Meantime Wolcott, having given up the society of Marchmont, was seeing more of others whom in his intimacy with the polished New Yorker he had neglected. There was no one of these whom he liked better to visit than Poole, partly because of the attractive personality of Poole himself, partly because of the pleasant company who habitually gathered in his study. Planter and Ware he often met there, while Durand, Morgan, Tompkins, Richardson of the _Seatonian_ board, and Saybrook who drew the funny caricatures, also belonged to the set. Laughlin was made welcome as often as his many occupations would permit. With his different experience of life and greater seriousness, he was not an adept at the gay banter current among care-free fellows to whom the pleasant things of life came without effort. His presence, however, was never a damper on the merriment, while in the discussion of graver matters his opinion always carried weight. With Wolcott he talked chiefly about football, with the result that the interest and ambition of the new boy were constantly growing. It was on the last evening before the school recess that Wolcott was publicly committed to the captain’s projects. A group of kindred spirits had gathered in Poole’s room, talking athletics as vigorously as if the subject had not been fundamentally discussed a hundred times before. “The outlook is certainly bad,” Planter was saying. “The football is gone, and while we don’t want to think that we are going to lose the baseball too, the chances are certainly against us, and we haven’t any great show for track. If Dickinson and Todd and all those fellows could only tie Hillbury last year, I don’t see what we can expect with a green team. This looks like a mighty bad year for us, doesn’t it?” “You oughtn’t to talk to a member of the nine about the nine’s losing,” Laughlin remarked with a jerk of his head toward Poole. “That’s not the spirit to begin the season with.” “I suppose, then, if any one asks about your next football season, you’ll say you’re going to win,” retorted Planter. “I certainly shall,” replied Laughlin. “There’s going to be no expectation of defeat on my team. We mean to win if it’s possible.” “So do we,” said Poole. “What about that man Strong? Isn’t he going to do something in the sports?” asked Wolcott. “He has run the hundred in ten and a fifth, according to Roberts. That’s fast enough to win ’most anything,” said Durand. “Some one said he was on probation for not keeping up with his work,” added Poole. “Then I don’t believe he’s much of a runner,” commented Laughlin. “These fellows who haven’t sand enough to do passable work, haven’t sand enough to run a hard race.” “That doesn’t always hold true,” Planter protested. “Curtis was no scholar at all, and yet on the gridiron he’d hustle to beat the band.”