silence following the president's ultimatum his alert mind functioned

with the rapidity which it had often shown upon the gridiron, the

diamond, and the squared circle.

Just for a moment the thought of being deprived of the pleasure and

excitement of the coming baseball season filled his mind to the

exclusion of every other consideration, but presently a less selfish

impulse projected upon the screen of recollection the figure of the

father he idolized. The boy realized the disappointment that this man

would feel should his four years of college end thus disastrously and

without the coveted diploma.

And then it was that he raised his eyes to those of the president.

"I hope, sir," he said, "that you will give me one more chance--that you

will let me go on as I have in the past as far as baseball is concerned,

with the understanding that if at the end of each month between now and

commencement I do not show satisfactory improvement I shall not be

permitted to play on the team. But please don't make that restriction

binding yet. If I lay off the track work I believe I can make up enough

so that baseball will not interfere with my graduation."

And so Whiskers, who was much more human than the student body gave him

credit for being, and was, in the bargain, a good judge of boys, gave

Jimmy another chance on his own terms, and the university's heavyweight

champion returned to his room filled with determination to make good at

the eleventh hour.

Possibly one of the greatest obstacles which lay in Jimmy's path toward

academic honors was the fact that he possessed those qualities of

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