"Go on," said Jimmy; "I am not interested," and the boys left him to his
"beloved" books.

Jimmy Torrance worked hard, and by dint of long hours and hard-working
tutors he finished his college course and won his diploma. Nor did he
have to forego the crowning honors of his last baseball season,
although, like Ulysses S. Grant, he would have graduated at the head of
his class had the list been turned upside down.




CHAPTER II.

JIMMY WILL ACCEPT A POSITION.

Following his graduation he went to New York to visit with one of his
classmates for a short time before returning home. He was a very
self-satisfied Jimmy, nor who can wonder, since almost from his
matriculation there had been constantly dinned into his ears the
plaudits of his fellow students. Jimmy Torrance had been the one big
outstanding feature of each succeeding class from his freshman to his
senior year, and as a junior and senior he had been the acknowledged
leader of the student body and as popular a man as the university had
ever known.

To his fellows, as well as to himself, he had been a great success--the
success of the university--and he and they saw in the future only
continued success in whatever vocation he decided to honor with his
presence. It was in a mental attitude that had become almost habitual