It proved that there were no four students in the college who could stay on the cleats half a minute against the team that Frank had selected and trained; so practice teams were made up of five, six, and sometimes eight men.
The dead weight of eight men proved to be a little too much for the regular team, although the latter was never pulled off the cleats.
All in all the Yale students were greatly satisfied with their tug of war team, and as the time for the intercollegiate contests approached their confidence grew.
They believed that they would be able to get away with Princeton, and it did not seem to strike them at all that the other colleges were in it.
CHAPTER IX.
HUNTING FOR A FRESHMAN.
The contests were to take place on a Wednesday evening. On the Monday previous all the Yale athletes went to New York.
Special permission from the faculty had to be obtained for this absence from the college, but there was no difficulty in getting that, as there is hardly a professor at Yale who does not have a strong interest in athletic events.
As New Haven is but two hours' ride from New York, it might have been possible for the students to attend to all their duties on the Wednesday, and still get to New York in time for the events, but that would never do for the contestants.