Ralph Henry Barbour

“ What happened in the first half when those mighty heroes held forth? They pushed Banning all over the field, non? And scored at will, did they not? Listen, you big boob; if the first-string guys had played through the game the score would have been something like twenty-five to a goose-egg. We wouldn’t have had even those miserable deux points!”
This heresy brought forth, a groan of derision. “Tommy, you’re a nut!” proclaimed Harry. “You just like to hear yourself talk. I suppose Lovell is a better quarter-back than Ted Ball and Tifton is a better guard than Jonas Lowe! You’re all wet, son!” ”

“ Fumbling, Lovell, is a—ah—most reprehensible failing, and we must do our utmost to correct it. Taking a leaf from the book of a greater master, certainly a more successful instructor, than myself, Lovell, I intrust this volume to you. It is, as you will observe, my own copy of West’s Ancient World, Part One. You will find my name on the fly-leaf. I should dislike having anything happen to it, so please guard it tenderly. Don’t let it out of your sight, Lovell. Take it with you to recitations and reflections, let it accompany you wherever you go, Lovell, especially to the football field. ”

“ No fellow, Bert, can pull off a big stunt in a football game [189] unaided, but, oh, boy, he can sure do himself proud if he makes good use of what help he gets and knows what to do when the interference peters out! Some backs don’t know how to use their interference, Bert. You’ll see everything set for a big act, and then the runner takes it into his head to break away from interference, or he gets ahead of it or drops too far behind it, and, bingo, some one slips in and nabs him! ”

“ As a matter of unromantic fact, he had the ball but once and lost better than two yards in an ill-advised attempt to knife through inside tackle. Better men than he had repeatedly failed at that play already. He emerged from that fray with no more glory than he had entered, but he had at least emerged a full-fledged member of the Alton Academy Football Team, with the right to wear a big golden-yellow A on his gray sweater, a tiny yellow football on his cap and a gray-gold-gray ribbon on his straw hat in summer. ”

“ Tommy looked back and accelerated his pace, but in the next corridor he was still in sight as Chick opened the door of Number 21, and as Bert prepared to follow Chick in a loud hiss came from farther down the hall. Tommy was beckoning. Bert obeyed the summons and Tommy came half-way back and spoke in whispers.
“Say, Bert, I thought you’d like to know that I didn’t spill that to Johnny. I meant to, but—well, it seemed too rotten mean. Maybe we’ll get beaten to-morrow, but—but there are some things a fellow just can’t do, eh? Well, so long. À chaque jour suffit sa peine, old fève!” ”

“ How is playing a little pool going to affect my football? Don’t be an ass, Bert! Anyway, I’ve got a date with Les Devore for to-morrow night. Maybe I’ll quit for a while after that. Got to recoup my losses first, though! That guy has certainly been putting the harpoon into me lately!”
“Did you lose again last night?” asked Bert.
“Well, I didn’t exactly win. That fellow’s middle name is Lucky, Bert!”
“I guess it must be. Pretty good reason for letting him alone for a while, isn’t it? I mean a fellow can buck against a better game, Chick, but a run of luck is something else.” ”

“ We are better pleased with a policy which accepts each succeeding adversary as a worthy foe and not merely as a stepping-stone to a distant goal. While the danger of over-confidence is recognized, yet there is also an equal peril in lack of confidence. A team which is frequently beaten may easily develop an inferiority complex. A firm belief in its ability to conquer is a valuable asset for any team, and to convince a team that it possesses that ability it must be allowed to win an occasional game. ”

“ All you fellows learn is how to look after your own positions. You’re on the inside looking cross-eyes at your own jobs. I’m on the outside looking in at the whole works. Now let me—”
“Muzzle him, somebody,” said Nip Storer.
“Tie a can to him,” advised Jim Galvin.
“Let the silly ass talk,” laughed Ted Ball. “Go on and tell ’em, Tommy.”
“Sure.” Tommy looked entirely composed, quite unaffected by hostility. Any one well acquainted with him—Pill, for instance—would have known that he was having a thoroughly good time. “Sure I’ll tell them. Howard says I don’t know anything about football. ”

“ If you’re one of these popular, well-liked guys about all you get is a slap on the back. When there’s a real plum to be handed out the popular guy takes tickets at the door. Every one likes him fine, but when there’s a big job to be done no one even sees him. The job goes to some rough-neck who has so many enemies he has to carry a gun! No, sir, being liked is a handicap, Bert. If you want to be something and get somewhere talk rude, step on folks’ toes and get yourself hated. ”

“ Bert frowned. “Don’t talk silly, Tommy! Just what are you getting at, anyway?”
But Tommy shook his head again, filled his mouth with peanuts and looked suddenly extremely secretive, even stupid. Bert grunted. “That sort of talk isn’t nice, Tommy. Better lay off.”
“All right.” Tommy used a superior tone that made the other frown again. “’Nough said. Have a peanut. Go on. I’ve got another bag coming to me.”
Bert declined, and after a minute he asked: “What other reason have you for changing the old mind? Besides the changes in the team, I mean.”
“Well, I’ve seen Kenly play, for another thing.” ”

“ Like many New England preparatory schools, Alton possessed an appearance of age out of proportion with fact, an appearance largely due to the maples that shaded the walks and the ivy that grew almost to the eaves of the older buildings. Not that Alton was a new school, for it was not, but it was younger than many; younger, even, than its principal rival, Kenly Hall, over at Lakeville. ”

“ Chick, however, demanded scoffingly: “Say, for the love of Pete, who gave you any license to set yourself up as a critic, Tommy? You’re nothing but a fat loafer, and you know it. Cramming the football rules doesn’t make you a judge of the game, youngster.” ”

“ Perhaps Chick was thinking of the countenance framed on Johnny Cade’s mantel, perhaps he was remembering that here and now were his last moments of preparatory school football, perhaps he wasn’t thinking a thing but that thirty yards between him and the goal. That as may have been, he ran faster than he had ever run in his life in a football game. Behind him interference and attack met and dropped from the chase, but right to the last white line a red-and-black-legged [286] enemy kept on his heels, arms outstretched for the tackle that was never made until too late. ”

“ And only one back in ten ever turns out to be a good broken-field runner, Bert. When he does he’s usually a wonder. Either a fellow is poor at it or he’s mighty good. So, after you give every fellow on the team his rightful share of credit, the fellow who pulls off the fine long run deserves all the cheering he gets. ”

“ If you hadn’t been good, mighty good, all our stuff wouldn’t have amounted to anything at all. Sort of like firing a rifle, old chap. I aimed and pulled the trigger. Jim and Tyron and Wick and the others were the cap and the powder. Without us there wouldn’t have been any explosion and you’d still be in the cartridge. But the cap and the powder did their parts and the bullet shot out. You were the bullet, Bert, and the bullet’s what does the execution and brings down the game!”
“Carrying out your simile,” laughed Bert, “it’s the fellow who aims and shoots who gets the credit, isn’t it?” ”

“ Chick was angrier than Bert had known him to be for a long time, and when he was angry he was capable of extremes, but it wasn’t likely that he would do anything as suicidal as that. He hadn’t seen Chick again that evening, but on Sunday Chick let out that he had played pool with Lester Devore, and borrowed all of Bert’s available funds, amounting to four dollars and a half, to pay for his fun.
[178]
“For the love of Pete!” exclaimed Bert. “How much did you lose?”
“Oh, this is some I’ve been owing him,” replied Chick evasively. “He always wins, the lucky stiff! I’ll pay you back next week.” ”

“ It’s the surest way.”
“Tommy, you certainly get hold of some funny notions,” said Bert, half admiringly. “It must take a lot of your time to think them up.”
Tommy waved a hand carelessly. “I like to think,” he said. “Most fellows don’t. When you call my ideas funny, though, you just mean that they don’t happen to be yours. That’s typical of your class, Bert. Anything strange—I mean unfamiliar—you call funny.” ”

“ Such occasions can be extremely unpleasant while they last, but once over leave no painful effects, and consequently Bert was both surprised and indignant when Jake, in charge because Mr. Cade had accompanied the regulars to the gymnasium, a few moments later called him out. Not being in such awe of the trainer as he was of the coach, Bert voiced his indignation when he reached the side-line.
“What’s the idea, Jake?” he remonstrated. “I’m all right! Losing your breath isn’t anything to stop playing for!” ”

“ This is your last year here and you’re not showing pretty. It’s a poor piece of business for a First Team player to do so badly in his last season that he has to sit on the bench during the big game. And, frankly, Burton, as things stand now, that’s what you’ll be doing Saturday.”
“That’s for you to say, of course,” said Chick with some spirit, “but I don’t think I deserve that, sir. I—I may have been pretty poor sometimes, but I can still play better than Shelfer.” ”

“ At the door Bert stopped him. “By the way, Tommy, I wish you’d tell me something.” Tommy paused, turned and, holding a hand to the incipient boil, looked inquiring. “What you said about my [104] playing,” went on Bert with some embarrassment. “You didn’t really mean it, eh?”
“What do you care if I did or didn’t?” asked Tommy, suddenly a pessimist. “You’re like all the others. Think I don’t know anything about football just because I don’t play it.” ”

“ A reputation for success in athletics is a magnet which draws many students to a school, and in this age of publicity such a reputation must be earned, not merely claimed. While we of Alton may be satisfied to consider as successful a football team which defeats Kenly Hall in November, irrespective of how many games it has lost beforehand, others will judge that team by its season’s record, and if that record includes several defeats by minor adversaries our satisfaction will not prevent those others from considering our Football Team a failure. ”

“ Come on.”
“I haven’t been in here for a long time,” said Tommy as he selected the easiest chair and relaxed with a sigh. “You and Chick still hit it off? He’d get on my nerves mighty quick, I guess. He’s what I call a hard frost.”
“Chick’s a fine chap when you know him,” said Bert. “He and I have been friends a long time.”
“Meaning I’m to quit throwing off on him, eh? Oh, all right. He’s not bad, even if he is trying to see how rotten he can play.”
“Rot,” replied Bert warmly. “Chick’s doing as well as any fellow on the team, Tommy, and you know it.” ”

“ You oughtn’t to kick, anyhow, Bert. You’ve made the Team and won your letter already, and that’s more than some fellows do before their senior year.”
“I know, but what’s it get me? I’ll trade that old letter any time for a half-hour in a real game! I’m getting sort of tired of adorning that unsympathetic bench and only getting into a scrimmage when every one else has been used up.”
“‘He also serves,’ quoted Chick, ‘who only—’”
“Serve be blowed,” interrupted Bert shortly. “I want to play football! Sitting and waiting isn’t so good. I’d like a little fun and a little glory, Chick.” ”

“ Then Chick’s voice came once more. “Sort of wish I hadn’t run into him, Bert.”
[27]
“Me and you both,” agreed Bert.
“Of course it’s blamed poppycock, that ten o’clock bed rule, but he’s acting kind of snorty this fall and he may get on his ear about it. If he does, by gosh, I’ll tell him I’m no kid freshman to have to go to bed with the chickens!”
“Sure! That will make it all right with him,” answered Bert. “He will like that, Chick.”
“Oh, well, hang it, a fellow’s got to have some fun! What’s the good of going to bed at ten, anyway? You don’t get to sleep.” ”

“ Homer waves a wicked quill!”
“Well,” said Bert slowly, “I’m not so sure that Johnny deserves that lecture. Being a football coach can’t be exactly a bed of roses, Chick, and it seems to me the least the School can do is refrain from butting in and making his job harder than it is. They say Johnny’s going to quit this fall, anyway, and you know blame well he isn’t going to pass up any chances to make his last season a successful one. He will bring off a win over Kenly if it’s humanly possible.” ”

“ A Kenly victory is big stuff, and all that, and we sure want it, but, hang it, Bert, we don’t want to be licked by every two-bit school we take on. And high schools, too!”
“You mustn’t speak so disrespectfully of high [85] schools, Charles. There are plenty of them that could lick us to a standstill. Besides, you exaggerate. Only one high school has beaten us so far.”
“Well, Southport isn’t much better,” grunted Chick. “And we play New Falmouth High day after to-morrow, and there’s no knowing what Johnny Cade has doped up for us!” ”