Ralph Henry Barbour

“ As every fellow was careful to wear only the oldest things he possessed, the loss of the garments was more embarrassing than serious. Before the edge of town was reached, the pursuit had slackened. [67] Some two dozen Schoolers, Hansel among them, paused, panting and laughing, and listened to the cries dying away on the road ahead of them. It was much too dark to distinguish faces, but Hansel recognized one or two fellows by their voices, and soon discovered that Harry Folsom was there. ”

“ In fact, it is safe to say that every student physically able to reach Academy Hall was on hand when Mr. Ames called the meeting to order.
Just as quiet prevailed, a newcomer arrived, and made his way up the center aisle to the platform. There was a long moment of breathless surprise; then the clapping began and grew to a veritable tempest of applause. Never before since his connection with Beechcroft had Dr. Lambert attended a meeting of the students, save at commencement time, and the fellows were at once surprised and flattered. ”

“ There is nothing, it seems, so demoralizing to a school or college as a reputation for winning in football year after year. It brings a flood of undesirable material to the school and the morale suffers in consequence. Fellows who come here because they want to play football on a winning team aren’t the fellows we want. They introduce the ‘win-at-any-cost’ spirit, and its that spirit, as you fellows know, that causes just the sort of trouble we’re experiencing here now. ‘Win at any cost’ means trickery and dishonesty. ”

“ Now and then, when the varsity was up against a weak team, they’d let Mort take a hand, and it was a pretty sure thing that he’d stir up some excitement by getting a couple of two-baggers or a home run before he was through with the enemy’s pitcher. We used to laugh and cheer like anything when Mort went to bat. But the real fun came when he got to base. At base running he was like an elephant [48] in a forty-yards sprint. To see him try to steal was more fun than a circus. ”

“ Beechcroft’s only hope now was to keep her rival from scoring; all idea of winning the game herself had long since passed away; a no-score game would be enough. On the side line Mr. Ames, watching grimly, mentally petitioned the Fates for an 0 to 0 result. But perhaps the Fates didn’t hear him.
Cotton, realizing that their only hope lay in keeping the ball out of Fairview’s hands for the next four minutes decided not to kick until forced to. On the first play the ball went to Bert, and Bert, aching, wearied, limping, smashed his way like a cyclone through Fairview’s line for five yards. ”

“ I hope you will win. I know very little about the game, but I intend to be on hand a week from to-morrow, if my duties will allow, and learn something about it; and, naturally, I should prefer to witness a victory rather than a defeat.
“But there are two ways of securing victory. One way is by fair means, honestly, aboveboard; the other way is by unfair methods, by questionable tricks, by deceitful subterfuge. As far as I am concerned personally, I should prefer to witness an honorable defeat rather than a victory won by underhand methods. ”

“ Cameron to play will rise,” directed Mr. Ames.
There was a shuffling of feet, and here and there throughout the meeting fellows arose, some hesitatingly, some briskly, and stood to be counted. On a bench near the front Hansel and Phin were the only ones who remained seated, while beside them Bert, Harry, Royle and other members of the first and second teams were on their feet. Cameron, at the end of the next bench, kept his place, viewing the proceedings with a perplexed frown. After all, he was a modest chap, and all this fuss and turmoil seemed to him very silly. ”

“ Ames’s squad was always the larger of the two, since he was rather more popular than Mr. Foote, and allowed the boys greater liberty, at the same time maintaining, seemingly with little trouble, a far better discipline. As Harry Folsom explained to Hansel on the way back:
“You don’t mind doing what Bobby tells you to, somehow. But Foote—oh, I don’t know; you always feel like worrying him; and he’s not a half bad sort, either. Bobby, though, seems more like one of us fellows; I guess he understands what a fellow wants and—and all that, you know.” ”

“ If any question comes up, instead of calling a meeting and discussing it and finding what’s best to be done, some one goes and asks Bobby—that’s Ames, you know—and Bobby says, ‘All right, go ahead,’ or, ‘No, I don’t think you’d better.’ As for Johnny, I don’t believe he ever saw a football game! ”

“ You know how Phin works; he gets up before it’s light and he works until long after it’s dark, and I don’t suppose he makes very much, either. It’s a shame!”
“Sure it is! But we can’t support them, Hansel. I like Phin as much as you do, and I’ve got a lot of respect for that mother of his; she’s a dandy sort of a mother to have; but—well, what the dickens can we do?”
“Help them,” answered Hansel promptly.
“Well—but how?” asked Harry dubiously.
“You know they’ve got a room at their house that they want to rent. ”

“ Hansel received a blow from some one’s elbow that dazed him for a moment, but he clung hard to the victim’s legs, and in a moment Cartwright was down and they were on top of him listening to a torrent of abuse and threats.
“Oh, shut up,” said Hansel, a little out of temper now himself, since his nose was still aching with the blow he had received. “Can’t you take a joke? What’s the matter with you, anyhow?”
[70]
“Did you get him, fellows?” called Harry from up the road.
“Sure,” replied one of Hansel’s companions, “but he put up a dickens of a fight. What’ll we do with him?” ”

“ She wouldn’t come out here this winter unless I promised to keep it secret; you see, Hansel, she thought the fellows might—well, look down on me, I suppose, if they knew my mother did dressmaking. I told her, though, that if I attended to furnaces and beat carpets, I guessed the fellows could stand her doing sewing. But she was afraid, and so I agreed to keep it quiet. After all——”
“You mean Mrs. Freer?” asked Hansel, a light dawning on his mind. “She’s your mother?”
“Yes, one of the best a fellow ever had, Hansel. She’s worked like a slave for me for years. ”

“ What does harm, however, is the frantic hunt for material at the school on the part of the college captain, or coach, or trainer. That’s something that ought to be stopped. [144] The competition becomes so keen when a good athlete is at stake that if the good athlete has a tendency toward crookedness he can get most anything he wants. I don’t mean that he can command a salary, but he can secure the equivalent in scholarships, or employment at wages out of all proportion to the services.”
“That’s so,” said Phin. “And I think there must be more in Harry’s theory of example than you think. ”

“ In the first place, if Phin and he had accomplished no more they had at least stirred things up, for all day long the chief subject of discussion among the students of Beechcroft Academy had been the mass meeting and the status of the star half back. And, in the second place, Hansel had suffered [138] public martyrdom, and there’s nothing like martyrdom to bolster up one’s self-respect and increase one’s self-importance. When he had reached the green that afternoon he had quickly noticed a difference in the attitude of the other members of the football team. ”

“ He sat down amid enthusiastic applause from the football men and some others. Spring struggled for Field’s eye, but the latter refused to see him. Finally he subsided and immediately became the center of an excited group. Field nodded toward Phin.
“I think that’s all I have to say,” said the latter, his voice almost drowned by the hubbub. “It only remains for me to remind you fellows [129] that the team can’t hope for victory unless it is well supported. It needs both money and the hearty coöperation of every fellow in the school. But to-night it is money we are looking for. ”

“ I didn’t know I represented anything!’”
“What I mean is this: we haven’t any right to play a fellow on our football team or our baseball team who is here just for football or baseball, who is having his way through school paid by the fellows. If we once countenance that sort of thing, Cameron, it’s going to lead us a long way off the right track. If it’s fair in your case, why not in other cases? What’s to keep us from hiring a whole team of good football players?” ”

“ If there was sufficient support pledged, you might call a mass meeting to take action on the subject; even if you lost, you would have made a stride in the right direction; the more you make the fellows think about the question the nearer you must be to your goal, for any fellow who considers the thing fairly will have to acknowledge that it’s all wrong.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Phin. “That seems a good idea. Would you attend the first meeting?”
Mr. Ames hesitated.
“It may look to you like cowardice, Dorr,” he said finally, “but I’d rather not. ”

“ Why can’t he be satisfied with being right? What is it about virtue being its own reward? Besides, it’s all perfectly useless; Billy Cameron’s tuition is all paid for the term, and nothing on earth can stop him from playing football now!”
“We’re working for next year, Harry.”
“That’s all right then,” said the other heartily. “Go ahead; you have my blessing. I shan’t be here next year. But just at present [136] I’m manager of the old team and I don’t want it beaten.”
“Neither do we,” said Phin quietly; “but we want it to win honestly.” ”

“ HANSEL MEETS PHINEAS DORR For a week life progressed quickly and busily for Hansel. His mornings were fully occupied in the class rooms, and at three o’clock each afternoon he was on the green dressed in football togs ready for the practice. He was at right end now, having displaced King of last year’s second, and there was little doubt in the minds of the other players and Mr. Ames that he would be able to hold the position against all comers. His playing was a revelation to many of the candidates. There was not a faster, harder runner on the team, and none could equal him at tackling. ”

“ Ames believed that in Hansel the football team had a find of no small importance. The boy evidently knew football from the ground up, had weight, speed, and brains, and promised to develop into one of the best men on the team. He confided his belief to Bert and Harry one afternoon after practice was over, and even Bert was forced, seemingly against his will, to agree with him. ”

“ Who is he?” asked Hansel.
“Larry Royle. He’s in your class. He lives in the big house across the road. His dad owns pretty near everything around here. Larry’s our center, and he’s a crackajack, too. I’ll run over a minute. By the way, Bert, shall I find that dustpan for you?”
And Harry disappeared beyond the door, laughing.
“He seems a nice sort,” said Hansel warmly.
“He is; he’s a mighty good chap. He’s manager of the football team, by the way, and if you want any favors you’d better stand in [18] with him. You know, I dare say, that I’m captain this year?” ”

“ Town!” in order to fool the enemy.
Confusion reigned supreme then when the doors of Academy Building suddenly crashed open behind the little group of Towners holding [65] the top steps, and the disconcerting yell of “School! School! School!” broke forth behind them. It was the Towners’ turn to be surprised. Out from the doorway dashed a handful of defenders and, shoving and shouting mightily, they took the invaders in the rear and scattered them like chaff. With cheers of triumph the Schoolers below took the place of the invaders, and in a moment the tide of battle had turned effectually. ”

“ Bert replied as he scratched a match loudly, “but I guess I’ll have to do it if I don’t want to get into trouble. That’s the worst about being on the team. Other fellows can get behind a bit in their studies and no one thinks anything about it, but just let one of the football——”
“Hist!” called Hansel sharply. “Blow out that match and come here, Bert!” ”

“ For my part, I’m sorry I’ve had to—to worry you, but unfortunately, Cameron, you’ve placed yourself in a wrong position.”
“Now, look here,” said the other mildly. “You say I’m here just to play football. That isn’t so, Dana. I may not be very smart at lessons, and my folks haven’t any money, but I’m not a mucker. I got fired out of the other school because I couldn’t keep up, but why couldn’t I? Because the fellows I knew didn’t study, and because the faculty was down on me from the start. Then some fellows here wrote and asked me to come here; said I wouldn’t have to worry about expenses. ”

“ They live in Davis City, Ohio, and I never heard of the place before. He’s been going to some sort of a two-cent academy out there, and now he’s got it into his head that he can enter the third class here. If he makes the second he’ll be doing well.”
“You say he plays football?”
“That’s what dad says; says he was captain of his team last year. I can just see the team, can’t you? And I dare say he’ll expect me to get him a place on the eleven here; maybe he expects to be captain again!”
“Oh, well,” said Harry, smiling at his friend’s woe-begone countenance, “perhaps it won’t be as bad as that. ”

“ Weeks stands at the other side of the academy grounds, with the Academy Hall between it and Prince. The three buildings form a row in front of which the well-kept gravel driveway passes ere it disappears to circle the ivy-covered red brick walls of the laboratory at the rear. Across the drive stand the gymnasium and library, the former a modern brick and sandstone structure more ornate than [8] beautiful, and the latter a granite specimen of the unlovely architecture of fifty years ago, charitably draped in a gown of green ivy leaves, which in a measure hides its rude angles. ”

“ When Mort came to Harvard he’d never seen a game of baseball played, and he fell in love with it right away and went out to try for his freshman team. He didn’t make it, but he wasn’t discouraged, and the next year he made the sophomore team; they let him play at right field, I think. The next year he went out for the varsity nine. He slipped up on that, but he made the second. And somehow he began to get a reputation as a heavy hitter, and, as the varsity was weak at batting, they nabbed Mort and took him to the varsity training table. ”

“ Altogether Hansel Dana made a very presentable appearance. And his manner, a pleasing mixture of self-possessed ease and modesty, was not the least of his charm.
“He looks to me,” mused Harry, “like a chap who knows his own mind and won’t be afraid to let somebody else know it. And if he can play football the way he took his gloves off and set that bag down, I fancy there’ll be something doing. Also, unless I’m much mistaken, 22 Prince Hall has got a new boss!” And he smiled to himself at the idea of Bert Middleton knuckling under to anybody. ”

“ Handsome buildings, a capable teaching corps, liberal endowments, beautiful surroundings, all these may fail to create a good school so long as the school spirit is wrong. A faculty may lay down laws and enforce them, prescribe rules of conduct for study hours and recreation hours, watch, guide, and instruct, and yet fail miserably in the creation of a perfect school. ”