Playing point is vastly different from scurrying up and down as a forward, as Toby discovered. When you played point you did a lot of waiting and watching, and when you did have anything to do you had a whole lot! It was rather a breathless moment for him when, for the first time, he set himself in the path of the invaders. It almost made him dizzy trying to keep his eyes on the puck, which was slipping from one onrushing forward to another, and when he did check he got the wrong man and the puck was in the net by the time he had scrambled to his feet again. The goal-tend viewed Toby disgustedly and muttered uncomplimentary things. But Toby showed up better on defense than attack, soon got a glimmering of what was expected of him and, whatever his faults may have been, never exhibited any lack of enthusiasm. The heel-plates had so far failed to arrive――they did come eventually, but not yet――and so Toby had to wear his old skates. They were forever coming loose and causing him trouble and delaying the game. His team-mates begged him to “scrap ’em, Tucker, and buy some skates.” Toby discovered very early in his experience that hockey required mental as well as physical abilities. Quick thinking and cool thinking were, he decided, prime requisites. Watching Orson Crowell or Arnold or Jim Rose, all seasoned players, zig-zag in and out between eager opponents, feinting, dodging, but keeping the puck all the while, was quite a wonderful sight. He had thought so before he had tried it himself. After he had tried it he was just about ten times as sure of it. Where Toby made his error at first was in mistaking calculating science for headlong recklessness. When Crowell, as an example, skated into a mêlée and brought the puck out, Crowell knew beforehand what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. When Toby tried it he merely flung himself into the maelstrom without having any distinct idea of what was going to happen; except, of course, that he knew he was going to get his shins cracked or dent the ice with some prominent angle of his anatomy. After awhile Toby decided that there was a difference between daring and mere recklessness, and he concluded that he would skate more with his head and less with his feet!