them forget that such things as nerves were a part
of their system!

But the next morning was a different matter. Those who had never gone
through a Claflin contest were inclined to be finicky of appetite and to
go off into trances with a piece of toast or a fork-full of potato
poised between plate and mouth. Even the more experienced fellows
showed some indication of strain. Thursby, for instance, who had been
three years on the first team as substitute or first-choice centre, who
had already taken some part in two Claflin games, and who was apparently
far too big and calm to be affected by nerves, showed a disposition to
talk more than was natural.

Don never really remembered at all clearly how that Saturday morning
passed. Afterward he had vague recollections of sitting in Clint
Thayer's room and hearing Amy Byrd rattle off a great deal of
nonsensical advice to him and Clint and Tim as to how to conduct
themselves before the sacrifice (Amy had insisted that they should line
up and face the grand-stand before the game commenced, salute and recite
the immortal line of Claudius's gladiators: "_Morituri te salutant!_");
of seeing Manager Jim Morton dashing about hither and thither, scowling
blackly under the weight of his duties; of wandering across to the woods
beyond the baseball field with Tim Otis and Larry Jones and some others
and sitting on the stone wall there and watching Larry take acorns out
of Tim's ears and nose; and, finally, of going through a perfectly
farcical early dinner in a dining hall empty save for the members of
the training-table. After that events stood out more clearly in his
memory.

Claflin's hosts began to appear at about half-past one. They wore blue
neckties and arm-bands or carried blue pennants which they had the good
taste to keep furled while they wandered around the campus and poked
inquisitive heads into the buildings. Then the Claflin team, twenty-six
strong, rolled up in two barges just before two, having taken their
dinner at the village inn, disembarked in front of Wendell and meandered
around to the gymnasium laden with suit-cases and things looking
insultingly care-free and happy, and, as it couldn't be denied,
particularly husky!

Don, observing from the steps of Torrence, wondered how they managed to
appear so easy and careless. No one, as he confided to Tom Hall and Tim,
would ever suspect that they were about to do battle for the
Brimfield-Claflin championship!

"Hu