“They don’t look as if they’d been in any kind of training,” announced Josy sententiously, when after half an hour’s waiting at last the brake drew up, and a dozen exceedingly healthy-looking specimens of girlhood jumped down. “See that one by the driver! She’s a perfect tub!”
“But there’s that thin one with short hair; look at her!” adjured Margot critically. “She’s got eyes everywhere already, and she looks as though she’s got splendid muscle, don’t you think so?”
“Not so good as Helen’s, I bet,” said someone else coming up behind. The conversation ceased abruptly as the observers rushed round to the school-entrance to watch the arrival of the visitors more closely.
Once in the field, Josy was mortified to find that the girl she had designated as a “tub” appeared to be the most important player of all and the captain of the team; a most responsible and energetic person, of whom the rest of her team stood in the deepest awe.
The mistaken one groaned in her horror. “If that one’s the captain, and looks like that, what must the others be, for they look quite decent players! They’ll beat us to splinters, I know they will!”
“They won’t,” adjured Margot, stoutly. “Why, look at our team, and remember the days that they’ve had no pudding. I’d back our team anywhere, wouldn’t you, Gretta?”
The sudden sounding of the umpire’s whistle gave an exciting thrill to the onlookers, and the match began.
“Oh, I wish mother was here! Everyone else’s people have come!” groaned Margot. “If only I hadn’t been such an idiot as to forget to put the time!”
“And I can’t think why Stella hasn’t turned up yet,” remarked Gretta. “She said she would be sure to be here at the start, didn’t she?”
That question was answered on the instant by the appearance of Stella herself, who was seen to be advancing in a breathless rush across the field, waving her arms in a state of wild excitement.