de-tread wheels could be moved about as
occasion required, and at present was standing in the middle of the
south side of the football field. On the whole Brimfield had reason to
be proud of her athletic equipment, field and gymnasium, as well as of
her other advantages.

The scene along the Row as the two friends clattered out of Billings was
vastly different from that presented the afternoon of their arrival. Now
the walk was alive with boys, heads protruded from open casements and
wandering couples could be seen lounging along the gate drive or over
the sloping lawn that descended to the road. First practice had been
called for four o'clock and the big dial in the ivy-draped tower of Main
Hall pointed its hands to three-forty when Steve and Tom turned into
the path between Torrence and Wendell leading to the gymnasium and the
field beyond. Already, however, the fellows were turning their steps
that way, some in playing togs but more in ordinary attire, the latter,
yielding to the lure of a warm September afternoon, bent on finding an
hour's entertainment stretched comfortably at ease along a side line or
perched on the stand.

"That's pretty, isn't it?" asked Tom, as they looked across the nearer
turf to where the broad expanse of playing ground, bordered on its
further side by a wooded slope, stretched before them. The early frosts
had already slightly touched the trees over there, and hints of
russet-yellow and brick-red showed amongst the green. Nearer than that,
more colour was supplied by an occasional dark red sweater amongst the
groups loitering about the edge of the gridiron.

"It surely is pretty," agreed Steve. "I wonder if Miller's there yet. He
told us to look him up, you know."

"Maybe he will give us a send-off to the coach," suggested Tom. "He
could, you know, since he is captain. I guess it won't do us any
harm--me, anyway--to have someone speak a word for us, eh?"

"Wonder what the coach is like," said Steve, nodding agreement. "Miller
seemed to think he was pretty good. That's a dandy turf there, Tom;
level as a table. They haven't marked the gridiron out yet, though."

"I suppose they don't need it for a day or two," replied the other,
trying not to feel self-conscious as he neared the crowd already on
hand. "I don't see Miller, do you?"

Steve shook his head, after a glance about him, and, rolling his hands
in the folds of his sweater, not because the weather was cold but
because that was