"But this isn't to be a lecture, Nell. It's just a piece of advice. Show yourself loyal to the other girls of Central High, and to the betterment of basketball and the other athletics, by----"
"By paying no attention to Hester Grimes, or what she does. After all, her shame, if she is removed from your basketball team, is the shame of her whole class, and of the school as well. Ignore her mean ways if you can. Don't get in the way of her hand again, Nell," and his eyes twinkled. "Remember, that blow was not intended for you, in the first place. And I am not sure that Clara Hargrew would not sometimes be the better for the application of somebody's hand--in the old-fashioned way! No, Nell. Say nothing. Make no report of the affair. If Hester is disloyal, don't you be. Keep out of her way as much as possible----"
"But she spoiled our games with the other schools last spring, and she will do so again," complained Nellie.
"Then let Mrs. Case, or somebody else, be the one to set the matter in motion of removing Hester from the team. That's my advice, Miss."
"And of course I shall take it, Daddy Doctor," said Nellie slowly. "But I _did_ think it was a chance for us to get rid of Hester. She is _such_ a plague."
The doctor's eyes twinkled. "I wonder why it is that we always want to shift our burdens on other folks' shoulders? Do you suppose either the East or West Highs would find Hester any more bearable if she attended them instead of Central?"
The girls of Central High had something of more moment than Hester Grimes's "tantrums" to think of the next day. Bobby Hargrew came flying up the path to the doctor's porch long before school time. Nellie saw her and ran out to see what she wanted.
"Couldn't guess, Chicken-little," laughed Nellie. "Has the sky fallen?"
"Almost as bad," declared Bobby, twinkling, but immediately becoming grave. "The gymnasium----"
"No, no! But it's been entered. And by some awfully mean person. The apparatus on the upper floor has been partly destroyed, and the lockers broken into downstairs and lots of the field materials spoiled. Oh, it's dreadfully mean, Nellie! They even sawed through the rungs of the hanging ladders a little way, so that if anybody swung on them they'd break.