the only fellow, and who but he, so that by this
means their necks are broken, sometimes their backs, sometimes their
arms, sometimes their noses gush forth with blood, sometimes their eyes
start out; for they have the sleights to mix one between two, to dash
him against the heart with their elbows, to butt him under the short
ribs with their gripped fists, and with their knees to catch him on the
hip and kicke him on his neck with a hundred murthering devices.'"

"Phew," said Tom, "that's a hot one right off the bat."

"He hits straight from the shoulder," agreed Dick. "I'll bet the old boy
himself would have been a dandy football rusher, if he'd ever got into
the game."

"He certainly leaves no doubt as to where he stands on the question,"
assented the Professor, "and I think we'll admit, after that, that the
game has improved. The most rabid critic of to-day wouldn't go so far
as this old Briton. The game as played to-day offers very little danger
to life and not much more to limb. Of course, accidents happen now and
then, but that's true of every game. The old French proverb says that
'he who risks nothing, has nothing.' The element of risk in football is
more than counterbalanced by the character it develops. The whole secret
of success in life is to 'never say die.' And I don't know of any game
that teaches this as well as football. But I must be going," he
concluded, with a glance at his watch; and, turning off to the right
with a farewell wave of the hand, he left the boys to finish their
interrupted stroll.

"The Prof's all right," said Tom emphatically.

"They say that he was the bright particular star on his football team,"
contributed Dick.

"And he's starred just as brightly in his profession since then," chimed
in Bert.

"I guess that 'never say die' motto has stuck by him all the time,"
mused Tom. "It's a bully motto, too. By the way, have you fellows ever
heard the story of the mouse that fell in the milk pail?"

They stared at him suspiciously. Long experience with that facetious
youth had taught them the folly of biting too quickly, when he put a
question.

"No catch," protested Tom. "This is on the level."

"Well," said Dick, "if a crook like you _can_ be on the level, shoot."

"It was this way," continued Tom, cheerfully accepting the reflection on
his character. "Two mice fell into a bucket of milk. They swam about for
a while and then one of them gave it up and sank. The other one, tho