“Walter, did you ever see a fireman shoveling coal under the boiler of a locomotive?” “Occasionally,” laughed Walter. “What do you suppose he does it for?” “Oh, for about sixty or seventy dollars a month.” “Well, even if that is so, why does the company pay him that to do that work?” “To heat up the boiler and get up steam.” “Precisely. He doesn’t shovel that coal to get more coal or because he expects to use that coal again, does he?” “What are you driving at anyway?” “I may be all wrong, but my idea is something like this――just as a fireman shovels the coal, not to get more coal but to get steam, so I think the work here is not to get things we’ll use again, but to get or do things that will give us――――” “Steam?” broke in Walter with a laugh. “Yes, sir! That’s it exactly. I’ve a funny idea that when a fellow shirks or dodges his work he’s really the fellow to suffer. He doesn’t cheat the teacher half so much as he cheats himself. He’s just subtracting that much power from himself, that’s all.” “Dan, you’re a funny chap.” “I know it, but I don’t believe I’m half so ‘funny’ as the fellow is who throws away such chances as he has here in the Tait School.” “I shouldn’t be surprised if you were right. I wish I were like you, Dan. It’s easy for some fellows. But then you’ve got everything to get and I’ve got everything without any getting. My pater has more money than he knows what to do with; he’s got a big business and I’ll have a share in that by and by――――” “If you’re strong enough and able to hold it,” broke in Dan. “I’m not afraid of that. I’ll give you a job some day, maybe, but I know it would please the old folks at home if I should take hold; I’m half inclined to try it.” Perhaps the fact that Walter was only “half” inclined was the explanation of the fact that his good resolution lasted only a few weeks. For a time he did try, but his will was weak and he was so far behind in his studies that the work was doubly hard. In the end he relapsed into his old ways and spent more and more time with Gus Kiggins, while the renewed good-fellowship between the two roommates, which to Dan’s delight had been in evidence, was soon broken. Walter became more irritable and his feeling for Dan apparently was one of increasing dislike. But the days of the winter term passed rapidly and when spring arrived the prospects of the nine and the position it would secure in the new league became the absorbing matter of interest. Dan did his utmost to avoid meeting Gus Kiggins and was rejoiced as the days passed to find that apparently the effort was mutual. The two boys seldom met except on the diamond and there was no dispute as to Dan’s right to occupy the pitcher’s box. The players, the coach, and indeed the entire school, all were agreed, and great things were expected from Dan’s work.