“The beauty of being on probation,” observed Nick, “is that a fellow is able to give his entire time to the improvement of his mind. I recall that during my junior year being on pro was very helpful to me. It allowed me to do a lot of studying that I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish otherwise, and so, without doubt, preserved me to Grafton posterity. If it hadn’t been for that thoughtful act on the part of faculty you might not have me with you this evening, fellows.”
“Faculty has a heap to answer for,” said Guy sadly.
“I don’t mind—much,” said Hugh. “It knocks me out of football, though, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, and the worst of it is,” said Pop Driver, “that you’ll have to go to gym and do your four hours per week.”
“I don’t think I shall mind that, really. I fancy it’s dumb bells and clubs and that sort of thing, eh?”
“Yes, and bar bells and free arm movements, which are tiresome things, and chest weights. Creak—creak—creak—creak! I hate the thought of the things.” And Nick disgustedly shook his head.
“You got off easily, if you want to know it,” said Bert. “Two weeks isn’t anything. Usually it’s a month at least. The only thing that saved you from getting it harder was that faculty is up in the air about last night’s rumpus. It has a sort of an idea that a lot of things went on it doesn’t know about and that if justice was done half the school would be on pro.”
“They’re always easier with a new fellow,” said Guy. “Two weeks will soon pass, Hugh. Take my advice, though, and try for B’s in everything. That always makes them happy and they’ll let you off easy.”
“B’s?” exclaimed Bert. “Why B’s? Hugh gets an A-minus in about everything now! By the way, fellows, Jimmy’s been pussy-footing it all over school today trying to find out what really happened last night. He cornered me in lower hall after French this morning and said he had heard the juniors had held a very successful meeting. You know the way he smiles when he wants to—to lull your suspicions?”
“Wow!” applauded Nick. “That’s langwidge!”
“So I said yes, I’d heard they had. And then he asked: ‘You—ah—you weren’t present then yourself, Winslow?’ And I said no, I didn’t think the juniors allowed any of the other class fellows at their meeting. Innocent, I was. So he said, ‘H’m, yes, very true, Winslow,’ and I beat it. What gets me is that they didn’t hear the racket and come out. I suppose, though, they thought it was the usual rumpus.”
“There are some mighty funny-looking faces around today,” observed Pop. “Phillips couldn’t see at all out of one eye, and——”
“Phillips isn’t anything,” cut in Nick. “You should see Downer! He’s positively disreputable! I told him so, too. Told him he oughtn’t to appear among gentlemen looking as he did. He was quite short-tempered about it.”
“I wonder if they’ll do anything,” pondered Bert.
“Someone said he’d heard they were going to stop junior meeting after this,” replied Guy. “It would be a good thing if they did. Such behavior is most—er—reprehensible.”
“Piffle!” scoffed Nick. “You were just dying to get into it yourself last night, you old hypocrite!”
“I did get into it,” said Guy grimly. “And I got this for my pains.” He laid a finger on his bruise. “Pop was the one who put ’em to rights. Pop went into it like a whirlwind. Thump! Down goes a lower! Bang! Down goes an upper! Great stuff, Pop!”
“You fellows could have fought all night,” replied Pop calmly, “for all I cared, only I thought it would be rather a silly piece of business for half of you to get nabbed and put on pro. To come right down to hunks, though, it was a pretty rank piece of business for grown kids to pummel each other for no reason at all. You upper middlers ought to be proud of it.”
“Well, we didn’t start it,” said Nick aggrievedly. “One of those chaps punched one of us and so we punched back.”
“It’s always the other fellow who starts things, I notice. If you and Bert and Kinley and a few more had been caught at it a fat chance the team would have had!”
“That’s so,” agreed Guy. “I understand that Bonner was extremely eloquent this afternoon.”
“He flayed us,” said Bert grimly. “He has a nasty tongue sometimes.”
“It struck me he was mighty easy with you,” said Pop unfeelingly. “When you’re on the School Team, Bert, you’re supposed to behave yourself and not act like a kid.”
“Oh, chuck it, Pop,” returned Bert shortly. “I’ve been lectured enough. You’re as cheerful as a raven.”
“After all,” said Nick, “’is ’Ighness is the only one should kick. He’s dished on football for two weeks, anyway, and that queers him utterly for this year. If anyone has a right to grouch it’s Hugh, and he’s the most cheerful of the lot.”
“Do you really think it lets me out for the year?” asked Hugh sadly. “I was hoping that maybe, if it was only two weeks, they’d let me back on the—the—grinds.”
“The what?” demanded Nick. “Oh, the scrubs! Grinds isn’t bad, though! That’s what they do, all right.”
“Hope on, hope ever,” said Guy. “Put it up to Ted some time. Maybe he will fix it for you. Who’s going to captain the second this year, Pop?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it will be Ben Myatt.”
“Honest? Poor old Bennie! He’s been trying for the first team for three years now. I hoped he would make it this time.”
“Perhaps he will, but I doubt it. Ben just doesn’t reach to the first. He’s a clever player, too.”
“Better than Tom Hanrihan, in my estimation,” said Nick. “I’d like to see Ben make it this time.”
“So would I,” agreed Pop, “but he isn’t the player Tom is. Tom’s got the zip, you know. Ben’s too good-natured, I guess.”
“There’s something in that,” mused Guy. “Remember Powell, who pitched for us year before last, Pop? He was a nifty twirler, all right, and had a fast one that would fool you two times out of three, but you simply couldn’t rile him, and when things got away from us Powell was no earthly use in the box. When you’re a run or two behind along in the eighth or ninth you want just nine fellows in the field who are mad clear through!”
“I say,” exclaimed Hugh, “you’re spoofin’, what?”
“Nary a spoof, Duke,” replied Guy. “Getting your mad up is what does the business. I don’t mean you’re to show it or froth at the mouth, you understand, but you want to have it inside you. Then when your chance comes you bust out and something happens.”
“Really?” marveled Hugh. “I’ve always thought quite the contrary. It seems to me, you know, that a chap who keeps his temper is the one who can do the best.”
“Sure! I said that. Have a temper, but keep it! Am I right, Pop?”
“Yes, I think so. I know that when a fellow plays football he has to sort of seethe inside before he can really do much.”
“Did you ever seethe?” asked Nick incredulously.
“I’ve been mad enough to bite,” said Pop, smiling. “Haven’t you?”
“Me? Great Scott, yes! But you’re such a sleepy, unemotional beggar, Pop, that I didn’t suppose you ever felt that way. Bert and I, now, being sort of temperamental——”
“I always get mad,” confessed Bert, “the first time a fellow tackles me or gives me a jolt. I’ve got a rotten temper, anyway.”
“Good reason to play football, then,” said Pop. “Football’s a fine thing for temper.”
“I fancy I’d never make a player, then,” remarked Hugh ruefully. “I don’t get angry very easily, you see.”
His regret was so evident that the others laughed, and Nick said: “Don’t worry about that, ’Ighness. You’ll get over it bravely when you come to play. Just let a couple of fellows sit on your head and another one twist your ankle for you and you’ll be mad enough to eat dirt!”
Nothing came of Thursday night’s affair. Possibly faculty didn’t quite know where to begin, since fully two-thirds of the school was concerned. The fracas went down in history as the Junior Meeting Riot, and the Campus, the school monthly, managed to get a lot of sly fun out of it in its next issue. Leslie and several other more prominent members of the senior class were taken to task for allowing matters to go as far as they had, which, considering the fact that they had sustained various injuries in their efforts to promote peace, was rather unkind. In the end faculty prohibited future interference with junior meeting and, lest the temptation should prove too great for the lower middlers, provided that the meeting should take place in Manning common room.
Hugh took his punishment philosophically, although he really regretted having to give up trying for the football team. He had just begun to find something besides hard work in the daily practice, and, while he hadn’t for a moment counted on making the first, he had entertained hopes of finding a place on the second team. It was Tom Hanrihan who took the matter hardest. Tom, a big, raw-boned, good-hearted chap of eighteen, took his commission of coaching the “rookies” very seriously, and Hugh’s defection grieved him sadly. The talk that Hugh had received from Jimmy, otherwise the assistant principal, Mr. Rumford, was nothing to what Hanrihan had to say to him Saturday morning. Hanrihan told Hugh quite explicitly how many kinds of an idiot he was and would listen to no excuses.
“You seem to think all we have to do is waste time on you fellows and then you can drop out whenever it pleases you. Making a football team isn’t any cinch, Ordway, when you’ve got only nine weeks to do it. You haven’t any right to take up our time if you don’t mean to stick it out.”
“But I did mean to stick it out,” expostulated Hugh. “It wasn’t my fault if those beggars got me and——”
“You shouldn’t have given them the chance. You shouldn’t have had anything to do with that scrap, anyway. (This despite the fact that the speaker had a very puffy and discolored left eye!) When a fellow goes out for the team he’s supposed to look after himself. He’s trying for the—the biggest thing in school, and he ought to realize it. You had a good chance to make good. I as much as told you that a dozen times. (If he had, Hugh didn’t recall it!) You showed some gumption, and you were quick and handled a ball nicely. Now you’ve gone and spoiled it all. Honest, Ordway, I’d like to punch your head for you!”
“Oh, very well, do it,” replied Hugh meekly. “I’m sorry. That’s all I can say, Hanrihan.”
“A lot of good being sorry does,” snorted the other.
“It’s only two weeks, Mr. Rumford said, and I thought that possibly I could get back again,” said Hugh wistfully.
“Get back! Lay off two weeks and get back! That’s likely! By that time we’ll be in the middle of the season. Who do you suppose is going to take time to coach you individually, Ordway?”
“Well,” and Hugh smiled ingratiatingly at Hanrihan, “you could, you know, if you cared to!”
“I could!” Hanrihan stared in amazement. “Well, you’re certainly a cheeky youngster, Ordway! What the dickens should I do it for? You don’t suppose the team’s going to pot just because you’re out, do you?”
“N-no, of course not. I didn’t mean that.” Hugh colored in his quick fashion. “Only, I thought that possibly—if I sort of watched practice and saw what was being done, why, after I was off probation, you might sort of—sort of show me, if you know what I mean!”
“Huh! You’ll have to get Bonner to let you back first. And I don’t think he will.” Hanrihan paused. “He might, though, if I put it up to him. Confound you, Ordway, you seem to think you can do as you please and play hob all around and then—then get folks to square things for you! You are a cheeky youngster, and no mistake!”
“I dare say,” replied Hugh, “but you’ll speak to Mr. Bonner, eh? You know yourself it wasn’t my fault, old chap, now don’t you?”
“Well, no, I suppose it wasn’t—in a way,” acknowledged Hanrihan more graciously. “Well, I’ll see if we can do anything. But look here, now. You keep in shape, do you understand? And keep in right with faculty. No more nonsense, Ordway!”
“Right-o! And thanks awfully, Hanrihan.”
“Don’t thank me until it happens—if it does,” grumbled the other. “I’ll let you know if—if anything comes up. So long.”
That conversation left Hugh hopeful again, but when he recounted it to Bert the latter threw cold water on the project. “Tom will do his part,” he said, “but there isn’t a chance that Bonner will let you back. I know him too well. I’m sorry, Hugh. I wish he would. But I wouldn’t expect too much if I were you.”
“I shan’t,” replied Hugh untroubledly. “But there isn’t any harm in hoping, eh? Even if you don’t get what you want you’ve had the fun of wishing for it, if you know what I mean!”