Tommy Remington's Battle

by Burton Egbert Stevenson

“Jump?”

“Yes. Whenever you see a fellow coming at you, and you haven’t room to dodge him, jump right at him. That will knock him over backwards, and even if he hangs on to you, and you fall, too, you have gained some ground, and maybe cleared the way for the man with the ball who’s coming after you.”

“Thanks,” said Tommy, gratefully. “I’ve got a lot to learn, you know. I’ll try it next time.”

“Hurry up, fellows; line up,” called Blake; and for the next hour Tommy was hauled around and kneaded and rolled on the ground. Then they gave him a lesson in falling on the ball,—it was wonderful how elusive and slippery it turned out to be,—and at the end Blake was pleased to commend him.

“You’ll do,” he said. “You’ll make a good guard after you learn the game. Mind you’re out to-morrow afternoon. It isn’t every man has such a chance.”

And Tommy retired to the gymnasium for a bath and a rub-down, feeling very good indeed. When he had got back to his room, it occurred to him that he ought to write a letter home, and he sat down to this duty. But how far away New River valley and the cramped, monotonous life there seemed! He had been away from it only a day, but it seemed ages off, and he reflected with satisfaction that he was going to escape it altogether. He shivered at the thought that he might never have escaped it—that he might have passed his whole life there, without knowing anything about the great, glorious outside world. He addressed the letter to his father, but it was really for his two old teachers that he wrote, and he told something of his trip and of his great good fortune in getting a chance on the team. He had an uneasy feeling that the letter was not so loving as it should have been, but he tried to make up for this with some affectionate words at the close.

Every afternoon, after that, Tommy donned his canvas suit, and soon began to have a fair idea of the game. Blake put his strongest man opposite him, and the remainder of the boys would throng the side-lines to see Remington and Smith fight it out. Both were unusually strong for their age,—Smith had been reared on a great cattle-ranch in the West,—and as it was nip and tuck between them, both grew stronger and better players, while Blake contemplated them with satisfaction, and congratulated himself on possessing the best pair of guards that had ever played together on a Lawrenceville team. But of a sudden his satisfaction was rudely blasted.

Tommy had been practising faithfully for three weeks or more, when he suddenly became aware that he was falling behind in his studies. He had not noticed it at first, so absorbed was he in his new surroundings; but one morning, at the recitation in history, he found that he did not at all understand what the lesson was about, for the reason that he had quite forgotten the events which led up to it. When the recitation was over, he went up to his room and did some hard thinking. It was evident at the outset that he could not afford any longer to spend the best part of every afternoon on the football field. These other boys had an immense advantage—all their lives they had been unconsciously absorbing knowledge which he must work out for himself. Their associations had always been with books and with educated people, and in consequence they were so far ahead of him that the only way he could keep up was by extra study. He knew that if he once fell very far behind he would never catch up again.

So that day after lunch, instead of hurrying into his football clothes, Tommy mounted resolutely to his room, opened his history at the very first, and went to work at it. It was not an easy task. He could hear the shouts of the boys from the field, and the bright sunshine tempted him to come out of doors; but he kept resolutely at work. Presently he heard some one running up the stairs, and Sexton burst into the room, and stopped astonished at sight of Tommy bending over his book.

“Oh, say,” he protested, “you can’t do that, you know, Remington. Blake is waiting for you before he begins practice. Hurry up and get into your football togs.”