Ralph Henry Barbour

“ You’re not the only one that’s tired. You’ll find that there are a whole lot of others who are tired, too. Tired of giving their money to a football team that never makes good from one year to the next, tired of having you and Hopkins run the whole thing yourselves. Oh, you’re not the only tired one, Prentiss! ”

“ Evan replied. “It’s all well enough to talk, Rob, but those fellows have it on us in lots of ways.”
“Well, how, Mr. Gloom?”
“In size and weight, for one thing.”
“Yes, that’s one weigh,” Malcolm interpolated. Evan threw a blue book at him, but missed.
“Yes, they have us there,” said Rob, “but we even that up by speed. Go ahead.”
“Well, but do we? If they can stop our end plays and spoil forward passes, our speed won’t count for so much. We’ll never be able to get through their line for consistent gains.”
“Why not? Other teams have. Why, that center trio of theirs isn’t so much. ”

“ But, say, don’t call me Jell; no one ever does; and it sounds funny. Besides, I don’t mind. I know I’m fat, and I can’t help it. I’d rather be fat than be a bean-pole like Prentiss.”
“Ends and backs this way!” called a voice, and Evan trotted down the field to where a lad wearing a tattered light blue jersey and an air of authority was impatiently awaiting.
Practice was neither hard nor long that first afternoon. Some thirty-odd candidates had reported, of whom twenty or so represented what remained of last year’s first and second teams. ”

“ Adams will lick us again as sure as fate. They’ve got almost all of last year’s team left. Hop may mean well enough—only I don’t believe it—but he certainly doesn’t do well enough. I’m sick of seeing the school beaten every year.”
“We won year before last,” said Law.
“Yes, we’ve won once in five years,” said Rob. “I suppose that’s all we ought to expect. They tell us that defeat is much better for us morally than victory, victory enlarging the cranium and making us vain and arrogant and unlovely. Remember ancient Rome.”
“What about ancient Rome?” demanded Jelly. ”

“ Peeble, the Second’s quarter-back, was there; he and Gus had been talking over the game; but Prentiss paid no heed to his presence.
“What’s this we hear, Gus?” he demanded angrily.
“I don’t know what you heard,” replied Gus calmly, “but the score was five to nothing; they missed the goal.”
“So you did play those fellows, eh?”
“We did our best, but it wasn’t good enough.”
“You must be crazy,” broke in Frank Hopkins. “You know blamed well you hadn’t any right to do that. Your business is to give the School Team practice and not play games with other teams.” ”

“ EVAN MAKES ACQUAINTANCES It was still broad daylight when they left the entrance of Holden Hall and started across the yard, the golden end of a perfect September day. Down the long sloping hill, beyond the athletic field, the waters of Lake Matunuxet showed blue between the encircling foliage. Farther east the river wound its way through marsh and meadow toward the bay, some three miles distant. The railroad embankment was visible here and there, and due east the little town of Riverport lay huddled. ”

“ On the Wednesday following the arrival of Duffield Rob encountered Edgar Prentiss in the corridor of Academy Hall. Rob was for passing on with a nod, but Prentiss stopped him.
“How’s the team getting on, Lanky?” he asked with an unpleasant smile. Rob didn’t mind being called Lanky by fellows he liked, but resented it from Prentiss. So he answered rather shortly.
“All right.”
“Hear you’ve got a coach,” pursued the other.
“Yes.”
“Got about everything but players, haven’t you?”
“We’ve got those, too, Prentiss. If you don’t believe it bring your team over some afternoon for practice. ”

“ DEVENS AGREES For the first few days the Regulars regarded the doings of the Independents with amused curiosity. When Walter Duffield appeared on the scene curiosity continued but was richly leavened with resentment. The idea of those fellows having the services of a real coach while they had to get along as best they might with Hopkins, who, after all, knew no more football than many of the rest of them! The idea of the school turning its back on the regular team and lending its aid and support to a lot of renegades! ”

“ Joe was indignant and declared that he had never before witnessed the appalling spectacle of a school deliberately deserting its foot-ball team. Joe waxed eloquent and a good many foot-ball fellows present applauded.
[211]
“What happened the other day?” he demanded. “Why, a lot of you chumps stood down there on the field and hooted us. That’s no way to do! What if we did get licked badly by Mountfort? That game wasn’t an important one. Why don’t you stand by us and help us find our pace and knock spots out of Adams? What good is it going to do to go and get up another team? ”

“ Rob. “Seems to me it’s about time Jelly was getting back.”
Evan arose and walked to the edge of the rock.
“See him?” asked Malcolm.
“N—no, but it’s so foggy that I can’t even see the trees,” Evan replied. “Yes, I do, though. Here he comes. Hello, Jelly!”
“Hello!”
“Did you get it?”
“Yep. Would you mind coming down and getting it, please? I don’t believe I’ll ever climb up the rock without spilling it.”
“All right.” Evan scrambled down and met Jelly at the foot of the ledge and relieved him of his burden.
“You wouldn’t think a quart of water could be so heavy,” panted Jelly. ”

“ And you’ve used your position as captain to make traitors of the rest of your team.”
“That’s not so, Hopkins,” Peeble spoke up. “We didn’t have to play. Gus told us about it and said we needn’t play unless we wanted to. Every fellow went in on his own hook. For my part, I don’t see what you’re so hot about.”
“I’m hot because you’ve helped Langton and his gang of trouble-makers,” replied Hopkins wrathfully. “They aren’t the School Team; they’re just a lot of chumps who are sore because they didn’t make it. And when you play against them you—you give them recognition and aid them.” ”

“ You’d never guess!”
“I’m not even going to try,” replied Evan, with a glance at Malcolm’s amused countenance. “I’m too tired.”
“Well, he wants to climb Graytop.”
“Does he?” Evan turned and let his gaze travel up the side of the mountain. “Why not?”
“I guess you never tried it,” said Rob. “Moreover, he wants us to go with him.”
“Now?” asked Evan, startled.
“No, to-morrow,” answered Malcolm. “It’s Saturday, you know. We can start in the morning, take some grub and cook dinner on the top. It’s a lot of fun. Rob is such a lazy-bones that he thinks he can’t climb it.” ”

“ We’re going to be light, but that isn’t anything to worry about. Take a light team and teach them the sort of plays that fit ’em and they’ll hold their own with a team ten pounds heavier. I’ve seen it time and again. Look at some of our teams at Brown; look at last year’s.”
“That’s so,” murmured Rob, wondering whether his face was expressing the relief he felt.
“We’ve got to be fast, though, Langton, almighty fast! We’ve got to din speed into that bunch right along, every minute. If it comes to a choice between two men the man with ginger gets the job. You’ve got a find in that chap Kingsford. ”

“ The slim attendance was not encouraging, and the spirit of the meeting evidently left much to be desired in the way of warmth and enthusiasm. Hopkins thrust his hands into his coat pockets and viewed the audience with a genial smile.
“Well,” he began, “what I have to say isn’t of great consequence, fellows. You all know why you’re here. We need money for the Team. We can’t run a football team without money. Fellows have to be clothed and shod and we have to have balls and head-gears and nose-protectors and other things too numerous to mention. ”

“ I assure you that I’ve tried pumice—”
“Oh, cut it out, Rob!” begged Evan. “Mal’s right about it.”
“On the other hand,” went on Malcolm, “our team has plenty of confidence, we aren’t worried and we believe we’re going to win. [294] We have public opinion on our side, too; the School believes that we are going to win—”
“Every one except Evan,” muttered Rob sadly.
“And all that counts for us,” said Malcolm. “You take two fellows, one cheerful and confident and another worried and doubtful, and other things being equal the first fellow will win out every time. ”

“ The audience laughed, but no one arose.
“Of course,” continued Prentiss, “there’s no necessity for me to tell you that you haven’t subscribed much more than half enough money. But that’s your look-out, I guess. If you don’t want a decent team, why, you’re going the right way to get what you do want. To those that have contributed generously—and a few have—I offer thanks. The meeting is over.”
“It’s better than I thought it would be,” chuckled Rob as they pushed their way through the throng at the door. “A long ways eighty dollars will take them!” ”

“ When one’s legs are stiff from climbing up hill the worst punishment one can inflict on them is to require them to take one down again. Theoretically, descending a mountain should be as easy as rolling off the proverbial log. Actually, it is almost as hard on the muscles as going up. Jelly was the first to protest.
“I’ve got to sit down a moment, fellows,” he declared, suiting the action to the word. “My legs are nearly killing me.”
“It’s not a bad scheme,” said Rob, finding a place on a dead log. “Who wants to carry the luggage a while?”
“I’ll take it,” said Evan. ”

“ The team is like a very select club, Kingsford. If you know enough about foot-ball to kick the ball instead of biting it, and stand pretty well with—er—the manager or captain or some of the members, you can make it. Of course they’re always glad to have you go out and ‘try for the team’ ”

“ So don’t you spout about deserts.”
“And this is the way you get even,” sneered Prentiss. “Stab us in the back the moment we aren’t looking.”
“Oh, come, let’s be honest,” said Gus warmly. “There isn’t any fair reason why the Second Team shouldn’t play another team [265] when it has a chance. It’s just because the other team is the Independents that you’re both sore. If it had been any other outfit you wouldn’t have cared. Well, your quarrels aren’t anything to me. The Second never has played with any team except the First, as far as I know, but there’s no law against it. ”

“ As near as I can learn, Adams has a rattling good team. She’s met with only one defeat this season. She has five of last year’s team with her, she has a good coach and she has developed a coaching system that’s been working pretty well—as you fellows here at Riverport ought to know. Her line is slightly heavier than ours and it’s just as quick. Her back-field is extremely good and we’ve got nothing on her there. And she’s got a quarter who is as good a general as there is on a school team to-day. So team for team it looks like a pretty even thing, with the odds slightly in favor of Adams. ”

“ These are dandy doughnuts, fellows.”
[123]
“They’re crullers,” said Jelly indistinctly by reason of the crowded condition of his mouth. “Cook said so.”
“What’s the difference between a cruller and a doughnut, anyway?” asked Evan.
“A doughnut is a cruller with a hole through it,” answered Malcolm.
“It’s a doughnut with a college education,” amended Rob.
“That’s an old one,” scoffed Malcolm.
“Doughnuts and crullers are just the same,” said Jelly. “It just depends where they live what they’re called. In some places they call them fried-cakes.” ”

“ Prentiss considered the possibility for a moment in scowling silence. At last:
“We’ve got to do something, Hop,” he announced. “Look here, why not see what can be done with Langton? They say he played a wonderful game at half yesterday, and we could use another half on the First.”
“I don’t believe he’d come,” said Hopkins.
“I’ll bet he will, though. He’s always wanted to make the team. Why, what do you suppose he started these Independents for, you idiot? He thought you’d buy him off, of course!” ”

“ As fast as a fellow gave his name he was sent into the field to make one of a ring of candidates whose duty it was for the present to pass the ball around. Afterwards the candidates were divided into three squads and for the rest of the afternoon they practised the rudiments of the game. Rob took the first squad himself, the second fell to Evan and the third to a middle class fellow named Brimmer. Enthusiasm began to wane among the inexperienced long before the hour was up. ”