A NEW MAN JOINS UP
Clif wasn’t able to discover that afternoon whether Lemuel John had
been captured by the second team, for he was pretty busy until the
second came over for a brief scrimmage and exceedingly busy afterwards.
The substitutes opposed the Scrub to-day and Clif played left tackle
all through with fair success. He tried to find an opportunity to ask
Warner about Lemuel John, but Warner was in the line-up for only a few
minutes and the opportunity didn’t present. Later, the matter went out
of his mind until Loring brought it back that evening.
“He wasn’t on the bench with the second when they came across,” said
Tom. “I guess Warner forgot it.”
“More likely he didn’t try very hard,” said Clif. “I’ll drop in on
Lemuel John after study and see what happened. I don’t suppose it will
matter if he learns that we’re interested in getting him out.”
“Not a bit,” said Loring. “If he turned Warner down, Clif, try to get
him to come over here with you and we’ll have a talk with him. Perhaps,
between the three of us, we can get him to change his mind.”
Clif found Lemuel John alone at a little after nine. He was writing a
letter and Clif apologized for disturbing him. “No disturbance,” said
Lemuel John. “I was just writing a letter to dad because I didn’t have
anything else much to do. I’d a sight rather talk. I thought you’d
forgotten this number, Bingham.”
“N-no,” said Clif awkwardly; “but I’ve been rather busy, what with one
thing and another. Walt off for the evening?”
“Down the hall,” said Lemuel John. “He asked me along, but I didn’t
care about it. I saw you play this afternoon.”
“Oh, did you? Er――were you――I mean, you weren’t playing yourself, were
you?”
“Me?” Lemuel John chuckled. “No, but it’s funny you said that, because
there was a fellow up here this forenoon asking me if I didn’t want to
join the second team. Maybe you know him, Warner. He’s captain of the
second.”
“Yes, I know him,” said Clif. “Of course you told him you did want to.”
“No.” Lemuel John shook his head. “I told him it wouldn’t be any use.”
“Well, I guess he didn’t take that for an answer,” replied Clif,
smiling.
“Why, yes, he did. Why not? Shucks, I couldn’t learn football, and I
told him so.”
“How do you know you couldn’t?” Clif asked.
“Walt says so. I asked him one day if he thought I could and he said no
pretty emphatic.”
“Walt knows less about football than I know about――about the Gothic
language! Look here, Parks, if you don’t really want to finish that
letter just now, come over to East with me, won’t you? To Loring’s, I
mean.”
Lemuel John consented a trifle doubtfully, wondering what was up. Tom
was already on hand when they reached Loring’s room, and after a minute
of rather perfunctory conversation, Loring turned his chair a trifle,
so that he could more directly face Lemuel John, and asked: “You’re
with us in this ‘No Defeats’ campaign, I suppose, Parks?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Good! Because you can do quite a bit for the cause, I think.”
“I can?” Lemuel John smiled incredulously.
“Yes. You see, if the team is to come through the season with a clean
record it’s got to get plenty of good, hard practice as well as
coaching. Well, practice is supplied, as you know, by the Scrub; Mr.
Babcock’s team. And it follows that the stronger the second is the
better practice it can provide for the first. So far I make myself
clear, eh?”
“Yes, I see what you mean,” answered the other.
“Well, the second can do with more players, Parks. And it occurred to
us that you might be just the fellow to help out.”
“Shucks, no, Deane! I wouldn’t be any good. I’ve never played a bit.”
“That wouldn’t matter. Plenty of fellows do their first football
playing right here, and make good. You’re about the right build for a
lineman, Parks; guard, say, or maybe tackle; and personally, as I told
these chaps, I believe you could make a corking good one.”
“Shucks!” Lemuel John looked about as though he suspected the others
of being in league to make fun of him. But the countenances denied
it. “I don’t believe,” he went on doubtfully, “that I’ve got enough
brains. I was looking at a book the other day that explained the rules
of football――” he glanced apologetically at Loring――“I couldn’t make a
blame thing out of them!”
“I’ll bet you couldn’t!” exclaimed Tom. “I’m supposed to know a little
about the game, but I give you my word, Parks, that if I look into the
rules book I get all balled up in a minute!”
“About all the average candidate brings to the field with him the
first day,” continued Loring, “is a healthy body and a normal mind.
The rest is provided by the coaches. I’ll swear you’ve got the first
requirement, and as for the second――well, it’s no secret that lots
of fellows in prep school and college who have made big names for
themselves as football players would never startle the world with
their intellects! I’m not likening you to them, Parks, however. I’m
only trying to reassure you, you know. As a matter of fact, any fellow
who can play chess as you play it needn’t trouble about not having
enough brains for football. About seventy-five per cent of football
is doing what you’re told, which leaves only twenty-five per cent for
the exercise of your mentality. You haven’t any good reason for not
playing, have you? I mean your folks aren’t down on it, for instance?”
Lemuel John grinned. “I guess they don’t know what it is,” he answered.
“Well, I don’t see, then, why you don’t go out to-morrow and report for
the second.”
“Oh, shucks, I don’t know!” Lemuel John looked frowningly from one to
another. “Think they’d want me?”
“Yes. In fact, I’m surprised they haven’t grabbed you long ago.”
“Why, there was something said about me playing, Deane. And then just
to-day a fellow named Warner came to see me. I was telling Bingham
about it upstairs a while back. Warner’s captain of the second. He said
he’d like me to come out and try for the team, but I told him I didn’t
think I’d better.”
“What did he say then?” asked Clif.
“Said maybe I knew best, or something like that.”
“The silly coot!” commented Clif disgustedly. “I told him――” Then he
caught a cautioning look from Loring and stopped.
“I think you’d enjoy playing football, Parks,” said Loring. “Of course
it’s hard work, but it’s fun, too. Maybe you’re wondering how I know,
since I’ve never tried it. I do know, though; and Clif and Tom will
tell you the same thing.”
“Oh, I guess I’d like it,” said Lemuel John. “I mean if I could really
play the game. I’d sort of hate to go out on that field and make a fool
of myself, though.”
“Not a chance of it,” said Clif. “Just remember that every one of us
has been through the same thing, Parks. You’ll feel awkward at first,
maybe, but it won’t take you more than two or three days to get onto
the ropes.”
“Think so? Well, I don’t know. I can be pretty dumb sometimes, Bingham.”
“At that, you’ll have nothing on the rest of ’em,” Tom chuckled.
“There’s a chap on the Scrub named Kinsey――”
“Never mind the scandal, Tom,” said Loring. “There’s still another
thing, Parks, that I haven’t mentioned. That’s duty. Duty enters into
it, too, you know. A fellow who can help the school by playing football
or baseball or any other game mustn’t pay too much attention to his own
wishes. If the school needs his services that ought to be sufficient.
Don’t you agree with me?”
“Well, I don’t know. I mean I suppose you’re right, Deane. I never
thought about that. You see, fellows, all this is sort of new to me.
I’m a tenderfoot here. This kind of a school’s considerably different
from the school at home. There’s a lot of things I ain’t onto yet. But
I guess you know what you’re talking about, all right.”
“The gentleman flatters you, Loring,” said Tom.
“I wasn’t meaning to flatter him,” began Lemuel John earnestly. Then he
caught the smile on Clif’s face and chuckled. “I ain’t onto him yet,
either,” he said, nodding toward Tom. “He’s a kind of a funny feller,
ain’t――isn’t he?”
“He’s a plain nut,” laughed Clif. “Pay no attention to him, Parks. No
one else does.”
“Now I guess you’re the one that’s stringing me. Well, I’m going to
think over what you said, Deane.” He began to assemble his long legs
preparatory to arising, but Loring motioned him back.
“Don’t be in a hurry, Parks. It’s still early. Besides, I’d rather have
you decide this business before you go. I might as well tell you――” and
here Loring flashed that compelling smile of his――“that I’ve made up
my mind you’re going to play. That means that if you say no now you’ll
just have to unsay it later, for I’m a frightfully persistent fellow,
Parks, and I’m likely to make life mighty unpleasant for you till you
let me have my way.”
“Shucks!” Lemuel John laughed amusedly. “I guess if it come――came to
a show-down between us two I’d win pretty easy for stubbornness. But,
gosh, if you want me to play as bad as you say, why, I’ll do it. Guess
I’d have decided to do it, anyway. I wish you’d tell me, though, what
the――the proceedings are. Do I get me one of those suits they wear
first-off, or do I wait and see will it be needed?”
“You wear your togs when you report,” said Loring; “but if I were you
I wouldn’t spend any money just yet. You’ve got some old togs, haven’t
you, Tom?”
“Yes, I’ve got some spare parts,” answered Tom dubiously, appraising
Lemuel John’s frame; “but maybe they won’t fit.”
“I can help out, too,” said Clif. “Tom and I will bring the things down
to you on our way to breakfast in the morning. Shoes, though――”
“Yes, I guess I’ll have to buy those,” said Lemuel John, grinning. “I
wear a nine.”
“A nine! Sacred Ibis of the River Nile, Parks! If I ever see you
coming my way there’ll be a half back missing from the first!” And Tom
shook his head awedly.
“I guess I ain’t likely to trouble you fellows any,” said the big chap.
“Not this year, anyway. I guess I’ll be going now. I’ve got a letter
half written to my father and I’d like to tell him about this football
business. It might interest him some. He don’t have much to interest
him where he is.”
“Why,” asked Loring solicitously, “where is your father, Parks?”
“New York City. It’s kind of dull down there for an active man like
dad. Good night.”
“Good night. Come again without being shanghaied. And don’t forget that
game of chess you promised. How about――let’s see――how about Wednesday
night?”
“Well, I don’t know,” drawled Lemuel John. “Maybe I won’t be able to by
then. But if I am I’ll sure drop around.”
“Think he will make the second?” asked Clif when the door had closed
behind the visitor.
“I certainly do,” answered Loring. “Don’t you, Tom?”
“Well,” said Tom haltingly, “I don’t ... know!”
But Lemuel John did make it. He lounged over to the second team
gridiron the next afternoon attired――rather abruptly, as a matter of
truth――in some old togs belonging to Tom and Clif and told George
Warner that he had changed his mind and guessed he’d see could he be
a football player. George managed to conceal his delight remarkably.
Indeed, an observer might almost have suspected that the captain was
bored rather than thrilled! However, he conducted Lemuel John over
to Coach Babcock and explained, and “Cocky,” after a swift survey of
the new candidate, smiled and asked: “Well, how’d we happen to miss
you before, Parks?” Lemuel John was an object of some amusement to
the other members of the Scrub squad, but they were decent enough not
to let him suspect it, and later, when the rookie had his initial
experience of handling a football, he was the first to chuckle at his
awkwardness. Before preliminary practice was over Lemuel John had
exactly twenty-eight new friends, for no one, from “Cocky” down to the
least of the substitutes, could resist his good nature and patience
under trying circumstances. Mr. Babcock didn’t excuse Lemuel John from
any of the pleasant diversions, but made him take his place in line
with the more experienced and muddle his way through. The spectacle of
the big fellow attempting his first tackle of the dummy was amusing
enough, in all faith, and even “Cocky” had to join his laughter with
that of the others; but when, still later, Lemuel John was instructed
to take his place with the catchers and let a high spiral punt settle
into his arms the result was ludicrous. Lemuel John’s mouth fell open
as he gazed anxiously at the descending ball and he became tense in
every muscle. Then, almost at the last instant, he discovered that he
was several paces away from the probable landing place of the pigskin
and came to life wildly. He leaped forward and to the left and shot
two great, long arms skyward. I suspect, too, that he closed his eyes,
since for at least a second after the ball had struck the sod two
yards behind him he still remained there as though supplicating the
gods!
More than once that afternoon Lemuel John earnestly regretted his
decision. Even though he knew that his inept efforts were funny, and
though he laughed at them, sometimes a bit ruefully, himself, no one
likes to be the sole and continual object of amusement, and Lemuel
John’s cheeks reddened several times under their tan. But it ended
finally and he accompanied the others over to the first team field and
sat on the bench in frowning concentration while the first trampled
on the Scrub to the tune of 13 to 0. Loring Deane had predicted the
position of guard or tackle for him, and Lemuel John focused his
observation on those positions. It seemed to him when the first
scrimmage period was over that the four fellows playing them on the
second were wrong in allowing the opposing players to thrust them aside
as they did. Of course, he reflected, he didn’t know much about the
fine points of the game yet, but it stood to reason, didn’t it, that
if the Scrub linemen would only stop those other fellows from going
ahead when they had the ball the other fellows wouldn’t score like
they had. Maybe, though, there were rules in that book he had looked
at which said the defenders mustn’t do that. He didn’t know about that
yet and he meant to find out. To that end he edged along the bench and
addressed a youngster who, like himself, had not yet seen service. In
the course of the next five minutes he received more information on the
subject of the duties of linemen, both on attack and defense, than he
could have derived from an hour’s perusal of the rules book. And, to
his surprise, it came out that the reason Sawyer and Burns and Warner
and Dawson didn’t stop the opponents from getting past them was that
they couldn’t help themselves! Lemuel John, considered that for a long
moment. Then he drawled: “Well, I don’t know, stranger, but it seems to
me like I’d make a heap more effort than those fellows if I was doing
it. Looks to me like they quit too easy!”