Nick was equally pleased and, like Bert, seemed to think that fortune had been unusually kind to Hugh. “But you’re a lucky guy, anyway, Duke. Some fellows are born to good fortune, I guess, and you’re one of them. That was nice of Smiles, though, wasn’t it? Don’t you like him, Hugh?” “Very much. We had a topping time. And, I say, you chaps, he knows an awful lot of football!” Bert and Nick laughed. “Why shouldn’t he?” asked Bert. “He played it for three or four years and came near making the all-America team, didn’t he, Nick?” “So they say. Anyway, I’ll bet he was a dandy guard. When he first came here he used to help with the coaching. That was before Dinny came.” “And after. Dinny didn’t coach the elevens until the first fall we were here.” “I didn’t know that. I thought Dinny was always a football coach.” “No, they got him because Pete had too much to do. Dinny was supposed to give all his time to the track team and nine. Then they got Davy to look after the track fellows and so Dinny took hold of the second team.” “I should think that Mr. Smiley would be a ripping football coach,” said Hugh. “Yes,” agreed Nick. “He took hold of the upper middlers two years ago and they ran away with everything and even held the first team to no score once. Remember, Bert?” “That was three years ago, though, because I was a junior then. That was some team, Nick, wasn’t it?” “Yes. Remember how it beat Grammar School thirty-four to nothing, or something like that? And Grammar School made a big howl about it and wrote to the paper that we’d played a lot of first team fellows against them.” “Has Mr. Smiley anything to do with athletics here?” asked Hugh. “He said something that――――” “Chairman of the Faculty Athletic Committee,” replied Nick. “He and Gring and Pete Sargent are the committee. You must have made a hit with him or he wouldn’t have gone to Dinny with you. I like Smiles. Wish I was still taking Latin.” “I dare say it wouldn’t do you any harm,” said Bert unkindly. “Nor much good. All a fellow needs is enough to pass his college exams. After that he forgets it as fast as he knows how. Well, meanwhile there’s a bunch of German waiting for me downstairs. You’re a lucky dog not to have the stuff, Bert.” “I get it next year. What are you reading?” “‘Das Edel Blüt.’ It’s tough, if you ask me. When there was a perfectly good, gentlemanly language like Latin, why did someone have to go and invent German? Well, I’m off.”