Frank had heard a good deal about the Doctor, and it was with some trepidation that he approached the august presence in his quarters on the first floor, third entry of Warren.
"Old Glass-eye is a ring-snorter," Gleason had told him. "They say he dines off freshmen. I'm a brave man, but I was glad when he was through with me. I was so flim-fazzled when he turned that glass orb of his on me that I couldn't have told whether the amateur hundred-yard record had set at ten seconds or half an hour." ”

“ Barrows Academy drew from an older class of boys than did the Queen's School, many of its inmates on graduation going directly into business, for which it, in a measure, fitted them.
"Did you see those giants on the Barrows team?" quoth the Wee One, meeting Frank on his way to a geometry recitation. "They must have imported them from the foundry."
"It's a fact, they do look mountainous alongside some of our fellows," admitted Frank, "but we ought to know more football, we certainly have the best coach." ”

“ It was a pretty piece of work, and the coach, for once, seemed to be satisfied.
"Now, that's what I call pretty football," exclaimed Frank. "I thought you said this team was no good."
"Well, it isn't," replied Patterson. "Once in a while they can pull a play like that off, but most of the time they make a grand fizzle out of it. They don't seem to have the spirit, somehow. I'll bet they'll flub-dub it yet."
"Good work, good work," said the coach as he took the ball again. "No time for goal-kicking now. First, see what you can do in carrying it through the line. ”

“ David's strength of arm was in evidence one day at the gymnasium when the four friends, David, Frank, Jimmy and Lewis, were on the floor. A certain amount of physical work in the gym was called for by the school requirements, or, at least, a certain time had to be spent in some kind of exercise. Boys who took part in any of the outdoor sports were not called upon to do work on the floor during the period of practice of the teams they represented. To Lewis, who was indolent of body, the hour in the gym was the hardest of the day, but he made his task as light as it could be. ”

“ Patsy grinned. "The best of them do that sometimes. It's one of the hardest things in jumping. As you come up to the block, you want to concentrate your mind on that place. Arrange your steps so you will come to it on the foot you can best jump from, and come down on the block as hard as you can, bouncing off it, so to speak, and going as far up in the air as you can. The momentum you have gained in your run will carry you along. That's the idea of the broad jump. And don't get nervous." Patsy communicated this information to Frank as he walked along with him to the head of the runway. ”

“ There was a quick pass from Chip to Dutton, and the latter went into the line head first in what ought to have been a hole but wasn't, for the tackle didn't make it for him, and the result was that he got no further than his tackle's heels, and was there piled under a heap.
"Second down, ten yards to gain," shouted the referee.
"Nothing doing," cried Gleason. "They're as solid as a rock. I wonder if Chip will try it again before kicking."
They had not long to wait, for in another instant Hillard was off for a run at left, and with the ball securely tucked under his arm. ”

“ You're going out for the football team, I suppose," said Jimmy. "You see the school isn't a very big one, and everyone who is heavy enough takes a try at it. Even Lewis here is on the squad."
"Sure thing," nodded Lewis from the window seat. "I didn't intend to try for it, but the captain sent over one day and said it wouldn't be fair to the school if I hid all my talent under a bushel." ”

“ Nicholas Rink. Yale, Princeton and Harvard cried for me, and once I was in the hospital, and they wouldn't play the game."
"It's a fine thing to have a reputation," said Jimmy.
"Much better to have an imagination like the Wee One's, though," said David.
"What are the doings?" inquired the referee. "Are you going to take on Chip's bunch?"
"Not on the picture of the Sacred Cow. We are going to play with gentlemen—that is, we are going to have a game with ourselves. Since there will be no more scrapping you will be safe. We will promise not to speak even an unkind word to you," said Frank. ”

“ But in the hurdle trials Tommy Brown, the skinny spindle-shanks, surprised everybody by galloping [Pg 179] off with first place, beating out Morris, the Junior hurdler. In the finals, however, Morris got back at him and won, but the Freshman made him stretch himself to the limit. Patsy was as happy as a lark at finding such youngsters.
"This Freshman class has some good stuff in it," he said, "the best that has come to Queen's for many moons. Armstrong and Brown are going to be corkers, you mark my words. Just watch Armstrong in the hundred. For a kid who has had no experience he is a wonder." ”

“ Darkness settled upon the old dormitory, and the boys slept.
Frank was dreaming that he was in the middle of a most exciting hockey game. The puck was flying hither and thither, and the spectators were [Pg 270] yelling like mad. Suddenly he woke to the realization that there was a yelling, but that it came from the outside, and not from the dream spectators. He sat up in bed and listened. There was a clattering in the entry, a confused sound of voices outside, and then the chapel bell began to ring wildly. What did it all mean? David was also awake now and staring. ”

“ No team can get together and do anything unless it is a team, every one helping every one else, doing his own work and giving the other fellow a hand when he needs it. If you don't get this spirit, Warwick will show you up worse than they did a year ago. You know very well what the trouble is," (he referred to the Society domination of football interests) , "and you know the remedy. Captain Harding, you've got to play the best men on your squad. ”

“ The eleven men must work as one man to make gains and stop gains by the other fellow. When you work that way and have confidence in yourselves individually as well as in yourselves as a team, there's nothing can stop you. We have a chance yet to win our big game, a fighting chance if everyone will work with a will. Now, that's all I've got to say, the rest of it is up to you fellows. ”

“ By this time the gymnasium had been reached. Horton stood just inside the door to the main dressing room, and when the last straggler had entered, he shut the door and turned around to face his pupils of the gridiron.
"I want to tell you, young gentlemen," he said in a very quiet voice, "that if you continue to play football as you are playing it now, I might as well quit the job. You haven't improved since that disgraceful defeat by the Milton High School three weeks ago. The material is here but you haven't as much spirit as a sick cat. You do not get together. ”

“ Queen's line was tired physically from the pounding, and weak, for there was not enough stamina now to resist the bigger Academy fellows, who seemed to be growing stronger every minute. There was no Jimmy Turner now to drive his sturdy body fearlessly against the oncoming Barrowites.
"It's all over now," said the Wee One, "the team has lost what little fighting spirit it had at first. They will be buried out of sight with not even a leg to mark the graveyard." ”

“ Dipping, as of course every one knows, consists in raising oneself up and down from a bent position of the arms to a straight position, the weight of the body being carried entirely on the arms during the raise and drop.
"I don't know," said Frank, "never tried."
"Go on and show your speed," said Jimmy, "it will be good practice for your pitching arm. All good pitchers have lots of muscle, you know."
"Yes, go ahead," said David, "we'll all try." ”

“ The popular sports were baseball and football, and these took the pick of the fellows who had a desire to do some athletic work. Patsy Duffy, the trainer of all the teams, managed now and then to find some pretty good men in the sprints and short distance runs, and he had once sent a team of six down to the Interscholastic games at New Haven, which picked up eleven points in second and third places, and that, when you consider that the school had less than 200 boys to draw from, is not so bad as it might be. ”