n the good old Blue has come out on
top, and then I've been so hoarse from yelling that I haven't been able
to talk above a whisper for a week. Of course it wouldn't be a good
thing for the game if one team won all the time, and as long as we cop
about two out of three, I'm not doing any kicking. It isn't often that
we lose two years in succession, and I'm looking for you fellows now to
come across with a victory."

"We'll do our best not to disappoint you," said Bert. "It's a sure thing
that we haven't as heavy a line as we've had in other years, and for
that reason we'll have to play more of an open game. But we've got a
dandy new shift that will give the other fellows something to think
about when we spring it on them, and probably Hendricks has one or two
aces up his sleeve. I heard him tell Reddy the other day that he was
planning a variation of the forward pass that he thought would be a
corker."

"Well," said Mr. Quinby, "we'll hope so. It's almost as hard to forecast
results in football as it is in baseball. The game's never over until
the referee blows his whistle. I've seen teams touted as certain winners
go all to pieces on the day of the game. Then, again, there have been
times when the team didn't seem to have as much of a chance as a blind
man in a dark room hunting for a black cat that wasn't there. But they'd
go out just the same and stand the other fellows on their heads."

"You must have seen a lot of sparkling plays in your time," remarked Tom
enviously.

"I surely have," assented Mr. Quinby. "Perhaps the best of all was one
that thrills me now when I think of it, although I didn't enjoy it so
much at the time, because it did the Blues out of a victory just when
they thought they had it tucked away safely."

"Tell us about it," came in a chorus from the boys.

"Well, it was this way," and he lighted a fresh cigar as he settled back
for a "fanning bee." "The 'Greys' came up to meet us that year with one
of the best teams they ever turned out. They seemed to have everything,
weight and strength and speed, and, on the 'dope,' we didn't have a
chance in the world. They had gone through their schedule with the
smaller colleges like a prairie fire, and the scores they piled up had
been amazing. Their goal line hadn't been crossed all season, and all
the newspaper writers tipped them to slaughter us.

"We had a dandy captain that year, though, and he, together with the
coaches, had done wonders with