what they saw will not give them pleasant dreams.
We pick Ward to beat the heavy-hitting Place team.
Other youngsters of Arthurs' nine show up well,
particularly Raymond and Weir, who have springs in
their feet and arms like whips. Altogether Arthurs'
varsity is a strangely assorted, a wonderfully chosen
group of players. We might liken them to the mechanism
of a fine watch, with Ward as the mainspring, and
the others with big or little parts to perform, but
each dependent upon the other. Wayne's greatest
baseball team!
Ken read it all thirstily, wonderingly, and recorded it deep in the
deepest well of his memory. It seemed a hundred times as sweet for all
the misery and longing and fear and toil which it had cost to gain.
And each succeeding day grew fuller and richer with its meed of reward.
All the boys of the varsity were sought by the students, Ken most of all.
Everywhere he went he was greeted with a regard that made him still more
bashful and ashamed. If he stepped into Carlton Club, it was to be
surrounded by a frankly admiring circle of students. He could not get
a moment alone in the library. Professors had a smile for him and often
stopped to chat. The proudest moment of his college year was when
President Halstead met him in the promenade, and before hundreds of
students turned to walk a little way with him. There seemed not to be
a single student of the university or any one connected with it, who did
not recognize him. Bryan took him to watch the crew practise; Stevens
played billiards with him at the club; Dale openly sought his society.
Then the fraternities began to vie with one another for Ken. In all his
life he had not imagined a fellow could be treated so well. It was an
open secret that Ken Ward was extremely desired in the best fraternities.
He could not have counted his friends. Through it all, by thinking of
Worry and the big games coming, he managed to stay on his feet.
One morning, when he was at the height of this enjoyable popularity,
he read a baseball note that set him to thinking hard. The newspaper,
commenting on the splendid results following Wayne's new athletic
rules, interpreted one rule in a way astounding to Ken. It was
something to the effect that all players who had been _on_ a team
which paid any player or any expenses of any player were therefore
ineligible. Interpretation of the rules had never been of any serious
moment to Ken. He had never p
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