went on that it was becoming easier to learn his lessons
and easier to remember them when learned, and by that time he had taught
himself to command over his thoughts, and when he was struggling through
a proposition in geometry he wasn't wondering whether he would beat out
Sherrard for the position of regular right end on the second before the
season was over. In other words, he had learned concentration.

But all this was not yet. That first week, in especial, was hard
sledding, and that French composition almost drove him to distraction
and gave him brain fever before it was done. But done it was and on
time, and, while the best that Mr. Daley would allow it was a C plus,
Steve was distinctly proud of it. And in that week he demonstrated to
the instructor's satisfaction that he was up with the class in French. I
think Mr. Daley was very willing to be convinced and that he met Steve
quite half-way. Latin was still a bugaboo to Steve, but it, too, was
getting easier. On the whole, that schedule, backed by a grim
determination, was making good.

Meanwhile football pursued its relentless course. Every day the first
and second fought it out for gradually increasing periods and every day
the season grew nearer its close and the Claflin game, the final goal,
loomed more distinct. Phillips School came and went and Brimfield marked
up her fifth victory. Phillips gave the Maroon-and-Grey a hard tussle,
and the score, 12 to 0, didn't indicate the closeness of the playing.
For Brimfield made her first touchdown by the veriest fluke and only
gained her second in the last few minutes of play, when Phillips,
outlasted, weakened on her six-yard line and let Norton through. On the
other hand, Phillips had the ball thrice inside Brimfield's twenty
yards, missed a field-goal by the narrowest of margins and, with the
slightest twist of the luck, might have proved the victor.

"Boots" had hammered the second into what Mr. Robey unhesitatingly
declared to be one of the best scrub teams he had ever seen, and there
was more than one contest between it and the 'varsity that yielded
nothing to an outside game for hard fighting and excitement. Steve and
his rival, Sherrard, were running about even for the right end position.
Steve's tackling had improved vastly under Marvin's tutoring, and it was
his ability in that department that possibly gave him a shade the better
of the argument with Sherrard. So far there had been no decided slump in