Ned, and
big Tom Curwood thought that the right half-back's attempt at oratory
was so funny that he laughed louder than any one else until he heard
Coach Murray's fatal words: "All right, Tom, you're next!" whereupon his
features "froze" in a look of embarrassment. The roar that went up when
Tom's face became suffused with red nearly caused the big center to claw
his way out of the room and escape to the outer air. He cleared his
throat two or three times and then, much to the surprise of every one,
went through the ordeal as if he had prepared his speech hours in
advance.

"I want to tell you fellows," said big Tom, "that I was scared pink,
blue and green when that game started--those Jefferson linesmen and
those husky back-field runners of theirs looked so fierce. I really
wasn't afraid of them but I _was_ afraid of the thought that we were
going to get licked. What really woke me up and made me feel that those
fellows couldn't do a thing to us was to see the way Neil Durant and
young Teeny-bits got going. I want to tell you that when I saw the
captain go larruping into that bunch and when I heard the thump that
Norris made when Teeny-bits brought him down I said to myself that I
ought to be in a nursery for infants if I couldn't do a little rampaging
on my own account. I know I didn't do a thing except let 'em walk over
me, but I wasn't scared after that first minute and I knew that we
couldn't lose if Neil and Teeny-bits didn't get laid out."

To Teeny-bits it was a surprise to hear his name linked in this way with
that of his captain. In his own opinion he had, aside from the one
fortunate play in which he had crossed the Jefferson goal line,
contributed very little to the Ridgley victory, but as the evening went
on and one player after another joined his name with that of Neil
Durant, he saw that these big fellows with whom he had been so closely
associated during the past few weeks felt, for some miraculous reason,
that he had helped them to maintain their spirit and to carry the fight
to Jefferson.

When it came Teeny-bits' turn, Coach Murray said: "We'll now hear from
the chap who nearly gave us nervous prostration by forgetting that
Ridgley was going to play a little game of football to-day."

As Teeny-bits stood up he thought of telling the members of the team why
he had been late to the game, but he instantly decided that it was
better to make his explanation alone to Neil Durant or the coach. He
merel