Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/118

 planning for a Polar Bear Eleven. He said he would borrow the four brutes already with the show to make up the squad, adorn them all with big mitts and muzzles, so as to reassure the timid spectators, and then challenge college teams wherever the circus went.

"‘Give me some pointers on that deadly pleasantry and watch me translate it into the bear language,' he commanded.

"And nearly all day I fed him football lore and grounded him in the science of the game. Then as the storm showed no symptoms of weakening, he got to work with his pupils, he and I playing with them. For nine ground-gainers we certainly were clever. And the bears enjoyed it immensely. Tib taught them to tote a deer-skin ball and go through three simple manœuvres, not at all unlike the real article.

"Minnie and Maude were at right and left ends respectively, and huge Rudolph in the centre. To call Minnie's name meant for her to lead off, with the other six following in close formation; and we styled it the Burglar-Proof Wedge. And Maude's name meant a similar play at left end. But our chef-œuvre was when Rudolph threw back his flat-topped head and in bruinese invited his companions to fill in the vacuums created by the moving of his giant form. For pure realism in bucking the line