Part 44 (1/2)

”Nat is busy organizing his ice-hockey team,” said Roger. ”They are going out to practice this afternoon.”

”Which puts me in mind that we were going to organize a hockey team also,” returned Dave. ”I guess the sooner we get at it the better.”

The ice on the river was clear and smooth, ideal for hockey playing, and that season ice hockey was taken up in earnest at both Oak Hall and Rockville. Nat Poole had little difficulty in organizing a team, he being the captain and playing rover. The others on his team were made up of those who had played with him on the football eleven and some new students at the Hall.

Dave had studied the play and the players with care, and he finally made up a team as follows:

_Goal_, Sam Day.

_Point_, Dave Porter, _captain_.

_Cover Point_, Phil Lawrence.

_Center_, Roger Morr.

_Rover_, Gus Plum.

_Left Wing_, Maurice Hamilton.

_Right Wing_, Ben Ba.s.swood.

_Subst.i.tutes_: Tom Atwood, Luke Watson, and Henry Babc.o.c.k.

”You have got to play as if you meant it, if you want to win any games,”

said Dave to his fellow-players, and so much in earnest did he become that, between ice hockey and his studies, he completely forgot about the adventure which had followed his visit to Doctor Montgomery.

Nat Poole could not help but boast of what his team could do, and when a challenge came to Oak Hall from Rockville to play a game he wanted to accept it without delay. But before he could do so, Mr. Dodsworth interfered.

”We have two hockey teams in this school,” said the instructor. ”Your seven, and that of which Dave Porter is captain. I think it would be no more than fair that you play a game between you, and that the winner be permitted to accept the Rockville challenge.”

This did not suit Nat at all, as he wanted matters entirely his own way.

But nearly every boy in the school sided with Mr. Dodsworth, so at last the money-lender's son had to agree to play the game with Dave's team, and it was decided that this game should take place, weather permitting, the following Sat.u.r.day, and that the game with Rockville should come off one week later.

”To hear Nat Poole talk you would think he had won the game already,”

said Roger, to the others on Dave's seven. ”He makes me sick!”

”Speaking of having it won already, puts me in mind of a story,” came from Shadow. ”A little girl went in the pantry and stayed quite a while.

When she came out she asked her mother: 'Ma, can I have a cruller?'

'Yes, my dear,' answered ma. Then she saw that the little girl wasn't eating anything, so she asked: 'Why don't you take a cruller, Alice?'

'Oh,' says Alice; 'I had that when I first went to the pantry!'”

”Wow!” murmured Sam. ”That joke came from the ark!”

”It was told to Pharaoh by Napoleon, when they were hunting for the North Pole,” added Plum.

”Well, I don't think it hits Nat Poole's case,” was Sam's comment. ”He won't get any cruller in this game.”

”Right you are!” cried Plum.

Plum was as anxious as anybody to defeat the money-lender's son. Since the former bully had turned over a new leaf Nat was constantly saying mean things about him, and it was only Gus's grim determination to ”keep the peace” that kept him from pitching into Nat ”rough-shod.” In keeping his hands off Nat, Plum had a harder battle to fight than if he had attacked the money-lender's son bodily.