Ralph Henry Barbour

“ In front of him Hal Framer leaned on his stick, and beyond stood Ted Halliday, and then Crumbie, and, finally, facing the Rock Hill left wing, Orson Crowell. To the right was Arnold Deering and to the left Jim Rose. At the other end of the rink, poised on impatient skates, was the Rock Hill College team, colorful in gray and crimson. A hard, north-westerly gale blew across the ice, stinging faces and numbing fingers and, at times, whirling little clouds of powdery snow in air. ”

“ A chap may go to bed the night before in the seventh subway of despair and wake up in the morning feeling quite cheerful and contented. And this is especially true if the sun happens to be shining and a little frosty, nippy breeze is blowing in at the window and the faint odor of coffee and other delectable things floats in with the breeze. As Toby’s room was over the kitchen, which occupied the basement of Whitson, he was quite frequently treated to a presentment of what was to happen in commons. ”

“ Anger controlled is a powerful weapon in the grasp of a strong man, Tucker, but anger uncontrolled is like a child’s sword whittled from a lathe and breaks in our hands, and often wounds us in the breaking. Now I’m going to make a bargain with you, my boy, subject to your agreement. I’ll write the word ‘excused’ on this card if you will give me your promise to go out from here and sit down somewhere quite by yourself and think over very carefully what I have been saying. Will you do that?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Toby subduedly. ”

“ And not far from Loon Island is the footbridge that connects Wissining with Greenburg and the railway bridge across which trains dash or trundle at almost every hour of the day or night. From the bridges the little river runs fairly straight to the Sound, a mile or so away.
But we have got far from the two boys who, bags swinging—and beginning to feel extremely heavy by now—are breasting the last slope of the well-kept roadway. The old gray granite front of Whitson greets them and Arnold, followed by Toby, seeks the portal and climbs the worn stairs to the second floor. ”

“ A half-inch of water lay over the surface and against the boards on the sunny side of the rink the ice was fairly rotten. Nordham presented a hard-working aggregation of talent, a team of lithe, well-trained youths who looked not only in the pink of condition but able for speed and skill as well. Toby viewed that contest from the bench, for, lacking Coach Loring’s prompting, Captain Crowell failed to so much as cock an eye at the substitute goal-tend. However, there was no necessity at any stage of the game for a relief for Frank Lamson. ”

“ The momentary satisfaction that one gets from yielding to one’s temper, Tucker, doesn’t begin to make up for the consequences. See what has happened in your own case. You have made yourself unhappy and this other boy, too. Your self-respect has suffered. Later you will take up your friendship, I hope, and go on with it, but you can’t take it up just as you left it off, Tucker. There will always be a mended place in it, my boy, and you know that a mended place is always weak. A friendship is too fine a thing to take any chances with. ”

“ He laughed mirthlessly.
“That’s a cowardly trick,” said Arnold in disgust. “You make an accusation against a fellow and then refuse to follow it up. Whether Frank is a friend of yours or not, you certainly aren’t a friend to him. And you aren’t a friend to me, either, when you talk like that. If you weren’t a cad you’d come out and say what you mean.”
“Ask him,” said Toby doggedly.
“I will ask him!” blazed Arnold. “And if I was Frank I’d—I’d—”
“What?” demanded Toby. “Come back and steal my clothes this time, I suppose! You tell him I’m putting my money in the bank now where he can’t get it!” ”

“ Loring,” responded Beech doubtfully. “But I know that Tucker can certainly stop them in good style. He’s had me skating my head off, sir, before you came.”
“Stopping them when there’s only one man against you isn’t so hard,” said Toby, tugging at the straps of his leg-guards. “It’s when three or four are skating down on you that the trouble begins!”
“Only one of the four can shoot, Tucker. Remember that. Keep your eye glued to the puck, my boy, and it won’t make much difference if there are twenty at you. It’s the last man who counts.” ”

“ Are you going to wear them, sir?”
“Me? No, I got them for Tucker,” replied the coach. “Do they seem all right, Tucker?”
“Y-yes, sir, they—they’re wonderful, but I—I don’t think—” Toby was plainly embarrassed. “What I mean is,” he struggled on, “that they’re much too good, sir. You see, I can’t spend much on gloves.”
“They’re supposed to be a present,” replied Mr. Loring. “If you’re too haughty to accept a present—”
“Oh! No, sir, I’m not, but—but they’re a lot more expensive I guess, than they need be.”
“It doesn’t pay to buy cheap leather, my boy. Put on the other one and get used to them.” ”

“ His efforts to make good as a football player had not been very successful, and he made up his mind that this time he would conquer. He had an ecstatic vision of one Toby Tucker, a blue-and-white stockinette cap on his head, wearing a white sweater with the crossed hockey sticks and the mystic letters Y. H. T. on it, his legs encased in white leather pads such as Henry, the first team goal-tend, had worn that afternoon, armed with [105] a wide-bladed stick, crouching in front of the net while the cheers of Yardley and Broadwood thundered across the rink. ”

“ It’s a wonderful thing to be young, Tucker, and have enthusiasm. Take my advice, my boy, and get all the honest fun out of life you can. First thing you know you’re twenty-five years old and you’ve reached that awful stage when you’d rather sit in front of a fire than put on spikes and run three miles through a snow-storm for the honor of Yardley! Well, this isn’t hockey, is it? Do you care enough about the game, Tucker, to take a lot of trouble and work [218] hard and be a real, genuine, rattling good goal-keeper?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Toby earnestly and eagerly. ”

“ Even if Frank failed to make good Crowell would probably take Warren from the second to fill his place. The world was very unjust, and—
“Wake up, Tucker! Get onto your job!” cried Flagg at this point in his reflections. “I can’t play point and goal too, you know!”
So Toby tapped his stick on the ice, crouched and gave a very good imitation of a goal-tend with his mind on the game. The machinations of the forwards were foiled, Toby stopping the waist-high shot with his body and whisking the puck out of the way before Gladwin could reach it. ”

“ And I guess a fellow that can stay cool when the bullets are knocking chips off the boat can keep his head even when nine or ten wild Indians are banging into the net and slashing his feet with their sticks! Blessed if I don’t believe Orson Crowell’s right, Toby! I guess you’re a born goal-tend!”
“You and Crowell are sort of jumping at conclusions, I guess,” replied Toby. “I’m not even certain I could stop a puck if it came at me.” ”

“ Twelve tallies in the first period against two for Nordham, and seven more in the last to the visitor’s three was the outcome of the contest. The spectators hung over the barrier listlessly and almost went to sleep until, toward the end, when Crowell put in three substitute forwards and a substitute cover point, the contest became so much like a parody on hockey that they found amusement in making fun of the players.
If any particular member of either squad stood out prominently it was Arnold, for Arnold had a particularly good day and scored eight of the nineteen goals. ”

“ By evening he was in quite an equable state of mind, thanks, perhaps, to an hour and a half of hard work on the rink. There’s nothing much better than outdoor exercise to restore a fellow’s mind to a normal condition. And for one twenty-minute period Toby had played goal against the second seven and for an hour before that had taken part in a hard, brisk practice, his visit to the bench having been of a scant ten-minute duration. ”

“ Suppose you pay fifty cents on account?”
“Fifty cents! My word, the fellow talks like a millionaire! Say, Toby, if you’re short go and borrow some from Arnold. He’s simply rolling in wealth. He always is. And, say, if he comes across, touch him for a couple of dollars for me, will you?”
“Me, too,” laughed another boy.
“I wish you would, Frank,” said Toby earnestly. “Honest, I do need the money. And—and you’ve been owing it for some time now, you know.”
“Oh, cut it, Tucker!” exclaimed Frank crossly. “This is no time to dun a chap for a few pennies. ”

“ Toby took his way back to the gymnasium through the snowy twilight with the rest. Personally he was less concerned with the disappointing outcome of the game than with the loss of his money. Of course he had wanted Yardley to win, but there are more important things in life than a hockey victory, and one of them is losing six dollars and twenty-five cents when that amount has been earned by hard labor and represents something very much like a small fortune. ”

“ Half the time he will shoot badly just because so much depends on his shooting well. It seems in hockey that the better your chance the [220] poorer your shot. Don’t let any one draw you out from goal, Tucker, ever. It’s a good plan to go out once in a blue moon, maybe, but do it when the other fellow isn’t expecting you to. Don’t let him plan it. If the man with the puck is past your point and there’s no one near to engage him, it’s sometimes a mighty good play to rush out on him. But do it before he can get the puck away and keep your body between the puck and the net. ”

“ You see, Tucker, I have a theory that a goal-tend ought to have red hair.”
Toby looked his surprise. “Why, sir?” he asked.
“Because, Tucker, it has been my experience that fellows with red hair are fighters. When I played football I always looked the other team over for red-heads and if I saw one I kept close tabs on him. ”

“ Toby listened, but only half heard. When a boy stood up he clapped hard. When a laugh started and rippled around the hall, he laughed too, a trifle hysterically, but didn’t know what at. The Second Class recipients sat down and the Doctor began on the Third Class awards. There were but six of these. Toby only knew one of the fortunate fellows, Mark Flagg, who played point with the first hockey squad. The clapping went on and on. Toby wished one instant that it would cease and the next that it would continue. Then it died away, Doctor Collins nodded and the boys sank back gladly out of sight. ”

“ Grover Beech, the second team captain, was not a very good instructor. He played a good game himself at cover point and knew how the other positions should be played, but he lacked the ability to impart information. Rather impatient and short-tempered, he was far more likely to send a player who had performed poorly off the ice and summon a substitute than attempt to show the offender how to do better. In consequence, Toby, to a great extent, was thrown on his own resources when it [140] came to learning the science of the goal-tend’s position. ”

“ Of course, viewed from the standpoint of perfect hockey, Arnold’s exploit was nothing to cheer for. When a wing player has to skate all over the shop and finally hook the puck in from back of goal he naturally suggests to the unbiased mind that there was a lamentable absence of team-play; which there was. Captain Crowell knew better than to praise that performance. Instead, [146] he told Arnold that it was good skating, blamed himself for letting the cover point upset him and waded into Fanning for being out of position. ”