Stories of Erskine Caldwell by Erskine Caldwell Page B

Snacker?” Jack Phillips said. “Didn’t you go in at left tackle the last quarter when Chuck Harris got knocked out?”
    “Sure,” Snacker said. “And I never missed a day’s practice, either. I was on the scrubs all the rest of the time, but I tried like the dickens to make the first team.”
    “You’ve got as much right to go to the banquet as the captain,” Pete said. “It’s a shame you have to stay away just because you don’t have a girl like the rest of us fellows.”
    “Maybe I could ask one of the girls in town to go with me?” Snacker suggested eagerly.
    Everybody looked at the floor. Pete shook his head. Tom and Jack Phillips shook their heads, too. Snacker knew at once what they were thinking.
    “All the town girls have been dated up for the banquet ever since school opened in September,” Pete said. “It’s too late to try to get hold of a girl anywhere else now. I wish we had thought about it sooner, Snacker.”
    Snacker sat up.
    “How about that Harper girl?” he asked. “You know the one I mean — Frances Harper.”
    They looked at Snacker rather hard for a moment, and then they shook their heads and stared at the floor.
    “Frances Harper is Chuck’s girl, Snacker. She’s going to sit at the head of the table with Chuck — at the captain’s end.”
    “Well,” Snacker said, slamming his books on the table, “if I had known about it in time, I’d have had the prettiest girl in the state here tomorrow night. You can bet your life I would.”
    Jack Phillips jumped up.
    “The prettiest girl in the state?” he said, laughing. “Stop your joking, Snacker. The prettiest girl in the state lives in Saunderstown.”
    “What’s her name?” Snacker asked.
    “I don’t know what her name is, but I saw her once in my life. I tried to get introduced to her, but it was at a dance in Saunderstown and there were about forty ahead of me in the line, and I never got within ten yards of her. But when I say she’s the prettiest, I mean just that. Ask anybody if you don’t believe me. If you ever got a chance to see her for yourself, you’d know exactly what I mean. If Saunderstown wasn’t so far away —”
    Tom and Pete nodded, looking out the window.
    “What’s her last name, Jack?” Snacker asked.
    “I think it’s Hampton, but I’m not sure. But it doesn’t matter, because —”
    Snacker got up and went to the window and looked out over the campus for a while. It was almost time for lunch.
    “I’ll have a girl for you next year, Snacker,” Pete said. “If I had known about it in time this year —”
    Snacker paid no attention to what they were saying. He began talking to himself.
    “I went out for the team the first day of practice and never missed a single minute all season. I thought sure I could go to the banquet. And, besides, I played a whole quarter in the Riverside game Thanksgiving Day, even if I was on the scrubs the rest of the time.”
    Tom heard some of the things he said, and he went to the window beside Snacker.
    “It’s too bad, Snacker,” he said, putting his arm over his shoulder. “You’ve got as much right to go to the banquet as I have. But — but they wouldn’t even let the captain of the team in at the door if he didn’t bring a girl. That’s a rule of some kind or other.”
    Snacker went out and walked down the hall to his room and left his books on the table. He did not feel like staying there, even until lunch was served, and he went back down the stairs and out of the dormitory. By the time he had reached the Yard, he had made up his mind to do something. He kept on walking toward town, but by the time he reached the campus gate he was running.
    The bank on the corner was open. He ran inside and asked how much money he had on deposit. It was four dollars, even. He wrote a check for three dollars and asked for it in silver pieces. He wanted to be able to hold the money in his pocket and feel it there, because if he lost one of the dollars