United States or Uruguay ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"It's less credit to have a pack of louts who tumble head over heels every time they try to pick up a ball, and funk a charge twice out of every thrice!" retorted Stansfield, who was one of the peppery order. "Greenfield's worth any half-dozen of you, I tell you." "Better get him to play Landfield by himself," growled Loman, who generally got the worst of it in discussions like this.
Oh, dear! oh, dear! What a thing it is to be straight and honest! Everything prospers with a man when he goes in for being honest! Why, Loman was positively being bathed in luck at the present time! The Saturday came at last. Stansfield had drilled his men as well as he could during the interval, and devoutly hoped that he had got a respectable team to cope with the Landfield fellows.
But, somehow, if I could only get the thing off my mind for the present, I felt that was all I cared about. He gave in at last, and I was able to pay it off bit by bit. But I was in constant terror all that term of his coming up to Saint Dominic's. You know he did come once, at the football match against Landfield, and I thought I was done for."
All they knew was, he was the quickest half-back and the safest drop-kick the school had, and here was the match with Landfield coming on, and, lo and behold! their man was in Coventry, forsooth, and not to be had out for love or money. Thus baulked, the Sixth Form athletes could afford to wax very virtuous and philanthropic on the subject of Coventry generally.
He said no more than he could help, and never scolded his men while play was going on, and, best of all, worked like a horse himself in the thick of the fight, and looked to every one else to do the same. Yet on this Saturday all the captain's prowess and generalship could not win the match for Saint Dominic's against Landfield.
Loman obeyed like a lamb, only too glad to lose himself in the scrimmages and escape observation. The match went on worse and worse for Saint Dominic's. The Landfield men were quick enough to see the weak point of their enemies, and make use of the discovery. They played fast and loose, giving the ball not a moment's peace, and above all avoiding scrimmages.
The Saint Dominic's forwards were thus made practically useless, and the brunt of the encounter fell on the four or five players behind, and they were not equal to it. The calamity comes at last. One of the Landfield men gets hold of the ball, and runs down hard along the touch-line.
No need of such a caution to a "back" like Wraysford. He is looking out, and has been looking out ever since the match began. But if he had the eyes of an Argus, and the legs of an Atlas, he could not prevent that goal. For the Landfield man has no notion of coming to close quarters; he is their crack drop-kick, and would be an ass indeed if he did not employ his talent with such a chance as this.
Word Of The Day