was before you gave me a
helping hand and pulled me out. You remember it?"

"Yes."

"And do you remember that you said you were confident I would not go
back--that you felt sure I had stamina of character enough not to take
up with my old associates?"

"Yes."

"Well, Frank, by saying so you saved me. Whenever I have been tempted to
do a mean thing, or to take up with any of the old gang, I have always
thought of your words, and knowing you had faith in me has given me
strength to resist."

"I am glad of it, old fellow. For all that we were enemies to begin with
at Fardale, I found you had good stuff in you, and so I stood by you
when others were against you."

"You stood by me when I was falsely accused of a theft, even though I
had treated you shamefully, and it was that which made me ashamed and
disgusted with myself. I saw you were white clean through, and I
resolved to mend my ways if I ever pulled through the scrape I was in."

"You kept your resolution."

"With your aid. I did not expect you would accept me for a roommate,
after what had happened, but you did. I do not believe I should have
been able to remain in Fardale Academy but for that. Now----"

"Now what?"

"Well, it may sound like boasting, but you know I am not given to that,
Frank."

"I know. Go on."

"Now, to a certain extent, I have taken the place you left vacant at
Fardale. I was captain of the football team last fall, and we came out
champions in the series we played. This year I was unanimously chosen
captain of the baseball team, and we have had a most successful season
thus far. The fellows who would have nothing at all to do with me
originally are ready to stand by me to the last gasp now. All this came
about through your influence, Frank."

"You make me blush," laughed our hero. "Don't tell me anything more, or
you will give me a case of swelled head."

"There is no danger of that," Bart declared. "For a fellow who was so
popular at school, you were and are reprehensibly modest. You had a way
of holding your own, and still you never thrust yourself forward, which
is something I cannot understand, for, as a rule, if a person does not
push himself right ahead, he does not get there. Modesty may be all
right, but, in most cases, the modest fellow gets left. Not that I
believe in the braggart and blowhard, but a chap must have nerve to put
himself ahead if he wants to keep in the game. I have seen lots of
inferior individuals g