Hugh was summoned to the office Thursday and listened to a brief homily by Mr. Rumford. When he emerged he was once more in good standing. Since, however, it was by that time almost five o’clock, it was too late to report to Mr. Crowley that day, and Hugh dropped in on Wallace Cathcart and spent the rest of the time until supper arguing whether a college education was essential to success in life. While Hugh could beat his host at tennis, and had done it twice since their first meeting, he was no match for him in the present controversy, and Cathcart won the debate easily, proving conclusively that a high school education was all that was required by the average person. And this in the face of the fact that Cathcart had his plans all laid for a full college course and two years of graduate study! Hugh reported to Mr. Crowley the next afternoon dressed for play. The second team coach viewed him with an unflattering lack of enthusiasm. “Are you square with the office?” he asked. Hugh assured him that he was. Mr. Crowley glanced doubtfully about the field and then grunted. “All right. Get in there and catch some of those punts.” That was all. Evidently, Hugh reflected, his advent was not a matter of as much importance to Mr. Crowley as it was to him. His appearance with the squad aroused not a little surprise among his team-mates. In one or two cases, he thought, it aroused resentment as well. He knew few of the fellows save by sight. Neil Ayer, the first-choice quarter-back, was a speaking acquaintance, and so, to a lesser extent, was Hauser, who played left half. But the rest were practically strangers to him. He was relieved to find that his enforced idleness had not cost him what skill he had acquired, and he couldn’t see but that he caught, threw and handled the pigskin generally as well as half the fellows in the squad. Mr. Crowley made him known to Captain Myatt later, and Myatt, who was a big, likable chap, won Hugh’s instant affection by being very nice to him. One would have thought from Myatt’s words that Hugh was doing him the biggest sort of a favor by joining the squad. Hugh didn’t get into signal work, for he didn’t know the code, but he trudged along behind and listened and watched and picked up a good deal of useful knowledge that afternoon. Later, when the second took the field to play two ten-minute periods with the first, Hugh and three others were sent off out of the way with a football and put in the time punting and catching. At supper time, armed with his napkin-ring and a bottle of marmalade, his private property, he joined the training table in Manning.