he idea did not strike me as a bad one. To
tell the truth, I was beginning to be curious to see this game, which,
according to the views of my eldest son, was the greatest game of the
day, and to those of Horace Plympton a barbaric spectacle.

And now befell me a curious experience; at least it seemed to me such.
I found that I, who, though considered an industrious and painstaking
lawyer, have never awakened any especial interest in the community, had
acquired lustre and importance by virtue of the circumstance that I had
a son on the University foot-ball eleven. College graduates of various
ages, who had hitherto classed me with the general run of their
acquaintance, grew suddenly cordial and congratulatory in their manner,
and I had the satisfaction of reading in the public prints an item to
the effect that Frederick ----, the father of the well-known half-back
of the Harvard University foot-ball eleven, had recently visited New
York for a few days. Altogether I had become, for the first time in my
existence, an object of consequence to my fellow-citizens, and almost
to the world at large.

As for the hero himself, he bore his importance modestly and meekly,
though he evidently considered that he had rescued the family name from
obscurity and set it gloriously in the public eye by dint of his
renown. He was in strict training, and fiercely conscientious as to
what he ate and drank, and as to his hours of sleep. Little was heard
in the house when he was at home but conjecture and estimate as to who
was likely to win in the impending contest. Had I been properly
attentive, I might have learned from his lips not merely the names and
nicknames of the members of the respective teams and the positions on
the field they were to fill, but their weights in fighting trim, their
fine points both as foot-ball kickers and as men, and not improbably
their love affairs. When now and then, as occasionally happened, I
betrayed by an unfortunate question or by unappreciative silence my
lack of familiarity with this or that celebrity, the look of wondering
pity with which my boy, and indeed every member of the family, regarded
me made me feel myself to be a veritable ignoramus. Josephine and her
girls knew the whole business from beginning to end, and I must confess
that I secretly drank in more than I pretended.

A fortnight before the match was to come off Sam Bangs, who, as some of
you will remember, is a second cousin of