"Oh, I'm so excited I can't sit here another second!" said Jean. "Let's stand up a little while; my foot's asleep, I've kept it so long in one position. I'd like to walk a little, but there's such a crowd I never can get through it."
"Better not try, Jean," said Ruth, "there isn't time, anyway, and it's fine to watch the crowd. Wasn't that splendid for Phil Woodworth? After all, it does count to be a substitute. Her room-mate, Grace Littlefield, told me just to-day that when the regular team was chosen and Phil didn't make it she was so disappointed that she declared she'd never play basket-ball again, and it took a lot of coaxing on the part of the girls to get her to promise she'd be sub. Why, I'd give everything I possess in the world to be down there playing, even as one of the subs! Poor Anne! How do you suppose she feels?"
"Pretty sore, Ruth, and of course awfully disappointed, but she'll get her numerals all right, won't she? She certainly deserves them," said Mary Boyce.
"Oh, girls, look!" said Jean. "There's Miss Emerson and Miss Thurston going over to speak to Anne. My! isn't that an honor! Think of Miss Thurston condescending to console an insignificant freshman! Actually, she is the coldest, most unsympathetic individual I ever ran up against."
"Yes," said Elizabeth, "and she's just in the act of giving her some flowers one of her fond admirers sent her, and Miss Emerson is sharing her carnations, too. Doesn't she look dear in that new gray dress? I think she's the sweetest college president that ever lived, and I wish I could do something to have her give me even one little carnation, to say nothing of a whole bunch of them. Doesn't a game like this just make you want to do things for old Ashton? I'll be a loyal supporter even if I can do nothing more."
"Oh, you'll do something, my fair Elizabeth," said Jean, "and before very long, too. How much more time is there? I wish they'd begin. I want somebody to do something. I hate a tie score."
"Here come the girls," said Mary, as the girls took their positions and the whistle sounded; "now for some good fast playing."
With the changing of the goals, the tactics of the sophomore team seemed to change, and their superior weight and greater experience began to break down the freshman defense. They had quickly scored two goals to the freshmen's one and added another point, when an excited freshman, through too strenuous holding, committed a foul.
"Why don't they play more carefully?" said Jean. "They're just throwing the game away." And as if to add strength to her remark, the referee at that moment declared another foul and another point was added to the sophomore total. "Oh, I don't want to see the rest of the game," wailed Jean. "I can't see the sophs beat us so badly. Why can't our girls do something?"