“Play your very best. Do not put Roberta into bad pinches——”
“But the captain of the East High team sees our weak point, and forces the play that way,” complained Jess Morse.
“Of course she does. And you would do the same were you in her place,” said Mrs. Case, with a smile. “But above all, if you can’t win gracefully, do lose gracefully! Be sportsmanlike. Cheer the winners. Now, the whistle will sound in a moment,” and the instructor hurried away to speak to the referee.
“Oh, dear me!” groaned Roberta. “My heart’s in my mouth.”
“Then it isn’t where Sissy Lowe, one of the freshies, said it was in physiology class yesterday,” chuckled Bobby Hargrew.
“How was that, Bobby?” queried Jess.
“Sissy was asked where the heart was situated—what part of the body—and she says:
“‘Pleathe, Mith Gould, ith in the north thentral part!’ Can you beat those infants?” added Bobby as the girls laughed.
But they were in no mood for laughter when they trotted out upon the basketball court at the sound of the referee’s whistle. They took their places in silence, and the roars of the Central High boys, with their prolonged “Ziz—z—z—z——Boom!” did not sound as encouraging as it had at the beginning of the first half.
Basketball is perhaps the most transparent medium for revealing certain angles of character in young girls. At first the players seldom have anything more than a vague idea of the proper manner of throwing a ball, or the direction in which it is to be thrown.