And secretly he was grateful to the Hall Master, though he still pretended to believe and possibly did half believe that the latter was a sort of mollycoddle.

Tom told him indignantly once that since Mr.Daley had been so awfully decent to him he ought to stop poking fun at him.

To which Steve cheerfully made answer that even a mollycoddle could be decent at times! Brimfield played Canterbury High School on a Wednesday afternoon in early October and had a good deal of a scare.

Canterbury romped on to the field like a bunch of young colts, and continued to romp for the best part of three ten-minute periods, long after Brimfield had decided that romping was no longer in good taste! Led by a small, wiry, red-headed quarter-back, who was likewise captain, and directed from the side-line by a coach who looked scarcely older than the big youth who played centre for them, the Canterbury team took the most astounding liberties with football precedents.

They didn't transgress the rules, but they put such original interpretations on some of them that Mr.
Conklin, who was refereeing, and Mr.Jordan, instructor in mathematics, who was umpiring, had their heads over the rules-book nearly half the time! Now and then they would march to the side-line and consult the Canterbury coach.