"Let that idea soak in, Owen Lawrence," spoke up "Jack Frost," who had won his place on the pitching staff.
"All right. We'll give you all the chance you want." Owen, apparently regretting his hasty outbreak, even smiled as he added: "Wherever I study I'm always red-hot for the school."
"Lawrence's thought arrangement unloosens his tongue before he thinks," came from Benny. "I made a note of that the first day he was here."
"Oh ho," yawned Dave Brandon. "I've got a lot of work to do on the next number of the 'Reflector.' Guess I'll skip."
"Crackers," the most solemn-looking boy in school, and yet, some suspected, the most anxious to help along any row, realized that it would be impolitic to allow the opposition to show its hand too freely. He saw that it could only react upon themselves, and, perhaps, throw into the other camp those undecided students who were not quite sure which side to favor.
"The 'Pie-eaters' will act as nice as pie," he confided to Owen Lawrence, late that afternoon at Terry Guffin's.
"I heard Steele speak about getting up a second nine to play the regulars," said Benny Wilkins. "He told the fellows it was the best kind of practice. Now's your chance, Lawrence."
"Not for mine, son," answered Owen, emphatically. "Steele and Somers threw me down. Now they can't pick up yours truly just to make a convenience of him."
"I'm not sore about it," added Earl Roycroft, "but, after being considered a kind of star on the football eleven, I don't feel like taking a back seat."
"I should say not," agreed Brown.