“Oh, rot!” said Billy. “Parents aren’t bothering about who wins the Yale game, Gus. Besides, they have got some rights, say what you want. My dad’s paying a good stiff price to get me an education and if he told me I must quit playing football I’d do it. So would you. So would any fellow.”
“Maybe, Billy, but any sensible parent wouldn’t do it!”
“Why not? What’s the sense of spending a pile of money on a chap if he’s going to break his neck or come out of college with two or three important bones missing just where they’ll show the most? No, Bob, Perrin’s folks have got the right idea. Merely as an investment——”
“Money isn’t everything,” I said. “There’s such a thing as loyalty and duty to your college, Billy.”
“You’re talking about Bob; I’m talking about his folks. They don’t owe any duty to your old college, do they?”
“Just the same——”
“Oh, forget it,” said Pete. “Get out of here, Gus. I’m going to bed. It’s up to Porter, anyway. I hope he gets him, that’s all.”
“So do I,” said Billy, “but he won’t.”
And he didn’t. Perrin was awfully sorry about it, but he had made a promise to his parents and he meant to keep it. Porter told him he’d have to get his parents to let him off. Perrin said he wouldn’t ask it; said it wouldn’t be fair. Porter raved at him and pleaded, but Perrin just kept on saying how badly he felt about it and how much he would like to play, but——
Porter was sore that afternoon. “He’s a mule,” he said. “A stubborn mule.”