It was now the season for football, and several school teams had been organized. Tom and Dick were on one team, headed by Larry Colby. There was another team headed by Tad Sobber, and on this Nick Pell was a quarterback. How Sobber had ever gotten the captaincy of this team was a mystery.
"They want to play us next Saturday," said Larry, one afternoon. "What do you fellows say?" He put the question to his fellow members of the eleven.
"I don't care much to play Sobber and Pell," said Tom, promptly.
"Exactly the way I feel about it," added Dick. "But I'll play if the rest want to."
Some demurred, but in the end the match was arranged, and it started on the school grounds at two o'clock the following Saturday afternoon.
"I think it will be useless to try any mass playing," said Larry. "Sobber and Pell and some of the others are too heavy for us. We'll have to trust to some swift passes and quick runs."
In the first half of the game Sobber's eleven got ten points, while Larry's team got nothing.
"Sobber is too brutal for me," said Tom. "He deliberately kicked me in the shins."
"If he does it again, knock him down," advised Dick, promptly.
Larry's eleven went into the second half with vigor. They soon got a goal and followed it up by two more. Then Sobber claimed a foul, but it was not granted.