“You don’t?” Dan laughed. “You would, though, before the game was very old. Besides, Gerald, you know very well that Muscles won’t let you go in for both.”
“He told me I might.”
“Cross-country and football both?”
“He told me I might play football, and he knows very well that I’m on the Cross-Country Team.”
“He may know it, but he’s forgotten it. And it won’t take him long to remember it, Gerald. Anyhow, it’s a sure thing that he isn’t going to let you do both.”
“Then I’ll give up cross-country work,” said Gerald.
Dan shook his head smilingly. “I don’t believe it. It wouldn’t be fair to the school, Gerald. A fellow’s got to do what he can do best; that’s a duty. Suppose I gave up baseball in the spring and said I wanted to try for the Tennis Team!”
Gerald had to smile at that. “The Tennis Team would beg you to keep on with baseball, Dan!”
“Probably, but the idea’s the same. I wouldn’t have any right to cut out baseball just because I wanted to do something else more. And you haven’t any right to give up cross-country running, Gerald.”
“Then I can’t play football after all?” questioned Gerald disconsolately.