"Come on now, lively!" yelled the coaches, hardly making their voices heard above the frantic cheers. The players lined up and went through some rapid passes and kicking. Andy and the other substitutes took their places on the bench, enveloped in blankets and their blue sweaters. Then a roar and a smudge of crimson, that flashed out from the other side of the field, told of the approach of the Harvard team. "Harvard! Harvard! Harvard!" It was an acclaim of welcome. Andy watched Yale's opponents go through their snappy practice. "They're big and beefy," he murmured, "but we can do 'em. We've got to! Yale has got to win!" The captains consulted, the coin was flipped, and Harvard was to kick off. The teams gathered in a knot at either end of the field for a last consultation. Then the new ball was put in the center of the field. Andy found difficulty in getting his breath, and he noticed that the other players beside him had the same trouble. The whistle shrilled out, and the Harvard back, running, sent the yellow pigskin sailing well down the field. A wild yell greeted his performance. One of the Yale players caught it and his interference formed before him. But he had not run it back ten yards before he was tackled. Now would come the first line-up, and it would be seen how Yale could buck the crimson. "Signal!" Andy could hear their quarterback yell, and then the rest was swallowed up in a hum of excitement in the songs and cheers with which the students sought to urge on the defenders of the blue. There was a vicious plunge into the line, but the gain was small. "They's holding us!" murmured Blake, at Andy's side. "Oh, it's early yet," answered Andy. He wondered why his hands pained him, and, looking at them found that he had been clenching them until the nails had made deep impressions in his palms. Again came a plunging, smashing attack at Harvard's line, and a groan from the Yale substitutes followed. The Yale back had been thrown for a loss. "We've got to kick now," murmured Andy, and the signal came. Then it was the Yale ends showed their fleetness and they nailed the Harvard man before he had gained much. An exchange of punts followed, both teams having good kickers that year. Then came more line smashing, in which Yale gained a little. It was a fiercely fought game, so fierce that before five minutes of play Harvard had to take one man out, and Yale lost two, from injuries that could not be patched up on the field. "I've got a chance! I've got a chance!" exulted Andy. But it was not rejoicing at the other fellows' misfortunes. Unless you have played football you can not understand Andy's real feelings. The first quarter ended with neither side making a score, and there was a consultation on both teams during the little breathing spell.