“He’s well set-up,” mused Johnny, “but somehow he doesn’t handle himself like a player. Looks slow to me, eh?”
“Y-yes,” agreed Sargent, “but I have Endicott’s word for it that he’s a good man, and you know Endicott’s a good judge, Johnny.”
Jim didn’t exactly relish putting himself under Brandon Gary’s charge, but there was evidently no help for it. Gary, looking very well in his football togs, was looking after, with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm, some twelve or fourteen members of the third squad who stood about in a circle and passed the ball to each other. Jim observed that they threw the ball by clasping it with the fingers at one end and sending it away with a round-arm sweep that caused the pigskin to revolve on its shorter axis; also that in catching it the fellows received it between elbow and thigh, pulling up the right leg slightly to cradle it. When they missed the catch they fell on the ball, snuggling it under them. He made his way to Gary just as that youth, with an impatient glance toward Sargent, was receiving the ball.
“The captain told me to report to you,” said Jim.
Gary turned and viewed him carelessly. “All right, find a place somewhere,” he answered. Then recognition dawned and he accorded Jim a scowl. “Here, stand over there,” he said curtly. And then, before Jim was well in place, Gary launched the ball at him swiftly. As the pigskin had only some eight feet to travel before it reached Jim, the latter was quite unready for it, and although he made a desperate attempt to capture it the ball struck his chest and bounded crazily away across the grass. Jim trotted after it and was in the act of picking it up when Gary bellowed:
“Fall on it, you idiot! None of that here!”
Jim fell. Unfortunately, confusion made him miss the ball entirely and he had to scramble on elbows and knees for a full yard before he could seize the exasperating oval and snuggle it under him. From behind him came audible, if good-natured, laughter from the others. Gary alone seemed unamused.
[“Ever see a football before?” he asked] as Jim went back to his place. Jim made no reply and the pigskin went on around the circle, thump thump, with an occasional break in the monotony of the proceedings when some one missed and had to launch himself to the turf. As the ball went around, Jim looked over his companions. He saw none that he recognized. All were apparently of Jim’s age or younger, and it was plain to be seen that they constituted the awkward squad. Whenever the ball reached Gary he tried his best to make Jim fumble it again, now throwing it high and now low, but always as hard as he could. But Jim, watching the others closely, emulated their way of catching and only once dropped the ball. Then he fell on it from where he stood and captured it very nicely. But Gary declined to let the incident pass without a reprimand.
