And he was repeating it after he had failed in two more jumps, the first of which resulted in another tumble and the second falling short by half a foot.
“You’ve still another jump if you feel like it!” Sam offered.
“No,” said Reed, extending his hand in token of surrender. “You win!”
“I’ll never feel quite right about this,” said Sam, as he gripped the hand of the fellow he had dubbed “Softy.” “You’re some guy, Reed! You made me break my own record twice to top you. I’m sorry it’s taken us fellows so long to get to know you ... but I’m glad of one thing...!” He paused, grinning.
“What’s that?” asked Reed, feeling his heart suddenly go out to this Northern foeman.
“I’m glad,” said Sam, “that you didn’t have snow in Georgia! Man—a guy who can jump like you did in a month’s time...!”
Coldness—imaginary and otherwise—vanished quickly after that as fellow schoolmates gathered around for the privilege of shaking the Southerner by the hand ... and, as if to prove that the Northern warmth was to remain—the next day brought a heavy thaw!
IN WRONG RIGHT
They picked me to do the dirty work because I was a special friend of Eddie Summers and they didn’t think he’d suspect me.
Eddie was the leader of the freshest bunch of Freshies that ever got fresh at Lillard High. He’d made things miserable for us Sophs all year and the worst thing about it, he’d slipped out of every trap we’d set for him. The other Freshies didn’t cut so much bait with us. Eddie was the rudder to the Freshman ship ... and once we put the rudder out of commission we knew the first year boat would flounder like a fish trying to make a cross country hike.