“Who’ll coach your team?”
“We’re going to have a Canadian.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Fillmore. “You’re going in for the real thing! Some day we’ll put it all over those Canucks!”
“Perhaps so,” admitted Frank; “but, to tell you the truth, I fear the players of this country will have to improve faster than they have to get away with the Canadians. We can trounce them at baseball; but at lacrosse and ice hockey they are going to keep the lead for some time.”
“Don’t you believe it!” cried the Hopkins captain. “Their day is coming right soon. I’ll admit that they still outrank us, but the sport is comparatively new with us. We have not given it enough attention, and it hasn’t become popular with the public. It deserves to become popular.”
“It will,” asserted Frank. “When people begin to realize what a pretty game it is they’ll take to it. The public has to be educated up to a thing like that. Lacrosse has hardly any of the dangerous elements of football, yet it is exciting, and the open playing permits spectators to see almost constantly everything that is taking place. There is no more graceful game played.”
“Why, you’re a real enthusiast!” said Fillmore.
“Just as I am an enthusiast in all clean, healthy sports. I believe in such things, and I take hold of them with delight. I’ve seen lacrosse played in Canada, and the work of two well-matched teams up there puts us in the shade. However, let the public show the interest for lacrosse that it has in college baseball and we’ll witness great advancement in the next few years.”
“Have you played lacrosse yourself, Mr. Merriwell?”