“I know, but I feared you’d feel so bad about it,” she laughed, “that I just made them let me. Aren’t you terribly glad to see me?”
“Yes,” answered Cal without much enthusiasm. “How—how did you manage?”
“Oh, I just kept at it. Aunt Lydia was on my side and she told Aunt Matilda that she guessed you wouldn’t eat me if I was to come over here. I’ve been calling on Mrs. Linn. She’s a dear, isn’t she?”
“Er—yes.” He was looking at the racket with strange fascination1 and Molly, following his glance, smiled brightly and held it out for his inspection2.
“I bought it this morning. Is it a good one?”
[251]
“I think so. I don’t know much about tennis rackets. Ned can tell you. He will be here in a moment; the others, too. Did you—do you want to play today?”
“Yes, if it isn’t too late. I’ve been here a long time, but I suppose you have all been playing football.”
“Yes, we had a pretty stiff practice and I cal’late we’re rather too tired to—”
But at this moment the others came around the corner, Hoop3, arm in arm with Sandy and Spud, scowling4 ferociously5 and evincing a desire to escape. If Cal expected evidences of embarrassment6 on the part of the girl he was disappointed. She only smiled interestedly.
“You’ll have to introduce me, Cal,” she whispered.
Cal had never done such a thing in his life, but he managed to get through with the task in some manner, Spud, claiming the privileges of former acquaintance, helping8 him out.
“And this,” said Spud finally, “is Mr. Hooper, who has eagerly volunteered to teach you tennis, Miss—er—Curtis, while here in the background, modest youth that he is, hides Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker is our football guide and wishes me to offer his services to you.”
[252]
Hoop growled9 something under his breath that didn’t sound especially flattering to Spud, but Clara walked up and shook hands very nicely. Molly bowed and said “How do you do,” or shook hands and said “I’m very glad to meet you” at each presentation, and the boys, grinning, seated themselves on the steps and frankly10 looked her over. She didn’t seem very formidable with her pink cheeks and blue eyes, and it was difficult to realize that she figuratively held their welfare in the small hands that gripped her tennis racket.
“I suppose,” she said to Sandy, “that Cal has told you that I want awfully11 to learn to play tennis? He said he didn’t play very well but that he thought one of you would find time to show me a little about it. Do you mind my coming over here?”
“Of course not,” he declared heartily13. “I guess any of us will be glad to play with you. I suppose it’s a bit dull over there with just the Old—I mean with just your aunts.”
Spud snickered and Sandy frowned at him.
“Awfully,” agreed Molly. “I thought it was very nice of Cal to want me to come over here. And I’m glad you don’t mind.”
[253]
Hoop surreptitiously kicked Cal in the small of the back.
“We don’t mind at all,” said Spud. “We’re tickled14. I guess there’s time for a lesson now if you start right away. You’d better get your racket and some balls, Hoop.”
“Miss Molly understands that,” said Ned. “She’ll forgive you if you’re not at your best, I’m sure.”
But Molly was viewing Hoop doubtfully.
“I guess he doesn’t want to,” she said, turning to Sandy. “I’ll come some other time.”
“I’ll give you a lesson myself,” declared Sandy, jumping up. “Find my racket for me, will you, Clara? And bring some balls out.”
“Why do you call him Clara?” asked Molly as the boy hurried inside on his errand.
“Because his name’s Claire,” answered Dutch.
“What a funny name for a boy! And what’s yours?”
“Dutch.”
Molly laughed and went around the group, nodding her head at each in turn.
“Spud.”
[254]
“Just Ned.”
“Sandy.”
“Hooper.”
“He means Hoop.”
“And you are Cal,” she said, reaching that youth.
“Short for Calamity,” explained Spud gravely.
“Quickest thing ever,” answered Spud affably. “Lightning is cold molasses beside me. That’s where I get my name, you know,” he added, turning to Molly. “Ex-spud-itious.”
“I suppose,” she said, “I’ll get you all terribly mixed up at first, and I hope you won’t mind.”
“We never mind,” declared Dutch quite flippantly for him. He received his reward from Molly in the shape of a smile and for some time after secretly rather fancied himself as a wit.
“My name,” she announced, “is Molly. I[255] guess you’d better call me that, if we are going to be friends.”
Clara returned with the racket and she and Sandy proceeded to the tennis court, the others politely electing to watch from a distance so as not to embarrass the novice19.
“She’s a funny one,” observed The Fungus with a grin. “‘If we are going to be friends,’ said she. She knows mighty20 well we don’t dare be anything else!”
“She’s a good sort,” said Spud. “And I guess we might as well make up our minds to enjoying what they call female society after this. Did you see Sandy fall for her on the spot?”
“Conceited idiot!” growled Hoop. “I hope he falls into the net and—and—”
“Chokes to death,” added Spud helpfully. “Remarks of that sort from you, Hoop, are sadly out of place. You are a—a renegade.”
“That’s all right. I didn’t agree to give her tennis lessons.”
“Do I really have to take her to watch football?” asked Clara.
“I suppose so,” answered the boy.
[256]
“Seems to me,” observed The Fungus, “that our diplomat22 isn’t on to his job. Are you—diplomating, Ned?”
“Don’t see why we gave the job to you, then,” muttered Hoop. “What we ought to do is to find where she keeps that pillow-case and go over and nab it.”
“Huh,” Dutch grunted24, “I’d like to see anyone go prowling around where Miss Matilda would catch him.”
“Pshaw, what’s the good of bothering about that old pillow-case?” asked Spud impatiently. “She isn’t going to be mean. She’s just having a little fun with us. Look at Sandy, fellows; isn’t he having one grand good time?”
Sandy was toiling25 valiantly26, chasing balls on all sides of the court. Molly’s efforts were ludicrous and pathetic, and for a time she couldn’t get it into her little head that there was any method to the game beside batting the balls back and forth27. The supper bell brought welcome relief to her instructor28, although he made believe that he simply hated the thought of stopping.
[257]
Sandy was toiling valiantly, chasing balls on all sides of the court
[258-
259]
“You did finely,” he declared as they returned to the porch. “All you need is a few more lessons.”
“That’s silly,” answered Molly promptly29. “I know very well that I was just as stupid as stupid! I’m going to buy one of those little blue books with the rules in them the first thing in the morning. Then I’ll know what it’s all about. Thank you very much for teaching me. Good night.”
“Good night,” said Sandy, and “Good night,” called the others. And Molly, her racket tucked under her arm, took her departure. Sandy subsided30 on the top step and said “Whew!” very expressively31. The rest observed him grinningly.
“Someone else has got to take her the next time,” responded Sandy with decision. He glanced at Hoop. But that youth was looking the other way and whistling softly.
“Why don’t you draw lots?” he asked.
“We will,” said Sandy, “after supper.”
They did. He and Spud arranged the slips[260] of paper and in some remarkable36 fashion the fatal slip fell to Hoop’s portion.
“That isn’t fair!” he objected. “You fellows faked!”
But they were very stern with him and in the end he accepted the duty with ill grace. There were three more lessons that week and Hoop officiated at two of them, the other being given by Spud. Strangely enough, Hoop, after the first time, became interested in the task and was quite loth to relinquish37 in Spud’s favor when the third lesson was due. Clara’s duties began on Wednesday. On that afternoon he took Molly in charge and escorted her to the football field, where she occasioned not a little interest on the part of the candidates. It was something new and novel to have a girl in the audience at practice and I fancy some of the boys worked harder than usual in the hope of distinguishing themselves and so winning a glance of approval from Miss Molly. Clara was very patient and instructive. A few weeks before he had had very little football knowledge himself, but he had watched and studied with enthusiasm and was now a very capable instructor. Molly had never seen the game played before, but, while she objected to it at[261] first as being much too rough, it wasn’t long before she was an ardent38 champion of the House Team. Clara lent her his rule book and she studied it diligently39 during the next week. Some of the questions she asked were a trifle disconcerting; such as “Why don’t they have the field smaller so they won’t have so far to go to make a touchdown?” or “Would it count anything if they threw the ball over that bar instead of kicking it?” She listened avidly40 to all the football discussions on the steps of West House and declared on Friday that if House didn’t beat Hall she’d never speak to any of them again. That threat must have nerved the House Team to desperation, for on the next afternoon it battled valiantly against Hall and managed to hold its opponent scoreless through thirty-five of the forty minutes of playing time, and had begun to count on a tied game at least when a miserable41 fumble42 by The Fungus on the Hall’s forty yard-line turned the fortunes of the day. It was Pete Grow himself who leaked through the House line, gathered up the ball and, protected by hastily formed interference, romped44 over the line with it for the only score of the game. They failed at goal and a few minutes later[262] House trailed off the field vanquished45 to the tune43 of 5—0.
House was heart-broken. To have kept Hall at bay through thirty-five minutes of the fiercest sort of battling and then to lose on a fluke was the hardest sort of luck. The Fungus felt the disgrace keenly and looked forlorn and tragic46 enough to melt a heart of stone. After the first miserable ten minutes succeeding the game his team-mates set themselves generously to work to cheer him up.
“Your fault nothing!” scoffed47 big, good-hearted Westlake, the House center. “Why, any one of us ought to have got that ball. What if you did fumble it? Gee48, we all do that. The trouble was that the rest of us weren’t quick enough to make it safe.”
“That’s right,” said Ned sadly. “I ought to have had it myself. That chap Pete Grow, though, was through like a streak49.”
“I guess,” said Dutch, “it’s up to me, when you come right down to facts. I ought never to have let Grow through.”
“Never mind whose fault it was,” said Brooks50 cheerfully. “We’ve just got to get busy this week and get together. It mustn’t happen next time, fellows. We’ve got to develop[263] team-play in the next five days or they’ll wipe up the sod with us. After all, we had them at a standstill until that pesky fumble.”
Clara and Molly went back to West House silent and sad. But by the time they had reached the porch and Molly had established herself in her accustomed place with her slim back against a pillar the silence gave place to regrets and discussion. Molly was inclined to be indignant with the Hall.
“They oughtn’t to have taken advantage of Fungus’s mistake,” she declared. “I don’t think that was very—very sportsmanlike, do you?”
But Clara pointed7 out to her that ethically51 Hall had not transgressed52. “Fumbling’s part of the game,” he said, “and you’ve got to take advantage of everything, Molly. We played a pretty good game, after all, I think.”
“We played a wonderful game!” she assented53 stoutly54. “Why, we just put it all over the Hall at first.” Clara smiled at the phrase she used.
“Anyhow, I guess we can do better the next time. The trouble today was that we couldn’t get near enough Hall’s goal to try a drop-kick or placement.”
[264]
“How near would we have to get?” asked Molly.
“Oh, about thirty yards, I guess. M’Crae’s a dandy from the thirty yard-line.”
“Wasn’t Spud splendid?” she asked. “He just threw those Hall men about like—like straws!”
“Spud’s a dandy end,” Clara agreed. “He played all around Smith. I do wish, though, we might have won. Now we’ve got to get both the other games.”
“And we will, too,” said Molly, her eyes flashing. “You just wait and see!”
The others came dejectedly home and until supper time they threshed out the day’s battle over and over again, Molly taking a fair share in the debate. The general tone was pessimistic, but Molly refused to entertain the thought of ultimate defeat for a moment.
“You’ve just got to win the next two games,” she declared. “And you’re going to, aren’t you, Sandy?” But she had selected the wrong person in Sandy. He shook his head discouragedly.
“I’m afraid not,” he answered. “They’ve got team-play, Molly, and we play every man for himself.”
[265]
“Oh, you and your team-play!” scoffed Spud. “Why can’t we learn team-play as well as they can? You wait until next Saturday.”
“Well, I’m through,” muttered The Fungus miserably55. “I guess Brooksie will put in Folsom on Monday.”
“Folsom!” jeered56 Dutch. “Folsom can’t begin to play your game; nor Westlake, either. Don’t you be so sore, old man. You couldn’t help it.”
“Of course I could have helped it, only—well, if Brooksie keeps me on I’ll bet it won’t happen again. After this I’m going to dig my nails into it!”
“Couldn’t you have explained to them that you didn’t mean to drop that ball?” asked Molly earnestly. “That it was just a—a mistake, Fungus?”
The laughter that this question produced cleared the atmosphere not a little and by the time the bell had rung West House was a good deal more cheerful and much hungrier.
“Isn’t she the limit?” laughed Spud as they went in to the dining-room. “Asking if Fungus couldn’t have explained that it was a mistake!”
“She’s a mighty nice kid,” said Dutch.
[266]
“Yes, and once she was jumping up and down like an Indian. I guess she’s the most enthusiastic rooter we’ve got.”
“Obnoxious nothing!” objected Sandy indignantly. “She’s all right!”
And West House agreed to a man.
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1
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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3
hoop
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| n.（篮球）篮圈，篮 | |
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scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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5
ferociously
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| 野蛮地，残忍地 | |
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6
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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8
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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9
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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10
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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11
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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12
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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13
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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14
tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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15
mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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16
fungus
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| n.真菌，真菌类植物 | |
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17
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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novice
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| adj.新手的，生手的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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diplomat
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| n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人 | |
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diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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24
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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25
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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valiantly
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| adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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instructor
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| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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30
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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31
expressively
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| ad.表示(某事物)地；表达地 | |
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32
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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33
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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34
dames
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| n.（在英国）夫人（一种封号），夫人（爵士妻子的称号）( dame的名词复数 )；女人 | |
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35
scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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relinquish
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| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
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38
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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39
diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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40
avidly
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| adv.渴望地，热心地 | |
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41
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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42
fumble
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| vi.笨拙地用手摸、弄、接等，摸索 | |
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43
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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44
romped
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| v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指在赛跑或竞选等中）轻易获胜 | |
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45
vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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46
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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47
scoffed
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| 嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
gee
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| n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转 | |
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49
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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50
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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51
ethically
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| adv.在伦理上，道德上 | |
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52
transgressed
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| v.超越( transgress的过去式和过去分词 )；越过；违反；违背 | |
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53
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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55
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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56
jeered
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| v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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58
obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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