colds shouldn't have made all that difference. I
don't know what happened to us."

"Well, you'll have a chance for revenge next year," Polly answered with
a parting nod.

The return of the team lacked something of its triumphal spirit. There
is never the same feeling of exhilaration over an easily won struggle
that there is over a hard fought one. And though the rest of the girls
welcomed the return of the cup, there was a general feeling of sympathy
for the other team, rather than enthusiastic praise for their own.

Polly and Betty were still puzzling over the whole thing two days later
in the study hall, when Lois joined them and solved the mystery.

"I have an awful sore throat. What do you suppose is the matter with
me? I don't feel like doing a thing," she said.

"Better go and see Miss King," Polly advised. "You look sort of tired
and sick."

"I think I will," Lois said.

In the Infirmary a few minutes later, Miss King looked down her throat
and prodded the outside. "How long have you felt this way?" she asked.

"Only yesterday and to-day," Lois told her. "Don't say I have to go to
bed, please."

"Sorry," Miss King said, briskly, "but you do. Don't go downstairs
again; go right in here; I'll get your things."

"What have I got?" Lois demanded.

The nurse shook her head. "Nothing much, I hope," she said, "but I want
you to go to bed."

Next morning Lois awoke in the Infirmary to see Miss King standing at
the foot of the bed.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked, sleepily.

Miss King gave her a hand glass before replying.

Lois sat up in bed and looked at herself. Both sides of her face were
swollen.

"Mumps!" she exclaimed. "Oh, what a sight I am," she added, laughing.

Polly and Betty came up to inquire for her, after breakfast, and heard
the news.

"Mumps!" they both said at once. And Polly cried. "Why, Betty, that's
what was wrong with the Whitehead team."

"Of course, sore throats and everything. I'll bet they all came down
with it the next day," Betty exclaimed. "No wonder they couldn't play
any kind of a game."

Lois did not remain alone in the Infirmary for long. One by one the team
joined her. Polly was the first. During study hour that night her throat
began to hurt. She felt it; it was suspiciously lumpy.

"Here I am," she said the next morning, when Miss King had pronounced it
mumps.

"Oh, Poll!" Lois was delighted. "You look funnier than I do. Only one
side is swelling a