CHAPTER XIV.
ON THE GRIDIRON WITH COBBER SECOND Once upon a time Thanksgiving Day was an orgie conducted in honor of that national bird, the turkey.
In these happier days, in every live community, the turkey must wait until the football game has been fought out.

Then the adherents of one eleven eat crow.
Gridley's great game of the year was scheduled to begin at three o'clock.
However, a large part of the fun, at a really "big" game consists in being on hand an hour ahead of time and hearing and seeing all the fun that goes on.
Promptly at the tick of two o'clock the Gridley Band blew its first blast, to the tune of "Hail, Columbia!" The band was stationed close to the ground, in the center of the stand reserved for the High School student body.

Off the right of the band rose four tiers of bright-faced, wholesome-looking High School girls.

To the left of the band sat the boys.
Across the field, on a much smaller stand, sat the hundred or so followers of the team from Cobber.

The Cobbers had no band.
Few feminine faces appeared on the Cobber stand.