Part 11 (2/2)
”Rah! Rah! Rah! Thor! Thor! Thor! He's--all--right!”
”Come, fellows,” spoke T. Haviland Hicks, Jr.
”Let's sing to the captain, good old Butch! Let 'er go!”
”Here's to good Butch Brewster! Drink it down!
Here's to good Butch Brewster! Drink It down!
Here's to good Butch Brewster-- He plays football like heDrink it down! Drink it down--down--down--down!”
A strange sound startled the joyous youths; it was a rumbling noise, like distant thunder, and at first they could not place it. Then, as It continued, they located the disturbance as coming from the prodigious body of Thor, and at last the wonderful phenomenon dawned on them.
”Thor is singing college songs!” quavered little Theophilus Opperd.y.k.e, so happy that his big-rimmed spectacles rode the end of his nose. ”Oh, Hicks--Butch--Thor is awake at last! He is trying to get college spirit, to understand campus life--”
T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., suddenly realized that what he had so ardently longed for had come to pa.s.s; aided by Theophilus' missionary work and by the sudden shock of Thorwald, Sr.'s, letter. Thor was awakened, had come to know that he loved old Bannister. His awakening, as shown in the football game, had been splendid. How he had towered over the scrimmage, in every play, urging his team to fight, himself doing prodigies for old Bannister.
Thor, who had been so silent and aloof! Then the sunny-souled youth remembered.
”Oh, I told you I'd awaken Thor, Butch!” he began, but that behemoth quelled him with an ominous look.
”You!” he growled, with pretended wrath, ”! It was Theophilus Opperd.y.k.e who did the most of it, and Thorwald's father did the rest! Don't you rob Theophilus of his glory, you feeble-imitation-of-some-thing-human!”
T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., grinned a la Ches.h.i.+re cat. The happy-go-lucky Senior was vastly glad that Thor had awakened, that now he would try to grasp the real meaning of college existence. He felt that the young Hercules, from now on, would slowly and surely develop to a splendid college man, that he would do big things for his Alma Mater. And the generous Hicks gave Theophilus all the credit, and impressed on that happy Human Encyclopedia the fact that he had done a great deed for old Bannister. Just so, Thor was awakened.
”Oh, I say, Deke Radford, Coach, and Butch,” Hicks chortled, getting the attention of that triumvirate as well as that of the others in the room, ”remember up in Camp Bannister, in the sleep-shack, when Coach Corridan outlined a smas.h.i.+ng full-back he wanted?”
”Sure!” smiled Deke. ”What of it, Hicks?”
Then T, Haviland Hicks, Jr., that care-free, lovable, irrepressible youth, whose chance to swagger before this same trio had been postponed so long and seemingly lost forever, satiated his fun-loving soul and reaped his reward. Calling their attention to Thor, the Prodigious Prodigy, and asking them to remember his playing against Latham that day, the sunny Senior strutted before them vaingloriously.
”Oh, I told you just to leave it to Hicks!” he declared, grinning happily.
”I promised to round up an unstoppable fullback, a Gargantuan Hercules, and I did! Just think of what he will do to Hamilton and Ballard in the big games! As I have often told you, --leave It to Hicks!”
CHAPTER XI
”ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL”
”Oh, what we'll do to Ballard Will surely be a shame!
We'll push their team clear off the field And win the football game!”
T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., one night three days after the first big game, that with Hamilton, a week following Thor's great awakening in the Latham game, sat in his cozy room, having a.s.sumed his favorite position--chair tilted back at a perilous angle and feet thrust atop of the radiator. The versatile youth, having just composed a song with which to encourage Bannister elevens in the future, was reading it aloud, when his mind was torpedoed by a most startling thought.
”Land o' Goshen!” reflected the sunny-souled Senior, aghast. ”I haven't tw.a.n.ged my ole banjo and held forth with a saengerfest for a c.o.o.n's age! I surely can do so now without arousing Butch to wrath. Thor has awakened, Hamilton is walloped, and Bannister will surely win the Champions.h.i.+p!
Everything is happy, an' de goose hangs high, so here goes!”
Holding his banjo a la troubadour, the blithesome Hicks, who as a Senior was hara.s.sed by no study-hours or inspections, strode from his room and out into the corridor, up and down which he majestically paced, like a sentinel on his beat, tw.a.n.ging his beloved banjo with abandon, and roaring in his foghorn, subterranean voice:
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