“Very well, sir, we’ll try it.”
“And I wish you luck,” said Mr. Ames as the boys arose. “Come around whenever you can and report progress. And whatever I can do for you I will. Oh, by the way, I wouldn’t expect too much of that editorial in The Record; it’s just possible the faculty will think it, too—er—strong. You understand? Good night!”
The meeting was duly called and met in Spring’s study, in Weeks. The attendance was not encouragingly large; out of twenty-eight fellows invited by Phin, thirteen appeared. Phin, Hansel, and Spring all spoke. It was difficult at first for the audience to eliminate the personal element from the matter, and the general sentiment seemed to be that “it was hard lines on Billy Cameron.” Ultimately, however, most of them consented to look at the subject from an abstract point of view, after Phin and Hansel had assured them time and again that there was nothing against Cameron personally, and that it was the principle of the thing they were concerned with. When the meeting broke up there were six certain converts, most of them fellows whose names carried weight, and some of the others had consented to “think it over”; these latter promised in any event to attend the mass meeting which, it was decided, was to be called for the following Saturday night. On the whole, Hansel and Phin were encouraged.
Meanwhile the former had been reinstated on the first team. The powers, represented by Bert, came to the conclusion that two days of disgrace was all that could be afforded, owing to the fact that there was no one who could fill the culprit’s place at right end. Hansel went cheerfully back to his position and, as always, played as hard as he knew how. Cameron, who had been laid off because of injuries received in practice, was back again once more at right half, and got into things in a way which showed that his enforced idleness had done him good. The team as a whole was coming fast now, and there was hope among the more sanguine of a victory over Warren. The game with Warren school was not considered nearly so important as the contest with Fairview, and, coming as it did only two weeks before the final contest, it frequently happened that the game was purposely sacrificed in order to spare the light blue players for the supreme conflict. But for all that the Warren game was worth winning, and a decisive victory for Beechcroft was considered conclusive proof of the team’s ability to cope with Fairview. This year the wearers of the light blue were in unusually good physical condition, were well advanced and, it was understood, would enter the Warren game with a determination to win. That game was not quite two weeks distant.
[CHAPTER IX]
THE SECOND SKIRMISH
There was a second meeting called about this time to raise additional funds for the support of the football team. The sum already subscribed was not enough for the traveling expenses, guarantees to visiting teams and clothing, and where the ninety dollars to pay Billy Cameron’s tuition for the winter and spring terms was coming from was causing Harry Folsom a good deal of bother. And when the meeting had assembled he said as much. There was a very slim attendance, and a spirit of levity prevailed. Phin and Hansel were there, as was Spring, but they took no part in the proceedings, greatly, I think, to Harry’s relief. The football men were conspicuously absent.
“You fellows want a good team,” said Harry, “and you want it to lick everything that comes along. But you aren’t willing, it seems, to pay for it. You’ve pledged three hundred and eighty-eight dollars, and that isn’t nearly enough, and you know it as well as we do. We need at least two hundred and fifty dollars more. Last year we managed to scrape along on about four hundred and fifty dollars, but we were able to do it because the field had been put in fine shape the year before, and we didn’t have that to pay for. But this fall, as anyone knows who has been down there, there’s a lot of work got to be done; the place is in bad shape. The Fairview game is played here this fall, and we’ve got to have the field fixed up and the stands attended to. It has been estimated that it will take over a hundred dollars to put the stands in shape for the Fairview game.