Hugh could see the muscles of his cheeks working, as though he found it difficult to control his emotions.

Then Nick spoke.
"That was mighty kind in you, Hugh, to think of me," he said, with just a suspicious quiver to his voice.

"I'd sure liked to have played in that game; but do you think it'd have been wise to have picked _me_ for a substitute when there were plenty of other fellows on the ice competent to take the place ?" "Not one able to fill your shoes, Nick, and they know it," asserted Hugh stoutly.
"But then if you'd done that there'd sure have been a howl raised later on by lots of folks who still have it in for me because of the past," urged Nick, though it could be easily seen that he felt particularly pleased by what the captain of the Scranton High Seven had just told him.
"Let them howl," Hugh went on to say.

"There never yet was a fellow who nobly redeemed his past but what a bunch of wolves set up a howl on his heels.

Don't you pay any attention to those fellows, Nick.
Stick to your game through thick and thin.