Being a hero is a trying business, as Hugh soon discovered. Naturally somewhat retiring, he disliked the sudden publicity that enveloped him, and, being modest, he felt uncomfortable under the praise bestowed on him. Fellows took, he thought, a ridiculous amount of pains to go out of their way to shake his hand or even slap him familiarly on the shoulder and tell him what a wonder he was. He knew very well that he wasn’t a wonder and he didn’t like being called one. He belonged, in part at least, to a people who abhor being conspicuous and who view askance anything savoring of hysteria, and, in spite of his American experiences, he had not lost those feelings. No, on the whole the succeeding week was not a very comfortable one for Hugh. He hoped that after a day or two the school would cease its “bally nonsense,” but he was reckoning without the fact that it was wrought up to a fine state of tension and that the tension increased every hour as the Mount Morris game approached. Consequently the “bally nonsense” continued and Hobo Ordway was never allowed to get out of the lime-light for a minute. But what troubled Hugh far more than fame and its consequences was Bert’s attitude. After the Southlake game no one, and surely not Bert, doubted for an instant that Hugh had won his position. Another fellow might have swallowed the lump in his throat and smiled, or, being resentful, might have hidden the fact. But not so Bert. He made no secret to Hugh or anyone else that he thought he had been badly treated. Or perhaps, which is more likely, he pretended to think so. At all events, life in Number 29 was difficult and increasingly unpleasant. Bert seldom spoke unless addressed by Hugh and then answered coldly and sneeringly. By the middle of the next week Hugh kept away from the study as much as he could and gave up trying to bridge the chasm. On one occasion, driven out of his usual patience by a surly response, he got thoroughly angry and wanted to fight on the spot. Bert, though, refused to afford him that much satisfaction, telling him sarcastically that if he (Hugh) got hurt and couldn’t play they’d surely lose the game! Nick and Pop each told Bert that he was making an utter ass of himself, but beyond such satisfaction as they got from airing their opinion, nothing came of it.