School and village had turned out well for the game, and Rotan had brought some half-hundred students with her, and so between halves there was a good deal of cheering from both sides of the field, and the visiting contingent sang a couple of songs and were politely applauded. Then Hanser ploughed his way back to his seat, the teams trotted around the corner of the stand and Rotan lined up for the kick-off. Bert Winslow, playing back with Nick, caught the ball and ran it a good twelve yards before he was spilled. Then Grafton, evidently smarting under the coach’s remarks in the field house, went at it with a new vim. Unable in the first half to make much headway through the blue line, she began to bear down hard on the ends and tackles. The first attempt gained many yards, but it was across the field instead of down it, and the pigskin came to a pause on the same line from which it had started. But the next attempt proved more successful, for, with Keyes carrying, the pigskin slipped around the Rotan left end for a first down. Then Bert plowed through between center and right guard for four and Roy Dresser, on an end-around play, added another five. Keyes plugged through on the left for enough to make the distance. By this time Grafton was shouting enthusiastically in the stand and the ball was past the center of the field and in Rotan territory. Bert again made four on a delayed pass around the opponent’s right wing, and once more Keyes, from kick formation, ran wide for a scant gain. With four to go, Nick slipped straight ahead for two and then Keyes faked a kick and made it first down. The ball was near Rotan thirty-five yards now and visions of a touchdown floated before the Grafton supporters. But when two tries had failed to yield more than four yards and Keyes got a forward pass away to Roy Dresser and that youth failed even to touch it, a punt was in order. Rotan caught on her five yards but failed to gain. Then, since the play was now nearly opposite his end of the stand, Hugh could watch the doings of Pop and his adversary. And they were well worth noting.