here was a burst of laughter from the girls at this effusion, in which
Nora herself joined.

"What a delicate way of reminding me that I once was a freshman!" she
exclaimed.

"Anne has a new accomplishment," said Grace. "She can spout poetry
without trying."

"Small credit is due me," said Anne, smiling. "Anyone can twist 'Annabel
Lee' to suit the occasion."

"By the way, Anne," said Grace, "as you are a poet, you must compose a
basketball song to-day, and I'll see that the juniors all have copies.
It's time we had one. Let me see what would be a good tune?"

"'Rally Round the Flag,'" suggested Miriam Nesbit. "That has a dandy
swing to it."

Grace hummed a few bars.

"The very thing," she exclaimed. "Now, Anne, get busy at once. You'd
better sing the tune to yourself all the time you're writing it, then
you'll be sure to put more dash and spirit into it."

"I wish the day of the game were here," said Jessica plaintively.
"I have been practising a most encouraging howl. Hippy, David and
Reddy have a new one, too. Reddy says it's 'marvelously extraordinary
and appallingly great.'"

"I can imagine it to be all that and more if Hippy had anything to do
with its origin," said Nora.

"Wasn't it nice of Miss Thompson to exonerate us publicly?" asked Anne.

"She is always just," replied Grace. "I can't understand how Eleanor
could be so rude and disagreeable to her. She has disliked Miss Thompson
from the first."

"I wonder whether she apologized to Miss Thompson last night," mused
Grace.

"I feel sure that she didn't, and I am just as sure that she won't get
back until she does."

"We shall manage to exist if she doesn't," said Jessica dryly. She felt
a personal grudge against Eleanor for her accusation against Mabel, who
had grown very dear to her and whom she mothered like a hen with one
chicken.

"She'll probably appear at the game in all her glory," said Miriam
Nesbit. "She can go to that, even though she is on bad terms with the
school."

The recess bell cut short the conversation and the girls returned to
their desks with far better ideas of the coming game than of the
afternoon's lessons.

Saturday, December 12, dawned cold and clear, and the girls on both
teams were in high spirits as they hustled into their respective
locker-rooms and rapidly donned their gymnasium suits. The spectators
had not yet begun to arrive, as it was still early, so the girls
indulged in a little warming-up practice, d