"Thank you," said Jane simply. Judith was tugging at her sleeve and Drusilla dragging at the other arm.
"Oh, come on. The seniors have a spread for us. Such real coffee and sandwiches. Isn't that splendid?" asked Judith, smacking her lips. "But not half as good as our victory at that. Jane, aren't you too proud to walk? Shan't we carry you?"
"Yes, let's!" roared the surrounding girls, and in spite of protests and appeals, Jane was raised to shoulders, then quickly carried to the far end of the gym where the spread was "cast."
It was a good-natured crowd that surrounded the improvised tables, and even the losers took their defeat in the proper spirit, all but Marian and Dolorez. They had left the gym.
"What was the matter with that old basket?" asked the good-natured Tony Dexter. "I was waiting all afternoon for a chance to sub, and just when I got it, 'whoop' in went the ball into the net."
"Yes, and when I all but tucked it in its little bed, it tumbled out," sighed Ted Guthrie comically.
"Anyway, I had two bounces and one dribble, that makes a nice little record for my home report. I love to say I dribbled, sounds so cute and baby like. Makes mama think I am cutting my eye teeth," supplemented the big, clumsy Drusilla Landers, who was so big it was a joke for her to talk of baby and teeth.
"Eat, children! Eat! For to-morrow we starve," commanded Constance Lipton, a grad. "Jane, here is a sandwich made expressly for Center. See its pretty curve?"
"Oh, it tastes good all around too," added Jane, munching the tid-bit all around, making a circle to outline center. "I love them this way."
"That's just always the way it is," wailed little Clare Bradley. "When a girl gets popular she receives all the honors. Jane Allen is over-subscribed--that is what Daddy calls it in the Liberty Loans."