squirm out of scrapes or to avoid detection altogether rather than to
irreproachable conduct that Dr. Randall looked upon him as a model student.

Basket-ball practice for both the Upper and Lower House teams took place
every week-day afternoon. Kenneth had erred, if at all, on the side of
modesty when speaking of his basket-ball ability. To be sure, he was light
in weight for a team where the members' ages averaged almost sixteen years,
but he made up for that in speed, while his prowess at shooting baskets
from the floor or from fouls was so remarkable that after a few practice
games had been played all Lower House was discussing him with eager
amazement and Upper House was sitting up and taking notice. At the end of
the first week Kenneth secured a place on the second team at right guard,
and Grafton Hyde, whose place in a similar position on the first team was
his more by reason of his size and weight than because of real ability,
began to work his hardest.

The closer Kenneth pressed him for his place the more Grafton's dislike of
the younger boy became evident. As there was the length of the floor
between their positions in the practice games the two had few opportunities
to "mix it up," but once or twice they got into a scrimmage together and on
those occasions the fur flew. Grafton was a hard, rough player and he
didn't handle Kenneth with gloves. On the other hand, Kenneth asked no
favors nor gave any. Naturally Grafton's superior size and strength gave
him the advantage, and after the second of these "mix-ups," during which
the other players and the few spectators looked on gleefully and the
referee blew his whistle until he was purple in the face, Kenneth limped
down to the dressing room with a badly bruised knee, a factor which kept
him out of the game for the next two days and caused Grafton to throw
sarcastic asides in the direction of the bench against which Kenneth's
heels beat a disconsolate tattoo.