The two friends agreed rapturously. Mrs. Fleming wouldn’t arrive just yet, Margot declared, since the time of the match had, by mistake, been omitted from her daughter’s letter, and Miss Slater would not sanction the sending of a wire to repair the mistake. Besides which, all the non-players were exceedingly anxious to view the rival team, and to decide from their appearance by methods of their own whether the antagonists were likely to prove victors or victims of to-day’s match.
“They don’t _look_ as if they’d been in any kind of training,” announced Josy sententiously, when after half an hour’s waiting at last the brake drew up, and a dozen exceedingly healthy-looking specimens of girlhood jumped down. “See that one by the driver! She’s a perfect tub!”
“But there’s that thin one with short hair; look at _her_!” adjured Margot critically. “She’s got eyes everywhere _already_, and she looks as though she’s got splendid muscle, don’t you think so?”
“Not so good as Helen’s, _I_ bet,” said someone else coming up behind. The conversation ceased abruptly as the observers rushed round to the school-entrance to watch the arrival of the visitors more closely.
Once in the field, Josy was mortified to find that the girl she had designated as a “tub” appeared to be the most important player of all and the captain of the team; a most responsible and energetic person, of whom the rest of her team stood in the deepest awe.
The mistaken one groaned in her horror. “If _that_ one’s the captain, and looks like _that_, what _must_ the others be, for they look quite decent players! They’ll beat us to splinters, I _know_ they will!”
“They won’t,” adjured Margot, stoutly. “Why, look at _our_ team, and remember the _days_ that they’ve had no pudding. I’d back our team anywhere, wouldn’t you, Gretta?”
The sudden sounding of the umpire’s whistle gave an exciting thrill to the onlookers, and the match began.
“Oh, I _wish_ mother was here! Everyone else’s people have come!” groaned Margot. “If _only_ I hadn’t been such an idiot as to forget to put the time!”
“And I can’t think why Stella hasn’t turned up yet,” remarked Gretta. “She said she would be sure to be here at the start, didn’t she?”
That question was answered on the instant by the appearance of Stella herself, who was seen to be advancing in a breathless rush across the field, waving her arms in a state of wild excitement.