ON THE EVE OF BATTLE Neil was duly pronounced "fine" by the trainer, dosed by the doctor, and disregarded by the coaches.

Mills, having finally concluded that he was too risky a person for the line-up on Saturday, figuratively labeled him "declined" and passed him over to Tassel, head coach of the second eleven.

Tassel displayed no enthusiasm, for a good player gone "fine" is at best a poor acquisition, and of far less practical value than a poor player in good condition.

It made little difference to Neil what team he belonged to, for he was prohibited from playing on Wednesday, and on Thursday the last practise took place and he was in the line-up but five minutes.

On that day the students again marched to the field and practised their songs and cheers.