CHAPTER XIV
Getting a Reprimand
Ella Grayson gave a little squeal as Garry came into the living room that afternoon. She had of course seen the game, as had every other high school girl, but this was her first close view of her brother.
"Garry Grayson!" she exclaimed. "Of all things! Mother, just look at him!"
Mrs. Grayson looked, and hurried with an exclamation to her son's side.
"Oh, Garry, what has happened? Your nose! That eye! Have you been in an accident?"
Garry laughed as he flung his cap into a chair.
"Don't worry, Mother," he said giving her an affectionate hug. "I never felt better or happier in my life. Is dinner nearly ready? Gee, but I'm hungry."
"But, Garry, you haven't told me—"
"Just been in a football game, Mother," Garry explained. "And I got my share of the hard knocks. But it was a peach of a game. We scrubs sure gave the regulars a tough fight. At one time it looked as though we had them licked."
"I suppose the next thing you'll have is a cauliflower ear," remarked Ella, as their mother hurried off to find a soothing lotion with which to dress the boy's hurts.
"I heard something about your football game on my way home," remarked Mr. Grayson, who entered the house a few minutes later. "I heard, too, who made the touchdowns for the scrubs. Seems to me his name was Grayson or something like that."
Garry flushed and Ella giggled.
"I think Garry's cut out for an editor," she said. "He's always saying 'we' when it ought to be 'I'."
"The other fellows played as hard as I did," declared Garry. "If it hadn't been for the interference I had, I wouldn't have made the touchdowns. The whole team fought like tigers."
"Well, I'm glad you made a good showing," said his father. "It's fine to win, of course: but, after all, the main thing is to play the game, play it honorably, squarely and with all your might. And from all I've heard that's the way you played it to-day."
"But look at his nose and his eye!" said Mrs. Grayson.
"I guess his injuries won't be fatal," laughed Mr. Grayson.
"I'm going to take a snapshot of him and show it to the girls," said Ella, making a dive for her camera.
"Not on your life you won't!" returned Garry, as he forestalled her and held the instrument out of her reach until she promised to be good.
On Monday morning the school was agog with interest over the result of the Saturday game. The stock of Lenox High football went up with a bound. Up to that time there had been a good deal of pessimism as to the standing of Lenox in the High School League, owing to the loss of Greb and other stars. But now it began to look as though Lenox would have a good store of reserve material to draw on for the hot contests that were promised in the future.
There were six teams in the High School League of which Lenox was a member. All of them were within a radius of thirty miles, so that there was not much traveling to be done, and almost the entire membership of the schools that were playing on any particular day could be depended on to be on hand to cheer their favorites. The rivalry between the different teams was intense, and feeling ran high whenever the teams clashed.
Besides Lenox, there were the Wimbledon, Pawling, Bass Lake, Greenfield and Thomaston high schools represented in the league. Of these, Greenfield was the most to be feared, and they had always given Lenox the hardest opposition. After Greenfield came Pawling. The others also were, as Ralph Wynn said, "not to be sneezed at," and no game was counted as surely in Lenox's hands until the referee's whistle blew.
Just now Coach Garwin was "pointing" the team for the Greenfield game. Of course, he wanted as many of the others too as his team could win, but he recognized Greenfield as his strongest opponent. Reports that had come to him indicated that Greenfield had retained most of its former stars, and in addition had added a fullback who was said to be a wonder.
So, with this struggle in view, it was no wonder that the coach was elated by the showing made by his scrubs. He knew now that, in case of injury to any of his regulars, he had a second line to draw from that would be almost or quite as good as the boys they replaced.
He smiled pleasantly at Garry as he met the lad on the school steps, but made no reference to the Saturday game. No one under his control was going to get a swelled head if he knew it.
Garry's nose was still swollen, and his eye had a purple ring around it.
"Gee, but you wouldn't take a beauty prize just now," chuckled Ted.
Trompet Shrugg eyed Garry sourly as the lad entered his room. He seemed about to speak, but for the moment restrained himself.
During the first quarter of an hour lessons went on as usual. But it was noticeable that the teacher was fidgeting and most of the time kept his eye on Garry's disfigured face. At last he seemed to have reached a resolution and rapped on the desk for attention.
"It is of course my chief duty to teach you English," he said to the expectant boys, who sensed that something unusual was coming. "But it is also my duty, as I conceive it, to oversee your conduct. And from that duty I shall not flinch. I am surprised—perhaps I should say I am disgusted—that one of your number should have been engaged in an unseemly brawl. It would seem to me to be only common decency that he should not intrude his presence here until the shameful evidence of that brawl has disappeared."
He paused and fixed his eyes on Garry.