THE HOCKEY MATCH
Three weeks had passed by, and the girls were making preparations to
return to their homes for the Thanksgiving holidays. The whole school,
however, looked forward to the big hockey match with Miss Martin’s
Seminary which was to be held the last Saturday before vacation. After
the game there was to be a reception to the teams and to the visitors
from the other school.
Ruth regretted that she had not gone out for athletics from the first;
it was too late now to try to make any position on the hockey team.
Now that class affairs had quieted down, and there was no longer a
possibility of being chosen for the sorority, she was forced to lose
her place in the foreground of the school affairs, a situation entirely
distasteful to such an ambitious girl as Ruth. She turned the matter
over and over in her mind, but she did not see what she could do to
alter her position. She had been too proud to write much about her
personal feelings to her mother; she preferred to try to work out the
problem by herself.
Nor had Marjorie’s expectations been realized; she was not so happy
after she was pledged to the sorority as she had hoped to be. She lived
in too much of a rush; she seemed to race from hockey-practices to teas
and cocoa-parties, and to be obliged to stay up late at night to finish
her lessons. This, of course, was not allowed--the lights were turned
off at ten o’clock--but she lighted three or four candles and put a
raised umbrella between Lily’s cot and the light, and “crammed.” But
all her lessons, and especially her Latin, suffered.
She had been chosen for one of the forwards on the school hockey team.
Lily, strange to say, had been appointed substitute full-back, a
position usually taken by girls of the heavier type. She had resolutely
kept her word, and had gone in training ever since she had made her
promise to Marjorie; and because full-backs were scarce, and Lily did
fairly well, and much to her surprise, she had been chosen. She had no
idea of playing in the game with Miss Martin’s, but Miss Phillips had
told her to come out dressed for action, in case she should be needed.
Most of the other members of the team were upper classmen, and a few of
them sorority members. On one occasion, during practice, Miss Phillips
showed herself particularly cross with the sorority girls, for a round
of parties had left them tired out, and with little energy for practice.
“I wish we could abolish that sorority!” she remarked to Miss Landis
after the practice. “Marjorie Wilkinson isn’t the girl she was before
she was asked. She hasn’t much time for athletics. I don’t believe
she’ll even go out for the swimming team.”
“I certainly agree with you about the sorority,” replied Miss Landis.
“The freshmen couldn’t settle down to work on their lessons till after
the first six weeks of excitement were over, and then it was too late.
I wish there could be some sort of standard mark a girl had to make and
_keep_, to belong to the society.”
“It would be a good plan, but it’s too late to introduce changes now.
The thing will go on forever as it is because it can only be changed by
a majority vote from within, or by the agreement of the whole Board.
And neither of these will ever give in.”
“Lily Andrews certainly has improved, hasn’t she?” remarked Miss
Landis. “Compare the change in her with that in Marjorie! Why, that
would be the strongest argument anybody could make against sororities!”
The Saturday before the Thanksgiving holidays arrived, bright, clear,
and cold. Lily was up early.
“Come on, Marj!” she cried, “wake up! It’s the day of the game.”
“I’m so sleepy!” pleaded Marjorie; “let me sleep ten minutes more.”
“But you’ll be late for breakfast----”
“I don’t care----”
After five minutes, Lily made another attack. The other girl roused
herself slowly, and rubbed her eyes. “Oh, why did I go to that
cocoa-party last night at Mae’s? I know I’ll play a bum game!”
“I hope not,” said Lily pleasantly. “But you ought to follow the advice
you are always giving me. You’re a regular member of the team, and I’m
only a substitute. Oh, don’t you hope we beat? I know a girl who goes
to Miss Martin’s, and I’d feel so badly if her school beat us.”
“I guess we’ll win,” said Marjorie calmly. “Our team’s pretty good.”
When afternoon came the regular team and the substitutes met in Miss
Phillips’s office for some final coaching. The girls themselves were
confident of success, but the teacher was doubtful.
The benches down on the field were already filled with girls in
bright-colored sweaters and fur coats and caps. Miss Martin’s girls
arrived,--not only the team, but the whole school--and announced
themselves with a rousing yell for “Miss Allen’s.” Miss Phillips
brought her team down to the field, and the opponents were introduced.
The substitutes sat on a special bench reserved for them.
The whistle blew, and the game began. At first it was hotly contested;
for several minutes the ball stayed near the center of the field. At
the end of five minutes, Miss Martin’s girls got control of it, sent it
through the half-back, on past the full-back into the goal. There was a
great shout from the audience.
The remainder of the half passed without either side’s scoring.
When Miss Phillips blew the whistle for “time,” the girls stopped,
exhausted. And Mildred Warren, the full-back for whom Lily was to
substitute, announced that she was played out.
“I couldn’t play the next half,” she said, “if my life depended upon
it.”
So Miss Phillips called Lily to take her place.
As the girls grouped around her for final instructions, the teacher
showed by her voice that she was vexed. “You’re not getting into it,
girls! Marjorie Wilkinson, you act as if you were half asleep,--and
Margaret and Elsie,” she said, addressing two of the half-backs, “you
never should have let that ball slip through. Now brace up, and win
this half!”
The game started; but with little more promise of success. Finally
Marjorie got the ball and started down the field. But she was attacked
by the opposing forward, who sent the ball flying past Marjorie and
past the half-back. But Lily Andrews was on the alert; with all her
might she hit the ball and sent it back to her forwards. Everyone
clapped.
“A yell for Lily Andrews!” called the cheerleader; and a hearty one was
given.
But the forward who was playing against Marjorie on the opposing team
was not to be easily daunted. She succeeded in getting the ball again,
and this time she aimed it towards the other side of the field from
that on which Lily was playing. She sent it past the other full-back
and into the goal! Miss Martin’s girls rose in a body and cheered and
cheered for their forward. The score was now 4-0.
A final chance was given to Miss Allen’s girls to score when one of the
opposing team made a foul, and Marjorie was chosen to make a free shot;
but either she had been keeping too late hours, or else she was too
nervous; for she missed it. The whistle blew, and the score remained
4-0.
The girls shook hands and crowded around Miss Phillips. She
congratulated Miss Martin’s girls, but said nothing to her own team. It
was plain to be seen that she was disappointed.
Marjorie and Lily walked together towards the gymnasium.
“You were splendid, Lily!” said Marjorie. “If it hadn’t been for you,
the score would have been a good deal worse than it was.”
“Thanks,” said Lily, “but that doesn’t make me feel better about the
defeat.”
“It was a lot my fault,” admitted Marjorie. “I certainly played badly.”
“You’re not so much interested in athletics now, are you?” asked Lily,
as the girls entered the door.
“Yes, I am; but I simply don’t have enough time to do anything well.
I’m always helping to get some party ready for the sorority, or talking
with the girls, or going to a meeting or a feed. I wish I could do
better, though,” she added wistfully; “I still love Miss Phillips,
and--somehow I’m not as good as I am when I feel her influence.
Wouldn’t you love to be like her when you’re a woman, Lily?”
“Yes, I would. I’m crazy about her, too. You see I know her better now.
By the way, did you know what we girls do every Friday evening while
you have sorority meeting? We go up to Miss Phillips’s room, and take
our fancy-work, and she reads to us.”
“That must be lots of fun,” said Marjorie. “What sort of books does she
read?”
“She has just finished reading us ‘Old Chester Tales’ by Margaret
Deland. It’s great, too! And one night she read us a story by O. Henry,
and I was so interested that I wrote home and asked mother to buy me
the book. She usually reads a poem or two besides, that she thinks we
would like.”
Marjorie thought of the profitless way in which the evenings of
sorority meetings were spent, and sighed; but she said nothing.
That evening the freshmen pledged became regular members and were
awarded the little blue-and-gold sorority pin, to wear home
Thanksgiving.