Baseball -- Juvenile fiction; College students -- Juvenile fiction
They readily recalled the incident to which Dick alluded. The practice
had been strenuous that day, but the coach had been insistent. As a wind
up, he had called for a run around the track to perfect their wind and
endurance, as well as to get off some of the superfluous flesh that
still interfered with their development. The players were tired, but, as
the trainer didn't ask them to do what he was unwilling to do himself,
they lined up without protest and trotted behind him around the track.
At one place, there was a break in the fence which had not yet been
repaired. Twice they made the circuit of the track, and some of them
were blowing hard, when the relentless leader started on the third
round. As they came abreast of the break, Winters, with a wink, slipped
out of the line and got behind the fence. Here he stayed, resting, while
the others jogged along. They made two circuits more, and when they came
to where he was, Winters, fresh as a daisy, and grinning broadly,
slipped into line again, and trotted along as though nothing had
happened. The joke seemed certainly on the coach, who hadn't once
turned his head, but pounded steadily along, in apparent unconsciousness
that one of his sheep had not been following his leader. At the bench,
after the sixth round, he slowed up.
"Good work, boys," he said pleasantly, "that makes six full laps for all
of us except Winters. We'll wait here, while he takes his other two."
The grin faded from Winters' face, to be replaced by a hot flush, as his
eyes fell before the steady look of the coach. There was no help for it,
however. He had been caught "red-handed," and with a sheepish glance at
his laughing comrades, he started on his lonely run around the course
while they stood and watched him. Twice he made the circuit and then
rejoined his companions. The coach said nothing more, as he felt that
the culprit had been punished enough, but the story was too good to
keep, and Winters was "joshed" unmercifully by his mates. The incident
deepened the general respect felt for the coach, and confirmed the
conviction that it was useless to try to fool him, as he had "eyes in
the back of his head."
He certainly needed all his keenness, in order to accomplish the task he
had set himself. The time was wearing away rapidly, and before long he
would have to rejoin his own team for the championship season. There had
been a good deal of rain, and practice in the field had been impossible
for days at a time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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