"She's up to Nettie!"
"No—Nettie is spurting, and gaining fast!"
"Janie must push on!"
"Hurrah! Nettie has dropped an apple, and she'll have to stop, and pick it up."
"Janie is ahead of everyone!"
"If she wins, it will be a triumph for the orange ribbon!"
Thus the girls, with continuous anxiety, followed the events of the race, all unknowing that Janie was playing for a far higher stake than they realized, and that on the result of that race hung, not only the honour of St. Chad's, but the future of a human soul, capable of infinitely so much more than it had yet achieved.
"They're all putting on steam! Oh, look! Alice Marsh is almost even!"
"And so is Christina!"
"And Connie Peters has gained what she lost at first!"