GETTING A REPRIMAND
Ella Grayson gave a little squeal as Garry came into the living room
that afternoon. She had of course seen the game, as had every other
high school girl, but this was her first close view of her brother.
"Garry Grayson!" she exclaimed. "Of all things! Mother, just look at
him!"
Mrs. Grayson looked, and hurried with an exclamation to her son's side.
"Oh, Garry, what has happened? Your nose! That eye! Have you been in an
accident?"
Garry laughed as he flung his cap into a chair.
"Don't worry, Mother," he said giving her an affectionate hug. "I never
felt better or happier in my life. Is dinner nearly ready? Gee, but I'm
hungry."
"But, Garry, you haven't told me--"
"Just been in a football game, Mother," Garry explained. "And I got my
share of the hard knocks. But it was a peach of a game. We scrubs sure
gave the regulars a tough fight. At one time it looked as though we
had them licked."
"I suppose the next thing you'll have is a cauliflower ear," remarked
Ella, as their mother hurried off to find a soothing lotion with which
to dress the boy's hurts.
"I heard something about your football game on my way home," remarked
Mr. Grayson, who entered the house a few minutes later. "I heard,
too, who made the touchdowns for the scrubs. Seems to me his name was
Grayson or something like that."
Garry flushed and Ella giggled.
"I think Garry's cut out for an editor," she said. "He's always saying
'we' when it ought to be 'I'."
"The other fellows played as hard as I did," declared Garry. "If it
hadn't been for the interference I had, I wouldn't have made the
touchdowns. The whole team fought like tigers."
"Well, I'm glad you made a good showing," said his father. "It's fine
to win, of course: but, after all, the main thing is to play the game,
play it honorably, squarely and with all your might. And from all I've
heard that's the way you played it to-day."
"But look at his nose and his eye!" said Mrs. Grayson.
"I guess his injuries won't be fatal," laughed Mr. Grayson.
"I'm going to take a snapshot of him and show it to the girls," said
Ella, making a dive for her camera.
"Not on your life you won't!" returned Garry, as he forestalled her and
held the instrument out of her reach until she promised to be good.
On Monday morning the school was agog with interest over the result
of the Saturday game. The stock of Lenox High football went up with a
bound. Up to that time there had been a good deal of pessimism as to
the standing of Lenox in the High School League, owing to the loss of
Greb and other stars. But now it began to look as though Lenox would
have a good store of reserve material to draw on for the hot contests
that were promised in the future.
There were six teams in the High School League of which Lenox was a
member. All of them were within a radius of thirty miles, so that there
was not much traveling to be done, and almost the entire membership of
the schools that were playing on any particular day could be depended
on to be on hand to cheer their favorites. The rivalry between the
different teams was intense, and feeling ran high whenever the teams
clashed.
Besides Lenox, there were the Wimbledon, Pawling, Bass Lake, Greenfield
and Thomaston high schools represented in the league. Of these,
Greenfield was the most to be feared, and they had always given Lenox
the hardest opposition. After Greenfield came Pawling. The others also
were, as Ralph Wynn said, "not to be sneezed at," and no game was
counted as surely in Lenox's hands until the referee's whistle blew.
Just now Coach Garwin was "pointing" the team for the Greenfield game.
Of course, he wanted as many of the others too as his team could win,
but he recognized Greenfield as his strongest opponent. Reports that
had come to him indicated that Greenfield had retained most of its
former stars, and in addition had added a fullback who was said to be a
wonder.
So, with this struggle in view, it was no wonder that the coach was
elated by the showing made by his scrubs. He knew now that, in case of
injury to any of his regulars, he had a second line to draw from that
would be almost or quite as good as the boys they replaced.
He smiled pleasantly at Garry as he met the lad on the school steps,
but made no reference to the Saturday game. No one under his control
was going to get a swelled head if he knew it.
Garry's nose was still swollen, and his eye had a purple ring around
it.
"Gee, but you wouldn't take a beauty prize just now," chuckled Ted.
Trompet Shrugg eyed Garry sourly as the lad entered his room. He seemed
about to speak, but for the moment restrained himself.
During the first quarter of an hour lessons went on as usual. But it
was noticeable that the teacher was fidgeting and most of the time kept
his eye on Garry's disfigured face. At last he seemed to have reached a
resolution and rapped on the desk for attention.
"It is of course my chief duty to teach you English," he said to the
expectant boys, who sensed that something unusual was coming. "But it
is also my duty, as I conceive it, to oversee your conduct. And from
that duty I shall not flinch. I am surprised--perhaps I should say I
am disgusted--that one of your number should have been engaged in an
unseemly brawl. It would seem to me to be only common decency that he
should not intrude his presence here until the shameful evidence of
that brawl has disappeared."
He paused and fixed his eyes on Garry.