CHAPTER XXIII
CLIMBING UP
By the middle of the next week Hester was playing regularly in her oldposition on the basketball team. Roberta Fish had dropped back intothe second team with all the grace of the sweet-tempered girl she was.
"I'm only too glad she's come back," said Roberta, referring to HesterGrimes. "It's much more important that Central High should win thatbeautiful silver trophy than for _me_ to have the honor of playing onthe champion team."
"You're a good sort, Roberta," said Bobby Hargrew, admiringly. "Now,I'd be _mad_ if they'd asked me to step down and let somebody take myplace."
"No," said Laura. "You'd be loyal, too, Bobby."
"And that's the A. B. C. of athletics, child," said Nellie Agnew,remembering very clearly what the doctor had said to her weeks beforeon the subject.
"'A. B. C.,' indeed!" sniffed Bobby. "You make me feel like a primarykid again, I declare!"
Jess Morse began to laugh. "Some of these primary kids, as Bobby callsthem, are pretty smart. Allison Mapes--you know her?--who teaches thefirst grade, was telling of a little Bohemian boy in her class. He issmart as a whip, but English is quite a paralyzing language to him.She asked him the other day:
"'Ivan, what is a calf?'
"And the boy answered: 'Missis, that's the child of a cow and the backof your leg!'"
When the laugh over this had subsided Laura spoke seriously. They weretalking in one of the small offices of the school, having retired todiscuss the forthcoming games.
"It isn't all plum cake and lemonade, girls, even to beat West Highand Lumberport----"
"Oh, my!" croaked Bobby. "See what we did to West High last timewithout Hester."
"That was a fluke," declared the captain.
"Why, they're babies!" said Josephine Morse, confidently. "AndLumberport as well."
"Don't get the idea in your head that we are going to whip any team soeasily. That's when we are going to lose," urged Laura. "Being toosure is as bad as being careless in your play."
"Now she is hitting _me_," grumbled her chum.
"Well, Jess, if the cap fits, put it on."
"But do let us encourage ourselves, Mother Wit," cried one of thetwins. "Goodness knows, we need it."
"That's right," said her sister. "We've had _such_ bad luck!"
"Aw, she's a regular old croaker!" shouted Bobby, dancing up and down."We are going to win every game from now on!"
"Hush!" exclaimed Laura. "We're making too much noise. Somebody willcome and put us out."
"Nope. Nobody here but John, the janitor. Gee Gee's gone home, youbet. I wish those other girls would come and we could get down tobusiness."
"You look out, Bobby. If you get black marks again maybe _you'll_ betaken off the team for the rest of the term."
"Oh, oh!" cried the irrepressible. "Don't say such a thing."
"That would be too mean!" cried Dora.
"Indeed it would!" added her sister.
They were all making a deal of noise. As Laura said, "one couldscarcely hear one's self think." And noise was not allowed in theschool building, whether in classes, or out. Suddenly, at the heightof the revelry, there came a stern knock on the door. Behind the thickoak the startled girls heard a sharp voice exclaim:
"Young ladies!"
"Oh, gee!" gasped Bobby.
"Hush!" commanded Laura.
"Shucks! Somebody's fooling us," cried Bobby, springing to the door."Who's there?" she shouted.
"It is me--Miss Carrington," said the muffled voice.
For a breath the other girls were stricken dumb when the name of thestrict disciplinarian of the school was spoken. But it was Bobby whorecovered her speech first, and she broke into a loud laugh.
"Go 'way!" she cried. "You can't fool us. If it was Gee Gee she wouldhave said: 'It is I'!"
"Oh, my goodness! suppose it _should_ be Miss Carrington?" gaspedNellie, in horror.
But the sounds outside the door ceased. Bobby, after a tremblingmoment, snapped open the lock and unlatched the door. The corridor wasempty. But in a moment Hester Grimes appeared from the stairway andapproached the meeting place of the team.
"You said you wanted everybody here, Laura," she said. "But did youhave Miss Carrington at your meeting?"
"Miss Carrington!" they shrieked in chorus.
"Yes. I just met her. And she had the funniest look on her face. Whatwas the matter with her?" demanded Hester.
"Oh, my soul!" groaned Jess. "I can tell you what the matter is. Bobbyjust corrected Miss Carrington's English. What do you know about_that_?"
But the occasion was not one for laughter or joking now. That hadsurely been Miss Carrington at the door, and the reckless Bobby hadcalled her "Gee Gee" to her face, and been saucy into the bargain!
"We're done for!" Dora Lockwood groaned. "Wait till assemblyto-morrow. Bobby will be called out before the whole school."
"Oh! she'd never be mean enough for that!" almost wept Dorothy.
"But something dreadful will happen to Bobby," urged Nellie.
"She'll be forbidden after-hour athletics, as sure as shooting!"declared Jess Morse.
Bobby, for once, was stricken dumb. She saw in an instant all thehorrid possibilities of her reckless speech. Barred from the team forthe rest of the term would be the lightest punishment she could hopefor.
"And Gee Gee is always lying in wait for a chance to spoil ourathletics," wailed Lily Pendleton, who for once felt the sorrows ofher fellows.
Hester wanted to know what it all meant, and they told her.
"She certainly _did_ look funny when I met her on the stairs,"admitted the butcher's daughter. "And you told her she couldn't beherself because she said, 'It is me?' My! that must have been a shockto her. One of her pupils correcting Miss Carrington's use of theEnglish language!"
"It isn't any laughing matter!" flared up Bobby.
"And I don't see that crying over it will help any," returned Hester,grimly.
The team as a whole, however, was worried a good deal by Bobby's "badbreak." To be obliged to break in a new girl at Bobby's place would bealmost ruinous now. Just having gotten the team into shape once more,it seemed an awful thing to contemplate.
But assembly passed the next morning without Mr. Sharp saying a wordabout Bobby. The session dragged on till closing time without GeeGee's speaking to Bobby Hargrew. That very day East High was to cometo play the girls of Central High on their court.
The uncertainty, however, made Bobby less sure in classes, and shecame near to being held to make up her Latin. But she slipped throughsomehow and ran away from the school building as hard as she couldrun, for fear that Gee Gee would send for her at the last moment.
"Something's happened to her. She's had a change of heart. I'm afraidshe isn't well," gasped Bobby, once safely in the dressing room of thegym. "She is _never_ going to overlook that awful break of mine--isshe?"
"You'd better walk a chalk line from now to the end of the term,"advised Jess. "If she ever _does_ get you on any other matter she willdouble your punishment. I believe she is ashamed to call you up forwhat you said to her yesterday, because you caught her using languageunbecoming a purist."
"Be thankful, Bobby--and be good," advised Laura. "You have certainlyescaped 'by the skin of your teeth,' as the prophet has it. No, thatis not slang; it is Scripture. And do, _do_ be good for the rest ofthis half."
"Oh, I'll be a lamb--a little, woolly lamb," groaned Bobby. "You see ifI'm not!"
The girls of Central High played a splendid game of basketball thatafternoon. They beat the East High team fairly and squarely, and theirwinning this game put them up a notch in the series. They took EastHigh's place as Number 2. There was still the Lumberport and Keyportteams to whip before Central High could win the trophy.
The Girls of Central High at Basketball; Or, The Great Gymnasium Mystery Page 23