e'll pull through the crisis and amble you home if
you drive real calm."

Campbell's attitude and manner of speaking carried an open insult; it
stirred up in Teeny-bits a feeling of intense rage. A great desire came
over him to walk up to his rival for the football team and punch him in
the head. He started forward and said in a voice which trembled a little
in spite of him:

"When you speak to my father I want you"--

Teeny-bits did not finish what he had intended to say, for at that
moment Mr. Stevens came briskly up to the group and in no uncertain
tones demanded to know what was going on. Some one started to explain,
but only a few words had been said before the English master
instinctively, as it were, grasped the import of what had been
happening.

"Campbell," he said, "get up to your room and be quick about it! We've
had enough from you for to-night. And Mr. Holbrook, I'm sorry that there
has been any trouble. I hope it was merely thoughtlessness."

"No damage done, I guess," said the station master. "I don't like to see
young fellows misusing animals, but I suppose it was just a bit of high
jinks, so we'll forget all about it."

The old man's sportsmanship and generosity in this last remark won for
him the respect of the Ridgleyites who had remained on the scene, and
the result of the incident was to make them feel that Campbell had acted
with little or no decency.

Teeny-bits' first appearance on the football field and his rather
spectacular work had not been a mere "flash in the pan." He had gone out
every afternoon with the scrub, and the members of the first team had
learned that it was just as well to keep their eyes wide open and their
heads up when there was any likelihood that Teeny-bits would run with
the ball. In spite of their vigilance he succeeded nearly every
afternoon in making a gain that called attention to his ability to
squirm through a broken field.

He did not approach the skill of some of the first team members,
particularly Neil Durant, the captain, who regularly romped through the
scrub as if they were wooden Indians, but he did seem to have a natural
ability to dodge and to worm his way through opposing tacklers.

An incident occurred on the last Wednesday of October that had a
distinct influence on Teeny-bits' career. That day before practice Coach
Murray talked to the scrub in no mollycoddle terms.

"The first team isn't getting enough competition," he declared. "You
fello