about your work this fall, Judd, and it
certainly has given me cause for rejoicing to learn that you have stuck
with the ship regardless of what's happened. I believe it has done you
lots of good. I wish I could get home to see the game with Canton but
I can't figure how to manage it. We have a game Saturday and even
though you play your game on Friday it would be next to impossible for
me to get away. Cheer up, you're bound to get your chance one of these
days. Don't forget your contract. Hang on! You've done fine so far!
The football season will soon be over. And with Blackwell on the
injured list there's a bare possibility you may get into the big game.
Say, wouldn't that be great?"

Judd put the letter from him with a shudder. Yes, wouldn't it be
great! If scrimmage was hard, what would a real game be with rivalry
at high pitch and each team contesting for every inch of ground? Judd
wondered how other people could feel the way they did about things.
Just now it seemed to him that the opportunity to play in the big game
would be about the worst calamity that could befall him. The way to
live up to the contract was not to think of self but to think of the
contract. It was just like thinking of the objective and going toward
it without stopping to consider what might happen. The only trouble
was--Judd forgot what he was going out after when the least thing
jolted him. He began to think of himself again and other things faded
into insignificance.

CHAPTER IV

FIGHTING SPIRIT

The day of the game dawned with a miserable wet rain falling. The
Canton High team and five hundred raving rooters arrived by special
train at ten in the morning. Nothing seemed to dampen their spirits.
They came with the intention of winning a decisive victory and having a
big time in the doing.

Judd, hollow-eyed from loss of sleep through dread of the approaching
conflict, met with other members of the team at eleven o'clock. Most
of the boys were in good spirits. The coach had insisted that they eat
at a training table and that he supervise the last meal eaten before
the big game. He always got the boys in uniform early and gave them an
opportunity to wear off the first wave of excitement before the game
was called.

Blackwell managed to sit next to Billings. He saw that Judd was almost
beside himself with nervousness, playing with his food and making a
sorry pretense of eating.

"I--I'd give anything if I