noon
I have n't any decent shoes , but I 've played in sneakers before . And there 'll be time to deliver the papers after five . '' Ranny Phelps left the school building that afternoon in a distinctly disagreeable mood . He had been feeling vaguely irritable all day , but since noon there had developed grouchy tendencies , as Court Parker termed them , and he was ready to flare up at the slightest provocation . On the way down-stairs he had flown out at Harry Vedder , one of his particular followers , for no other reason than that the stout youth expressed an indolent conviction that the new tenderfoot could play football better than he could drill , and that he would probably show up on the field . The blow-up , instead of relieving pressure , as such things often do , seemed to deepen Phelps 's discontent , and seeing Ward on the walk just ahead of him , he yielded to a sudden impulse and hastily caught up with him . `` Look here , Sherm , '' he began hastily , `` you 're not really thinking of -- of -- using that nut Tompkins , are you ? ''