In some ways the visitors had outplayed Brimfield.  Chambers’ attack, especially between the twenty-five-yard lines, had been far more varied and effective.  Her line, from tackle to tackle, had been stronger than her opponent’s.  Brimfield had been especially weak at the left of centre, and a resume of the game showed that Chambers had made two-thirds of her line gains through Blaisdell and Saunders.  Churchill, who had replaced Blaisdell in the second half, had shown up no better on defence.  At the ends Brimfield had held her own, while her backs had shown up superior to Chambers’.  Chambers had outpunted Brimfield an average of five yards at a kick and had placed her punts to better advantage.  In generalship both teams had erred frequently and there was little to choose between them.

But all this had no present effect on Brimfield’s jubilation, and the school acted as if a most notable victory had been won.  When the ’varsity team came in to supper that night it received an ovation hardly second in enthusiasm to that usually accorded it after a victory over Claflin.  And perhaps, after all, the team deserved it, for when all was said and done the spirit which had been shown when they had held Chambers scoreless on the four yards and again later when they had themselves worn down the defence and gained their touchdown had been of the right sort.

Clint filled four pages of his Sunday’s letter the next afternoon with a glowing and detailed account of that game, and it is to be hoped that the folks at Cedar Run enjoyed the perusal of it half as much as he enjoyed writing it.  That evening he and Amy dropped in at Number 14 Hensey and found a roomful of fellows in excited discussion of the game.  There was a disposition on the part of some of the fellows to consider the Claflin contest as good as won, but Jack Innes was more pessimistic.

“Look here,” he interrupted finally, “you fellows talk like a lot of sick ducks.  I’m blessed if I see what you’re so cocky about.  We beat Chambers, all right, but we didn’t any more than beat them, and we had to work like the very dickens to do it.  And, what’s more, we only kept Chambers from scoring by the biggest piece of good luck.”

“Oh, piffle, Jack!” exclaimed Still.  “We had them fourth down and five to go.  They couldn’t have made it to save their lives!”

“They only had four to go,” replied Jack, “and if they’d tried anything but a child’s trick they’d likely have made it.  The only way we got across was by springing a delayed pass on them when they were looking for a line-plunge.”

“Bet you anything you like we could have gone straight through for that touchdown.” said Still.  “We had the ball on their four yards and it was only third down.  Harris or Kendall could have torn that four yards off easily.”

“That’s your opinion,” replied Jack drily.  “As I remember it, though, you were not on at the time.  We knew mighty well we couldn’t get that four yards by playing the line.  If you don’t believe me, ask Robey.  The first thing he said afterwards was that he was afraid we were going to send Harris at centre on that last play and that if we had we’d never have got over.”