Page:The Winning Touchdown.djvu/34

22 know it looks like desertin', as ye call it, but, fellows, believe me, I'm not. It—it goes to me heart as much as it does to yours," and Bricktop swallowed a big lump in his throat. When he was much affected he always "degenerated to the language of his forebears of the Emerald Isle," as he used to say. And he was much affected now—there was no doubt of that. "I wish I could stay—but I can't," he concluded, brokenly.

"Well, Randall will have to do the best she can," spoke Dan, after a pause, and with a heavy sigh.

"Isn't there plenty of good material in the scrub, and some in the Freshman eleven?" asked Sid.

"Oh, it isn't so much a question of material, as it is breaking them in," answered the captain. "The great fault with some of our playing in the past was that we didn't have team work. This season we have it, and after a lot of grind we fellows were playing together like one. Look how we walked away with Dodville Prep in the first game of the season. That showed what we could do. Now the team's going to be disrupted—two of the best men"

"Thanks, captain," interrupted Bricktop, with a short laugh.

"I mean it," went on Kindlings, energetically. "Two of our best men leave, and it's almost too