The hope of improvement which Ray had expressed became confirmed in me the moment I saw Percy step out on the diamond Monday noon. He had received his notification during the morning, and came down to the grounds with a smiling face and an air of pride. It had certainly paid us to encourage him, for the way he took hold of balls, and the dash and vim with which he played, convinced me that we had nothing to fear from that quarter. As I watched him, I could only wonder that we had not seen the stuff that was in him before. As we anticipated, too, his spirit was contagious, and all the fellows played with a dash that was remarkable for a team who had just returned from a humiliating defeat. “Gee whiz!” exclaimed Tony Larcom, as he stood beside me while I was batting the ball to the various basemen. “Percy Randall is a regular tonic. If the fellows will keep in this form they can beat the earth. Good boy, Percy! That was a dandy,” he added, as our new third baseman made a dive towards short stop and captured a hard ground hit with one hand. I nodded in approbation to Ray, who wore a smile of confidence as he stood watching this play from second base. At the close of our practice, Ray, Tony, and I walked back to the college together. “Keep it up, boys,” said Tony, “and we will see that Crimson Banner yet.” “Yes,” answered Ray, with a laugh, “I can see it Wednesday when I go over to Berkeley. It doesn’t cost anything to see it, but I fancy we may be able to capture it, too, if we can keep on in the way we have begun to-day. We are still a little unaccustomed to the change, but I think we will soon get used to it. The only thing I could wish for is more time to practice. Our game with Park College comes off next Saturday. That is just a week too soon for me. If we could have six days’ more practice, I shouldn’t be afraid to tackle the best college nine in the country.” “Oh, it’s all right as it is,” answered Tony. “We’ll be in good condition by Saturday, don’t you fear.” “I can tell better about our prospects after I see Wednesday’s game,” said Ray. “At any rate we will practice twice a day until Thursday, so we ought to be in good trim. Don’t forget to be on hand at five o’clock this afternoon,” he added as I left him. It was a pleasant experience to Ray and myself to be walking freely upon the campus again and attending our lectures. We had neither of us lost ground, but were enabled to resume our places without suffering any disadvantage from our period of suspension. This was of course due entirely to the care with which we had attended to our studies while lodging in town; and the knowledge of this did much to conciliate Dr. Drayton, who greeted us both kindly, and even unbent so far as to express his sympathy with us in our defeat――or to put it in his highly dignified way, he “regretted that our efforts in the baseball field had not been so far attended with success.”