In the first year at High School the boys, being mere freshmen, could
not expect to enter any of the school's athletic teams. Yet,
as our readers know, Dick and his friends found many a quiet way
to boost local interest and pride in High School athletics. Dick
& Co. also indulged in many merry and startlingly novel pranks.
Dick secured an amateur position as space reporter on "The Blade,"
the morning newspaper of the little city, and was assigned, among
other things, to look after the news end of the transactions of
the Board of Education. The "influence" that young Prescott secured
in that way doubtless saved him from having grave trouble, or
being expelled when, owing to Dr. Thornton's ill-health, Abner
Cantwell, a man with an uncontrollable temper, came temporarily
to the principal's chair. To everybody's great delight, at the
beginning of this their senior year, Dr. Thornton had returned
to his position fully restored to his former vigor and health.

In "_The High School Pitcher_" Dick & Co., then sophomores, were
shown in some fine work with the Gridley High School nine, and
Dick had serious, even dangerous, Trouble, with mean, treacherous
enemies that he made.

In "_The High School Left End_," Dick & Co., juniors, made their
real entrance into High School athletics by securing places in
the school football eleven. It was in this year that there occurred
the famous strife between the "soreheads" and their enemies, whom
the former termed the "muckers." The "soreheads" were the sons
of certain aristocratic families who resolved to secede from football
in case any of the members of Dick & Co. or of other poor Gridley
families, were allowed to make places on the team. As the group