CLASS NINES.
"Have any of you fellows seen the football schedule?" inquired Jimmy
one night after Queen's had been open about a week.
"Our rising young journalist, David Powers, ought to know all about
it," said the Codfish. "Only thing I know is that it contains the
same old lot, with Warwick on the end of it. How about it, David?"
"The schedule was published in the _Mirror_ last spring after Dr.
Hobart approved it, and it isn't the same old thing by a good deal.
Dixon took on some pretty strong schools. Don't you remember how you
sneered at it, saying that it was big enough for the York freshmen,
and that Queen's would be a second rater long before the big game
came on?"
"You don't expect me to remember what I said three or four months
ago?" retorted the Codfish. "It's bad enough to have to remember a
week. Why don't you publish the old thing again?"
"Being live editors, we did that very thing, and if you hadn't been
asleep you would have seen it. Here's the paper," returned David.
"Oh, very well, boy, you may bring it to me," said the Codfish lazily.
Frank picked up the latest copy of the _Mirror_ and launched it
at the Codfish's head. "Thank you very, very much," said that
individual; "I always like polite little boys. Yes, here she is,
third page. Some schedule, that----" he announced, as he read;
"listen:
"October 5th--Hillside Academy at Queen's.
"October 12th--Burrows at Queen's.
"October 19th--Milton High School at Milton.
"October 26th--Taylor Hall at Oakland.
"November 2d--Porter School at Queen's.
"November 9th--Warwick at Warwick."
"What's going to be left of this Queen's School eleven when that's
over?" inquired the Codfish. "Why, I wouldn't give a plugged nickel
for Queen's chances."
"You're a pessimist!" said Jimmy. "Have you been down to see us work?"
"Have I been down? Oh, Master Turner, what a question! Of course
I've been down, and that's the reason I'm pessimistic."
"Oh, we're not so bad," said Jimmy, laying aside his book to argue a
little. "We might get away with one or two of them, even if we did
lose most of our good players."
"_Most_ of your good players? Why, you lost _all_ of them, didn't
you?"
"Where does Jimmy come in?" inquired Frank mildly.
"And where does Frank come in?" questioned Jimmy quietly.
"Mutual admiration societies never affected my judgment," said the
Codfish. "Jimmy can't play all the game behind the line, and Frank
the Drop Kicker hasn't grown up yet into the husky giant that you
are, Turner. Anyway, Dixon wouldn't have Frank on the team if he
could help it. You forget that Chip owns the School, don't you?"
"Not a bit of it, and Frank might get his chance sooner than you
think, Mr. Critic," said Jimmy. "Did you notice what a shine Horton
took to him to-day?"
"Don't be sarcastic, now," said Frank. "Horton had some of us kicking
down on the field to-day, and he said that my style was all wrong
and I'd never be any good until I changed it. But I'm not to be
considered at all. I'm going out for the fall baseball."
"Sensible boy," said the Codfish. "You are wasting your glad young
days down on that football field, for as long as Dixon runs the
captain you will have a pretty slim show. Maybe when he gets through
here and into a wider field for his politics, you may be allowed to
do something, unless he hands his curse down to his successor."
The talk of the boys uncovered the situation down on the football
field. Dixon, in spite of his excellent knowledge of the game, was
so thoroughly bound up with the Society of Gamma Tau that, even at
the risk of weakening the team, he played his favorites. Frank and
Jimmy had come out at the first call for candidates on the eleven.
Jimmy, with his natural ability to play the game, could not very well
be kept off, society or no society, because the back field was weak
without him; Frank, with less knowledge of the game and with Chip's
secret grudge still against him, stood little chance. Horton had
given Frank an opportunity once or twice on the second team, but as
Frank was green, he was soon replaced.
"He's too light," Dixon said to his coach one night after practice,
"and doesn't seem to have much football sense. It's no use in
bothering with him." And, although Horton was a good coach, such
little remarks as these, frequently repeated, had their effect on the
older man's judgment. He overlooked Frank when substitutions were
to be made in the progress of practice, and finally forgot about
him--remembering only, perhaps, that he appeared to have a knack of
kicking, albeit in very bad form.
Horton, however, was one of the old school of coaches who had not
much use for a kicker. It was his particular hobby that the eleven
should be strong enough to carry the ball. And, it might as well
be set down now as later, he lost a good many games by having no
adequate punter or drop kicker. Finally the blow fell, and in the
second cut of the candidates, Frank read his name among those "who
need not report for football practice again."
Frank was not particularly sorry, because he recognized his
shortcomings in the game of football. He secretly longed to be at
the game which came most naturally to him--namely, baseball.
But his friends up in Honeywell Hall raised their voices in protest.
"I think it's a shame," said the Codfish indignantly, "but do you
remember I told you so?"
"Don't you care, boys," said Frank. "Don't worry about me. I'm going
to have a little baseball now and, Mr. Codfish, I want you to help
me with my call for candidates. Most of the School nine fellows are
playing on the eleven, so we can have the whole place to ourselves."
"What would you say to an organization of class baseball," suggested
the Codfish, "same as they do at the colleges? Here's a fine golden
fall going to waste. I've been thinking of it for some time, but
we had no leader. But now that our thousand-dollar beauty, Frank
Armstrong, has been kicked off the eleven, the gap is filled. With
the leader at hand, all we want is a press agent."
"Hear, hear!"
"And we have one right ready to our hand--Mr. David Powers,
journalist! What's the use of having these cards to play if you don't
play them? sez I."
"What's that you're saying about me?" inquired David, looking up
from an essay that he was composing for next day's English literature
lesson.
"I was saying," said the Codfish glibly, "that we had a scoop for
you--a red hot story that will make the readers on the _Mirror_
sit up and shout hallelujah! They always do that when they see an
interesting article in the _Mirror_, eh, David?" continued the
Codfish. "Now, as Mark Anthony said: 'Lend me thine ears.' It's like
this. Can't you cook up, dish up, or write, if you prefer ordinary
grammatical terms to culinary ones, an article which will go into the
next issue of the _Mirror_, suggesting an inter-class baseball series
which shall begin now and last as long as the weather holds good,
then sleep like the ground-hog through the winter, and continue in
the spring? What says our aspiring literary genius?"
"Good idea," said David.
"Wonderful!" said Jimmy. "I'll resign from the football eleven."
"Where am I to play?" inquired Lewis, "short-stop or second base?"
"You'll be the boy who carries the bats and brushes off the
homeplate," said the Codfish, "and maybe if you're very good we may
let you bring the water."
"Thank you for nothing," retorted Lewis.
"And as the _Mirror_, thanks to our progressive friend and erstwhile
rope-climber, David, has changed its shirt and appears nice and clean
once a week instead of twice a month, it ought to make its appearance
about Thursday of this week. There's no time to lose. Bring on your
pens and paper and let's get that article ready."
The boys entered into the spirit of the thing, and before they turned
in for the night had produced in brief form a plan for inter-class
baseball. Each class, including the Freshmen, was to organize a nine,
and there was to be a series of games between these nines, the two
having the highest percentage to meet for a final match.
"It's up to you, Codfish, to figure out the schedule and the
percentages," said Frank. "We'll call you the unofficial scorer."
"At what salary, please?"
"We'll give you a cheer after it's all over."
"O. K. Then I'll accept. Let the cheer be a long one and a strong
one."
The announcement in the _Mirror_ which came out a few days after the
talk in Honeywell, had a surprisingly quick recognition. Leaders in
each class got to work and organized, and before the end of the week
the diamonds were covered with boys working with might and main to
win a place on the nine of their particular class. Frank, of course,
was quickly chosen as the leader of his class team, and after a day
or two gathered together the best of a dozen boys who had put in an
appearance for his particular nine. But Frank missed the services
of his old backstop, Jimmy, who, in spite of his statement that he
would resign from the football team, still held his place in the back
field of the School eleven. His allegiance to the eleven was made the
subject of one of the nightly discussions in Honeywell Hall.
"I thought you were going to be with us, Half-back Turner," said the
Codfish, one night. "You are throwing your energies away, down there
on the gridiron with Horton and Chip and the rest. Come up and have a
little fun with the real sports."
"I'd like to, I tell you," said Jimmy wistfully. "It's no fun getting
banged about two hours a day, but I've got to stick to the ship even
if there are rats in it. When I said I'd resign I was only joking."
"Nice way to crawl out of it," growled the Codfish. "We need your
services. Frank has to pitch to that fellow Button who lives
upstairs, and he can't hold the ball. It needs a real red-head like
you to hold our young Matthewson."
"That's right, Jimmy, stick to your guns," said Frank. "While it's
not the best eleven that ever was, it is still the School eleven and
I wish I could help it. I'd chuck this baseball series."
"Oh, you traitor!" shouted the Codfish. "Jimmy, we're going to have
our first clash of the season, as the newspapers say, next Thursday
afternoon; can't you come over and see us wallop that bunch of
third-year pill tossers?"
"If you don't start it too early I might get over," said Jimmy, "but
as long as the practice is on I've got to stick there. And I kind of
like the uphill fight."
"Don't you let him bother you, Jimmy," said Frank. "He's an A number
one josher. Since you are good enough to play for the school, it's
your job to stay there and do your best."
"What do you call your nine?" said Jimmy.
"Oh," murmured the Codfish, "it's a pretty, pretty name--the
Piratical Pippins. I selected it from a hundred names, more or less.
It was the worst I could think of."
"It sure is bad enough. And what are your opponents called?"
"The Hilarious Hitters--so-called because they can't hit
anything--and the Rough Rowdies of the upper class. These are all
alliterative names, you see," explained the Codfish, "and each has a
significance which would not easily penetrate your cranium."
"Have the Freshmen a nine?"
"Sure, and a good one, too. We call them the Toy Toddlers."
"And which of these aggregations do you play Thursday?" inquired
Jimmy.
"Let's see, where's my schedule?" lisped the Codfish, as he fumbled
in his coat pocket. "Here we are--'Pippins versus the Hilarious
Hitters, game called at 4 p. m. Umpire, Snooks'--and he's that fellow
with the lopsided eye, but he makes a great umpire."
Jimmy laughed. "I'll be over to see you if I can. Now I've got to go
and lay in a deep store of knowledge for to-morrow. I'm away. Good
night."
"Good night," echoed the boys, and Jimmy trotted downstairs whistling.
You can imagine that Gamma Tau did not view the baseball series with
pleasure. The eleven, loaded with favorites as it was, did not at
any time hold the attention of the School, and now that there was a
rival attraction, still fewer of the fellows went down to watch the
practice. Dixon and Captain Wheeler, well knowing the state of mind
of the School, still fretted about the matter, and things were not
improved when practically the whole school turned out for the first
of the class series, in which the Pippins crossed bats with the
Hitters. Frank captained the Pippins and pitched, and he pitched so
well that his nine won, seven runs to two. The Hitters, true to their
name, got only four hits off his delivery.
"This Armstrong is getting too popular altogether," said Dixon the
night after the game, as he and Captain Wheeler with several others
of the Gamma boys got together in Dixon's room.
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" grumbled Wheeler. "He has
a right to do something, hasn't he? Since he's no good on the eleven,
we can't keep him from playing baseball."
"I'm afraid he'll make trouble for us, with that redheaded friend of
his, Turner. They've got a pretty strong combination there, and not
one of them is in the Society. There's Powers, who is going to be a
force on the _Mirror_ some of these days. He's the best man on it
now, with the exception of the chairman, Miller."
"Well, what are we going to do about it, I'd like to know?"
"We can pull his teeth by getting him into Gamma," returned Chip.
"Your first attempt wasn't very successful," returned Wheeler.
"No," said Chip, making a wry face. "But we'll try it again. I think
if we got him and several of his pals into Gamma, we could bring so
much influence to bear on them that we could sew them up."
"I don't know about that," said Wheeler, "he's just the kind of a
fellow that's hard to sew up, and he is making himself stronger every
day."
"What would you say to my asking him again? The second elections come
off two weeks from to-night. We might land him, and then we'd be in
clover."
"Well, maybe. We might go over and try some night," ventured Wheeler.
"We might bust up his baseball work by calling him over to the School
football squad again. He looked to me as if he might make a kicker,
and Horton was saying only this afternoon that we've got to develop
some one, since you get worse every day."
"Thank you for the compliment!" growled Wheeler.
"And if we can't spoil some of this popularity wave, I've got another
scheme. The blamed little fool could have anything he wants if he
only came over to us."
"Unfortunately he doesn't see it that way," said Wheeler, "but if you
think best we'll send our Committee over to see him Monday night."
"Agreed," said Chip, and the conference closed.
The determination to bring Frank and Turner over into the camp of
Gamma Tau was strengthened by the disastrous defeat of the Queen's
School on the following Saturday by two touchdowns to nothing.