No doubt some fellow from Jefferson had already been looking the Lowell team over in action or would be around soon, but of course there was no way to prevent this, and besides there was no reason why it shouldn’t be done. The rivalry between the two schools was of the keenest, in every way. On the whole the boys decided that if the team kept on as they had been--working together like a machine--and if they could avoid a slump, they would have just as good a chance to win as the other fellows, and perhaps a little better. They were the champions and had been for years; and this would give them a slight advantage. So they worked a little harder in practice, trying to perfect themselves more and more in their signal and other inside work, and every man on the team pledged himself again and again to Hughie to try a little more earnestly than he had before, if that were possible, for the honor and glory of the university. And this helped them to keep from getting nervous when they thought of these reports of Church’s team at Jefferson. CHAPTER XV THE “LOWELL REPORTER” The _Lowell Reporter_ was the college paper of the University. It appeared once a week and in it was printed all the news of the college world, and announcements of various kinds. The advertising columns furnished an opportunity for a couple of young hustlers to earn enough money soliciting advertisements to keep them in school. The paper was edited entirely by the students under the watchful eye of the faculty and especially of Professor Bennett, assistant teacher of English and of many years’ experience as a newspaper writer and editor. He also had under his direct supervision a small class in journalism, a department which had but recently been founded. The University let the students’ committee publish the paper themselves, i. e., to get it ready and then just before being printed, Professor Bennett would go over the copy in order to be sure that nothing contrary to the policy of the University was published and once in a while to curb the enthusiasm of this or that writer, when he allowed his imagination to prepare any article that was not in keeping with the dignity of the institution. Timothy Murnin, a young Irish lad of American parentage, was one of the two fellows who kept themselves in college by hustling for advertisements for the _Reporter_. Timothy’s one ambition was to be the owner and editor of a big city newspaper, and his job of hustling for advertisements was the best start he could have made in that direction if he only knew it.