Football -- Juvenile fiction; Friendship -- Juvenile fiction
Jack overtook his man, and made a beautiful tackle, bringing Oldsmith
to the ground just in time to prevent him from scoring his touchdown.
It was a thrilling moment when this occurred. The vast crowd remained
silent for a second, as though hardly able to grasp the truth that
Harmony had shot her last bolt and lost. Then came the din of cheers
that soared to the very clouds, it seemed, such was their intensity.
Confusion reigned, with a whirling mass of Chester boys dancing around
and hugging each other, while the faithful girl rooters broke out into
frantic shrieks, waving their beloved school colors in riotous
profusion.
Of course Harmony tried to rally in the brief space of time yet
remaining, but by now the Chester team was sure of its ground, and
backed Captain Winters up handsomely; so that when presently the
referee blew his whistle nothing had been accomplished.
So the great Thanksgiving game ended in favor of Chester. It would be
the last battle on the gridiron for that season, as is customary. The
boys gave Harmony a salvo of cheers to try to take some of the
bitterness of the sting of defeat away, but doubtless Captain Martin
and his squad felt pretty sore to be beaten at the hands of these
newcomers in the game.
Martin was man enough, however, to shake hands cordially with Jack,
and tell him that he certainly had a clever team back of him. Of
course, like most Harmony fellows, he believed the hard knocks of the
game had gone against their side, and that if the "luck" had been more
evenly distributed they would surely have won; but then all that sort
of talk invariably follows when a team wends its way back home after
getting "licked." There seems to be some sort of consolation about
figuring out just what share luck had in bringing about disaster.
There was no mad celebration that night, as on the occasion of the
victory over Marshall. The town authorities had forbidden a single
bonfire to be started in the streets of the town. That burning of the
Adkins home must serve as a lesson, through which they should profit.
Instead, a banquet was arranged for an a succeeding evening, by some
of the friends and admirers of the football team, which all the boys,
substitutes as well as regulars, should be invited to attend, and at
which speeches would be in order. There would also be a little
statement from the head of the financial committee connected with the
gymnasium then building, telling just what progress had been made, and
how every dollar of the expected expense had been guaranteed, thanks
mainly to the generosity of their esteemed fellow citizen, Mr. Philip
Adkins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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