o put
you in as substitute, no matter what position had to be filled."

Nick caught his breath. His face flushed, and a glow appeared in his
eyes. That expression of confidence shown in Hugh's words filled his
aching heart with new encouragement. Hugh could see the muscles of
his cheeks working, as though he found it difficult to control his
emotions. Then Nick spoke.

"That was mighty kind in you, Hugh, to think of me," he said, with
just a suspicious quiver to his voice. "I'd sure liked to have
played in that game; but do you think it'd have been wise to have
picked _me_ for a substitute when there were plenty of other fellows
on the ice competent to take the place?"

"Not one able to fill your shoes, Nick, and they know it," asserted
Hugh stoutly.

"But then if you'd done that there'd sure have been a howl raised
later on by lots of folks who still have it in for me because of the
past," urged Nick, though it could be easily seen that he felt
particularly pleased by what the captain of the Scranton High Seven
had just told him.

"Let them howl," Hugh went on to say. "There never yet was a fellow
who nobly redeemed his past but what a bunch of wolves set up a howl
on his heels. Don't you pay any attention to those fellows, Nick.
Stick to your game through thick and thin. Every day you go on as
you have been doing you win fresh friends. Even Mr. Leonard, who
used to fairly detest you, is now singing your praises; and Dr.
Carmack told me he was pinning his faith on you. He's a long-headed
man, Nick, a very far-seeing man, who knows boys and is not easily
deceived. He believes in you; so do I, and a lot of other fellows.
You're going to make good, and I know it."

"Well, I'm going to keep on fighting, that's all I can say, Hugh,"
replied Nick grimly. "I'll get there, or bust the biler trying. But
sometimes I have an awful time with myself, just because I can't
wholly believe folks will respect a chap who's done as many mean
things as I have in the past."

"You must put that out of your mind, Nick," urged the other. "Why,
don't you think I'd have ten times as much respect for the fellow
who's been down, and climbs up again through his own will-power, than
for the one who's always been shielded from temptation, and never
really proved what he had in him? Nine-tenths of the fellows who
walk along so straight are kept on that road because they happen to
have wise parents to watch over them; and they