I'd give a heap if I was standing in his shoes this same day.

He'll be a hero, as sure as he used to be the town scapegrace!" It was just that way up to the time the referee signaled that the last half of the game had been played to a finish.

Nick seemed capable of doing almost as he pleased.

Whenever he got possession of the puck it was, as one enthusiastic Scranton boy whooped, a "regular procession." The Belleville lads just couldn't touch him.

His actions bewildered them, so that they were continually becoming mixed up with their own side when they thought to corner Nick and the puck.
The score?
Well, it seemed too bad that after such a brilliant beginning Belleville should fall so low, and see the terrible figures, thirteen to seven, marked up against them.
In the annals of sport, as chronicled at Scranton High, that contest would always be known as the "Battle of Winchester," just because, as in the Civil War, when the Union army was in retreat and demoralized, the coming of a single man, General Phil Sheridan, caused them to turn about, and presently win a conclusive and overwhelming victory.
And Nick Lang had been the Phil Sheridan for Scranton on that glorious day! Nick tried to make a "grand sneak" as soon as the game finished, but the crowd would have none of that, hemming him in so that he could not run; and then for the first time in all his life the one-time bully of Scranton tasted of the joys of popularity.
Fellows wrung his hand who had always treated him with disdain.