Mike, the grim old trainer, is trotting around with a fixed smile on his
face that he fondly imagines to be reassuring, answering numberless
questions, encouraging this man, advising that, looking up lost
articles--in short, giving backbone to the whole team by his presence.
Suddenly the noise stops. The Captain of the team, a hammer-thrower with
a frame like a young Hercules, has climbed upon the rubbing-table, and
with a sixteen-pound hammer for a gavel, is calling for silence with a
series of crashing blows on the long-suffering table-top.
"Boys, in five minutes we clinch with Harvard. All I've got to say is
that I am proud of every one of you. I had a good eye when I chose this
team, and there isn't a man on it but's full of sand. Keep cool, grit
your teeth, and go in to win, and if we get whipped Harvard'll know
she's been fighting."
Bang! goes the hammer, and the customary last words are over.
"Now, boys, a good big cheer for the Cap'n," shouts Mike, hopping up and
down in his excitement. And a good big cheer it is. Hardly has the last
deep-throated "Rah" died away before the door opens, and a field
official with a flowing badge shouts, "All out for the hundred!" and the
fight between the two great rivals is on.
Jack's race, the mile run, is the next to the last event. To-day is his
first great race, for it was only this season, when he won the mile at
the college spring games, that Mike had recognized him as a runner
worthy to compete against Harvard. And he is not seasoned enough to
endure well the tremendous suspense. Very weak and nervous Mike finds
him as he rushes in from the track to see if all be well.
"Sort of shaky, eh?" the latter growls, looking him over critically.
"Well, I wouldn't give a cent for a man that wasn't. You'll be all right
the minute the pistol goes off. Lay well back until the last ten yards!"
and Mike gives Jack a little shake to emphasize his words, "The last ten
yards, mind, and you'll win. You won't if you don't. Save your strength
for a last jump when you hear me yell. Throw yourself forward just
before you get to the tape. I'll be there to catch you. And oh, my boy,
win this race and the college is yours! Why--"
But all further conversation is cut short by the precipitous entrance of
the Captain. He is all adrip with perspiration, for he has just won the
hammer throw.
"We win the hammer," he shouts, "and the points are a tie. Now
everything depends on the mile. Harvard will take the high jump and the
two hundred and twenty, and we'll get the shot and pole-vault. So it's
the mile that will decide everything. They'll call it the next event,
Jack. Now, boys," and he again climbs upon the table, "I think a little
music will quiet Jack's nerves." And in a voice that shakes the windows
he commences the college slogan: "_Here's to good old Yale--drink it
down! Drink it down!_"
"Every man on his feet and sing!" yells Mike.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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