“Pocock, eh?” said Mr. Belding. “Hebron Pocock is the name of the person who applied to the Board of Education for the job of watchman at the girls’ gymnasium. I believe he gave Henry Grimes as reference. But I think we shall keep Jackway. He’s a faithful soul and, whoever got into the gym. and did that damage, I am convinced that it was not Jackway’s fault.”
“No; it wasn’t Jackway’s fault,” muttered Chet to Laura. “But I guess we could find the person at fault pretty easily, eh?”
[CHAPTER XIX—AT LUMBERPORT]
The girls of Central High were not neglecting other athletic work through their interest in basketball; but just as the boys were giving most of their spare time to football, so their sisters, during the fall weather, were mainly interested in their own game.
As a whole, the girls’ classes of Central High were given practice at the game at least twice a week; and of course the representative team, to which our particular friends belonged, was on the court almost daily. There were games between the less advanced teams, too, which brought the parents of the girls to the athletic field; and as the season advanced the courts were marked out in the large upper room of the gymnasium building, so that the game could be played under cover on stormy days.
With the handicap against it at the beginning, of having been roughly played in the city clubs, and the record of several girls having been hurt who played without the oversight of a proper instructor, the game gradually grew in favor at Central High until even such old-fashioned folk as Mrs. Belding spoke approvingly of the exercise.
The girls themselves, even the “squabs” and “broilers,” as Bobby Hargrew called the freshmen and sophomores, were more and more enthusiastic over basketball as the days passed. Although their champion team was being beaten or tied in the trophy inter-school series, they went to see each game, from week to week, and cheered the Central High team with unflagging loyalty.
The very next week Laura’s team went to Lumberport, a small steamboat being chartered. It was filled with Central High girls and their friends, and they went over to the game, intending to have a collation aboard after the game and return down the lake by moonlight.
“Whether you girls beat the Lumberport girls, or not,” chuckled Chet, “we’re bound to have a fine time. But I do hope you’ll lead your team to victory at least once this season, Laura. It looks as if you girls couldn’t beat an addled egg!”
“Nor anybody else, Mr. Smartie!” snapped Jess Morse. “You don’t know much about eggs, I guess.”