CHAPTER II--THE KERNEL IN THE ATHLETIC NUT
CHAPTER III--JOHNNY DOYLE
CHAPTER IV--"THERE'S GOOD STUFF IN THAT GIRL"
CHAPTER V--HESTER AT HOME
CHAPTER VI--THE FIRST GAME
CHAPTER VII--THE SECOND HALF
CHAPTER VIII--THE ROUND ROBIN
CHAPTER IX--ANOTHER RAID
CHAPTER X--MOTHER WIT AND THE GRAY MARE
CHAPTER XI--HEBE POCOCK
CHAPTER XII--"OUT OF IT"
CHAPTER XIII--THE WIND VEERS
CHAPTER XIV--RACING THE FLAMES
CHAPTER XV--THE KEYPORT GAME
CHAPTER XVI--UPHILL WORK FOR THE TEAM
CHAPTER XVII--HEBE POCOCK IN TROUBLE
CHAPTER XVIII--MOTHER WIT TO THE RESCUE
CHAPTER XIX--AT LUMBERPORT
CHAPTER XX--WINNING ALL ALONG THE LINE
CHAPTER XXI--WHAT HESTER DID
CHAPTER XXII--WHAT MR. BILLSON COULD TELL
CHAPTER XXIII--CLIMBING UP
CHAPTER XXIV--HESTER WINS
CHAPTER XXV--THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED
CHAPTER I
HESTER IS MIFFED
The referee's whistle sounded sharply, and the eighteen girls of
Central High engaged in playing basketball, as well as an equal number
strung along the side lines, stopped instantly and turned their eyes
on Mrs. Case, the physical instructor.
"Hester Grimes! you are deliberately delaying the game. I have
reprimanded you twice. The third time I will take you out of the team
for the week----"
"I didn't, either!" cried the person addressed, a rather heavily built
girl for her age, with a sturdy body and long arms--well developed in a
muscular way, but without much grace. She had very high color, too,
and at the present moment her natural ruddiness was heightened by
anger.
"You are breaking another rule of the game by directly addressing the
referee," said Mrs. Case, grimly. "Are you ready to play, or shall I
take you out of the game right now?"
The red-faced girl made no audible reply, and the teacher signalled
for the ball to be put into play again. Three afternoons each week
each girl of Central High, of Centerport, who was eligible for
after-hour athletics, was exercised for from fifteen to thirty minutes
at basketball. Thirty-six girls were on the ground at a time. Every
five minutes the instructor blew her whistle, and the girls changed
places. That is, the eighteen actually playing the game shifted with
the eighteen who had been acting as umpires, judges, timekeepers,
scorers, linesmen and coaches. This shifting occupied only a few
seconds, and it put the entire thirty-six girls into the game, shift
and shift about. It was in September, the beginning of the fall term,
and Mrs. Case was giving much attention to the material for the
inter-school games, to be held later in the year.
Hester Grimes had played the previous spring on the champion team, and
held her place now at forward center. But although she had been two
years at Central High, and was now a Junior, she had never learned the
first and greatest truth that the physical instructor had tried to
teach her girls:
"_Keep your temper!_"
Since spring several of the girls playing on the first team of Central
High had left school, graduating as seniors. The work now was to whip
this team into shape, and finally Mrs. Case and the girls themselves,
voting upon the several names in their capacity as members of the
Girls' Branch Athletic League, had settled upon the following roster
of names and positions as the "make-up" of the best-playing basketball
team of Central High:
Josephine Morse, goal-keeper
Evangeline Sitz, right forward
Dora Lockwood, left forward
Hester Grimes, forward center
Laura Belding, jumping center
Lily Pendleton, back center
Dorothy Lockwood, right guard
Nellie Agnew, left guard
Bobby Hargrew, goal guard
The basketball court of Central High was located in the new Girls'
Athletic Field, not far from the school building itself, and
overlooking beautiful Lake Luna and the boathouses and rowing course.
At the opening of Central High this fall the new field and gymnasium
had first come into use.
The athletic field, gymnasium and swimming pool were the finest in the
State arranged for girls' athletics. They had been made possible by
the generosity of one of the very wealthy men of Centerport, Colonel
Richard Swayne, and his interest in the high school girls and their
athletics had been engaged by one of the girls themselves, Laura
Belding by name, but better known among her schoolfellows and friends
as "Mother Wit."
The play went on again under the keen eye of the instructor. Mrs. Case
believed most thoroughly in the efficiency of basketball for the
development and training of girls; but she did not allow her charges
to play the game without supervision. Lack of supervision by
instructors is where the danger of basketball and kindred athletics
lies.
The game is an excellent one from every point of view; yet within the
last few years it has come into disfavor in some quarters, and many
parents have forbidden their daughters to engage in it. Like bicycling
in the past, and football with the boys, basketball has suffered "a
black eye" because of the way it has been played, not because of the
game itself.
But the Girls' Branch played the game under sound rules, and under the
keen oversight of the instructor engaged by the Board of Education of
Centerport for that purpose. Basketball is the first, or one of the
first vigorous team games to become popular among women and girls in
this country, and under proper supervision will long remain a favorite
pastime.
The rules under which the girls of Central High played the game were
such as brought into basketball the largest number of players allowed.
Whereas there were often in the games on Central High courts only
right forward, left forward, center, right guard and left guard, with
possibly a jumping center--these games being engaged in by the girls
for their own amusement--in the regular practice and when the
representative team played the teams of other schools, the girls on
the field numbered nine upon a side.
Thus conforming with the new rules, Mrs. Case, and the physical
instructors of the other highs of Centerport and the neighboring
cities, made the interest in basketball more general and enabled a
greater number of ambitious girls to gain coveted positions on the
first team.
Suddenly Mrs. Case's whistle stopped the play again. And as the bustle
and activity subsided, two girls' voices rose above all.
"You just see! It's only Hester who gets scolded----"
"It's not so! If she'd play fair----"
"Miss Pendleton and Miss Agnew are discussing something of much
importance--much more important than the game," said the referee,
tartly.
"Well, she said----" began Nellie Agnew, who was usually a very quiet
girl, but who was flushed and angry now as she "looked daggers" at
Lily Pendleton, who was Hester Grimes's chum.
"That will do, Nellie!" exclaimed the instructor. "You girls evidently
have not taken to heart what I have been telling you. The only way to
play this--or any other team game--is to work together and talk as
little as possible. And by no means allow your tempers to become
heated.
"We have formed a new line-up for the fall series of games with East
and West High, and the highs of Keyport and Lumberport. It would be
too bad to change the make-up of the team later; but I want girls on
our champion team, who play the first class teams of other schools,
who know how to keep cool and to keep their mouths shut. Now! don't
let me have to repeat this again to-day at least. Time!"
Hester Grimes turned and gave Nellie Agnew an angry look and then went
on playing. The girls officiating at the lines changed with the actual
players. Later they shifted again, which brought the first team into
the field once more with the ball.
When the practice was over Mrs. Case stopped Hester Grimes before she
could run off the field. She spoke to her in a low voice, so that no
other girl could hear; but she spoke firmly:
"Hester, you are making a bad impression upon the teachers as well as
on the minds of your fellow pupils by your indulgence in bad temper."
"Nobody else calls me down for it but you, Mrs. Case," declared the
big girl, bitterly.
"You are a good scholar--you do not fail at your books," Mrs. Case
continued, quietly. "You do not have occasion in the classroom to
often show your real disposition. Here, in matters of athletics, it is
different. Your deportment does not suit me----"
"It never has, Mrs. Case," exclaimed the red-faced girl. "You have
criticized me ever since you came here to Central High----"
"Stop, Hester! How dare you speak that way to a teacher? I shall
certainly report you to Mr. Sharp if you take my admonition in such a
spirit. I have finished with you. If you do not show improvement in
deportment on the athletic field I shall shut you out of practice
entirely."
The instructor spoke sharply and her face was clouded. She was a very
brisk, decisive woman, and she considered that she had been patient
with Hester Grimes long enough.
Hester was the only daughter of a very wealthy wholesale butcher, and
from her babyhood had been indulged and given her way. She was one of
those girls who fairly "boss" their parents and everybody around their
homes. She had bought the friendliness of some weak girls by her
display and the lavish use of spending money. Perhaps, however, Lily
Pendleton was really the only girl who cared for Hester.
Most of the girls who had been relieved from basketball practice had
run in to change to their street clothing. On the lower floor of the
gymnasium building was the swimming pool, shower baths, and dressing
room, besides the lockers for field materials, the doctor's and
instructor's offices, and the hair-drying room. Above was the
gymnasium proper with all the indoor apparatus allowed by the rules of
the Girls' Branch.
Each girl had her own locker and key, the key to be handed in at the
instructor's office when she left the building. When Hester came into
the long dressing room there was a chatter of voices and laughter.
There was no restriction on talking in here.
Lily met her chum at the door. The former was naturally a pale girl,
rather pretty, but much given to aping fashions and frocks of grown
women.
"I'd like to box that Bobby Hargrew's ears," she said, to her angry
chum. "She was just saying that you'd queer the team again before you
got through. She's always hinting that you lost that last game we
played East High last spring."
"I'll just fix her for that--the mean little thing!" snapped Hester,
and being just in the mood for quarreling she stalked over to where
little Clara Hargrew was talking to a group of friends, among whom
were Nellie Agnew and the Lockwood twins.
"So you're slandering me, as usual, are you, Miss?" demanded Hester,
her face very fiery and her voice very loud.
"Meaning me?" demanded Bobby, shaking her curly head, and grinning
impishly at the bigger girl.
"Who else would I mean, Miss?" pursued Hester.
"I couldn't slander you, Hessie," said the mischief-loving Bobby.
"You are a trouble-maker all the time, Bobby Hargrew----" began the
older girl, but Bobby broke in with:
"If I made anywhere near as much trouble as you do about this
gymnasium, Hessie, I'd talk soft."
"Now, Bobby," cautioned Nellie Agnew, laying a quick hand upon the
smaller girl's arm and drawing her away.
But Hester, quite beside herself, lifted her palm and struck at Bobby.
Perhaps the agile girl dodged; or maybe Nellie deliberately stepped
forward. Anyhow, the stroke intended for Bobby landed full upon
Nellie's cheek. Hester was strong and her hand heavy. The print of her
palm left a white patch for a moment upon the plump cheek of the
doctor's daughter.
"Now you've done it, Hessie!" cried Bobby, angrily. "See what you've
done!"
"I didn't----" began Hester, rather startled by the result of her blow;
but the tears of anger and pain had sprung to Nellie's eyes and for
once the peacemaker showed some spirit.
"It served you just right! You're always interfering," flashed out
Hester.
"You are a bad and cruel girl," said Nellie, sobbing, but more in
anger than pain.
"Bah! you run and tell Mrs. Case now. That will be about your style."
"I shall tell my father," said Nellie, firmly, and turned away that
her enemy might not exult longer in her tears.
"And he's our physician and I guess he'll have something to say about
your actions, Hessie!" cried Bobby Hargrew. "You're not fit to play
with nice girls, anyway."
"And you're one of the 'nice' ones, I suppose, Miss?" scoffed Hester.
"I hope I am. I don't lose my temper and queer my team-mates' play.
And nobody ever caught me doing mean things--and you've been caught
before. If it wasn't for Gee Gee favoring you, you'd have been asked
to leave Central High before now," cried Bobby.
"That's so, too," said one of the twins, quite as angry as Bobby, but
more quietly.
"I should worry!" laughed Hester, loudly and scornfully. "What if I
did leave Central High? You girls are a lot of stuck-up ninnies,
anyway! I hate you all, and I'll get square with you some day--you just
see if I don't!"
It was perhaps an empty threat; yet it was spoken with grim
determination on Hester Grimes's part. And only the future could tell
if she would or would not keep her promise.