Jack Winters Gridiron Chums

Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums

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Title: Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums
Author: Mark Overton
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Edition: 10
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JACK WINTERS' GRIDIRON CHUMS
BY MARK OVERTON

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. GRUELLING FOOTBALL PRACTICE
II. THE BOY WHO WAS IN TROUBLE
III. BIG BOB CONFESSES
IV. A FRIEND IN NEED
V. A MESSAGE FROM MARSHALL
VI. JACK AND JOEL INVESTIGATE
VII. STRANGE FRUIT FOR A TREE TO BEAR
VIII. A CALL FOR HELP
IX. HEADED FOR THE FIELD OF BATTLE
X. WHEN THE GREAT GAME OPENED
XI. THE STRUGGLE ON THE GRIDIRON

XII. GLORY ENOUGH FOR ALL
XIII. WHEN BED FIRE BURNED IN CHESTER
XIV. WHAT FOLLOWED THE CELEBRATION
XV. IN THE BURNING HOUSE
XVI. JACK SPEAKS FOR LITTLE CARL
XVII. THE AFTERMATH OF A GOOD DEED
XVIII. BIG BOB BRINGS NEWS
XIX. LOCKING HORNS WITH HARMONY
XX. THE GREAT VICTORY--CONCLUSION
JACK WINTERS' GRIDIRON CHUMS

CHAPTER I
GRUELLING FOOTBALL PRACTICE

A shrill whistle sounded over the field where almost two dozen sturdily
built boys in their middle 'teens, clad in an astonishing array of old and
new football togs, had been struggling furiously.
Instantly the commotion ceased as if by magic at this intimation from
the coach, who also acted in practice as referee and umpire combined,
that the ball was to be considered "dead."
Some of those who helped to make the pack seemed a bit slow about
relieving the one underneath of their weight, for a half-muffled voice
oozed out of the disintegrating mass:
"Get off my back, some of you fellows, won't you? What d'ye take me
for--a land tortoise?"
Laughing and joking, the remaining ingredients of the pyramid

continued to divorce themselves from the heap that at one time had
appeared to consist principally of innumerable arms and legs.
Last of all a long-legged boy with a lean, but good-natured face, now
streaked with perspiration and dirt, struggled to his feet, and began to
feel his lower extremities sympathetically, as though the terrific strain
had centered mostly upon that particular part of his anatomy.
But under his arm he still held pugnaciously to the pigskin oval ball.
The coach, a rather heavy-set man who limped a little, now came
hurrying up. Joe Hooker had once upon a time been quite a noted
college athlete until an accident put him "out of the running," as he
always explained it.
He worked in one of Chester's big mills, and when a revolution in
outdoor sports swept over the hitherto sleepy manufacturing town, Joe
Hooker gladly consented to assume the congenial task of acting as
coach to the youngsters, being versed in all the intricacies of gilt- edged
baseball and football.
It had been very much owing to his excellent work as a severe drill-
master that Chester, during the season recently passed, had been able
actually to win the deciding game of baseball of the three played
against the hitherto invincible Harmony nine.
Mr. Charles Taft, principal owner of the mill in question, was in full
sympathy with this newly aroused ambition on the part of the Chester
boys to excel in athletic sports. He himself had been a devoted adherent
of all such games while in college, and the fascination had never
entirely died out of his heart. So he saw to it that Joe Hooker had
considerable latitude in the way of afternoons off, in order that the town
boys might profit by his advice and coaching.
"A clever run, that, Joel," he now told the bedraggled boy who had just
been downed, after dragging two of his most