Chapter 26

AT THE END OF THE FIRST HALF

Saturday dawned clear and crisp, with a little westerly breeze stirring the tops of the leafless trees and fluttering the big maroon flag with the grey B that hung from the staff at the back of the grand stand. That was not the only flag displayed, for here and there all along the Row small banners hung from windows, while to add to the patriotic effect all the red and grey cushions in school were piled against the casements to lend their colour. There were few recitations that morning and there might just as well have been none, I fancy. The squad got back from Oakdale at one-thirty, after an early dinner, and were driven directly to the gymnasium, pursued by the school at large with vociferous greetings.

Claflin began to put in an appearance soon after that. Hitherto Brimfield had travelled to Westplains to meet her rival, and this was the first time that the Blue had invaded the Maroon-and-Grey fastness. Hoskins did a rushing business that day, for Claflin had sent nearly her entire population with the team, and many of the visitors were forced to walk from the station. There was an insouciant, self-confident air about the Claflin fellows that impressed Brimfield and irritated her too. "You'd think," remarked Benson, watching from a window in the gym the visitors passing toward the field, "that they had the game already won! A stuck-up lot of dudes, that's what I call them!" But Benson was not in the best of tempers to-day and possibly his judgment was warped!

The Claflin team arrived in one of Hoskins' barges and took possession of the meeting-room upstairs to change into their togs. They were a fine-looking lot of fellows, and they, too, had that same air of confidence that Benson had found annoying. By a quarter past two the stage was set. The grand stand was filled to overflowing, the settees and chairs, which had been brought out to supplement the permanent seats, were all occupied, and many spectators were standing along the ropes. Over the stand the big maroon-and-grey banner floated lazily in the breeze. The field had been newly marked out and the cream-white lines shone dazzlingly in the sharp sunlight. It was a day for light wraps and sweaters, but many visitors, arriving in motor cars that were now parked behind the gymnasium, were clad in furs. It was distinctly a social occasion, for fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles had descended upon the school in numbers and half the fellows were parading around before the hour set for the game with admiring relatives or friends, showing their rooms and the dining-hall and the gymnasium, and looking all the time a bit bored at the fuss and secretly enjoying it. Harry Westcott was seen with his father and sister in tow, while Roy Draper was surrounded by an enthusiastic flock of female relatives.

Overhead a clear blue sky, scarcely so much as flecked with a cloud, arched radiantly.