"Isn"t that young Poc.o.c.k, that used to work for your father, Hester?"
demanded Mrs. Grimes. "That"s a very bad boy. What"s he been doing to you, Laura?"
"He has stolen that little horse from Eve"s father," cried Laura. "And now he won"t give it up."
""Tain"t so!" cried Hebe Poc.o.c.k, loudly. "Don"t you believe that gal, Mis" Grimes. I bought this horse----"
"Hebe," said the butcher"s wife, calmly, "you never had money enough in your life to buy a horse like that--and you never will have. Lead it up here and let the girl have her father"s property. And you women, go back to your homes--and clean up, for mercy"s sake! I never did see such a shiftless, useless lot as you are at the Four Corners. When I lived there, we had some decency about us----"
"Oh, Mother!" gasped Hester, grasping the good lady"s arm.
"Well, that"s where we lived--your father an" me," declared Mrs.
Grimes. "It was near the slaughter houses and handy for him. And let me tell you, there was respectable folk lived there in them days. Hebe Poc.o.c.k! Are you goin" to do what I tell you?"
The fellow came along in a very hang-dog manner and pa.s.sed the strap to Eve Sitz.
""Tain"t fair. It"s my horse," he growled.
"You know better," said Mrs. Grimes, calmly. "And you expect Mr.
Grimes to find you a good job, do you? You wanted to get to be watchman, or the like, in town? If I tell Henry about this what chance do you suppose you"ll ever have at _that_ job?"
"Mebbe I"ll get it, anyway," grinned Poc.o.c.k.
"And maybe you won"t," said Mrs. Grimes, calmly.
Meanwhile Laura and Eve, after thanking the butcher"s wife, drove on.
But Hester never looked at them, or spoke.
CHAPTER XII
"OUT OF IT"
For on that Sat.u.r.day morning Mrs. Case had called at the Grimes house and asked to see Hester. The girl came down and, the moment she saw the physical instructor of Central High, seemed to know what was afoot.
"So you"ve come to tell me I"m not on the team any more, I s"pose, Mrs. Case?" she demanded, tossing her head, her face growing very red.
"I am sorry to tell you that, after your actions at the game with East High Wednesday afternoon, it has been decided that another girl nominated to your position on Team Number 1 would probably do better,"
said Mrs. Case, quietly.
"Well!" snapped Hester. "You"ve been wanting to get me off ever since last spring----"
"Hester! although we are not at school now, we are discussing school matters, and I am one of your teachers. Just as long as you attend Central High you must speak respectfully to and of your instructors, both in and out of school. Do you wish me to report your language to Mr. Sharp?"
Hester was sullenly silent for a moment
"For I can a.s.sure you," continued Mrs. Case, "that if I were to place the entire matter before him, including your general deportment at the gymnasium and on the athletic field, I feel sure your parents would be requested to remove you from the school. Do you understand that?"
"I don"t know that I would be very sorry," muttered the girl.
"You think you would not," said Mrs. Case; "but it is not so. You are too old to be taken out of one school and put in another because of your deportment. Wherever you went that fact would follow you. It would be hard work for you to live down such a reputation, Hester."
"I wish father would send me to a boarding-school, anyway."
"And I doubt if that would help you any. You will not be advised, Hester. But you will learn yet that I speak the truth when I tell you that you will be neither happy, nor popular, wherever you go, unless you control your temper."
"What do I care about those nasty girls on the Hill?" sputtered the butcher"s daughter. "They"re a lot of n.o.bodies, if they _are_ so stuck-up."
"There is not a girl in your cla.s.s, Hester, who puts on airs over you--or who attempts to," said Mrs. Case, warmly. "And you know that is so. Deep in your heart, Hester, you know just where the trouble lies.
Your lack of self-control and your envy are at the root of all your troubles in school and in athletics."
Hester only pouted; but she made no reply.
"Now I am forced to remove you from this team where--if you would keep your temper--you could be of much use. You are a good player at basketball--one of the best in Central High. And we have to deny you the privilege of playing on the champion team because----"
"Just because the other girls don"t want me to play with them!" cried the girl, angrily.
"And can they be blamed?" demanded the teacher, quite exasperated herself now. "If you had any loyalty to Central High you would not have acted as you did."
"I don"t care!" flashed out Hester.
At that Mrs. Case arose to go. "You are hopeless," she said, decisively. "I had it in mind to offer you a chance to win back your position on the team. But such consideration would be thrown away on you."
"I don"t want to play with the horrid, stuck-up things!" cried Hester, quite beside herself now with rage and mortification. "I hate them all. I don"t want any of them to be my friends. And as for your old athletics--I"m going to tell father that they"re no good and that I want to withdraw from the League."
"You may be saved the necessity for that if you haven"t a care, Hester," warned Mrs. Case, taking her departure.
It was because of this visit from the physical instructor, perhaps, that Hester fairly bullied her father at luncheon time into allowing her mother and herself to try out an automobile that an agent had wanted to sell the wholesale butcher for some time. If automobiles had been uncommon on the Hill Henry Grimes would have had one long before for his family, for he loved display, just as Hester did. But nearly every family at their end of Whiffle Street had a car.
However, Mrs. Grimes woke up enough to show interest in the matter, too, for she really liked riding in a car that ran smoothly and rapidly over the macadamized roads about Centerport; so she added her complaint to Hester"s and finally the butcher telephoned for the car to be sent up. But he would not give any time to it himself. Therefore it was that Hester and her mother appeared on the Hill road just above the Four Corners in season to extricate Laura Belding and Eve Sitz from their very uncomfortable session with Hebe Poc.o.c.k and his crowd.
"We ought to have gone along and left those girls to get out of it as best they could," snapped Hester, when the car rolled on and Laura and Eve, with the mare and colt, were out of sight.
"Why, I declare for"t!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Grimes. "You certainly do hate that Belding girl--and I don"t see a living thing the matter with her.
She"s smart an" bright--remember how she found my auto veil that you lost last spring?"
Hester had very good reason for remembering that occasion. She had always been afraid that Laura would circulate the story connected with that veil; and because Laura had kept silence Hester hated her all the more.
And now Hester allowed bitter thoughts against Mother Wit and the other members of the basketball team to fester in her mind, until she was actually insanely angry with and jealous of them.
When her mother that evening at dinner told Mr. Grimes about the actions of Hebron Poc.o.c.k, who sometimes worked for the butcher at the slaughtering plant near the Four Corners, Hester tried to smooth the matter over and suggest that Hebe was "only in fun" and was just scaring two silly girls.
"Well, I suggested him for watchman at the gymnasium," said Mr.
Grimes. "But he isn"t likely to get it. The Board has every confidence in this Bill Jackway, despite the fact that somebody seems to get into the gym. and damage things without his knowing how they do it. Bill is an easy-going fellow. That"s why I suggested Hebe Poc.o.c.k. If Hebe was on the job, he"d eat a fellow up who tried to monkey around the gym."
Hester was silent thereafter until the subject of conversation was changed.