to be put off the ball team! Why, it was on his
pitching that the whole Milburn school was pinning its faith in the
coming game against Leighton Academy. "Peter will save the day!" the
fellows had declared. What would they say when they discovered that
their hero was to be dropped from the team--that he had not passed one
of the freshman examinations?

Half the pride and glory of the freshman class centered about Peter.
Throughout the grammar school he had made a wonderful record in
athletics; his unerring drop kick had won him fame at football long
before he was out of the sixth grade, and he could pitch a ball with a
speed and curve almost professional in its nicety. "Wait until Peter
Coddington gets into the high school!" had been the cry. "Milburn can
then wipe up the ground with every school within reach." As Peter had
never been much of a student the gate of this temple of learning had
been difficult to reach; but at last the day came when he managed to
squeak inside the coveted portals where all the honors promised him were
at once laid at his feet. He became a member of the football eleven,
pitcher on the freshman nine, president of his class. Friends swarmed
about him, for he had a pleasant way of greeting everybody, he treated
generously, and he had a winsome little chuckle that spread merriment
wherever he went.

None of these qualities, however, helped his poor scholarship, which he
jauntily excused by explaining to his father at the end of the first
quarter that he had not really got into the game yet. In consequence Mr.
Coddington listened and was patient. When the mid-year record dropped
even lower Peter's argument was that it took time to adjust one's self
to novel conditions. But as spring brought no improvement Mr.
Coddington, a man of few words, remarked severely: "I will give you one
more chance, son."

The list of figures in Peter's hand were the fruit of that chance.

Peter had a wholesome awe of his father. He was not a man to be
bamboozled. On the contrary Mr. Coddington was a keen, direct person who
came straight to a point in a few terse sentences; predominant in his
character was an unflinching sense of justice which was, however,
fortunately tempered with enough kindness to make a misdoer mortified
but never afraid in his presence. Peter admired his father tremendously
and if for one reason more than another because he was so "square."
Never during all the span of the lad's fifteen years