IRA DECLINES AN INVITATION
Goodloe roomed in Number 30, Williams Hall, the dormitory nest to
Parkinson on the left, and Ira wandered around for several minutes
before he discovered that there were two entrances and that he had
selected the wrong one. Finally, a boy whom he encountered in the
corridor set him right and Number 30 was eventually located on the
second floor at the west end of the building. The door was ajar and
his rap went unheard at first. Then someone called "Come in if you're
good-looking!" and Ira entered to find the big room seemingly full of
boys. As a matter of fact, though, there were only seven there, as Ira
discovered presently when, having been welcomed by Gene and introduced
off-handedly to the rest, he found a seat and an opportunity to look
around. His entrance proved the signal for a general withdrawal, and
all the visitors but one left, nodding carelessly to him from the door
on their way out. The fellow who remained was the tall, dark-haired
boy who had so kindly and readily interpreted the mystic "R & B" the
day of Ira's arrival. He had, however, shown no sign of recollection
on being introduced, and Ira had concluded that he had failed to
recognise him. But when Fred Lyons had closed the door on the heels of
the final departing caller, White--his was one of the few names Ira had
remembered--turned to him with a smile and remarked:
"How are you getting on with the rats, Rowland? Hope they're giving you
your money's worth at Maggy's."
"What's the joke about rats?" inquired Fred Lyons before Ira could
reply.
"Oh, we tried to put one over on Rowland the other day," replied Gene
Goodloe. "He wanted to know what 'R & B' stood for on the list of
rooming houses they give you and Ray told him it stood for 'Rats and
Bugs.' We thought we'd got away with it at first, but now I'm not sure
Rowland fell for it at all. Did you?"
"He did at first, didn't you?" asked Raymond White. "Say you did,
Rowland, anyhow. Let us down easy."
"Yes, I did--at first," answered Ira. "You all looked so sober and--and
truthful, you see."
"Truthful! Gee!" exclaimed White. "I guess you didn't take a good look
at Gene!"
"Oh, that was when Gene got the lovely knockout, was it?" asked the
football captain. "I'd like to have seen that. It would do me a lot of
good to see Gene get what's coming to him."
"Why don't you try to give it to me, you big bluff?" demanded Gene,
truculently. "Why depend on--on outside talent?" He doubled up his
fists and frowned formidably until his roommate stirred as though to
get out of his chair. Then he put the table between them, and Fred
Lyons grunted contemptuously.
"You see what a coward he is, Rowland," he said. "Hit him any time you
like. He'll stand for it."
"Not from you, I won't! Just one more crack like that, you old stiff,
and I'll come around there and put you over my knee!" Even Ira had
to smile at the idea of Gene spanking his chum, who was a good three
inches taller and bigger all around, and White laughed amusedly and
asked:
"Why don't you flay him some time, Fred? It would do him good."
"I'm going to. I'm saving it up for him," answered Lyons. Then he
turned to Ira and asked: "How are you getting on, Rowland? Things
breaking all right for you?"
"Oh, yes, thanks. It's sort of strange yet, but I'm learning."
"That's good. Take my advice, though, and choose your companions
carefully. Avoid questionable company."
Ira nodded politely, secretly a little surprised until he caught the
amused look on White's countenance. Then he, too, smiled doubtfully as
Gene said:
"Oh, Rowland's able to look after himself. If he wasn't I wouldn't
have asked him around here to meet you chaps. I might as well explain,
Rowland, that you're quite at liberty to cut these fellows dead the
next time you see them. I only wanted to show them to you so you'd know
whom to avoid."
"Where are you hanging out?" asked Lyons.
"Mrs. Magoon's, on Main Street."
"Maggy's, eh? Not a bad place. She lets you do about as you like,
anyway, so long as you pay your bills. They said last year that faculty
was sort of frowning on Maggy's and weren't going to let the fellows go
there any more. Who's in the house with you?"
"I don't know. I haven't met any of them yet. At least, not exactly.
One of them gave me a scare last night, though." He told about the boy
who had asked the date of the Peloponnesian War, and the rest laughed.
"That was 'Old Earnest,'" said White. "He's been at Maggy's ever since
he came here."
"And he will be there awhile yet if he doesn't stick to his courses,"
said Lyons. "He took up so many extras last year that he didn't have
time for the required studies and flunked in a couple of them. He's a
wonder! You'll find him amusing, Rowland, when you get to know him.
He's our prize 'grind,' I guess."
"Rather handy having him around," observed White. "If you ever want to
know anything all you've got to do is run down and ask Ernest Hicks."
"Yes," agreed Gene, "it's like the signs you see: 'Ask Hicks: he
knows!'"
"He didn't know about the What-you-may-call-it War, though," said Fred
Lyons. "I hope you were able to tell him, Rowland."
"I wasn't, though," laughed Ira. "I told him it was about the time he
said, but he seemed to think that was too indefinite."
"I'll bet he did!" said Gene. "'Old Earnest' would have to know not
only the year but the day of the month, and whether it was in the
morning or the afternoon."
"Wonder why he didn't look it up," remarked White. "He has a library of
encyclopedias and reference books about a mile long."
"Maybe he'd forgot how to spell the word," suggested Gene. "I have!"
"Absolutely no criterion," said Lyons. "'Old Earnest' has forgotten
more than you ever knew or ever will know, you ignoramus."
"Is that so? I'll bet you you don't know who the Peloponnesians were."
"Don't I? They were inhabitants of Peloponnesia. Ask me a hard one."
"Well, where was Peloponnesia, then?"
"Oh, about half-way between Cumner and Springfield," replied Lyons
without hesitation. "Anybody knows that! By the way, Rowland, I don't
remember seeing you out."
"Out?" asked Ira.
"Out for football, I mean. You're trying, of course."
"No, I'm not. I've never played football. I'd be no good, I guess."
"Great Jumping Jehosaphat, man!" ejaculated Lyons. "That'll never do!
We've got to have you, Rowland. Why, if Driscoll knew there was a
chap of your build who hadn't showed up he'd be after you with a gun.
Seriously, though, Rowland, I wish you'd come out and have a try. We
really do need husky chaps like you. You're built for a guard if any
fellow ever was, isn't he, Ray?"
"He certainly is," replied White. "What do you weigh, Rowland?"
"I don't know. I haven't weighed for a long time. About a hundred and
forty-one or -two, I guess."
"A hundred and fifty-one or -two, more likely," said Lyons. "But you'll
drop some of that. You're a bit soft, I'd say. Haven't you ever tried
football at all?"
"No, and I've never seen it played but once. I never thought I'd care
for it."
"Oh, but you will," replied Lyons confidently. "You're bound to,
once you get a taste of it. I wish you'd promise to report tomorrow,
Rowland. I'm not exaggerating a bit when I say that we need men the
worst way. These chaps will tell you the same thing."
"We never needed them more," said White. "I could easily be a pessimist
on the football situation, Fred. We've never started off with a bigger
handicap."
"Oh, the fellows will turn out when they know they're really needed,"
said Gene comfortably. "You always have to coax them a bit."
"I wasn't thinking so much of getting material," answered White
gravely. "What's bothering me--or would bother me if I let it--is the
indifference. No one, except a dozen or two of us who play, cares much
this year whether we have a team or don't have one."
"You'll see them begin to sit up when you get started," said Gene.
"I'll grant that football has rather soured at Parkinson, but any sort
of a fairly decent team will find support."
"We've got to find support," said Captain Lyons grimly. "We haven't
enough money to print tickets for next week's game. We need at least
two hundred and fifty dollars to get to the Kenwood game. After that
we'll be able to clear up our debts."
"Can't you get tick for things until then?" asked Gene.
"Yes, but if we do we end the season the way we did last year. There
were only twelve hundred and odd admissions to the game last year and
our share was a bit over five hundred after expenses were paid. And
when we had settled all our bills, most of which had run all season,
we had ninety-something left. Spring expenses took about sixty and
we began this Fall with about thirty dollars in the treasury. We've
already spent it and a few dollars more. Lowell is advancing money from
his own pocket for next week's tickets. I've dug down once myself. The
worst of it was that everything had given out together. Usually we
start the season with half a dozen good balls and head harnesses and
so on, but this year we were short on every blessed thing. The balls
we're using now aren't fit to play with. I tried to get the Athletic
Association to make us a donation, but Mr. Tasser said there was
almost no money on hand, and what there was would be needed for other
sports. I suppose he's right, but when you consider that until last
year football has always paid for itself and everything else, except
baseball, it seems sort of tough."
"Wouldn't the students stand a small assessment?" asked Ira.
"They'd have to if they were assessed," replied Lyons, "but faculty
won't allow it. The best we can do is ask for contributions, and
that's what we will have to do. Lowell wanted to do it last year, but
Simpson--he was manager--was certain that the Kenwood game would go
big and we'd have enough to settle everything up and leave a start
for this year. You see, Rowland, the trouble is that we've had four
perfectly punk football years running. It's human nature, I suppose,
to cheer for a winning team and turn your back on one that loses.
Well, we've lost the Kenwood game three years out of four and tied it
the other time, which was three seasons ago. Last year we started out
nicely and won five or six games without a hitch. After that we had
trouble. Our captain couldn't get along with the coach and it came to
a show-down and faculty supported the captain, which, to my thinking,
it shouldn't have, and Emerson left us about the first of November.
Fortunately, we got Mr. Driscoll right away, but the fat was in the
fire then, and ten coaches couldn't have pulled things together in
time for Kenwood. So we lost again. And now the school is soured on
football. It's tired of seeing the team beaten, naturally. I don't
blame it altogether."
"I do," said Gene warmly. "When a team's in trouble is when the school
ought to stand back of it."
"Well, they stood back of us three years," said Lyons pessimistically,
"and it didn't seem to do much good. There's a fine, healthy 'jinx'
doing business around here, I guess."
"When does the meeting come off?" asked Ray White.
"It isn't decided. We thought we'd better wait until we'd won a game
or two--if we do. I'm glad we've got Mapleton and Country Day to start
with. They ought to be easy."
"Another thing," remarked White, "is that we've got a punk schedule
this year. We've dropped two of our best opponents."
"They dropped us, didn't they?" asked Gene. "You mean Harper's and
Poly-Tech?"
"They didn't exactly drop us," said Lyons. "They wanted a guarantee
bigger than we could promise. We simply had to let them go. Lowell
wants to put down the season ticket price to two dollars so as to get
more fellows to buy them, but I don't believe taking off a half dollar
would make much difference. What we've got to do some way or other is
get the school warmed up again. Of course one way to do it is to turn
out a winning team, but--well, sometimes I wish someone else had the
job. I can play football, after a fashion, but this thing of financing
the team and worrying about the money end of it is too much for me!"
"It's hard luck, Fred," said Gene sympathetically. "But just you stick
it out, old horse."
"Oh, I'm not going to quit. Don't worry about that. I'll still be
playing football on the twenty-second of November if I'm playing it all
alone. Only it does bother a fellow to have to wonder where the next
batch of tickets is coming from and whether there'll be enough money
at the end of the year to pay off the coach. Driscoll, by the way, has
been bully about the salary business. We're supposed to pay him five
hundred at the beginning of the season and five hundred at the end, you
know, but he says we can let it all go until November. That'll help
some!"
"What gets me," observed White, "is why Tod Driscoll wants to fuss with
a job like this, anyway. He ought to get three thousand dollars any
day. He's good, Driscoll is!"
"I don't believe he will be back here next Fall," said Lyons. "Not at a
thousand dollars, anyway; and it isn't likely we can pay more. I guess
it will be a case of graduate coaching for us. Then--good night!"
"Aren't graduate coaches satisfactory?" asked Ira.
"They are if they know their business," replied Lyons, "but the ones
that do are either drawing down good salaries coaching somewhere else,
like Tom Nutting and Howard Lane, or they're too busy to give more
than a fortnight to the team. You can't expect a man who is getting
started in business to throw it up for two months to coach a football
team. And you can't expect a man who is getting twenty-five hundred or
three thousand coaching some other team to leave his job and come here
for a thousand. Unfortunately, Rowland, the fellows who would come for
a thousand aren't worth it. Good football players are plentiful, but
good football coaches are as scarce as hens' teeth."
"I wonder," mused Gene, "what would happen if every school coached
itself. I mean, suppose it was agreed that no graduate was to have
anything to do with the teams. What would it be like?"
"We'd all play punk football," responded White, "but we'd have just as
much sport. And a heap less trouble."
"Schools wouldn't stick to the agreement," said Lyons. "They'd begin to
sneak in fellows who weren't real students so they could take hold of
the teams."
"Oh, come, Fred! There are some honest folks in the world," protested
Gene.
"A heap of them, son, but when it comes to winning at games there's
something a bit yellow about us. Fellows who wouldn't crib at an exam,
will do all sorts of shady tricks to put it over a rival team. I guess
it's because we want to win too hard. Still I'd like to see it tried
out, that 'no graduate need apply' idea."
"So would I," said White, "but I'd rather some other school started it."
"I'd certainly hate to see the scheme applied to track athletics," said
Gene, shaking his head dubiously. "It wouldn't work there."
"Wouldn't work anywhere," declared Lyons. "Not nowadays. Wait for the
millennium. I guess we've bored Rowland stiff with all this serious
guff. We aren't always as dull as we are tonight, Rowland."
"You haven't bored me," answered Ira, smiling. "I've been interested.
Care to know what I've been thinking, Lyons?"
"Why, yes."
"Well, I've been thinking that you're pretty lucky."
"Lucky! Who, me?"
"Yes. You see, you've got a fine, big man's-size job, and if you manage
to make--what do you say?--turn out a good team and get the school to
support it you've really done something worth doing, haven't you?"
"Gosh! Rowland's a regular Little Sunbeam," laughed Gene. "I'll bet you
never thought of it in that way, Fred."
"I never did." Lyons smiled and shook his head. "But there's something
in it, Rowland. There's a lot in it, by Jove! Only thing is, you know,
you've got to keep that in mind. If you don't you're likely to consider
yourself in hard luck. I'll try to see the bright side of it, Rowland."
"I suppose that sounded cheeky," said Ira. "I didn't mean it to."
"Not a bit! And I wasn't sarcastic. I really do mean that I'll try to
keep in mind that it _is_ a big job and that it's worth doing. And,"
he added warmly, "I'm mighty glad you said it. It's going to help. But
there's another way you can help, Rowland, if you will."
"How is that?"
"Come out and try for the team tomorrow. Will you?"
Ira hesitated. "I'd like awfully much to oblige you, Lyons, but I
don't want to do it. I'm quite certain that I'd never be any good at
football. I guess it takes some quality I haven't got. I don't believe
a fellow ever makes much of a success at a thing he hasn't any--any
inclination for. If you don't mind, Lyons, I'd much prefer not to."
"If it's only not liking the game," said Lyons, "you can take my word
for it that you will like it after you get to know it better, and----"
"It isn't that altogether. I'm not a very brilliant fellow at studying,
and, of course I did come here to learn. I don't expect to go to
college and so I want to make the most of this school. And I'm afraid
that playing football would raise hob with studying. It does, doesn't
it?"
"Not necessarily," answered White. "Fred manages to keep his end up
without trouble, and so do a lot of others."
"Don't lie to him," said Lyons. "Football does play hob with your
studies, Rowland. The only thing is that it lasts but a short while and
it leaves you in mighty good shape to buckle down and get caught up.
But it's piffle to say that the two things mix well. They don't. I've
always managed to keep up fairly well in my classes, but how it will be
this year I don't know. Luckily, I've got a fairly easy term ahead of
me. You do just as you think best about trying for the team, old man.
We'd like mighty well to have you, and I think you'd make good, but
if you think you'd better not, why, that's your affair. Only, if you
change your mind in the next fortnight and see your way to giving us a
chance to use you, come on out. We need men--I mean likely ones: we've
got a raft of the other sort--and we can find a place for you somewhere
or I miss my guess."
"Seems to me," observed Ray White, "Rowland is rather losing sight of
the question of duty."
"I don't think so," answered Ira, before Gene could interpose. "Seems
to me my duty is toward my dad, who is paying for my schooling. After
that to myself. Then to the school."
"Right," said Lyons heartily.
"It's a good thing every fellow doesn't look at it that way, then,"
grumbled White.
"If I thought I could help on the football team and still keep up my
studies as I ought to I guess I'd join," said Ira. "I'd like to do
anything I could to help. But I don't. Still, it's all pretty new to me
yet and maybe after I've been here another week I'll have a better line
on what's going to happen. Maybe I can tell then how much work I'll
have to do." He got up, smiling apologetically at them. "I'm sorry if I
seem unpatriotic," he added.
"Oh, don't mind Ray," said Gene. "He's a sorehead. And don't hurry
off. The night is still extremely young."
"Thanks, but I ought to be going. I'm glad to have met you all. Good
night."
"Good night, Rowland," answered the football captain. "Don't let
anything we've said bother you. Do as you think best. Only remember
there's a trial awaiting you any time inside the next fortnight and
help us out if you can."
Ray White got up and followed Ira to the door. "Sorry if I was
peevish," he said, holding out his hand. "Forget it, Rowland. Get Gene
to bring you up to my room some night, will you?"