“I don’t care——”
After five minutes, Lily made another attack. The other girl roused herself slowly, and rubbed her eyes. “Oh, why did I go to that cocoa-party last night at Mae’s? I know I’ll play a bum game!”
“I hope not,” said Lily pleasantly. “But you ought to follow the advice you are always giving me. You’re a regular member of the team, and I’m only a substitute. Oh, don’t you hope we beat? I know a girl who goes to Miss Martin’s, and I’d feel so badly if her school beat us.”
“I guess we’ll win,” said Marjorie calmly. “Our team’s pretty good.”
When afternoon came the regular team and the substitutes met in Miss Phillips’s office for some final coaching. The girls themselves were confident of success, but the teacher was doubtful.
The benches down on the field were already filled with girls in bright-colored sweaters and fur coats and caps. Miss Martin’s girls arrived,—not only the team, but the whole school—and announced themselves with a rousing yell for “Miss Allen’s.” Miss Phillips brought her team down to the field, and the opponents were introduced. The substitutes sat on a special bench reserved for them.
The whistle blew, and the game began. At first it was hotly contested; for several minutes the ball stayed near the center of the field. At the end of five minutes, Miss Martin’s girls got control of it, sent it through the half-back, on past the full-back into the goal. There was a great shout from the audience.
The remainder of the half passed without either side’s scoring. When Miss Phillips blew the whistle for “time,” the girls stopped, exhausted. And Mildred Warren, the full-back for whom Lily was to substitute, announced that she was played out.
“I couldn’t play the next half,” she said, “if my life depended upon it.”
So Miss Phillips called Lily to take her place.