to understand a game when you see only one
match. I was confused myself, but I know each side tries for a
different goal, and there are `backs' and `half-backs' and `forwards,'
just as at football, and, whatever you do, you must not raise your stick
above your waist. It's a murderous-looking game, anyhow. I wondered
that they weren't all killed; and one girl's hand was bleeding horribly.
I asked her if it was very painful, and she stared and said, `Oh, I
hadn't noticed it!' and mopped it up with her handkerchief. Awfully
callous, I call it."

"Oh, I don't know!" replied Rhoda, airily. "Those flesh wounds don't
hurt. I should never think of taking any notice of a little thing like
that. Well, I can't say I am very much wiser for your instructions, my
dear, but I will pump Harold and see what I can get out of him. I have
no doubt I could hit all right, for I have a quick eye, and if you can
play one or two games it helps you with the rest. But I should be
pretty mad if I made a hit and they whistled at me and made me come
back. I like to know what I am about."

"You had better be a goal-keeper," advised Ella, wisely; "you have no
running to do until the ball comes your way, and then at it you go,
tooth and nail! Stop it somehow--anyhow--with your hands, your feet,
your skirt, your stick. I believe there is an etiquette about it, don't
you know, as there is about all those things, and that it's more swagger
to stop it one way than another, but the main thing is to stop it
_somehow_, and that you simply must do!"

"Humph! If you can! What happens if you can't?"

"Emigrate to Australia by the first boat! I should think so, at least,
to judge by the faces of the other girls when one poor creature _did_
let a ball in. Feerocious, my dear! there was no other word for it. My
heart ached for her. But it was a stupid miss, for it looked so easy.
I felt sure I could have stopped it."

"It's all a matter of nerve. If you lose your head you are sure to play
the fool at a critical moment. Fraulein was like that. The moment the
game went against her she began to hop about, and puff and pant, and
work herself into such a fever that she couldn't even see a ball, much
less hit it. I kept calm, and so of course I always won."

It did strike Ella that victory under such circumstances would be easily
gained, but she was too loyal to say so, and Rhoda leant back against
the cushions of the sofa, and continued to di