"Anne has a new accomplishment," said Grace. "She can spout poetry without trying."
"Small credit is due me," said Anne, smiling. "Anyone can twist 'Annabel Lee' to suit the occasion."
"By the way, Anne," said Grace, "as you are a poet, you must compose a basketball song to-day, and I'll see that the juniors all have copies. It's time we had one. Let me see what would be a good tune?"
"'Rally Round the Flag,'" suggested Miriam Nesbit. "That has a dandy swing to it."
Grace hummed a few bars.
"The very thing," she exclaimed. "Now, Anne, get busy at once. You'd better sing the tune to yourself all the time you're writing it, then you'll be sure to put more dash and spirit into it."
"I wish the day of the game were here," said Jessica plaintively. "I have been practising a most encouraging howl. Hippy, David and Reddy have a new one, too. Reddy says it's 'marvelously extraordinary and appallingly great.'"
"I can imagine it to be all that and more if Hippy had anything to do with its origin," said Nora.
"Wasn't it nice of Miss Thompson to exonerate us publicly?" asked Anne.
"She is always just," replied Grace. "I can't understand how Eleanor could be so rude and disagreeable to her. She has disliked Miss Thompson from the first."