he possibly can," Polly added.

"Mother and Dad will surely be here," Lois said, "and so will Bob; but
he'll be late."

"There will be more visitors than usual for to-morrow, won't there?"
Mrs. Baird asked. "You'll have to win the game, Polly."

"If I don't, I'll hide somewhere and never show my face again," Polly
answered. "Think how awful it would be to lose on our own floor, and
with visitors to witness the defeat."

"Well, don't worry about it," Mrs. Baird advised. "You know the best
team always wins."

"We beat last year. So this year it's their turn," Angela teased.

The next day the visitors began to arrive on the noon train. All morning
the girls had been busy decorating the gym and practicing songs. By
luncheon time everything was ready, and the Fenwick school team arrived
in one big carryall, followed by another, filled with their friends and
well-wishers. Polly, as captain, was so busy with her duties that she
had only a minute now and then to think of the game.

Dr. and Mrs. Farwell came among the first guests and she and Lois
happened to be in the front hall when they arrived.

"Where's Uncle Roddy?" Polly asked, after she had greeted them, "and
where, oh, where is Bob?"

"Roddy will be up later," the doctor told her.

"And Bob may not be able to come," Mrs. Farwell explained. "You see he
wants to be here surely for the dance--"

"Jim's coming too, isn't he?" Lois interrupted. "He wrote he would."

"Yes; they'll both be here to-morrow without fail," her mother assured
her. "And Bob will come to-day, if he possibly can."

But there was no sign of him when Polly glanced up at the visitors'
gallery, as the Seddon Hall team marched into the gym at two o'clock.

"There's a train due now; maybe he's on that," Lois whispered under
cover of the singing.

"What a bunch of people," Betty exclaimed, looking around the room.

Every seat in the gallery was filled with friends and relatives, and the
girls had been forced to find places on the floor downstairs.

The teams stopped and faced each other in the center of the floor.
Polly's heart sank; somehow the Fenwick team looked more imposing in gym
suits than she had expected, and she remembered that one of the guards
had told her they had won every game they had played that year.

"Perhaps," she thought, "it's just as well Bob isn't here."

They took their places on the floor, and Miss Stewart blew the whistle.
In a game that really counts, there i