Ralph Henry Barbour

“ No, try as he would, Dan couldn’t see himself in the Broadwood game, and he took his way back to Clarke, the one silent member of the little throng of players and substitutes, feeling rather out of it.
But by Monday he had reached a more philosophical frame of mind. Up until Saturday he had hoped. Now he had stopped hoping and found that he could be quite cheerful. He might possibly get into the game for an inning or a half an inning, and, anyway, there was another year coming. Besides, life was pretty busy nowadays, and there wasn’t much time for thought, happy or regretful. ”

“ Perhaps the standard of excellence required of a candidate for admission to the team wasn’t very high, but there were many fellows amongst those trying for places who had played ball for two or three years. Gerald showed unsuspected alertness in handling the ball, accuracy in throwing, and a good eye at the bat. And so, a week after the class teams had begun work, Gerald found himself playing shortstop on his nine. Naturally, he was in the seventh heaven of bliss, and talked baseball, thought baseball, and dreamed baseball. ”

“ The blue-stockinged team, some twenty strong, came trotting down from the gymnasium, pushed through the crowd about the ropes, hurdled over or ducked under them, and went to their bench at the right of the plate. The bench, with its little strip of gay awning above, was in full view of the stand and Gerald and Harry amused themselves [293] with comments on the appearances of the players.
“There’s Millener,” said Harry. “Doesn’t he look great in his uniform?” Gerald admitted that he did, but insisted that Colton looked finer. ”

“ The first half ended with the score three to one for Broadwood, a score that didn’t begin to show the real superiority of the Green. Alf perched himself on the barrier beside Dan and Gerald and Tom, rueful and weary. Dan helped him into his sweater.
“Fine, isn’t it?” asked Alf with a grin.
“What’s the matter?” ventured Gerald anxiously.
“Oh, they’re playing all around us. And look at the ice! Did you ever see such a mess? Why, you can’t slide the puck at all; you’ve got to lift it every time. And your skates just sink into the ice. ”

“ No, sir! You’re going to march with the rest, and I want to see you marching at the head. Work’s one of the best things life has to offer, if we only realize it, and the man who loves his work is the man who does it best and gets the most out of life. Well, you’ll think me a tiresome old codger if I lecture any longer. Just you put the same amount of enthusiasm into work that you do into play, Gerald, and you won’t have much trouble. Now I must get down to the station if I’m going to catch that train.”
“Are you going abroad soon, sir?” asked Dan. ”

“ Dan and Alf laughed.
“Beat you again, did he?” asked Dan. Gerald nodded, smiling somewhat sheepishly.
“Don’t you care, Gerald,” said Alf. “Tom is really a pretty neat little chess player. I dare [174] say there isn’t more than one fellow in school who can beat him, and modesty forbids my mentioning that fellow’s name.” Tom snorted. “Chess is a fool game, anyway; a game for children and idiots.” ”

“ But Gerald didn’t care about that. In fact, he rather wanted to be grabbed. He wanted to match his strength against some one, friend or foe. And so he rushed into the thick of battle, fell, picked himself up, was caught around the waist and wriggled free, seized a boy almost twice his size in a vain endeavor to make a prisoner of him, and found himself with his face in the snow and the battle raging fiercely above him. He crawled out of there quickly, for it wasn’t pleasant to be walked on, staggered to his feet and drew breath. The Merle side was giving ground. ”

“ Why, ’tis a wonderful, marvelous thing, my lad, this mathematics. ’Tis as full of romance and beauty as a garden of flowers! You don’t look beyond the surface; you don’t think! An’ ye go at it right, laddie, with open eyes and an open heart ye’ll love it!”
Kilts stopped and shook his head patiently.
“But ye won’t believe me. I know. You’re like the rest. You think I’m just an old fool with a hobby for figures, a dried-up old curmudgeon with no feelings, and no manners—”
“Oh, please, sir!” begged Gerald miserably. ”

“ But by the time New Haven was reached the spirits of each had risen considerably, and they were able to take some interest in the things which the waiter placed before them in the dining car. Neither had eaten much dinner in New York, and so they found that they had very fair appetites. It’s wonderful what food will do in the way of cheering one up! When they tossed their bags into the carriage at Wissining and climbed in after them they were as merry as you please. A sprinkle of snow had fallen while they had been on the train, and there was a jolly feeling of winter in the air. ”

“ How, as they rehearsed the struggle, they always came back sooner or later to Dan’s double play!
“Why, Dan,” declared Alf vehemently, “you won that game just as much as though you had made a home-run with the bases full! If you hadn’t doubled then Broadwood would have scored twice at least! Confound you, Dan, you’re always doing some spectacular stunt and making a blooming hero of yourself! Why can’t I be a hero, I’d like to know? But you just wait until next year. If I can’t find any other way of doing it I’ll set fire to Dudley and rescue Tom in his nightie from the devouring flames! ”

“ There wasn’t a man on the team played his real game. We were a poor lot. That’s all for that. There’s another week before the Broadwood game. It’s enough, too. Let’s get down to work on Monday and put our hearts into it. I don’t say let’s forget to-day’s game; I say let’s remember it. Let’s remember it a week from to-day, and show Broadwood that we aren’t the lot of rotters Pell School made us look to be. Let’s show the School that we can play ball, after all, and that they aren’t mistaken in putting faith in us. Let’s work—and fight—and play the game as we can play it! ”

“ That was Dan’s first visit to a real theater, for out in Graystone, Ohio, where he lived, the local playhouse, known as the Academy of Music, was little more than a fair-sized hall, and the attractions which visited it seldom met with the approval of Dan’s parents. To Gerald, on the contrary, theaters and plays were an old story, and he found half of his enjoyment in watching Dan and in displaying his own knowledge and experience of things theatrical. ”

“ Dan paid no heed.
“What did you do such a stupid thing for, Gerald?” he asked gently. “You might have got into all sorts of trouble.”
“Trouble!” sneered Gerald. “I guess I’ve had trouble, haven’t I? I guess a little more won’t matter. Besides, they can’t do anything to me here. I’ve left school.”
“Oh, no, you haven’t. You can’t leave school just by running away. Faculty can bring you back, Gerald, if it wants to. Until your father withdraws you from Yardley, you are a Yardley student and under the control of the Faculty. Of course I don’t know that they will want to bring you back. ”

“ I don’t propose to warm Gerald’s milk for him, as Alf puts it, but I intend to be decent to him and see that he has a fair chance. Lots of the fellows will be down on him at the start just because he is John T. Pennimore’s son. That isn’t fair. He can’t help it if his father is a millionaire. Lots of fellows here have fathers who have plenty of money, only they’ve never been talked about in the papers.”
“There’s something in that, Dan,” Alf allowed. “Here’s Tom here. Tom’s father owns about everything in his part of New Jersey, so they say, but Tom isn’t half bad when you get to know him.” ”

“ Harry had tried for a place on the Merle Hall team, but had failed. However, he had been made official scorer, and that had brought consolation. It was evident that in Harry’s estimation that position qualified him as a critic, for he pretended to know just what was the matter with every member of his own team and the Varsity, and would tell you on the slightest provocation.
“I tell you, Gerald, Dan Vinton played a great game at third the other day. He’s going to make a fine player when he’s had more experience. I should think you’d be mighty proud to be rooming with him.” ”

“ Payson isn’t that sort. He never lets his liking for a fellow influence him much. I rather wish he did. He and I are pretty good friends, and I’d rather like to play shortstop. But nothing doing.”
“It doesn’t seem exactly fair for me to step into the infield when you’ve been on the team two years,” said Dan.
“Pshaw, I was only fooling! I’m happy enough out in left field. Why, I couldn’t play short for a minute. I’ve tried it. I can catch flies and throw to base pretty well, but if it wasn’t for the fact that I can bat with the next fellow I wouldn’t hold down my place a minute. ”

“ Pennimore smiled.
“Technically, yes, I dare say. But I wonder if we can’t put the term ‘double play’ to a broader interpretation. It seems to me, now, that anyone who not only makes his own career successful but finds time to look after the welfare of his [315] friend might very well be said to be making a double play. What do you say, Mr. Dyer?”
“Yes, sir, you’re right,” answered Tom with decision. “And that’s just what Dan’s done, as we all know.”
“Yes, and here is one who knows it better than the rest of us,” said Mr. Pennimore, with an affectionate look at Gerald. ”

“ I know some schools where you can have almost anything in reason if you happen to be football or baseball captain. But the rule doesn’t work that way here. Millener couldn’t have made the scrub last fall, and he knew it, and didn’t try. And I know [168] that the only thing that keeps me on the nine is the fact that I bat better than any one except Colton. Oh, you have to work for what you get at Yardley. A good thing, too. Over at Broadwood they have about half a dozen societies and society men have the first choice every time. Considering that, it’s a wonder they do as well as they do. ”

“ My regards to Gerald. Your loving father.”
“I’d just love to go out and visit you,” said Gerald, when Dan read that portion of the letter to him, “but I don’t suppose father will let me. He will be afraid that the Indians will get me.”
“Oh, the Indians are quite peaceable in Graystone [152] now,” laughed Dan. “You just show your father that you know how to look after yourself, and I guess he will let you go. Why, a year ago he wouldn’t have thought of letting you stay in New York with just the servants, Gerald!” ”

“ He meets a good many fellows every day in class and around school. I don’t believe he has more than a nodding acquaintance with any of the fellows at his table. I don’t know what the trouble is.”
“He isn’t a good ‘mixer,’” said Alf. “What we’ll have to do is to take him in hand, fellows. Look here, Dan, bring him up to Cambridge Saturday night for the debate, and we’ll introduce him to a few fellows. And Tom can have him over to Oxford now and then. The rules won’t let us introduce him more than once a month, but if Tom takes him to one meeting and we take him to another that’ll be twice.” ”

“ He’s coming here in the Fall to help turn out the dandiest team old Yardley’s ever had, aren’t you, Herb?”
“Maybe,” answered his brother smilingly. “If you fellows want me.”
“Of course we want you!” cried Alf. “What have I been telling you all along?”
“Well, I don’t know how your coach would like it, Kid. He may not want anyone butting in.”
“Payson? Don’t you believe it! Payson’s a dandy chap, Herb; he’ll be pleased to death to have someone take a hand. Won’t he, Dan?”
“I should think he ought to be,” Dan replied. “Especially a man like Mr. Loring.” ”

“ Now, Gerald, there, in his innocence, doubtless expects to see seven elephants doing a cake-walk and balancing themselves on red and blue seesaws, like that. But the fact is that there’ll be just two elephants, one old, old elephant, moth-eaten and decrepit, and one extremely young and frolicsome elephant about the size of a Shetland pony. And the old elephant won’t do much because he’s too aged, and the young elephant will just look on because he’s too young and tender for work. Lies, lies, beautiful lies!”
[219]
“Oh, come on,” laughed Dan. “We won’t get any seats if we don’t hustle.” ”

“ Dan was silent a moment, formulating his thoughts. Then:
“This other boy, sir,” he said, “it’s about him.” Kilts nodded and Gerald stirred uneasily at the table. “You don’t know who he is, sir, as you say, and so he—he isn’t likely to come into the affair. But I’d like to tell you a little about him, as it can’t do him any harm.”
“Well, let me hear it,” said Kilts.
“I’ll call him—Moore,” said Dan, “but that isn’t his name. He—he hasn’t been here very long. This is his first school. He has always studied with tutors and there are some things he hasn’t got on very well with. ”

“ Alf amused Dan and Tom by claiming some of the credit. Personally, I think there was reason in his contention. At all events he made out a good case.
“Oh, you may laugh,” said Alf earnestly, “but it’s so. If Gerald hadn’t had those boxing lessons he wouldn’t have made good. They taught him to see quick and act quick, and they taught him accuracy. When you come to think of it, boxing and baseball aren’t so much unalike. In boxing you have a fellow’s glove to stop and your own to get away, and get away quick and accurately. In baseball you have the ball to stop and to get away. ”

“ Then Broadwood gathered herself together and tightened up her defense. Her men for a while covered so closely that not even Tom could get away, and the ball hovered around the middle of the floor. Then one of the Yardley players was caught holding and Broadwood, amidst shouts of joy from the wavers of the green flags, scored a goal from foul. For several minutes there was no more scoring. Twice Yardley had the ball under her rival’s basket. Once a poor shot lost them the score. ”

“ Gerald hesitated a moment, trying to find a plausible excuse. In the end he decided that the truth would do better than anything else.
“It’s baseball, sir,” he answered frankly. “I’m on my class team, and—and I guess I haven’t been studying very hard.”
“Well, well, that won’t do,” said Kilts gravely. “Baseball is a fine game, I have no doubt, but you mustn’t let it come between you and your studies, lad. Better let baseball alone a while, I’m thinking, until you can do better work than you’ve been doing the last week. Baseball and all such sports belong outdoors ”

“ The players were quite as good as those of the year before, when Yardley had won seven games out of nine played, and her schedule was no more difficult. The captain was popular and worked hard. But the fellows got injured in the most unlikely ways just before a game, or a strange demoralization would seize upon the team at some critical point in a contest, or one of the stars would lose his temper for no good reason and get sent off by the referee just when his services were most needed. ”

“ Gerald looked rather ashamed.
“Well, sir, it was a silly thing to do,” said Dan, “but Gerald had a lot of troubles about that time, Mr. Pennimore.”
“Running away doesn’t help,” replied Gerald’s father dryly. “The troubles can always run faster than you can. Next time, son, you hold your ground and fight it out.”
“Yes, sir, I will next time,” answered Gerald. “I—I know better now.”
“Well, that’s something. I don’t see but what you’ve been learning a good many things—beside algebra.”
“Yes, sir,” said Gerald meekly. ”

“ Had a private tutor for Gerald and watched him every minute. Broadwood Academy wanted to get the kid, too, Herb. I guess that’s one reason Toby wanted him here; we always like to get ahead of Broadwood, you know. Well, to make a long story short, as they say, Dan has the cheek to tell John T. that if he wants to make a man out of his boy the only thing to do is to send him to Yardley. And John T. thinks it over awhile and finally agrees to do it if Dan will take Gerald to room with him and look after him; warm his milk for him and cover him up at night, and all that sort of thing, you know. ”