Ralph Henry Barbour

“ We do it—if we succeed—by helping the First to learn how. There’s glory in that, fellows, lots of glory. I want you to realize it. I want you to start in with the conviction that you are doing your share to secure a Wyndham victory over Wolcott. I want you to be just as proud of being a Second Team player as you’d be of belonging to the First. When the big day comes the cheers won’t be for you, maybe, but you’ll know in your hearts that you deserve a share of them, and you’ll be satisfied [83] with what you’ve done, and proud of your team, the team that showed the big team how to win! ”

“ Be a good chap!” And Clif returned the tight grasp and nodded silently, and the big touring car purred more loudly for an instant and swept off down the blue gravel driveway and in a twinkling became just a moving shadow between the trunks of the trees where the drive curved to the gate. Clifton Cobb Bingham watched it disappear, waved a gayly negligent hand—although the lone occupant of the car never once looked [4] around—and then, that frozen grin still on his face, lounged back across the gravel to the entrance of West Hall. ”

“ Then eleven brown-stockinged youths ran out from one side of the barred battlefield and eleven blue-stockinged youths from the other, and the cheers began again and the Wolcott bass-drummer thumped mightily and several thousand persons, many of them normally unemotional, experienced a sudden shortness of breath accompanied by a fluttery sensation of the heart. And at about that moment, on the east side of the field, a man in a black derby confided to a man in a chauffeur’s livery that, “That’s the captain of our side, Henry. Lothrop his name is. He’s to kick the ball away.” ”

“ Gosh, I’d rather get licked to smithereens than not play at all! Besides, why, thunder, Jimmy, you can’t crawl out of a game just because you’ve lost your coach! What’s the matter with Dave, anyway?”
“Oh, he was just getting rid of some of his peeve, I suppose,” said Jimmy. “Just talking to relieve his mind. I don’t blame him, though, for being a mite upset. Gosh, he’s captain, and if this thing’s as bad as they say it is—”
“There’s the gong,” broke in Tom. “A grand lot of studying we’ll do to-night! Say, where’s ‘Pinky’? Any one seen him? Why doesn’t some one ask him what the real facts are?” ”

“ I like the captain to be a backfield chap. After that he ought to play well enough to be certain of his place (laughter) , and he ought to have a whole lot of fight and pep. In fact—” and Clem’s eyes twinkled—“he ought to be a fellow who can go after what he wants and get it. I nominate Kemble.”
There was a brief instant of surprise, surprise plainly, oh, so plainly shared by Tom! Then came an astonishing amount of applause, astonishing at least to Clif, who was reprehensibly late in joining in it. Tom was shaking his head, not so much negatively as doubtfully. ”

“ These plays, together with a third that didn’t rely on tossing the ball into the teeth of an October gale for success, had been hastily and not too thoroughly taught that afternoon, and Sim Jackson’s brain was still roiled by his attempt to add this fresh matter to all the other stored there. The Scrub Team to-day was on its toes from the start. Somehow it had become inbued with the notion that it was good! And when a team gets that idea in its head, and is willing to work like the dickens to prove that it is correct, why, that team is hard to stop. ”

“ I’ve handled this team for four years, fellows, and I’ve always enjoyed it, always taken pride in it, always felt a mighty lot of satisfaction, when the season was done, over my part in the victory or the defeat that came to us. Because you mustn’t think, any of you, that there isn’t honor in defeat. The team that plays cleanly, gallantly, fights its hardest when Luck turns its back, is downed and won’t stay downed, wins honor indeed. ”

“ Clif had pulled his chair beside Loring’s. His praise of the diagrams had been genuine, but his admiration was rather for the skill shown in their drawing than for their practical value, for the science of football strategy had never engaged his interest. Loring turned the sheets forward until he came to the one he sought. “Now, this, you see, is a scoring play, pure and simple. It depends first of all on a quarterback who can carry the ball and is fast.” ”

“ The woman—even at the distance Clif could see that she was remarkably pretty—entered the car, the man in black deposited his burden beside her, the small Junior ensconced himself rather diffidently in the corner, and the derby hat placed itself beside the plum-colored cap of the chauffeur. Then the car moved forward again, gathered speed, and purred softly past West and down the shaded driveway, the poised figure above the radiator glinting in the sunlight. As the car passed the single occupant of the West Hall steps, Loring Deane leaned across the younger boy beside him and waved. ”

“ If he ever gets loose, good-by, game!”
“Oh, piffle,” said Tom. “The guy’s good, I dare say, but you fellows let him hypnotize you. It takes more than one player, no matter how good he is, to win a game. All you’ve got to do this year is break up their passing game. You must have had a slow bunch, I guess.”
“Tom,” said Billy, shaking his head, “you’re a great little know-it-all. You come around and tell me all that again in a couple of months and maybe I’ll believe it. There’s the gong, Bingham. Better beat it. ”

“ We’ve got a hard job ahead of us, fellows, but we’re equal to it. I tell you honestly that you’re good enough to beat Wolcott to-morrow, if you’ll do your best and fight hard. We’ve had our troubles here, as you know, but we’ve surmounted them all just as fast as they showed themselves. We’ve had to change our whole plan of battle at the last minute, but we’ve developed another plan that will answer fully as well. I don’t want one of you to acknowledge to himself the possibility of defeat. I tell you you’re going to win. But you’ve got to believe it yourselves, and you’ve got to work. ”

“ Even the Wolcott players, prancing and edging, madly anxious to break through, said nothing! Then, when Heard had trod around for a moment back there, he held his arms out straight and—oh, well, he made the goal. There’s no use in prolonging suspense. Wyndham won the game, completing her season with three victories, and a score or so of tired, dirt-stained boys hugged each other weakly and cheered the defeated rival.
Later, Clif and the others, refreshed and hurriedly rehabilitated, reached the other field in time to see the First play the final quarter of its game with High Point. ”

“ For the first time Clif discerned advantages in the profession of pedagogy. If a fellow could live in a room like this, why, gee, teaching wouldn’t be so bad!
Mr. McKnight sat at the farther side of a desk table, the light from a green-shaded lamp cutting him off at the top button of his waistcoat and leaving his face in mellow shadow. But when Clif had taken the chair across the polished expanse of mahogany surface the instructor’s countenance was plainly visible. Mr. McKnight was the youngest member of the faculty, being but twenty-eight. ”

“ DEFEAT Monday was an easy day for both First Team and Scrub, but on Tuesday the hard grind began again. “Cocky” never let a session go by without trotting his squad over to the tackling dummy, and Clif, for one, had grown to hate that limp and headless object with an almost passionate intensity. Perhaps this was largely because his tackling was not of the best and didn’t seem to improve with practice. Mr. Babcock frequently told him that he would never become a really good end until he could make his tackles surer. ”

“ The ball came down near the five-yard line. Horner was still not through, and in the last six minutes of the twelve-minute period, she added insult to injury by plowing her way from midfield, where she had taken a short punt, to the seventeen yards and, when stubbornly held there, shooting a forward toss over the middle of the line for another score. As a doughty fullback kicked an easy goal after each touchdown the final humiliating score was 14 to 3.
Well, a team can’t always win, and Wyndham had feared Horner beforehand. Unfortunately, though, she hadn’t feared her enough. ”

“ There was a low table near Loring’s chair, and on it, amongst other things, was a folding chess-board and an oblong box. Clif nodded toward it. “That’s a chess-board, isn’t it? You ought to get Tom Kemble to give you a game. He’s rather a shark at chess.”
“Then you’re not? Kemble’s the fellow I see you with so often, isn’t he?”
“Yes. Tom says I haven’t enough brains for chess. Maybe that’s it. Anyhow, I’m absolutely punk.”
“I’d like to play with you some time,” said Loring. “Wattles is getting so he can beat me now, and I don’t care about being licked every time. It’s too monotonous. ”

“ Eating appeared to loosen the tongues of the “intellectuals,” and soon at least four debates were under way. Baldwin, half a sandwich poised in his right hand, a glass [111] of lemonade in the other, stood before the empty grate and deplored the lack of opportunity for self-expression at Wyndham. Neither Clif nor Tom could hear him very well, but Tom stared fascinatedly at his throat, and murmured, “There it goes! Look at it! Up! Down! Up! Heck, he’s swallowed it!”
But he hadn’t.
Mr. McKnight sat down by Clif and talked football a while. ”

“ The final quarter witnessed the introduction of practically two fresh teams but produced no scoring. Wyndham chalked up a 19 to 7 victory to start the season’s schedule.
Talking the game over that evening, Clif and Tom arrived almost simultaneously at the same conclusion, which, as Tom put it, was this: “You and I, old son, have about as much chance to make the team this year as I have to win the Condon Prize for English! Why, heck, no one knows we’re on the squad! That coach doesn’t even see us.” ”

“ Bingham took Walter Treat and three other boys of Walt’s choosing over to Cotterville, while Clif traveled in one of the three big busses that rolled away at twelve to the cheering of their companions, massed in front of West. Loring, declining Mr. Babcock’s offer of transportation, was one of many youths who made the trip by auto in company with parents or friends. Loring rode between his father and mother, and Wattles sat with the chauffeur, who, to Wattles’s disgust, knew no football save soccer. ”

“ When he tries to get too much into it he crowds it. If he has too much on his mind he’s bound to trip up now and then, and now and then is far too often. To-day Stoddard wouldn’t have made three or four glaring mistakes in judgment if he’d had only the running of the team to think about. I’ve never played the game, Tom, but you can’t make me believe that a fellow, the average fellow, anyhow, can take the ball, run thirty yards with it, dodging three or four tacklers, be thrown hard and sat on and then [149] get up with a clear head and know almost instantly what the next play ought to be! ”

“ Ever since Clif had chased down that loose ball on Friday “Cocky” had seemed to hold him in deep respect, and Tom, not at all certain of his own position, declared that Clif had “vamped” the coach, and was settled for the season. Clif began to believe it himself by Wednesday.
On that afternoon the audience, looking on from a windswept stand and shivering under sweaters, saw a very pretty practice game. The Scrubs romped in from the suburbs armed with three brand-new plays meticulously designed by Mr. Babcock to take advantage of the enemy’s weaknesses. ”

“ You don’t happen to see a black derby sticking up behind a bush anywhere, do you?”
Going back, Tom, trundling the chair, broke a silence of several minutes with: “Look here, Loring, I wish you’d do something for me. I mean for us, for the Scrub Team.”
“I will if I can. What is it?”
“Well, you’ve been looking on at practice and scrimmage almost every day, and you know a lot about football and how it ought to be played, and I’ve been thinking that a fellow on the side-line sees a good deal that gets by those on the field.” ”

“ No, they’d play Wolcott and do the best they could. That was only sportsmanly. And maybe the poor, decrepit old Team would crawl out of the contest still recognizable to its closest friends! In any case, defeat was honorable if not desirable!
There was a good deal of talk during Wednesday and Thursday about Honor in Defeat, and the Last Ditch, and Going Through With It. Wednesday night’s mass meeting was truly pathetic. “Shadowed [250] Walls” sounded like a dirge when it was sung, and “Win! Win! Wyndham,” for all of its volume, was less a cheer than an intoned elegy. ”

“ I like to make believe that if I had a good pair of legs I’d be a wonderful football player. It’s rather fun sometimes, pretending.”
Clif refrained from looking at the other’s legs with difficulty and stammered: “Yes, it is. And—and I dare say you’d be pretty good, too, if you—if you could.”
“Thanks,” laughed Loring. “You’re a gentleman, Bingham! I’ve said the same thing to Wattles a dozen times and the best I’ve ever got from him was, ‘Oh, very likely, sir.’” There was a protesting sniff from across the room. “Anyway, Bingham, I know football, even if I can’t play it. ”

“ Rather the sort of fellow, he imagined, who would get along fast and make a name for himself at Wyndham.
“You won’t get much more than a lot of hard work this year,” Billy continued when Clif had replied affirmatively. He was addressing them both, however. “But you’ll be mighty glad next year that you had it. That is, you will if you take your medicine and don’t quit because you can’t be bloomin’ heroes the first thing! That’s going to be your trouble, likely, Tom. You’ll go off half-cocked some day and resign because the coach doesn’t pat you on the back.” ”

“ The Wolcott band came to life again, and the cheer leaders swung their megaphones. Then Wyndham took the north goal and faced the enemy on the thirty-nine yards. There were no changes in the Wyndham line-up. Archer and Drayton were still the ends, Cotter and Weldon the tackles, Lothrop and Desmond the guards, Carlson the center, Stoddard the quarter, Whitemill and Jensen the halfs and Ogden the fullback. Nor had Wolcott yet altered her team. The opposing elevens were strikingly alike in appearance. Each presented a center trio of big, fairly heavy men closely matched for height and weight. ”

“ So Loring went ahead and gave a perfectly truthful and not at all sensational account of the affair, and Tom viewed Clif accusingly during the narrative and, when it was finished, exclaimed disgustedly: “Of all the tight mouthed, secretive vipers! Loring, I’ve watched over that guy ever since he came here. I was the first one to befriend him. Without me, he—he wouldn’t be anywhere to-day. And look at the way he repays me! Goes out and makes a silly hero of himself saving people from being trampled underfoot by rampageous automobiles and never says a word about it! ”

“ Their inside half, Cummins, faked a kick and tossed to this Grosfawk chap, who had managed to sneak pretty well across the field. It wasn’t an awfully long throw, and he made it slow and sure. Grosfawk was just about even with the scrimmage line when he caught and when we’d nailed him he was three yards from our goal-line. He’d run about sixty-five yards, and there wasn’t a fellow on our team who could lay claim to having touched him! Dodge? That boy invented it! And he can run like a jack rabbit. He’s a wonder, and why Wolcott didn’t find it out before that game is more than I know! ”

“ One of those chaps there”—Loring nodded again toward the bookcase—“says that he doesn’t want the men he is coaching to know too much football; that he’d rather teach each one only what he can use in playing his position. He may be right, but I don’t think so. I don’t believe a thorough knowledge of the game is going to hurt any player. Of course the best way to get that knowledge is by experience, by starting as a little chap and learning as you go along; but lots of fellows never learn more than enough to hold down their positions by the skin of their teeth. ”

“ Say to yourselves, ‘I’m going to play harder to-morrow than I ever played in my life, just as all the others are going to, and together we’re going to win!’ Half the battle is in having faith. The other half is in doing. Cultivate the will to win. Now we’ll go out quietly, with no cheering. We’ll leave the cheering until to-morrow evening.”
Over in assembly hall, Doctor Wyndham finished his speech by reading a letter from Coach Otis. It was [256] only a few lines in length, predicting a Wyndham victory and counseling the School to stand firm behind the Team and show its faith. ”