“No, because I didn’t want you to play. I know how it sounds; sort of low-down, Barry; but, you see, it means a whole lot to me to make the first this fall; lots more than it does to you. I’ve only got one more year here and then I’ll be going to college. You and I are just small-town folks. Of course Dad has some money, but he’s downright poor compared with some fellows’ fathers, and no one has ever heard of him fifty miles from Hazen. I mean I didn’t have much to start on when I got here, Barry. I haven’t done so badly, considering; I’ve got in with the right sort, I mean. But――well, it hasn’t been easy, it isn’t easy to keep where I am. “When I go up to college,” he went on, “a lot of fellows here now will be big noises in the freshman class, and I’ve got to stick with them, Barry. Well, about all I’ve got to bank on is my football. I haven’t social position like some of them: we aren’t wealthy. Why, Jake Greenwalk’s father could buy my dad out with a week’s income! So――well, you see what I mean, don’t you, Barry?” “I suppose so,” the younger boy answered slowly. “You want to trail along with these fellows after you get to college and you think that if you don’t make good in football they’ll drop you. Isn’t that it?” “Yes,” said Clyde, eagerly. “A fellow has got to know the right sort when he enters college, because if he doesn’t he won’t get anywhere at all. Besides, it isn’t only college, Barry; it’s afterward, you know. A fellow has to think of what’s going to happen after he’s out, and the right sort of friends help a whole lot. This fall I thought I was pretty sure of making the team. I thought I had a cinch. Then Loring took a fancy to Demille and I saw about the best I could get was a first substitute’s job, but I knew Demille wouldn’t be here next year and I wasn’t worried so much. But now you’ve butted in. “Oh, I know you didn’t want to,” he hastened to add, “but that doesn’t help much. You can punt and I can’t,――not any better than a lot of other chaps,――and Loring means to push you hard and use you in the big games. That’s plain. It’s fine for you, but it dishes me for fair. I’ll not get any sort of a show from now on. If I get into the Hoskins game it’ll be for about a minute at the end of it. So you see, Barry, I thought I’d tell you just how things stand and――and see what could be done.” “Sure,” said the other, vaguely. “What――well, have you thought of anything?” “Yes, but I don’t know how you’ll feel about it. Of course, in a way I have a right to ask you, but――I’d rather you did it as a favor. We’re pretty old friends, you know. I believe if you told the Major you’d just made up your mind you weren’t going to play any longer he’d let you off, Barry.” CHAPTER XIII BETTY CONFIDES