Marjorie rose and going over to where Jerry sat, waved her book menacingly over her room-mate"s head. "Dare to say another word about that hateful old contest and I"ll disown you," she threatened. "I want to forget all about it, if I can. Basket ball is different, thank goodness. If I make the freshman team, I have actually achieved something."
"I hope you make it." Jerry spoke with a sudden sincerity arising from her devotion to Marjorie. "Muriel will try for it. Moretense is too tense to make a startling player. Shall you try for it, Ronny?"
"No, indeed," Ronny answered. "You and Lucy and I will be fans. I am not very partial to basket ball unless the game happens to move fast. Then I grow interested. Miss Page says the seniors are managing the sports.
They usually do. A senior told her of the try-out."
"Did Miss Page say anything else about it?" quizzed Jerry.
"No; she heard only that. She said she thought the sports committee were purposely keeping back the information. The senior who told her overheard the two of the committee talking to Miss Reid, the physical instructor. She happened to be in the gymnasium at the time. She was not asked to keep it secret, so she felt at liberty to mention it to me."
Jerry regarded Ronny in silence for a moment. "This college makes me weary," she burst out in an impatient voice. "There are too many undercurrents here. Why should the sports committee keep back information about basket ball? To suit their own pleasure, of course.
Very likely they are banded into a clique like those silly Sans Soucians. If it happens to be the same kind of clique, then look out for trouble at the try-out."
"Perhaps they have a good reason for not giving out the information until a certain time," argued Ronny. "Maybe they don"t approve of the Sans. As seniors, they should be on the heights, so far as college ethics are concerned."
"I trust they are," Jerry returned, in a prim voice, rolling her eyes at Ronny. "Just the same, I doubt it. I"ll tell you more about "em after the try-out. They"ll have to show me."
It was on Monday that Ronny heard of the try-out. Not until Thursday afternoon did the notices of it appear on the various bulletin boards.
Their advent led to a certain amount of jubilation on the part of those freshmen who were fond of the game. When, at four-thirty, the next afternoon, the committee appeared in company with Miss Reid, they found at least thirty-five of the freshman cla.s.s as aspirants to the team. A part of the unaspiring members had come to look on. There was also a large percentage of soph.o.m.ores on the scene. Outside the committee there was only a sprinkling of juniors and seniors.
Marjorie and Muriel had put on their gymnasium suits at the Hall and had arrived at the gymnasium shortly after four o"clock. Jerry, Ronny and Lucy did not appear until almost half-past four. They were accompanied by Vera Mason, Nella Sherman and Leila Harper. In the meantime Marjorie and Muriel had been watching, with some longing, a number of freshmen who were out on the floor practicing with the ball. Prominent among them was Lola Elster, who seemed to know the game, or thought she did, better than her companion player. She was quite in her element, and was issuing frequent orders, in a rather shrill voice, as she darted about in pursuit of the ball. The "pick-up" squad with whom she was playing appeared to be completely under her domination.
"I don"t care to make a team that Miss Elster is on," Muriel confided to Marjorie in a disgusted tone. "She is altogether too fond of her own playing. Besides, she is inclined to be tricky and I wouldn"t trust her.
She"d elbow her best friend out of the way if they were both after the ball."
"Those girls seem to like her," commented Marjorie. "I should say none of them were very good players. It is conceited, perhaps, to say that we know the game better than they, but if that is a sample of their work, we are stars compared with them. They couldn"t make more than a scrub team at Sanford High."
"I know it," agreed Muriel. "They aren"t quick enough. That"s their greatest trouble." Glancing from the players to the audience, who stood in groups about the room, she exclaimed: "There are the girls! Let"s go over and see them."
"Only for a minute," Marjorie stipulated. "This affair is going to begin soon."
They had no more than exchanged a few words with their chums when the bell rang for a clear floor. Incidental with it the senior manager of basket ball interests stepped forward to make the usual announcements for the try-out and lay down the conditions which the players must observe. Those wishing to try for a place on the regular freshman team were then requested to come forward on the floor. About thirty-five girls responded and enough of them to make two squads were selected.
These were ordered to the floor for a twenty-minutes" test. Their work was carefully noted by Miss Reid, three seniors, including the manager, and a Mr. Fulton, a professional coach.
Altogether, four sets of players were tried out. Several of the freshmen who had worked on the first squads did duty again. Among these was Lola Elster. It was among the third round of players that Marjorie and Muriel appeared, and only half-heartedly at that. Both felt the utter futility of trying for the team, after they had looked on for a little. They did not like the methods of either the coach or Miss Reid. Neither were expert in proper knowledge of the game. Worse, their sympathies were plainly with Miss Elster, who, when not on the floor, stood between them, talking animatedly, now indicating one or another of the players, or expressing an opinion to which both agreed by nodding affably.
Both Lookouts made a conscientious effort to play their best, but their team-mates were fit only for scrub players. The result was the slowest twenty-minutes" work that either ever remembered. Try as they might, they could not overcome the disadvantage under which they were laboring.
Hardest of all was the knowledge that they could make a good showing if they but had the opportunity.
When their time was up both gladly hurried from the floor to where their group of friends awaited them. The expressions of the five girls varied only in the degree of contempt each registered for what they had just witnessed.
"Why didn"t you wait to see whether you made the team?" inquired Jerry with gentle sarcasm.
"A-h-h-h!" was Muriel"s reply, expressive of her feelings.
"We couldn"t make that team in a century." Marjorie was smiling a whimsical little smile which contained no bitterness.
"I guess not. You might as well have played for twenty minutes with a bunch of nine-pins. Anyway, you were dead before you ever set foot on the floor. That Miss Elster has the coach, Miss Reid and several others right on her side. This is the Sans inning, n"est ce pas? Uh-huh! No mistake about it." Jerry bowed and smirked as she carried on this bit of conversation with herself.
"Cast an eye upon the Sans just now," Leila said scornfully. "Are they not pleased with themselves? Do you think they would have let you or Muriel make that team? Not so long as they could influence those in charge. The seniors are not to blame. They kept the date of the try-out to themselves until the last to prevent the Sans from fixing things for their freshman friends. It did small good." Leila shrugged her shoulders.
"They shouldn"t be allowed to run things," Jerry a.s.serted stoutly. "The trouble is everyone stands back and allows them to take the lead. Their cast-iron nerve is what helps them out. Besides they are an unscrupulous lot. They boast that they are the daughters of millionaires. Well, the rest of us are not paupers. Only we are above trading upon our folks"
money as a means of influence. That is ign.o.ble and should be stamped out of Hamilton."
"It never will be unless we all work together for a new spirit of democracy," broke in Ronny"s resolute tones. "We must establish it in our cla.s.s regardless of these unfair soph.o.m.ores and their false notions, so detrimental to n.o.bility of character."
"Unfair indeed." Leila smiled wryly. "Vera and I know. You should have seen us last year. We had a disagreeable freshman cruise, thanks to the Sans. They thought for a short time that we were perhaps poor. We found it out and let them think so to their hearts" content. You should have seen their scorn of us. At Thanksgiving we had our cars sent on to us.
Then they were in a quandary! We were not poor, so it seemed, but how wealthy were we? They never found out. They tried so hard."
A blast of the manager"s whistle signalled attention. The names of the successful contestants were about to be read out by the coach. Lola Elster had been awarded center. Two of her particular friends had won right and left guard. Robin Page had achieved right forward. At this, none watching wondered. She had played in the first squads and done good work. Left forward fell to a Miss Burton, a freshman Dulcie Vale had been rushing and whom she had escorted to the frolic.
"I am glad it is over. I am not sorry I tried for a place on the team,"
soliloquized Marjorie aloud. "Neither Muriel nor I had a fair chance. I was hurt and disappointed for a minute or so after I saw the way things were going. I am not now. I shall wait until next year," she announced, in a calm, determined voice, "then I shall make the team. That means we will all have to work together to bring about a happier state of affairs at Hamilton. None of us can be free or happy with this shadow hanging over us. There can be no true cla.s.s spirit unless we base it on the traditions which Mr. Brooke Hamilton wished observed by the students of Hamilton College."
CHAPTER XXI.-ON THE EVE OF THE GAME.
Following the basket ball try-out, which the Sanford five agreed was the tamest attempt at playing basket ball that they had ever witnessed, little of moment befell them as the days slipped by and the Thanksgiving holiday drew near. As they would have four days" vacation, all were determined on spending them in Sanford. Ronny was going to Miss Archer"s, as she had promised her G.o.d-mother this holiday before leaving for college.
Lucy Warner was the only one of the Five Travelers who intended to remain at Hamilton during the holiday. She had flatly refused to allow Ronny to defray her expense home.
"There is no use in my going home. I would not see Mother except for a very short time. She is nursing a fever patient and won"t be able to leave her for at least three weeks. Yes, I know I could be with you girls. I"d love to, but Katherine has no place to go. I might better stay here with her. I am going home for Christmas and she has promised to spend those holidays with me." This was Lucy"s view of the matter.
The day of their departure for home was typical Thanksgiving weather, fairly cold, and marked by snow flurries. If the trip to Hamilton had seemed long, the journey home was longer. With all four impatiently counting the miles between Hamilton and Sanford, time dragged. Their train having left Hamilton at eleven o"clock that morning, it was after dark when it pulled into Sanford. A fond company of home folks were on the station platform to greet the travelers, who for the first time since leaving for college, separated, to go in different directions.
Marjorie thought the most beautiful sight she had ever looked upon were the lights of her own dear home. Encircled by her captain"s arm, they blinked her a mellow, cheery welcome as the automobile sped up the drive. She never forgot the wondrous happiness she experienced in returning to her father and mother after her first long absence from them.
It was after dark on the Sunday evening following Thanksgiving when four of the Five Travelers alighted from the train at Hamilton station. Tired though she was, and a little sad, Marjorie thrilled with an odd kind of patriotism as the lights of the campus houses twinkled on her horizon.
There was, after all, a certain vague joy in having returned to college.
Ronny, Jerry and Muriel all agreed with her in this, as the Lookouts gathered in hers and Jerry"s room after Sunday night supper to tell Lucy the news of home. Mrs. Warner had called at the Deans on Sat.u.r.day and intrusted a letter and package to Marjorie for Lucy. The package, when opened, revealed a pretty knitted sweater and cap in a warm shade of blue. Lucy"s mother had knitted them during intervals while her patient slept.
"How have things been here?" queried Jerry, after the admiring comments relative to Lucy"s cap and sweater had subsided.
"It has been so blissfully quiet," sighed Lucy. "There were only five girls here over Thanksgiving. Miss Remson says she has experienced a spell of heavenly calm. We had a fine Thanksgiving dinner. Two of Miss Remson"s nephews were here for the day. They brought their violins and Miss Remson plays well on the piano. We had music Thanksgiving evening.
Friday evening we were both invited to Professor Wenderblatt"s home. Mr.
Henry Arthur Bradburn, a friend of his, who has made a number of Arctic journeys is visiting him. There were about twenty-five guests. You can imagine how proud Kathie and I were. Lillian came over on Friday morning and invited us."
"You may go to the head of the cla.s.s," commented Jerry. "You"re graduated from the stay-in-your-sh.e.l.l period. I never before heard of such a sudden and unparalleled blossoming into the high-brows" garden."
The Five Travelers lingered to talk that evening until the last minute before the ten-thirty bell rang. The next day was not characterized by particularly brilliant recitations on the part of any of the returned students.
On the third day of December notices appeared on the bulletin board announcing the first basket ball game of the season. The soph.o.m.ores had challenged the freshmen to meet them on the second Sat.u.r.day in the month, which fell on the fourteenth. The soph.o.m.ore team was composed entirely of Sans Soucians. Natalie Weyman, Dulcie Vale, Joan Myers, Adelaide Forman and Evangeline Heppler were the select five who were to wrestle with the freshmen for the ball.
"Can they play basket ball?" was Muriel Harding"s pertinent question put to her room-mate, Miss Barlow, who had just finished naming the players on the soph.o.m.ore team. The two girls had met outside Hamilton Hall and stopped as was their wont to consult the main bulletin board.