CHAPTER VI
FIRST DAYS AT ALTON
Willard's trunk arrived two days later, as though, by its delay,protesting against the change of plan, and by that time its owner wasgoing about in one of Martin's shirts. Those two days witnessed theshaking down of Willard into the manners and customs of Alton Academy.It wasn't hard, for Martin was there to serve as a very willingcounselor and guide. Willard became a member of the Junior Class onthe strength of his high school certificate, and, since that was alsoMartin's class, the latter was able to render assistance during thefirst difficult days. Fortunately the two boys took to each other atonce and life in Number 16 Haylow promised to move pleasantly.
The term began on Thursday, and on Friday the football candidatesgathered for the first practice. Alton Academy's registration was wellover four hundred, as the catalogue later announced, and of that numbernearly one-fourth reported on the gridiron as candidates for the schoolteam. Willard, viewing the throng, thought little of his chances ofsecuring a place.
Coach Cade made much the same sort of a speech as coaches generallymake on such occasions, and promised a successful season in return forcheerful obedience and hard work; and looked unutterably relieved whenthe more or less attentive audience dispersed. Mr. Cade was a short,thick-set man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight years, with black hairthat stood up on his head much like the bristles of a blacking brush,a square face that looked at least one size too large for the restof him, small features which included two very piercing dark eyes, abutton nose and a broad mouth and, to cap the climax, a very gentlevoice. Not a handsome chap, Willard thought, but certainly a verycapable looking one. Later, he learned from Martin that John Cade hadplayed with Alton Academy for three years and then for as many more onthe Lafayette teams, making a remarkable reputation, first as a schoolquarter-back and then as a college guard. Willard found it difficult toimagine Coach Cade as a quarter. Probably, he concluded, in those daysthe coach lacked the breadth and heaviness he showed now, a conclusionproved to be correct when Willard came across an old photograph of anAlton eleven in the gymnasium some weeks later. In the picture JohnCade was a short, not over-heavy and very alert boy of seventeen, hisdark eyes darting defiance and his black hair bristling a challenge. Hewas familiarly known among the fellows of present-day Alton as Johnny,but none had ever been heard to address him so!
Practice this first afternoon wasn't a serious ordeal, for much timewas given to verbal instruction, and at half-past four the squads weredismissed. Willard, walking back to the gymnasium with Martin and Bob,said that it ought to be easy to get a good team with such a raft ofcandidates to choose from, and Bob snorted derisively.
"You're wrong, Brand," he said. "If we had half as many we'd get onbetter. It takes three weeks, nearly, to find out who's good and toweed out the others, and that's just so much time lost. Johnny's dippyon the subject of having every fellow who ever heard of footballcome out, and it's a sad mess for the first fortnight. Of course itsometimes happens that he finds a player that way who mightn't showup if he wasn't urged to, but, gee, I think it's piffle! Give me lastyear's first and second teams, or what's left of 'em, and a dozenchaps who have made names where they come from and I'll turn out asgood a team as any. Must have been a hundred fellows out there thisafternoon, and I'll bet you fifty of them never played a game offootball in their lives!"
"Sure," agreed Martin, "but some of them are capable of playing, youpoor fish, and it's just those that Johnny wants to find. If they don'tmake good this year, he's got them started for next. Your plan mightwork all right this year, Bob, but you'd run short of material nextyear. You've got to plan ahead, old son, and that's what Johnny does."
"Are there many of last season's fellows left?" asked Willard.
"Six first-string chaps," answered Bob. "Joe, Stacey Ross, Jack Macon,Gil Tarver, Arn Lake and myself. There is quite a bunch of good lastyear subs and second team fellows, though. And then there's Mart!"
"Yes, and Mart's going to try for something besides guard position thisyear," remarked that youth. "With you and Joe holding down each sideof center there's no hope for me. Last season I lived in hope that Joewould get killed or that you'd be fired, but nothing happened. Thisthing of waiting around for dead men's shoes is dull work!"
"What are you going after?" laughed Bob.
"I don't know," replied Martin discouragedly. "How'd I do as afull-back?"
"Great! Say, Mart, do something for me, will you? Go and tell Johnny tolet you play full-back!"
"Oh, dry up, you big ape! I could play full-back as well as SteveBrowne can."
"Steve hasn't a chance!"
"Who, then?"
"Search me! We've got to find someone. Steve's a good chap, but hehasn't the weight, speed, or fight for full-back. If we could buyBrand's brother out of the Navy, now--"
"Well, you did your best," laughed Martin. "You got the right bag, butthe wrong boy! Look here, Brand--"
"I refuse to answer to that name," said Willard haughtily.
"What's the matter with it? It's a perfectly good name. What I wasabout to say when so rudely interrupted--"
"What I was about to say," interjected Bob, "is that it would be a goodplan to hurry up a bit and get ahead of some of this mob. If we don'twe'll be waiting around until supper time for a shower!"
"Come on, then: stir your stumps, slow poke! I was going to say,Brand, that it's your duty to either fill the full-back positionyourself or find someone to fill it. You were--admitted to Alton onyour representation that you were a full-back--"
"'Admitted' is good!" jeered Willard.
"And you aren't," Martin proceeded, unheeding the interruption."Fellows are asking Joe where Gordon Harmon is and Joe's having anawful time explaining how the deal fell through. He's told four quitedifferent stories so far and is working on a fifth! You could saveJoe a lot of mental worry, Brand, if you turned yourself into a starfull-back."
"I'm afraid I'm a bit light," laughed Willard. "Maybe I could find afull-back for you, though, if the reward was big enough."
"You'll receive the undying gratitude of Joe and the key of the city."
"Huh, I've seen the city!" said Willard.
The "city," though, in spite of Willard's sarcasm, was really a verynice one. Not, of course, that it was more than a town, and a smallone at that, but it was clean and well laid out, with plenty of trees,lots of modestly attractive residences and a sufficiency of wide-awakestores. When Willard said he had seen it he was enlarging on thetruth, for it was not until the day succeeding the remark that hereally had a thorough look at it. Then Martin took him in tow and,since there were few recitations on Saturdays, they spent an hour ormore roaming about it. There were two distinct shopping centers inAlton. One lay along Main Street a good half-mile from the Academy,and on the side streets adjacent, and one occupied two blocks on WestStreet, scarcely more than a long stone-throw from the school. Thelatter catered almost exclusively to the students, and the latter foundfew excuses for going further afield to make their purchases. Martintold Willard which of the nearby ice cream parlors had the best sodafountain, showed him which of the stationery stores was most popular,where he could buy haberdashery at fair prices, where to get his shoesshined if such an extravagant proceeding appealed to him, where thebest barber shop was--even cautioning him against "the wop at thethird chair who would shave your neck if you didn't watch him"--and,in short, thoroughly initiated him into the mysteries of West Streetbuying. In school parlance, the locality was "Bagdad," although theshops were never referred to as "bazaars."
"You can get tick at any of them," Martin explained, "but they'll makeit mighty uncomfortable for you if you don't pay up every half-year,and faculty sort of frowns on running up bills. It's better to pay cashif you can, Brand. Besides, you can usually jew 'em down if you havethe money in your hand. Last spring Stacey Ross bought a suit overthere at Girtle's and they charged it to him at sixty dollars, and afellow called 'Poke' Little went and paid cash for one just like
itand got off for forty-seven-fifty. Stacey had a fit and went back andread the riot act. But the old geezer told him that 'time was money'!"Martin chuckled. "In his case two months' time was twelve dollars and ahalf! Stacey got even, though."
"How?" asked Willard.
"Got a thin fellow named Patterson, a sophomore, to put the suit onand walk up and down the block for an hour one Saturday afternoon. Theclothes hung all over Patterson and he looked like a scarecrow, andhe carried a placard around his neck that said: 'This suit was boughtat Girtle's.' Old Girtle was furious and tried to get Patterson to goaway. Offered him ten dollars, Patterson said, but it didn't sound likeGirtle! Anyhow, Patterson kept on walking up and down and about twodozen kids went with him and a lot of the fellows stood around andcheered and we had quite a fine moment! 'Mac' had Stacey on the carpetabout it, but when Stacey explained Mac only smiled and let him go."
"Is 'Mac' what you call the Principal?" asked Willard.
"Yes, it's short for 'Doctor Maitland McPherson.' Have you met him yet?He's a good sort, Mac is. There's a story that some years back therewas a wild westerner here from Wyoming or Arkansas or some of thoseplaces and he was talking one day in the corridor in Academy and Macwas in one of the classrooms right near, and this fellow--I forget hisname; Smith, maybe--called him 'the old Prince,' and Mac overheardhim and came out. 'Were you referring to me, Smith?' he asked. 'Yes,sir.' 'And what was the name you gave me?' 'Prince, sir; that's shortfor Principal.' 'Ah,' said Mac. 'Most ingenious! You may go on HallRestriction one week for "int."' 'Int' is short for interest."
Football affairs got straightened out that afternoon and Willard foundhimself in C Squad with some twenty or so other candidates whoseknowledge of football ranged from fair to middling. Only the simplerexercises were indulged in and the hour-and-a-half period stretched outinterminably. The day was unseasonably warm and the bored youth whohad C Squad in charge was unable to work up much enthusiasm. Willardwas heartily glad when the session was over. He presumed that a certainamount of catching and passing was beneficial to him, but he mildlyresented spending an hour and a half at it. Joe Myers showed everyindication of acceding to Willard's request that he be allowed to standon his own feet, for so far Joe had paid no attention to the newcomerduring practice. There were times this afternoon when Willard ratherwished that he hadn't been so independent. He would not have resentedit a bit had Joe yanked him out of that beginner's squad and put himwhere he could have worked with something besides his hands! By fiveo'clock, when the end came, Willard was sick of the sight and the feelof a football!
That evening, however, when he accompanied Joe and Martin and Bobto the Broadway Theater, the moving picture house patronized by theschool, Joe inquired most solicitously about Willard's progress inpractice. He did not, though, seem much concerned when Willard hintedthat he was wasting his time learning how to pass a football. "It isdreary work, isn't it?" said Joe cheerfully. "Well, there won't bemuch more of it, Brand. You'll get into formations next week. By theway, you want to try for half-back, don't you? Hm. That's so. Hm. Toobad you're so light. Ever try playing end?"
Willard answered that he never had, whereupon Joe remarked: "'S 'atso?" in an absent way and said he hoped there'd be a good comedy at thetheater!