d I want! And I said to myself at the time: 'That fellow
is a football man! And I'll bet he's a good one!' You see, it wasn't
only that he had courage to risk himself, but he had the ability to see
what was to be done and to do it, and do it quick! Why, he was pulling
injured women and children and men from those burning, overturned cars
before a grown-up man had sensed what had happened! And later on, when
we'd done what we could for the burned and scalded bodies and limbs, I
got hold of the boy for a moment. I asked him his name and he told it,
and then I said: 'You've played football, haven't you?' And he said he
had, a little. He wasn't much of a talker, and when some of us said some
nice things about what he had done he got horribly fussed and tried to
get away. But someone wanted to shake hands with him, and he wouldn't,
and I saw that his own hand was burned all inside the palm, deep and
nasty. 'How did you do that?' I asked him as I dressed it. Oh, he didn't
know. He thought he'd got his hand caught between some beams or
something; couldn't get it out for a minute. It wasn't much of a burn!
Well, the wrecking train and a hospital train came along about then and
I lost sight of that chap, and I didn't see him again.

"I've told the story because I think it bears me out when I say that
football is fine training. I don't say that that boy wouldn't have been
just as brave and eager to help if he hadn't been a football player, but
I do maintain that he wouldn't have known what to do as readily or how
to do it and wouldn't have got at it as quickly. And when the flames are
eating their way back from car to car quickness means a whole lot!
That's the end of my story, boys. But while I've been telling it I've
been looking for some sign to tell me that you recognised the hero of
it. I don't find the sign and I'm puzzled. Perhaps you're so accustomed
to heroes here at Brimfield that one more or less doesn't stir you. For
the satisfaction of my own curiosity I'm going to ask you if you know
who I've been talking about."

A deep silence was the only answer. The doctor's audience looked
extremely interested and curious, but no one spoke.

"I see. You don't know. Well, perhaps I'd better not tell then." But a
chorus of protest arose. The doctor hesitated, and his gaze seemed to
rest intently on a spot at one side of the hall and about half-way back.
Finally, when silence had fallen again: "I guess I will tell," he said.
"It