trouble with the eleven and who wasn't willing and
eager to explain it. As for the game with Claflin, now just a fortnight
distant, why, it was already as good as lost! Anyone would have told you
that. The only point of disagreement was the size of the score. That
ran, according to various estimates, from 6 to 0 to 50 to 3. It was a
wonder they allowed Brimfield that 3! But all this was on the way home.
Gradually the reaction set in and hope crept back. After all, a slump
was something you had to contend with. It happened to every team some
time in the season. Perhaps it was lucky it had come now instead of
later. Of course, Chambers Tech was only a fair-to-middling team and
Brimfield ought to have beaten her hands down, but since she hadn't,
there was no use in worrying about it. By the time supper was over that
evening, the stock of the Brimfield Football Team had risen to close to
par, and anyone who had had the temerity to even suggest the possibility
of a victory for Claflin would have been promptly and efficaciously
squelched!

The Chambers game resulted in a shake-up. That it was coming was hinted
on Monday when only a few of the substitutes on the first were given any
work and four of the second team fellows were lifted from their places
and shifted over to what represented the 'varsity that day. These four
were Trow and Saunders, tackles; Thursby, centre, and Freer, half-back.
On Tuesday the first-string 'varsity men were back at work, with the
exception of Benson, whose ankle was in pretty bad condition. Thursby
was given a try-out at centre and Saunders at left tackle in the short
scrimmage that followed practice. Thursby showed up so brilliantly that
many predicted the retirement of Innes to the bench. Saunders failed to
impress Coach Robey very greatly and he and Freer and Trow went back to
the second the next day. The slump was still in evidence and the work
was light until Thursday. Benson was still on crutches and his place was
being taken by Roberts. Thursby ran Innes such a good race for the
position of centre-rush that a substitute centre named Coolidge suddenly
found his nose out of joint and faced the prospect of viewing the
Claflin game from the bench.

The school held its first mass meeting on Wednesday evening of that week
and cheered and sang and whooped things up with a fine frenzy. The
discouragement of the Chambers game was quite forgotten. Andy Miller, in
a short speech, soberly predicted