CHAPTER XI--NED SPEAKS OUT
There was a cut in the football squad that afternoon and more than adozen candidates were retired, leaving twenty-eight players for thefirst and scrub teams. Ned survived, as, indeed, he expected to; for,while he knew his limitations, neither the coach nor the captainappeared to. Perhaps they were sometimes puzzled over flashes ofineptitude, or perhaps they put them down to temporary reversals ofform; at least, Ned's talent was never seriously questioned by them. Hehad settled down as a regular half-back on the scrub eleven, althoughtwice he had been called on in practice scrimmages to take Mason's placeat left half on the first squad. He was too light to make much headwayin bucking plays, and his inability to start quickly handicapped himfrequently in running; but as a kicker he was dependable and haddeveloped a quite remarkable accuracy at forward passing. Against alight opponent or a slow one he could be counted on to play a fairlygood game, although so far he had not been allowed the opportunity. Withhim on the scrub team was Hop Kendrick at quarter, and, for a time,Kewpie at center. But Kewpie had trained down at last to a hundred andsixty-five pounds and was handling his weight and bulk with a newsnappiness, and a few days after Ned became a part of the scrub outfitKewpie was elevated to the first team, and a much disgruntled Holmestook his place on the second.
With the defeat of Wagner School, Hillman's ended her preliminaryseason. In that contest, played at home, the Blue showed a newaggressiveness and much more speed; and, while she was able to scoreonly one touch-down, and Pope failed miserably at goal, every one waswell satisfied. Wagner had a strong team, and a victory over it was nosmall triumph. Hillman's line held splendidly under the battering-ramtactics of the adversary, and her backs were fast and shifty. On attack,the Blue failed to gain consistently; but in the third period, with acaptured fumble on Wagner's thirty-three yards for encouragement, Popegot free for half the distance, and Slavin and Mason, alternating,worked the enemy's left side until the ball lay on the five-yard line.Then a fake attack on Wagner's right, with Pope carrying the ballthrough on the left of center, brought the only score of the day. Kewpieproved himself that afternoon, for he was a veritable Rock of Gibraltaron defense and a hundred and sixty-five pounds of steel springs onattack. The Blue team was far from a perfect machine yet, but it seemedthat Mulford had found his parts and that only a generous oiling wasneeded.
Laurie and George Watson escorted Polly and Mae Ferrand to the game,and, although aware of the covert grins and whispered witticisms ofacquaintances, enjoyed themselves hugely. Mae proved to be a very jolly,wholesome sort of girl, and her knowledge of what may be termed "insidefootball" was stupendous and made both Laurie and George rather ashamedof their ignorance. Between the halves, Ned, arrayed in a trailing grayblanket, joined them and promptly became involved with Mae in a verytechnical argument that no one else could follow. From the fact that Nedretired with a rather dispirited expression when the teams came onagain, Laurie surmised that the honors had gone to Mae.
The following Monday evening, while the enthusiasm produced by thevictory over Wagner School was still undiminished, a second mass-meetingwas held in the auditorium to devise means of replenishing the footballtreasury: Three of the remaining five games were to be played away fromOrstead, and in two cases the distance to be traveled was considerableand the expenses consequently large. As Joe Stevenson said, introducingthe subject for discussion, if Hillman's charged admission to her homegames, it would be possible to get through a season without asking forassistance from the student body. "But you fellows know that that isn'tthe school policy. We are allowed to sell tickets for the Farview gameonly, and, while we make about four hundred and fifty dollars as ourshare, that doesn't go very far against the season's outlay. We have topay from seventy-five to a hundred and twenty-five dollars to every teamthat comes here to play us. When we go away we seldom make enough to payour expenses. In the Highland game, because it cost us almost nothingfor fares, we did. At the present moment we have a cash balance on handof forty-three dollars, and our liabilities, including Mr. Mulford'ssalary for the remainder of the season, are about eight hundred dollars.
"The manager estimates that we'll have to incur added expenses for abouta hundred and twenty dollars for Farview game tickets and new supplies.In short, we shall have to pay out, before the season ends, about ninehundred dollars. Against that we have on hand forty-three dollars, andin prospect something like five hundred, leaving us about three hundredand fifty in the hole.
"There has been talk of cutting out the Lansing and Whittier games, butthat wouldn't make enough difference. Besides, it would give us a blackeye to cancel games as late as this. We might save perhaps seventydollars if we did, but it would cost us ten times that in publicestimation. As far as I can see, fellows, if we're going to have afootball team, we've got to pay for it. We've asked permission to chargeadmission, even a nominal one, to all games, but the faculty is againstit. And we have asked to have a regular assessment made against eachstudent. To many of us that would seem the fairer and most satisfactoryway of meeting the emergency. But the faculty doesn't like that anybetter than the other proposition. So I guess it's up to us, each andevery one of us, to dig down and produce the coin.
"We need three hundred and fifty dollars at least. That means that everyfellow in school must pony up four dollars, or, rather, that the averagemust be four dollars each. Some of you can't give so much, probably, anda few can give more. I'd like to hear from you, please. Don't be afraidto say what you think. We want to get together on this matter and thrashit out, if it takes until ten o'clock. Any one who has any suggestion tooffer or anything to say will be heard. Come on, somebody!"
There were plenty of speakers: Dave Brewster, the baseball captain, DanWhipple, senior class president, Lew Cooper, upper middle classpresident, Dave Murray, the manager of the team, Craig Jones, for thelower middlers, and many others, Some subscribed to the donation scheme,others opposed it. Cooper suggested an appeal to the school alumni.Brewster pointed out that the effort would cost money and that theresult would be uncertain and, in any case, slow. An increase in theprice of tickets to the Farview game was discussed and the ideaabandoned. An hour passed and the meeting was getting nowhere. Some ofthe younger boys had already withdrawn. A tall, lantern-jawed youth hadcharged the football committee with extravagance, and Dave Murray hadbitterly resented the allegation. Ned, who, with Laurie and Lee Murdock,was seated near the back of the hall, had shown signs of restiveness forsome time and had been muttering to himself. Now, to the surprise of hiscompanions, he jumped to his feet and demanded recognition:
"Mr. Chairman!"
"Mister--" Dan Whipple pointed a finger at Ned and nodded.
"Turner," prompted Kewpie from a front seat.
"Mr. Turner," encouraged the chairman.
"I'd like to say that I never heard so much talking and saw so littleaction," began Ned, impatiently. "What's the matter with some one sayingsomething useful instead of just chewing the rag?"
"You tell 'em," piped a small junior, above the applause and laughter.
"All right! I'll tell you fellows that you're a lot of pikers tohesitate to pledge three or four hundred dollars to keep your teamgoing. Where I come from we had to have a new grand stand two years ago,and we called a meeting like this and we raised seven hundred dollars inthirty-five minutes in cash and pledges. There were a lot more of us,but half of us would have felt like Rockefellers if we'd ever found awhole half-dollar in our pockets! Some of us gave as high as fivedollars, but not many. Most of us pledged two dollars; and those whodidn't have two dollars went out and worked until they'd made it, byjingo! And we got our grand stand up inside of two weeks, in time forthe big baseball game."
There was real applause this time, and those in the front of the hallhad swung around to have a look at the earnest youth who was callingthem names.
"That's one way of getting the money," continued Ned, warming up finely,"but there's another. Out my way--"
"Say, where do yo
u come from?" called some one.
"I come from California," answered Ned, proudly. "Maybe you've heard ofit!"
"Attaboy!" shouted Kewpie. "Swing your leg, Nid!"
"When we want to raise some money out there and folks are too stingy togive it outright, we take it away from them another way. We get up afete. We give them a good time and they pay for it. Why not try it here?I don't know how many folks there are in this burg, but I reckon thereare enough to part with three or four hundred dollars. Give them anexcuse to spend their money and they'll spend it!"
Ned sat down amid loud applause, and Dave Brewster was recognized,although half a dozen others were clamoring for speech.
"Turner's said something, fellows," declared Brewster. "The idea's worthconsidering. We've never tackled the town folks for money, and there'sno reason why they shouldn't come across. They've come to our games foryears without paying a cent, except for the Farview game, and itwouldn't hurt them to give a little to a good cause. I don't know whatsort of a fete Turner has in mind, but I should think we might get upsomething that would do the business."
"Mr. Chairman," said Kewpie, "I move that a committee of three beappointed by the chair, to include Nid,--I mean Mr. Turner,--to considerthe--the matter of giving a fete to raise the money."
"Seconded!"
"You have heard the motion," droned Whipple. "All those in favor will sosignify by saying 'Aye.' Contrary, 'No.' Moved and carried. I willappoint the presidents of the senior and upper middle classes and Mr.Turner to the committee, three in all. Is it the sense of this meetingthat your committee is to report to it at a subsequent meeting, or is itto have authority to proceed with the matter if it decides that thescheme is a good one?"
"Full authority, Mr. Chairman!" "Let 'em go ahead with it!" "Sure!That's what we want. Let's have action!"
"Is there any other business? Then I declare the meeting adjourned!"
Whipple captured Ned on the way out. "We'd better get together rightaway on this, Turner," he said. "Can you meet Cooper and me at my roomto-morrow at twelve?"
Ned agreed, and he and Laurie and Lee went on. "What I'd like to know,"remarked Laurie, after a moment's silence, "is how you're going to havea fete in a place like this. The weather's too cold for it."
"Maybe it will be warmer," answered Ned, cheerfully. "Besides, we don'thave to have it outdoors."
"It wouldn't be a fete if you didn't," sniffed the other.
"Well, what's the difference? Call it anything you like. The big thingis to get the money."
"You had your cheek with you to talk the way you did," chuckled Laurie.
"He talked sense, though," asserted Lee, warmly.
"Of course. The Turners always do." Laurie steered Ned toward theentrance of East Hall. "Well, good night, Lee. See you at the fete!"
Upstairs, Ned tossed his cap to the bed, plumped himself into a chair atthe table, and drew paper and pencil to him. "Now," he said, "let'sfigure this out. I've got to talk turkey to those fellows to-morrow.What's your idea, partner?"
"Hey, where do you get that stuff?" demanded Laurie. "Why drag me intoit? It's not my fete. I don't own it."
"Shut up and sit down there before I punch your head. You've got to helpwith this. The honor of the Turners is at stake!"
So Laurie subsided and for more than an hour he and Ned racked theirbrains and gradually the plan took shape.