will come, sir, when public-spirited citizens everywhere go in
strongly for athletics in the High Schools, as they did in the town
where Holmes and I received our earlier training."

The letter from Cadet Prescott's mother came almost by return
mail. She had never for a moment lost faith, she wrote, that
all would come out right with her boy, and she was heartily glad
that her faith had been justified. She was sorry, indeed, for
that unfortunate other cadet whose enmity for Dick had been his
own undoing in the long run.

It was some days later when Laura's letter reached the now eager
pitcher of the Army nine.

Now that letter was cordial enough in every way, and Laura made
no secret of her delight and of her pride in her friend.

"Yet there's something lacking here," murmured Prescott uneasily,
as he read the letter through once more. "What is it? Laura
writes as if she were trying to show more reserve with me than
she did once. What is the matter? Has she cooled toward me at
just the time when I shall soon be able to offer her my name and
my future?"

The thought was torment. Nor, of course, did Dick fail to remember
all about that prosperous and agreeable Gridley merchant, Leonard
Cameron, who, for upwards of two years, had been one of Miss Bentley's
most devoted admirers.

"I suppose he's the kind of fellow who is calculated to please
a woman," mused Dick with a sinking at heart. "And Cameron has
had the great advantage of being right on the spot all the time.
Moreover, he has had his future mapped out for him, while I wasn't
assured about my own, and he hasn't been afraid to speak. Great
Scott, I must wait until the night of the graduation ball before
I can speak and find out how the land lies for me. But is Laura
coming to that hop?"

Again Dick ran hastily through the letter. Yet, look as he would,
he could find no allusion of Laura's to coming on for the Graduation
Hop.

"What an idiot I am!" growled Prescott to himself. "I'm certain
I forgot to ask her, in my last letter. If I did, it was solely
because I've always been so sure that she'd be on here for
graduation week as a matter of course."

After pacing his room for a few moments, Dick sat down and wrote
feverishly back to Laura Bentley, asking her if she were coming
on for graduation and the hop.

"I've always looked forward to having you here as a matter of
course on that great occasion," Dick penned, "so I'm not very
certain t