st
when we please."

"They look topping sports!" commented Doreen.

Everything was now in perfect order; the teams were placed, and the
umpire blew her whistle for the match to begin. As the account of such a
contest is always much more interesting when narrated by an actual
spectator, and as Nora wrote a long and accurate description of it
afterwards to a cousin at school in London, I will insert her letter,
and allow it to speak for itself.

(_This letter is an account of a real match, written by a real
schoolgirl._)

"Grovebury College.

"_My Dear Margaret_,

"I simply must tell you about the hockey match we played last
Saturday!

"The team played the Clinton High School Old Girls' Association at
Denscourt. Our girls were awfully keen to meet them, and were not
at all daunted by the fact that they were exceptionally strong.

"About twenty of us went as spectators, and as we were about to set
off to the station with the Eleven, Rachel Grant, the Left Inner,
received a telegram, conveying news of her mother's serious
illness. To our great misfortune, she was obliged to go home at
once, and the first girl on the Reserve, Ingred Saxon, had to fill
her place.

"Miss Giles, the Games Mistress, went on to get the tickets, and,
in spite of some delay, we managed to meet her in time to catch the
train. It is ten miles from here to Denscourt, and we arrived there
in about twenty minutes.

"The field is not very far from the railway station. The team girls
were taken to the pavilion, and when they were ready, the captain
tossed up. Veronica Hall, the opposing captain, who is a tall
strong girl, and a fine hockey player, won the toss, and chose to
play against the wind for the first half. At exactly eleven, the
center forwards, Blossom and Veronica, began the bully-off. There
were three dull clashes as their sticks met, and then with a
dexterous stroke, Blossom passed the ball to her Right Inner, Janie
Potter. Before she could strike, the wing on the opposite side
captured the ball, and with a clean drive sent it spinning down the
field. It was soon stopped, however, by Doreen Hayward, the Right
Half, who, after successfully dribbling it past the enemy Inner,
sent it hard out to Aline West, the School Right Wing. Soon Aline
had the ball half-way up the field, but