"That was outrageous."
"I say, Dopey, what'll you do if they fire us?"
"Don't joke on such subjects."
"Dopey," said Waters solemnly, "while the dean has the case under consideration, just to aid his deliberations, I think we had better—well, study a little."
"I suppose we must flirt with the text-books," said McNab, "but let's do it together, so no one'll suspect."
CHAPTER IX
The last week of the football season broke over them before Stover could realize that the final test was almost at hand. The full weight of the responsibility that was on him oppressed him day and night. He forgot what he had been at end; he remembered only his present inadequacy. It had been definitely decided to keep him at fullback, for three things were imperative in the weak backfield: some one who could catch punts, with nerve enough to get off his kicks quickly in the face of a stronger line, and above all some one on the last defense who would never miss the tackle that meant a touchdown.
In the last week a great change took place in the sentiment of the university—the hoping against hope that often arrives with the intensity of combat. At this time Harvard and Yale were still reluctantly estranged, due to a purely hypothetical question as to which side had begun a certain historic slaughter, and the big game of the season was with Princeton, which, under the leadership of Garry Cockerell, Dink's first captain at Lawrenceville, had established a record of unusual power and brilliancy.