revenge for three painful years. They had heard all about the massacre
and regarded it as the joke of the century on Siwash. They also regarded
it as their providential duty to emphasize the joke--to sharpen up the
point by scoring about a hundred and ten points on the scared young
greenhorns who would have to play for us. All our ex-players stood up
and gave them a big cheer when they came. So did everybody else. It's
always a matter of policy to grin and joke while you're being dissected.
Nothing like cheerfulness. Cheerfulness saved many a martyr from worry
while he was being eaten by a lion.

Then our gymnasium doors opened and the brand-new and totally innocent
Siwash football team came forth. When we saw it we forgot all about
Kiowa, the Faculty, defeat, dishonor, the black future and the
disgusting present. We stood up and yelled ourselves hoarse. Then we sat
down and prepared to enjoy ourselves something frabjous.

Rearick had used nothing less than genius in picking that team. First in
line came Blakely, a mandolin and girl specialist, who had never done
anything more daring than buck the line at a soda fountain. He had on
football armor and a baseball mask. Then came Andrews. Andrews
specialized in poetry for the Lit magazine and commonly went by the name
of Birdie, because of an unfortunate sonnet that he had once written.
Andrews wore evening dress, and carried a football in a shawl strap.
Then came McMurty and Boggs, sofa-pillow punishers. They roomed together
and you could have tied them both up in Ole Skjarsen's belt and had
enough of it left for a handle. James, the champion featherweight fusser
of the school, followed. He carried a campchair and a hot-water bottle.
Petey Simmons, five feet four in his pajamas, and Jiggs Jarley, champion
catch-as-catch-can-and-hold-on-tight waltzer in college, came next. Then
came Bain, who weighed two hundred and seventeen pounds, had been a
preacher, and was so mild that if you stood on his corns he would only
ask you to get off when it was time to go to class. He was followed by
Skeeter Wilson, the human dumpling, and Billings, who always carried an
umbrella to classes and who had it with him then. Behind these came a
great mob of camp-followers with chairs, books, rugs, flowers, lunch
tables, tea-urns and guitars. It was the most sensational parade ever
held at Siwash; and how we yelled and gibbered with delight when we got
the full aroma of Rearick's plan!

The Ki