han take your place for
awhile if necessary. You've done well. I want to give you credit for
that. You're not a perfect tackle yet, my boy, but we've all got hopes
of you and we expect you to give a good account of yourself against
Claflin. And I expect to see you play better Saturday by fifty per cent
than you've played yet. How do you feel about it?"

Clint couldn't have said just how he did feel, and was relieved when,
seeing his embarrassment, Mr. Detweiler went on encouragingly. "Whatever
you do, don't get scared. Just remember that, while winning from Claflin
is a bigger thing than winning from any other team we've met, Claflin
isn't very different, after all. They may play a little better football,
but they're just as liable to make mistakes, just as liable to go to
pieces in a pinch. Make up your mind that we've got a better team than
they have and that we're going to everlastingly smear them! And then go
ahead and prove it. You'll be up against a good man on attack, this
fellow Terrill, but don't let that make you nervous. Remember that he's
probably just as much afraid of you as you are of him, Thayer. If you
can get around him a couple of times at the start you'll have him on the
run for the rest of the game. So jump into him the minute the game
begins and let him see that he's up against a real hard proposition.
Meanwhile, do your level best to smooth down your playing. You've got
the right ideas; just develop them. Make them go. Put a little more hump
into your work. You'll find you can do about twice as well as you've
been doing, if you put your mind on it. And remember too, Thayer, that
I'm looking to you to vindicate my choice of you. Don't give anyone a
chance to say after the game that I'd have done better if I'd picked
Cupples or Trow for the place. All right. Take care of yourself." And
Mr. Detweiler gave Clint a parting thump at the gymnasium door.

Events passed at an amazing speed for the next few days. Clint moved at
times in a waking dream, and Amy, tapping his head significantly, spoke
to him soothingly and hoped that the trouble would not prove permanent.
Clint had a way of suddenly waking, at the most inopportune moments, to
the fact that he was due to play left tackle on the Brimfield Football
Team against Claflin School in a few days, and when he did he
invariably experienced an appalling sick feeling at the pit of his
stomach and became for the moment incapable of speech or action. When
t