They ran for cover, and the broad branching limbs of the huge cedar Eve had selected faithfully covered them as the brief spring shower went drumming by.
Meanwhile Laura was saying, more thoughtfully:
“We’ve got to give our best attention to the inter-class and inter-school athletics when school opens again, girls, if we want Central High to stand first at the end of the year. You know we are being beaten right along by the East High and Keyport Just think! Central High only Number 3 in points that count when the June field day comes. We can’t stand for that, can we?”
“I should say not!” cried Bobby. “But we beat ’em last year on the water.”
“And we stand first in basketball,” added Dora Lockwood.
“But the fact remains we haven’t got the championship of the League cinched by any manner of means,” returned Laura. “Eve is going to win, I believe, in the shot-putting contests. Mrs. Case says that is on the doubtful list of girls’ athletics. But throwing weights isn’t going to hurt Eve, or Hester Grimes, that’s sure. And look at that girl at Vassar! She put the shot thirty-two feet and three-quarters of an inch when she was only sixteen. Eve can do almost as well.”
“I don’t know about that, Mother Wit,” said the big girl, laughing. “But I’ll do my best.”
“And your best will beat them all, I believe.”
“She’ll beat Magdeline Spink, of Lumberport, I know,” cried Bobby. “And she did all the big ‘throws’ last year—baseball, basketball, putting the shot, and all of ’em.”
“I hope you are right, Bobby,” returned the country girl, smiling. She was proud of her strength and physique. Her outdoor life since she was a little child, and what she had inherited from a long line of peasant ancestors was coming into play now for the benefit of Central High’s athletic score.