ground.

Bob trotted up to Judd and dragged him to his feet.

"What's the matter, Buddy?"

Judd showed him the spot over his eye, a slight skin bruise.

"Oh, why that's nothing. Come on, let's try another." Bob picked up
the ball.

"No ... see ... it's bleeding." Judd displayed some drops of blood on
his handkerchief. "I reckon I'd better go to the room and sterilize
it, I don't want to get blood poisoning, you know."

Bob laughed. "Tommy rot! Whoever gave you such silly ideas? Forget
it!"

Judd's feelings were wounded. "You can't tell what'll happen if you
don't take care of yourself. I heard of a fellah once..."

"See here, Judd! Get those wild imaginings out of your head. How far
do you think we'd get in this world if every time a little thing
happened to us we sat down to worry about it and to think up lots worse
things happening?"

But Judd was done for the afternoon. He turned and walked away,
dabbing his handkerchief tenderly to the bruise and sympathizing with
himself. He should have known better than to have played with Bob. He
might have been sure that something like this would happen. There were
so many things that a fellow had to watch out for! But after Judd had
reached the apartment and looked at himself in the glass and been
convinced that his hurt did not amount to so much after all, he
reflected--with a smile--that chasing the football had been real sport.

The next time Judd accompanied Bob to the park the great Bob taught him
how to stand and how to hold his hands in catching a punt. At first
Judd was a bit reluctant to get in the path of a twisting football
again but he gradually overcame this fear and found, to his delight,
that he could catch some of the longest punts with ease. Bob was
kicking the ball forty and fifty yards at a kick and most of the punts
Judd had to run in order to get under. After a particularly long
chase, in which Judd reached up and just managed to catch the ball on
the tips of his fingers, Bob shouted from down the field: "That's the
pep! Great stuff, Buddy!"

Judd no longer tried to disguise his interest in football. He was
enjoying these practice sessions hugely. He got so that he looked
forward to them. Bob loaned him a part of an old football suit so that
they could rough it up more, as he said. Judd wondered, a bit
guiltily, what his mother would say if she knew what he was doing.

Gradually Bob taught Judd the fundamentals of the