Joe could not help contrasting his present reception with that he had received when he first broke into the professional ranks. Then he was just a “busher,” a “rookie,” a nobody who had his reputation yet to win. The “old hands” had looked on him patronizingly or contemptuously and flocked by themselves. He had been made to feel that he was outside the pale, and some of the meaner spirits, fearing that he might supplant them later on, had done everything in their power to keep him down. Only a young fellow in his “first season” can know how utterly friendless and forlorn he is sometimes made to feel.