sks my help. The enormous incongruity of
the situation does not appear to strike her, that I, the--too many
unutterable things--should be asked to prepare these young giants, with
their 'tremenjous' religious convictions, for the ministry; nevertheless
I yield myself to do anything and everything she lays upon me. I repeat,
I shall without doubt end in being a saint myself, and should not be
surprised to find myself with these 'tremenjous' young men on the way
to Holy Orders. Fancy the good Doctor's face! He would suspect a lurking
pleasantry in it all.

"This letter, I know, will render chaotic all your conceptions of me,
and in this chaos of mind I can heartily sympathize. What the next
chapter will be, God only knows! It depends upon how my familiar devil
behaves himself. Meantime, I am parleying with him, and with some
anxiety as to the result subscribe myself,

"Your friend,

"J. C."

CHAPTER XIII

THE FIRST ROUND

The challenge from the Front was for the best two out of three, the
first game to be played the last day of the year. Steadily, under
Craven's coaching, the Twentieth team were perfected in their systematic
play; for although Craven knew nothing of shinny, he had captained the
champion lacrosse team of the province of Quebec, and the same general
rules of defense and attack could be applied with equal success to the
game of shinny. The team was greatly strengthened by the accession of
Thomas Finch and Don Cameron, both of whom took up the school again with
a view to college. With Thomas in goal, Hughie said he felt as if a big
hole had been filled up behind him.

The master caused a few preliminary skirmishes with neighboring teams
to be played by way of practice, and by the time the end of the year had
come, he felt confident that the team would not disgrace their school.
His confidence was not ill-founded.

"We have covered ourselves with glory," he writes to his friend Ned
Maitland, "for we have whipped to a finish the arrogant and mighty
Front. I am more than ever convinced that I shall have to take a few
days off and get away to Montreal, or some other retired spot, to
recover from the excitement of the last week.

"Under my diligent coaching, in which, knowing nothing whatever of
shinny, I have striven to introduce something of the lacrosse method,
our team got into really decent fighting trim. Under the leadership of
their captain, who has succeeded in infusing his own fierce and