got our work cut out this fall, and I hope we'll all pull
together." He smiled across at Paul, evidently unaware of having
neglected that young gentleman in his conversation. "Good-night. Four
o'clock to-morrow is the hour."

"I never met any one that could ask more questions than he can,"
exclaimed Neil when Devoe was safely out of hearing. "But I suppose
that's the way to learn, eh?"

Paul yawned loudly and shrugged his shoulders.

"Funny he should have come just when we were talking about him, wasn't
it?" Neil pursued. "What do you think of him?"

"Well, if you ask me," Paul answered, "I think he's a conceited,
stuck-up prig!"

CHAPTER IV

NEIL MAKES ACQUAINTANCES

Neil's and Paul's college life began early the next morning when,
sitting side by side in the dim, hushed chapel, they heard white-haired
Dr. Garrison ask for them divine aid and guidance. Splashes and flecks
of purple and rose and golden light rested here and there on bowed head
and shoulders or lay in shafts across the aisles. From where he sat Neil
could look through an open window out into the morning world of greenery
and sunlight. On the swaying branch of an elm that almost brushed the
casement a thrush sang sweet and clear a matin of his own. Neil made
several good resolutions that morning there in the chapel, some of which
he profited by, all of which he sincerely meant. And even Paul, far less
impressionable than his friend, looked uncommonly thoughtful all the way
back to their room, a way that led through the elm-arched nave of
College Place and across the common with its broad expanses of
sun-flecked sward and its simple granite shaft commemorating the heroes
of the civil war.

At nine o'clock, with the sound of the pealing bell again in their ears,
with their books under their arms and their hearts beating a little
faster than usual with pleasurable excitement, they retraced their path
and mounted the well-worn granite steps of College Hall for their first
recitation. What with the novelty of it all the day passed quickly
enough, and four o'clock found the two lads dressed in football togs and
awaiting the beginning of practise.

There were some sixty candidates in sight, boys--some of them men as far
as years go--of all sizes and ages, several at the first glance
revealing the hopelessness of their ambitions. The names were taken and
fall practise at Erskine began.

The candidates were placed on opposite sides of the gridiro