A WET FIELD
Jerry was rather glad of exemption from morning punting practice that
day, for of late he had not had any too much time for studying and
he had a suspicion that Mr. Logan, the mathematics instructor, was
contemplating criticism. So the hour usually given to kicking the
pigskin was devoted instead to establishing more intimate relations
with algebra. By good luck none of the faculty expressed any curiosity
about Jerry’s discolored chin and cheek. Several viewed him with
discomforting attention, but none said anything. Ashley, with whom
Jerry compared notes later, reported a similar experience.
“Faculty knows the fellows pull off scraps now and then, and it doesn’t
usually take any notice. Of course, if a chap shows himself around
school too badly bunged up it has to, but he always gets off with a
lecture. I don’t want to sound like a squealer, Benson――I mean Jerry,
but would you mind telling me if folks all fight the way you do where
you come from?”
“I reckon so. When there’s a ruckus they just lay onto each other and
there ain’t any rules that I ever heard tell of. Mostly, they try to
get the other feller down and beat him up.”
“Well, I’ll say it’s mighty earnest,” said Ashley. “Reckon I’ll have to
learn to wrestle before I fight you again.”
“Reckon you ain’t going to fight me again,” answered Jerry soberly,
feeling of his chin. “Reckon next time I’ll favor arbitration!”
That afternoon Jerry took part in formation drill and did a little
punting, but that was all. Coach Thorne inquired how he felt and Jerry
said, “Fine, thanks,” hoping that the coach would relent and let
him into the scrimmage. But he didn’t, and Jerry sat on the bench,
wrapped in a blue blanket, and looked on through thirty minutes of a
very snappy game. It had been cloudy since midmorning and before the
first period was over a soft, warm drizzle began to fall. There was
some fumbling after that, for, with one early-season exception, this
was the team’s first opportunity to handle a wet ball. Both first and
second offended, and the voices of the two coaches were frequently
heard excoriating some unfortunate player. Jerry found faint comfort in
the fact that, by reason of not playing, he was saved from fumbling.
As the scrimmage neared its end the rain increased and the playing
slowed up as a result of slippery turf. Every substitute save Jerry,
was used that afternoon, and Jordan, peeling off a sweater in response
to a summons from the field, sent a look of malignant triumph along
the bench at Jerry. Jerry chuckled to himself, and Gray, who had just
dropped into a seat beside him, laughed outright.
“Jordan loves you like a brother, doesn’t he, Benson? Glad he doesn’t
look at me like that. I’d lose my appetite! You’re lucky you don’t
have to play on that field to-day. It’s fierce. A drizzle like this is
worse than a real rain, I reckon. The turf, where there’s any left, is
like glass and your cleats don’t do you a mite of good. Thorne says we
ought to get used to a wet field, and maybe we should, but he ought to
know we can’t do it in one day. Well, I should worry. It won’t make
much difference to me whether the field’s wet or dry the day of the
Cumbridge game; I won’t get into it.”
“I reckon we’ll all get in for a while,” said Jerry. “You’ve got the
edge on Jordan, and I reckon you can count on playing one quarter
anyway.”
“Think so?” asked Gray hopefully. “I don’t know. It’s a pretty safe bet
that Omstead and Ashley will play as long as they’re able, and both of
them are tough fellows when it comes to getting hurt. Then Summerfield
will go in for Ashley and you’ll go in for Omstead. That leaves Jordan
and me on the outside looking in!”
“Well, I don’t know much about it,” replied Jerry; “only what I’ve
heard; but I understand that Mr. Thorne’s a great hand for using the
subs. As for me, I reckon whether I play or not depends on how the game
goes. Duveen and Keller will likely do the punting unless Cumbridge
gets us on the run. Then, I suppose, Thorne will call on me.”
“Maybe, but Duveen’s punts aren’t much good, and I don’t see why
Thorne’s giving you so much attention if he only means to use you in
a pinch. Oh, well, we’ll see when the time comes. There’s the whistle.
Come on!”
But Jerry wasn’t destined to “come on” just then, for Naughton came
hurrying over and told him that the coach wanted him on the field. And
when Jerry got there a very wet and slippery football was thrust into
his hands and the coach said briskly: “Here you are, Benson! You and
Cleary put in a half hour at punting. I want you to learn to use a wet
ball, son. You’ll find it a heap heavier than a dry one, and a heap
harder to place. Cleary, you catch Benson. Omstead! You and Sears go
down to the other goal and try some drops. All the rest of you in on
the run and don’t stand around here getting stiff!”
The coach’s prediction that Jerry would find a wet ball different from
a dry one proved true. Jerry had a lot of difficulty at first and
Cleary ran hither and thither all over the east end of the field after
the erratic punts. But after he had tried a half dozen he had better
success and, although he found that a wet pigskin could not be driven
as far as a dry one, he got off some very fair kicks. He was rather
glad, however, when the half hour was up, for he was extremely damp
from head to feet and the sides of his trousers no longer served to dry
his hands on. He suspected that Omstead and Sears had cut short their
period of work, for they had gone when he and Cleary mutually agreed to
call it a day.
That evening Ted Ingraham came over and made a call, and when he had
gone Tom acknowledged that he didn’t seem such a bad sort after all.
Ted showed a strong inclination to enter North Bank after Christmas
and asked a good many questions about the school, the answering of
which fell to Tom by reason of his longer acquaintance with the place
and its customs. Joe Keller came in toward the end of the visit and
amused himself by dark references to hazing. Ted, though, refused to
be frightened. “I reckon if you fellows managed to live through it,
I can,” he said. “Bet you Purves Jordan wasn’t hazed much. If he had
been he’d never have stuck around! I wouldn’t be surprised if I decided
to come here when the next term begins. I’ve got to go somewhere,
I suppose, and I might as well go where I know a few fellows.
Besides”――and here Ted smiled broadly――“it would be sort of handy
having the summer cottage to go to for a party now and then! I’ll get
mother to leave the key with me.”
“Bully scheme!” declared Joe. “Ingraham, on behalf of the student body
and the faculty of North Bank School, I welcome you to our midst. Also,
I declare myself in on the first party!”
“Well said,” agreed Tom. “I believe that Ingraham will prove a great
addition to our ranks. And I may add that I have no engagement for the
date alluded to!”
Jerry walked down to the landing with Ted when he left and they talked
of their conspiracy to recapture the 1915 football. Jerry was forced
to acknowledge, however, that he was no nearer a solution of his
difficulty. “You see, it’s going to be mighty hard to get away from the
field after play begins,” he said. “Having some one telephone to me
is all right, but suppose I’m playing when the call comes? Mr. Thorne
isn’t going to stop the game for me to answer it.”
“Reckon you’ll have to let me do it, after all,” said Ted eagerly. “Bet
you I could, too! Every fellow will be at the game and all I’d have to
do――――”
“I ain’t so sure,” interrupted Jerry. “There’s likely to be some
fellows who don’t care about football and won’t go to the field. And
we’ve got to think about faculty members and janitors and such. It
ain’t going to be so plaguy easy, I reckon. Just the same, it’s going
to be done, Ted, somehow!”
“You bet it is! If there wasn’t any other way, Jerry, I could hide
myself in the building until every one had gone to sleep and then get
away with it. How about some keys?”
“I’m going to get some more. I’ve got five already, but they’re all
about of a size. Every time I visit a fellow now I pinch the key of his
bureau! Well, see you Saturday, Ted. The game starts at two this time.
Good-night!”