Stuart shook his head smilingly. “No, sir, I don’t think so. Of course, it’s going to take some work, but we’ve got a good crowd to start with. If Mr. Haynes knows football as he’s supposed to, things will run along all right, I guess.”
“The confidence of youth is a beautiful thing,” murmured the other. “Well, I sincerely hope that things will run along all right and I wish you the best luck in the world. And that means a successful season crowned by a glorious victory over Pearsall. I’ll be watching with a great deal of interest how the youngest captain ever elected here performs his task, my boy. I hope, though, you won’t start out overconfident. I’ve been here twelve years and overconfidence at one stage or another of the season has lost more games for us than any other one factor. Heed the words of age and experience, Harven, and don’t write the answer until you’ve worked out the proposition.”
“Oh, I’m not cocksure,” laughed Stuart. “I’m confident that we can win, but I realize that we’ve got to work every minute, and work hard. By the way, sir, what does amenability mean? Jack told me that was a quality I didn’t have.”
“Amenability?” repeated the instructor. “It means several things. For one, it means the quality of being open-minded, of willingness to be governed. We speak of a person as being amenable to reason, which usually means that the person has taken our advice, or, at least, listened to it.”
“Sounds as though he was calling me pigheaded,” said Stuart.
“Hardly as bad as that,” laughed the other; “he was probably trying to convey the idea, and convey it as politely as possible, that you are likely to rely too implicitly on your own judgment and are slightly contemptuous of others’. Isn’t that more likely to be it?”
“Then it means cocksure,” grunted Stuart. “I don’t think I am. Do you, sir?”
Mr. Moffit smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. “You and I have been pretty good friends for two years, Harven,” he answered, “and we’ll probably remain so as long as we don’t ask each other questions like that.”
Stuart grinned. “But seriously, Mr. Moffit, am I like he says? I don’t mean to be.”