AUTUMN

CHAPTER XVII

SOME DETAILS ABOUT FOOTBALL

The mere act of kicking a football is a good exercise in itself, but very few who do so, particularly among boys, know anything about the game.

In England and her colonies there are innumerable football clubs in every town and village, but in this country the game is largely confined to colleges, and even in these not all the students play; indeed, so many are the physical requirements and so strenuous is the work that only those with extraordinary strength and activity are selected in the making up of teams. Yet, as it is, when properly played, one of our best out-door games, I think it well that my boy readers should know something about it.

At one time there were fifteen players on a side; now eleven is the legal number. The ground has much the same appearance of a gridiron, and the name "gridiron" is often applied to it, just as "diamond" is applied to the space marked off for that game.

Along the field the ball is urged, in ways presently to be explained, and which only the strong and active would care to carry out if pleasure in the strenuous sport were not its own great reward.