in Gridley who would have
said openly that he expected the home boys to be beaten; but there
were many who knew that they were more than a bit anxious. Before
the game, anyway, Fordham's brag was just as good as Gridley brag.

"Won't you be glad, anyway, when the Thanksgiving game is over?"
asked Laura.

"Yes, and no," smiled Prescott seriously. "When I come back from
Fordham I shall know that I have captained my last game on a High
School team. That tells me that I am getting along in life---that
I am growing old, and shall soon have to think of much more serious
things. But, honestly, I hate awfully to think of all these grand
old High School days coming to an end. I mustn't think too much
about it until after the game. It makes me just a bit blue."

"Won't you be captain of the basket ball team this winter?" asked
Laura quickly.

"No; I can't take everything. Hudson will probably head the basket
ball team."

"Why, I heard that you were going in hard for basket ball."

"So I am. Mr. Morton is so busy, with the new evening training
classes, that he has asked me to be second coach to the basket
ball crowd. I'll undoubtedly do that."

"Oh, then you'll still be leading the athletic vanguard at the
High School," murmured Laura, and, somehow, there was a note of
contentment in her voice.

"I shall be, until I'm through with the High School," Prescott
answered. "But think---just think---how soon that will come
around for all of us!"

CHAPTER XIV

Fordham Plays a Slugging Game

For half an hour before the first section of the special pulled
out, the Gridley Band played its liveliest tunes. A part of the
time the band played accompaniment to the school airs, which the
crowd took up with lively spirit.

There is a peculiar enthusiasm which attaches to the Thanksgiving
Day game. This is due partly to the extra holiday spirit of the
affair. Then, too, there is the high tension that precedes the
last game of the season.

With a team that has won every game to that point, yet often with
great difficulty, the tension of spirits is even higher.

As the first section of the special rolled in at the railway station
the part of the crowd that was "going" began to break up into
groups headed for the different parts of the train.

Herr Schimmelpodt went, of course, to the car that carried the
team. The boys wouldn't have been satisfied to start or to travel
without him. The big German had come