4 ACORN teammates, but they settled down and played gilt edge ball, and prevented further scoring. It was now up to him in the ninth inning, and a man on third to bring in the winning run. So with one strike called on him, he swung hard at the next ball pitched. There was a crack as the bat met the ball fairly and Tom went speeding down the line toward first base. He had hit a sizzling-liner toward shortstop, but Gus, ever on the alert to make a grandstand play, leaped high in the air and to the right, speared the ball with one hand, and turning quickly, threw to third base. The runner there was caught off the base several feet, and the game was over 1 to 0 in favor of Briggs. Gus was carried off the field by the enthusiastic rooters from his school, but Tom walked slowly to the clubhouse alone. He knew it was his error that had lost the game, and though his teammates said nothing, he felt that they blamed him for telling the umpire he had dropped the ball. As he sat there with his team, dressing in almost silence, the door noisily opened, and Gus burst in. "Congratulate me fellows," he cried, "I've just been given the prize scholarship. Pretty good, eh? Well, brother mine, don't you wish you had gone to Briggs and learned to be a real ball player?" "I congratulate you, Gus," Tom said simply; "but of course I wish we had won.". "Sure you do," answered his brother. "You see now that you made a 'bone-head' play when you told the 'Umps' that you dropped the ball." "No," interrupated Tom firmly; "I have no regrets at all on that score, for a game that isn't won fairly, isn't won at all." "Quite right," spoke up a tall, broad-shouldered stranger who had entered unobserved during the conversation;" and a team that wins by one run made on an error hasn't much to crow about." Then turning to Tom, he held out his hand. "I am Coach Mack of Billings," he said; "and I'm glad to meet you. I have here three scholarships, given me by the college to secure promising material for my next year's teams. I want to offer you one of them, as men who stand for clean, fair playing are the kind I want. Will you accept?" "Will I?" cried Tom. "Boys! Gus" But Gus had turned away. A bitter feeling of envy had entered his heart at the praise given his younger brother, and he could not shake his hand nor join in the good wishes which were being showered on him by his schoolmates. "SAGE." (To be Continued.) ACORN 5 To Weber's Girls of '14 Well, Girls, I'd like to talk to you Just as I'd talk to others; A good old-fashioned friendly chat As sisters talk to brothers. I'm not your teacher now you know, That pain kind fate has spared you, And I can write of many things Your Profs" have never dared to. Do you recall those days of grief With Milton, Burns, and Browning, And Shakespeare's plays and Dean Swift's prose Till you thought that you were drowning? And then the papers that you wrote On topics I assigned you, How Pope misjudged your own fair sex And Swift himself maligned you. And don't forget those dear old Greeks, Our friends from remote ages, Themistocles, and Socrates And other famous sages. Oh, well, my girls, I'm sure, for me, Those days were very pleasant; The dryest facts were made alive When the '14 girls were present. Do you recall that last day's lunch And the letters that you wrote me? Well, girls, they proved a source of strength When trials later smote me. If I have done a worthy deed Within my humble station, Such noble friends as you girls are Have been my aspiration. Your purity is like the snow, Your beauty like the flowers, Your influence warms and thrills the soul "Like sunshine after showers." LE ROY E. COWLES