the latter welcomed the prospect of a bitter fight, and were fully
convinced of their ability to give harder blows than they would have to
take.

"We've simply got to win to-day, fellows," said Tom as they strolled
back to their rooms after breakfast.

"It's the only way we can have a clear title to the championship,"
remarked Bert. "It won't do us much good to lick the 'Greys' next week
if we fall down to-day. In that case it will be 'even Steven.' Each team
will have won and lost one and we'll be as much at sea as ever as to
which has the best team."

"Then, too," added Dick, "we're fighting to-day on our own grounds and
next week we'll have to play the 'Greys' on a neutral field. If we can't
win now with that advantage it will be doubly hard to win then."

"We'll cop them both," said Bert with an air of finality. And this
solution received the hearty approval and implicit faith of his
companions. In one form or another every man on the team was swearing to
himself that the prediction should come true, if it lay in human power
to compass it.

As the day wore on the town took on a festal air. Flags and bunting
fluttered everywhere. Special trains drew in from every point of the
compass and disgorged their thousands to swell the crowds. The streets
resounded with the raucous cries of the fakirs, and their wares of canes
and flags were soon sold out. Groups of college boys accompanied by
pretty girls wandered over the campus, and the walks under the elms
resounded with song and laughter. From every city in the country "old
grads" came down to renew their youth and shout themselves hoarse for
their favorites. The clouded sky and threatening rain daunted them not
at all. They were there to make holiday, and serenely ignored everything
else. Only an earthquake or a cyclone could have kept them from coming.
It might rain "cats and dogs," rheumatism and pneumonia might hang out
danger signals, but they cared not a whit. They were out for the time of
their lives and bound to get it.

The game was to begin at two o'clock, and after cleaning out all the
restaurants in town, put to their utmost to feed the ravening horde of
locusts that had swarmed down upon them, the throngs set out for the
stadium. That gigantic structure could hold forty thousand people and,
long before the time for the game to begin, it was crowded to repletion.
On one side were the stands for the Blues and directly facing them were
those reserved for