"You are our captain," she declared to Grace, "and the best center
I ever saw on a girls' team. It would be folly to change now. Don't
you agree with me, girls?"

Nora was detailed as left forward, while Marian Barber and Eva Allen
played right and left guards. The substitutes were also assigned their
positions and practice began.

Before they had been on the floor twenty minutes the girls were
thoroughly alive to the joy of the game and worked with the old-time
dash and spirit that had won them the championship the previous year.
Now that they were in harmony with each other, they played with
remarkable unity, and after an hour's practice Grace decided that they
were in a fair way to "whip the seniors off the face of the earth."

"I never saw you girls work better!" she exclaimed. "It will be a sorry
day for the seniors when we line up on the twelfth."

"There'll be a great gnashing of senior teeth after the game," remarked
Nora confidently.

"Do you know, girls," said Grace, as they left the gymnasium that
afternoon, "I am sorry that Eleanor won't be peaceable. I wanted her to
like every bit of our school life and thought she'd surely be interested
in basketball. I suppose she will stay away from the game merely
because we are on the team. It is really a shame for her to be so
unreasonable."

"Grace Harlowe, are you ever going to stop mourning over Eleanor?" cried
Miriam impatiently. "She doesn't deserve your regret and is too selfish
to appreciate it. I know what I am talking about because I used to be
just as ridiculous as she is, and knowing what you suffered through me,
I can't bear to see you unhappy again over some one who is too trivial
to be taken seriously."

"You're a dear, Miriam!" exclaimed Nora impulsively.

It was the first time that the once haughty Miriam had ever referred
publicly to past shortcomings, although from the time she and Grace had
settled their difficulties at the close of the sophomore year, she had
been a changed girl.

"Where are Anne and Jessica to-day?" asked Eva Allen.

"Anne and Jessica have refused point blank to honor us with their
presence during practice," announced Nora. "I asked Jessica to-day, and
she said that they didn't want to know how we intended to play, for then
they could wax enthusiastic and make a great deal more noise. It is
their ambition to become loud and loyal fans."

"What a worthy ambition," said Marian Barber, with a giggle. "They are
such nois