THE SECOND HALF
The dressing room buzzed like an angry beehive for a minute. It was
Laura Belding, captain of the team, who finally said:
"Hester surely can't have deserted us in this way. She knows that
Roberta is not even familiar with our secret signals."
"She's gone, just the same," said her chum, Jess. "That's how mean
Hester Grimes is."
"Well, I declare! I don't know that I blame her," cried Lily
Pendleton.
"You don't blame her?" repeated Nellie. "I don't believe you'd blame
Hester no matter what she did."
"She hasn't done anything," returned Lily, sullenly.
"How about the gym. business----"
Bobby Hargrew began it, but Laura shut her off by a prompt palm laid
across her mouth.
"You be still, Bobby!" commanded Nellie Agnew.
"You're all just as unfair to Hessie as you can be," said Lily with
some spirit. "And now this woman from West High had to pick on her----"
"Don't talk so foolishly, Lil," said Dora Lockwood. "You know very
well that Hester has been warned dozens of times not to talk back to
the referee. Mrs. Case warns her almost every practice game about
something. And now she has got taken up short. If it wasn't for what
it means to us all in this particular game, I wouldn't care if she
never played with us."
"Me, too!" cried Jess, in applause. "Hester is always cutting some
mean caper that makes trouble for other folk."
"We can't possibly win this game without her!" wailed Dorothy.
"I'll do my very best, girls," said Roberta Fish, the substitute
player at forward center.
"Of course you will, Roberta," said Laura, warmly. "But we can't teach
you all our moves in these few moments--Ah! here is Mrs. Case."
Their friend and teacher came in briskly.
"What's all this? what's all this?" she cried. "Where is Hester?"
"She took her hat and coat and ran out before we came in, Mrs. Case,"
explained Laura.
"Not deserted you?" cried the instructor.
"Yes, ma'am."
"But that is a most unsportsmanlike thing to do!" exclaimed the
instructor, feeling the desertion keenly. That one of her girls should
act so cut Mrs. Case to the heart. She took great pride in the girls
of Central High as a body, and Hester's desertion was bad for
discipline.
"You must do the best you can, Laura, with the substitute," she said,
at last, and speaking seriously. "I will inform Miss Lawrence that you
will put in Roberta for the second half, too. Nothing need be said
about Hester's defection."
"I am afraid we can't win with me in Hessie's place," wailed Roberta.
"You're going to do your very best, Roberta," said Mrs. Case, calmly.
"You always do. All of you put your minds to the task. Your opponents
are only one point ahead of you. The first five-minutes' play in the
first half was as pretty team work on your part as I ever saw."
"But we can't use our secret signals," said Laura.
"Play your very best. Do not put Roberta into bad pinches----"
"But the captain of the East High team sees our weak point, and forces
the play that way," complained Jess Morse.
"Of course she does. And you would do the same were you in her place,"
said Mrs. Case, with a smile. "But above all, if you can't win
gracefully, _do_ lose gracefully! Be sportsmanlike. Cheer the winners.
Now, the whistle will sound in a moment," and the instructor hurried
away to speak to the referee.
"Oh, dear me!" groaned Roberta. "My heart's in my mouth."
"Then it isn't where Sissy Lowe, one of the freshies, said it was in
physiology class yesterday," chuckled Bobby Hargrew.
"How was that, Bobby?" queried Jess.
"Sissy was asked where the heart was situated--what part of the
body--and she says:
"'Pleathe, Mith Gould, ith in the north thentral part!' Can you beat
those infants?" added Bobby as the girls laughed.
But they were in no mood for laughter when they trotted out upon the
basketball court at the sound of the referee's whistle. They took
their places in silence, and the roars of the Central High boys, with
their prolonged "Ziz--z--z--z----Boom!" did not sound as encouraging as it
had at the beginning of the first half.
Basketball is perhaps the most transparent medium for revealing
certain angles of character in young girls. At first the players
seldom have anything more than a vague idea of the proper manner of
throwing a ball, or the direction in which it is to be thrown.
The old joke about a woman throwing a stone at a hen and breaking the
pane of glass behind her, will soon become a tasteless morsel under
the tongue of the humorist. Girls in our great public schools are
learning how to throw. And basketball is one of the greatest helps to
this end. The woman of the coming generation is going to have
developed the same arm and shoulder muscles that man displays, and
will be able to throw a stone and hit the hen, if necessary!
The girl beginner at basketball usually has little idea of direction
in throwing the ball; nor, indeed, does she seem to distinguish fairly
at first between her opponents and her team mates. Her only idea is to
try to propel the ball in the general direction of the goal, the
thought that by passing it from one to another of her team mates she
will much more likely see it land safely in the basket never seemingly
entering her mind.
But once a girl has learned to observe and understand the position and
function of team mates and opponents, to consider the chances of the
game in relation to the score, and, bearing these things in mind, can
form a judgment as to her most advantageous play, and act quickly on
it--when she has learned to repress her hysterical excitement and play
quietly instead of boisterously, what is it she has gained?
It is self-evident that she has won something beside the mere ability
to play basketball. She has learned to control her emotions--to a
degree, at least--through the dictates of her mind. Blind impulse has
been supplanted by intelligence. Indeed, she has gained, without
doubt, a balance of mind and character that will work for good not
only to herself, but to others.
Indeed, it is the following out of the old fact--the uncontrovertible
fact of education--that what one learns at school is not so valuable as
is the fact that he _learns how to learn_. Playing basketball
seriously will help the girl player to control her emotions and her
mind in far higher and more important matters than athletics.
To see these eighteen girls in their places, alert, unhurried,
watchful, and silent, was not alone a pleasing, but an inspiring
sight. Laura and her team mates--even Roberta--waited like veterans for
the referee to throw the ball. Laura and her opposing jumping center
were on the _qui vive_, muscles taut, and scarcely breathing.
Suddenly the ball went up. Laura sprang for it and felt her palms
against the big ball. Instantly she passed it to Jess Morse and within
the next few seconds the ball was in play all over the back
field--mostly in the hands of Central High girls.
They played hard; but nobody--not even Roberta--played badly. The East
High girls were strong opponents, and more than once it looked as
though the ball would be carried by them into a goal. However, on each
occasion, some brilliant play by a Central High girl brought it back
toward their basket and finally, after six and a half minutes, the
visiting team made a goal.
The Central High girls were one point ahead.
The ball went in at center again and there was a quick interchange of
plays between the teams. Suddenly, while the ball was flying through
the air toward East High's basket, the referee's whistle sounded.
"Foul!" she declared, just as the ball popped into the basket.
A murmur rose from the East High team. Madeline Spink, the captain,
said quietly:
"But the goal counts for us, does it not, Miss Lawrence?"
"It counts as a goal from a foul," replied the referee, "which means
that it is no goal at all, and the ball is in play."
The East High girls were more than a little disturbed by the decision.
It was a nice point; for on occasion a goal thrown from the foul line
counts one. It broke up, for the minute, the better play of the East
High team, and the instant the Central High girls got the ball they
rushed it for a goal.
There was great excitement at this point in the game. If Central High
won two clean points it would hardly be possible for East High to
recover and gain the lead once more. Laura signalled her players from
time to time; but she was hampered whenever the ball came near
Roberta, or the time was ripe for a massed play. The substitute did
not know all the secret signals.
Had Hester Grimes only been in her place! Her absence crowded the
Central High team slowly to the wall. In the very moment of success,
when a clean goal was about to be made, they failed and their
opponents got the ball. Again it was passed from hand to hand. One
girl bounced the ball and a foul was called. Again the Central Highs
rushed it, and from the foul line made another goal.
Two points ahead, and the boys in the audience cheered madly. No
harder fought battle had ever been played upon that court.
"Shoot it over, Jess!" roared Chet, at one point, rising and waving to
his particular girl friend, madly. "Look out! they'll get you!"
"Look out, Laura! don't let 'em get you----Aw! that's too bad," grumbled
Lance Darby, quite as interested in the work of Chet's sister on the
court.
"Hi! no fair pulling! Say! where's the referee's eyes?" demanded Chet,
the next moment, in disgust.
"Behind her glasses," said his chum. "I never did believe four eyes
were as good as two."
The ball came back to center again and there was little delay before
it was put in play. Only three minutes remained. The eighteen girls
were as eager as they could be. Madeline Spink and her team mates were
determined to tie the score at least. A clean goal would do it.
They rushed the play and carried the ball into Roberta's country.
Roberta never had a chance! In a moment the ball was hurtling toward
the proper East High girl, and no guarding could save it.
A cheer from the audience--those interested in the East High
girls--announced another clean goal. The score was tied and two minutes
to play!
"Do not delay the game, young ladies!" warned the referee.
They were in position again and the ball was thrown up. No fumbles
now. Every girl was playing for all that there was in her! A single
point would decide the rivalry of the two schools at the beginning of
the playing season. To lead off with this first game would encourage
either team immeasurably.
East High led off first; but quickly Laura and her team mates got the
ball again and pushed it toward the basket. There was no rough play.
The umpires, as well as the referee, watched sharply. It was a sturdy,
vigorous, but fair game. This was a time when Hester's hot temper
might have brought the team disgrace; and for a moment Laura was,
after all, glad that the delinquent had gone home.
Then, suddenly, from full field and a fair position, the ball rose and
flew directly for the basket. While in mid-air the whistle was blown.
Time was called and the game was ended.