Boarding schools -- Juvenile fiction; Football stories; School sports -- Juvenile fiction; Teenage boys -- Juvenile fiction
The Scrub exulted. They would have cheered Mr. Otis if there had been
time. The First set grimly to work to hold the enemy at bay, and
Thayer’s first smash at the line netted inches only. But neither Sim
nor the big fullback was discouraged. Four feet was only four feet,
and Johnny could take that in a stride! But he had to have a hole, and
the center of the First’s panting, crouching line offered not even a
crevice. So Sim shifted to his right, playing beyond end himself, and
the Scrub drove straight ahead, wedging between guard and tackle, and
Thayer shot up and forward, and the whistle blew and the ball was over!
To make assurances doubly sure, Sim Jackson gave way to Hoppin, and
“Hop,” standing safely away from his line, took a long and rather
ragged pass from “Babe” Ridgway, and toed it neatly over the bar. And
the Scrub had scored on the First――the real, honest-to-goodness First,
and not a mess of substitutes――and every one was happy. Every one, that
is, except the First!
The period ended a minute later, and the Scrub went carousing away to
the lee of the stand and pulled blankets about them, and talked it
all over gleefully. Perhaps they made more of it than it was worth,
both then and later, but, on the other hand, perhaps they didn’t. It
might, you see, be a long, long time before they had another chance to
celebrate any such decisive victory as they had scored that day!
There was more to follow, but it wasn’t likely that Mr. Otis would put
the same line-up back. Nor did he. A few first string forwards faced
the Scrub in the second scrimmage, but they melted away as time went
on, giving place to substitutes until at last a whole new team fought
for the honor of the First. And Mr. Babcock freshened his bunch, too.
He didn’t have enough men for a whole new team, but he did the best he
could, and only Clem Henning and “Wink” Coles played to the end. Clif
didn’t see any work in that session, while Tom dropped out soon after
the start to make way for Ike Patch. They crouched together, bundled
under their own blankets and another, and watched intensely. To you
or me that second scrimmage wouldn’t have proved very interesting.
In fact, I doubt if either of us would have stayed two minutes out
there in that chilling gale. But Clif and Tom found the spectacle a
most thrilling one, groaning when “Swede” Hanbury, the second-string
full back, romped through the Scrub for twelve long yards and exulting
shrilly when “Wink” plunged through and fell on a fumbled ball at a
moment when disaster threatened the Scrub, seven yards from its goal.
Yes, though neither side scored, though misplays were frequent and
opportunities wasted, Clif and Tom found the contest heart-filling
enough.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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