Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/182

154 this team does n't need anybody to speak for it. Least of all a fellow that was lolling in a carriage while it was doing the work. Mr. Eldredge has just said some things that are very pleasant, but not very true. But part of what he said was entirely true; and that is that if I'd been in the game we would n't have done a bit better."

"Never said it!" interjected Mr. Eldredge, and the audience laughed.

"Well, you implied it, anyway," retorted Rupert humorously. "You were too polite really to say it. Joe Herrick, who played my end, did all that I could ever have thought of doing—and I dare say I should n't have been on the spot, as he was, to pick up that ball and put it where it would mean a touchdown. And Holder and Harding, on the other end, played so that nobody would ever have guessed we'd been afraid of a weak spot. And the others all played as I'd never, never seen them play. Mr. Eldredge is very generous, attributing so much of the winning spirit to me; but I want to say that the spirit that won that game