Then it was that Ditson conceived a plot to bring Merriwell into ridicule and at the same time to get in with the enemies of the freshmen--the sophomores--himself.
At last he had learned that at Yale a man is not judged so much by the money he spends and the wealth of his parents as by his own manly qualities.
But Ditson was a sneak by nature, and he could not get over it.

If he started out to accomplish anything in a square way, he was likely to fancy that it could be done with less trouble in a crooked manner, and his natural instinct would switch him off from the course he should have followed.
He was not at all fond of Walter Gordon, but he liked him better than he did Merriwell, and it was gall and wormwood for him when he heard how Merriwell had replaced Gordon in the box at Cambridge and had pitched a marvelous game for three innings.
"Oh, it's just that fellow's luck!" Roll muttered to himself.

"He seems to be lucky in everything he does.

The next thing I'll hear is that he is going to pitch on the 'Varsity team." He little thought that this was true, but it proved to be.

That very day he heard some sophomores talking on the campus, and he lingered near enough to catch their words.
"Is it actually true, Parker, that Pierson has publicly stated that Merriwell is fast enough for the Varsity nine ?" asked Tad Horner.
"That's what it is," nodded Puss Parker, "and I don't know but Pierson is right.