The lost canoes were recovered the next day. Alf’s was found caught on a snag at the up-stream end of Flat Island, Dan’s beached just below the railroad bridge. Some one had evidently seen it and pulled it ashore, thereby earning Dan’s deep gratitude.
A few days later the candidates for the hockey team were summoned to a meeting in the gymnasium and Alf outlined the season’s plans to them. Faculty had agreed to allow them a schedule of eight games, with the Broadwood contest closing the season on the twentieth of February. The first game, with St. John’s, was arranged for January ninth. Alf said he wanted the fellows to put in every moment possible during the Christmas recess on skates.
“Play hockey if you can. If you can’t, take a hockey stick with you and learn to use it with both hands. Buy a puck and try shooting, too. Put a couple of sticks or stones on the ice and try to shoot the puck between them. You ought all of you to have a fair idea of hockey by the time you get back to school. We have a few dollars in the treasury already, but we are going to use that to build a rink on the meadow. So every fellow will have to buy his own sticks this year. From now until vacation there will be practice every afternoon but Saturdays in the baseball cage or in the rowing room. Of course, if we get ice we’ll go out of doors. You’d better each of you buy a book of rules and study it. You can get the book in Greenburg at Proctor’s, and it costs you only ten cents. So don’t tell me you can’t afford it. Any fellow who thinks that’s too much money, however, can go to French and he will buy the book for him. That’s all for this time, I guess. Four o’clock Monday next here in the gym.”
“Shall we wear skates?” some one inquired.
“You may wear roller skates if you have them,” replied Alf, joining in the laughter. “We don’t expect to learn to skate indoors, however, simply to use the stick and shoot. By the way, though, there is one more thing. We’ve got to get the rink ready before the ground freezes. We’re going to throw up embankments of earth about a foot high. Mr. McCarthy has agreed to do that for us, but he can only work at it an hour or so a day. Now, suppose to-morrow afternoon we all go down and give him a hand. We’d get it done then and would save money, too; and we need all the money we’ve got. What do you say?”
What they said was evident from the fact that the next afternoon some thirty boys of various ages and sizes were merrily throwing up the ground with whatever implements they had been able to requisition. Alf and Dan and Dick French had marked off the ground and set stakes, and before dark the rink was ready for the ground to freeze.
“What I don’t just comprehend,” observed Dan, as they stood in the twilight viewing the result with satisfaction, “is how you propose to get the water in here. The river is about four feet below the level of the rink.”
“Pump it, my dear boy. Mr. McCarthy has a hand pump and he will rig it up over there on the bank. Then we’ll build a trough effect of boards and run the water into the rink.”
“Oh,” said Dan, nodding. “When are you going to do that?”
“Just as soon as the ground freezes hard.”