is all. Good-day, sir."

"Good-day, sir."

Pierson passed on, quite aware that a number of students were regarding
him with the utmost amazement, plainly wondering that he should have
stopped to talk with a freshman on the campus.

Walter Gordon had seen the two speaking together, and he hastened to
call the attention of some friends to it.

"Look there!" he cried. "As I live, Merriwell is talking with Pierson!
What'll you bet the fellow's not making a try to get on the regular ball
team? Ha! ha! ha! He's got crust enough for it."

"And I am not sure he hasn't the ability for it," said Easy Street.

"Oh, rats!" snapped Walter. "He'd go to pieces in the first inning.
He'll never make a pitcher in his life."

"There are others," murmured Lucy Little.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE YALE SPIRIT.

Frank went to his room with his head in a whirl. He had dreamed of
working hard to secure a place on the freshman team, but he had not
dreamed there was a possibility that he would be given a trial in the
regular Yale nine during his first year in college.

Merriwell knew well enough that Phillips men were given the preference
in everything at Yale as a rule, for they had friends to pull them
through, while the fellows who had been prepared by private tutors
lacked such an advantage.

But Frank had likewise discovered that in most cases a man was judged
fairly at Yale, and he could become whatever he chose to make himself,
in case he had the ability.

The Phillips man might have the advantage at the start, but he could not
hold the advantage unless he proved himself worthy. If the unknown
student had nerve and determination he could win his way for all of the
wire pulling of the friends of some rival who was not so capable.

Frank had heard the cry which had been raised at that time that the old
spirit of democracy was dying out at Yale, and that great changes had
taken place there. He had heard that Yale was getting to be more like
another college, where the swell set are strongly in evidence and the
senior likely to be very exclusive, having but a small circle of
speaking acquaintances.

It was said that in the old days the Yale junior or senior knew
everybody worth knowing. But this had changed. The blue-blooded
aristocrat had appeared at Yale, and he had chosen his circle of
acquaintances with great care. To all outward appearances, this man
believed that outside his limited circle there was nobody at Yale wor