College stories; Sports stories; Yale University -- Juvenile fiction
Training regulations were established at once, and while the routine
was not so strict as on land, the trainers saw to it that their
athletes retired not later than 10:30 and that they were up at 7 in
the morning for a jog around the decks before the passengers were
about. The long decks of the _Olympic_ made a surprisingly good
training ground. A training stunt which amused the passengers was
dancing, not in the ordinary sense of the word, but "standstill
sprinting" as the Codfish called it, on a cork mat, on which the
runners got practically the same leg action as they would running on
the open track. A large cork mat was spread on the boat deck, and
relays of men, four at a time, pranced merrily, rested and pranced
again. Then came a cold salt water shower and a rub-down. In the
afternoon the dancing exercise would be repeated. Skipping the rope
was another deck exercise which played a large part in keeping the
men in good condition.
"Where do you keep yourself nowadays?" said Frank one evening after
dinner. He had noticed that Gleason disappeared for long periods
during the day.
"O, just sitting about and thinking. Can't think where you athletes
are romping around. You make more noise than a bunch of magpies. I'm
sick of athletic chatter, that so-and-so ought to do 10 seconds, and
that Mr. Blinks of Harvard should win his half if he doesn't get too
fast a pace in the first quarter, that Mr. Jenks of Yale is likely to
pull a tendon, and so on and so on."
"So you sneak off and improve your mind?"
"Right-O, sonny. I'm doing that same."
But the next day Frank discovered the cause of the Codfish's long
absences. The Codfish did not have his meals at the athletes' table
but at a table nearby. Adjoining the table where he sat, Fate, in the
person of the steward's assistant, had placed Mr. and Mrs. Mortimore
Hasbrouck, their daughter Marjorie and son William. Fate went a step
farther than the location of the Hasbrouck family and undoubtedly had
a hand in the business of seating Marjorie at this table where her
bright face was in range of the Codfish's roving eyes.
Now, Marjorie was fair to look upon as the Codfish admitted to
himself when she made her appearance in the dining saloon the first
night at sea. "But she's only a kid," he said to himself, "just fresh
out of some boarding school if I dope that pin on her shoulder right."
The Codfish looked and looked, but the eyes of Marjorie were on
the athletes' table beyond him, and were not for him. Her gaze
continually traveled over his head, and now and then he could hear
the words "Harvard, Yale, track athletes----" for, of course,
everyone knew that the teams were aboard even before the ship left
the dock.
"She doesn't know I belong to the party," thought the Codfish,
gloomily, "or she wouldn't waste all her looks at the next table.
I've got to fix that!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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