TEST OF BATTLE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 9 June 1923, Page 3

TEST OF BATTLE.

I A KUGBY.FOOTBALL" STORY. I KEEPING THEM IP TO IT. I The Insect, who was described on his . health certificate as George James , Rutherford Napier, opened his eyes and t blinked at the sunlight on the dor--3 mitory wall, writes ''E.A.M." in the 3 Manchester Guardian. After xa moment s he became aware, approvingly, of the - sunshine. Then he remembered that it - was Saturday, and with the rememi. brance a wave of horrid realisation r came rushing in. and drove all the sleep - out of him, leaving him sick and quaks ing. It was the day of the Abbey c match, and he was to play for the Fifs teen. i f The Insect was not .popular among l ~ his fellows. He was nervous, imagin- ■- ative, and witty with a wit which wa* '■ above the average boys head. Also, c though he was only ten, he was nearly '" at the top of the school. He was in mo way an ordinary child, except in his desire to be ordinary; and he was considered an ass, and hated it. |j He would have been very -iinhusy + but for two things. One was Yitw^uEiS viction that he deserved to be bullied '„ for l>eing such an ass; thus he was " n saved from the crowning misery of self- \_ pity. The other was the hourly prestt >ence of Bill Carter^ who superintended ie the Insect's labour in the Fifth Form i and managed the school games. The ■ Insect worshipped Bill Garter with all jt the fervour of his small eoul, marvel[o Hng that one who had played crickei ie for Kent and football for England Z. should take an interest in such an ass m as George James Rutherford Napier ot And Bill, who loved all small boys, am of the Insect . in particular, xmderstoot e~ what was goin^ ©n- and did Ms best tj

J rtiiti^nte the persecution. a It uas liiii, of course, wfact hs4 pu ? the Inpejt into tae Fifteen. t'ii«.<? Nat - been an outcry hi the school, for it wai > notorious that the Insect funked - livery body felt uneasy about tackling i i big, man u>iv, and mosc people wert % conscious^of black memories of a tackte ', shirked here and there; but"that any--1 body should be such a funk as never tc ■ ha\e attempted a iow tackle in his life was to them incomprehensible and unspeakably shameful. Yet this was the Insect's case;, and Bill had put him do.vn to play against the Abbey. It was sacrilege to suppose that an international footballer has ever funked in his life; yet Bill understood the Insect's trouble, and did not despair of curing it. Certain memories of his own made him realise the tortures of imagination which the Insect suffered every half-holiday afternoon. Bill had seen him in the school boxing competition, 'hammered by a bigger boy until lie could hardly see, and he knew that the Insect was as game as any of !his detractors, J£ he could only take the plunge he would ne/ev funk again; and Bill believed that, When the great moment came, he would take it. So he put him in. .Hut of all this Insect knew nothing. He only thought of the jibes and sneers whi h . had ass i.ed him when the list was put up. He wondered for the hundredth time whether he could coroner his weakness this afternoon. Even if he did. he would get no thanks for it; people would say, "Jolly lucky for you that you went hard to-day; we'd hrve | given you a bad time if you'd funked." Wouldn't it be hotter to funk than to be tlms •.shamefully bullied into resolution? Ayd then" the thought of Bill stiffened him. Nohody else was worth bothering about; but Bill—Bill who was so tall and strong, Bill who knew the whole of the .Latin grammar by heart; Bill who wa« alivnvs fair and kind and jolly—he would please Bill, or die in the attempt. And with this resolution seething in his head he threw off his blankets and bolted for the bathroom. The mfitch was twenty minutes old. nml the Abbey were ten points up; hut Bill's heart was singing within him. Life had been black for him ever sin re a shameful d\y three weeks a.co, when his boys hnd failed him in their first match, had lost heart after a bad beginning, and had let the Abbey beat them by nearly forty points. To-day, too, they had started badly, and it was with a sick feeling of anxiety that Bill, had watched them straggle back to vri their places after the kicking of the : second goal. But the rot had been stopped, and now they were fighting like demons, while Bill, with shining ! eyes and a voice that grew hoarser and i hoarser, held them to it from the ! touQhline. • It was a sight worth watching. Back and forth the battle raged over the muddy ground, Bill's forwards disputing every inch. His" backs \yere small and young, but they yere playing under Bill's eye, and they gave no quarter. Many times the ball came out to the Abbey hacks, and or.c of their giants burst through with it;. and every time some small David hurled himself at^ Goliath's knees, and brought him down with a crash. Sometimes the Abbey forwards came down the fie'd with the ball at their feet; and. one by one, the defence fe'.l on it, were kicked off. crept out- vfrom amongl; the forwards' feet, and hurried back to stop the gap in case of need. Bill had reason to be proud of his nu/selings. But his heart glowed most for t^e/ Insect. And who en say what the In-., sect was feeling? Certainly not fear. Years ago, it seemed —im the first two minutes of the game—a huge Abbey, forward, clutching the ball, had rushed towafds him, and the Insect's soul quaked within him. He had wavered, imagining horrible things f .and then Bill's voice booming out ■ot%n confusion of the sound of battle, had roared, j "Now, boy!" And the Insect, wrought up at last to the pitch of resolution, had dived hard aaid low and brought his man down. . When he picked him- ( self up he left behind him in the mud : the burden of many months. I He and the other centre, a child of teH like himself, were now plastered with mud, so tired that they- could j scarcely run, and crying from the pain j of many kicks and bruises. But they were not afraid; they still fell on the ball unflinchingly, and if fen Abbey back seemed too big to pull down >sing%handed they flew at him together, sobbing bitterly the while, and worried him down on to the ground, to be disposed of by their forwards. Half-time came af last, and the team came jostling round Bill, looking up at him like puppies that want you to make much of them. .• He gave them the praise that they deserved, and they shuffled their feet bashfully, and grinned at each -other's mud-plastered j faces. Then the 'whistle went, and ' they scattered to their places. : Bill Carter never forgot that .-second half. In it he saw the g'orious fruition of all that he had ever tried to implant in his boys. His valiant urchins fought their way into the Abbey tiventv-nve by sheer strength and dash, and clung desperately to their advantage. But they could not force the ball over the line. Then they tried heeling it; but the Abbey scrum half was on to his man like. a flash whenever the ball came out. and they could not get it away. At last,/ after a loose scrum, it was kicked out1 to Monkey Rees. and the Monkey, like the born fly-half that he was. went straight through, twenty yards in one clean dash, and touched down over the full-back's shoulder. The kick failed; I and neither side scored again, i But Bill Carter told them then, and I held to it ever after, that it was the I finest school match he had ever seen, j And as the Insect walked stiffly away from the fleld Bill caught him i>n ami put a hand on his shouWer. and said. "Well played, old. man!" in a voice which the*lnsect had never heard before, and never forgot. And that inght , in the dormitory. as the Insert sat on ! the end of his !>ed, wrapped gravely in i the ma-ntle of his rew manhood, sundry j nf hi= fe'lows came vn to him and made it plain that he wns no longer an, ass. hut a man and a brother.