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Page 4
"We must just make up our minds to work, girls," she exhorted her friends.
"I would rather beat those juniors than take a trip to Europe."
Nor was she alone in her desire. The other girls were just as eager to
overthrow the victorious juniors. It was evident, so strong was the
feeling in the class, that something more than a sense of sport had
stirred them to this degree of rivalry.
The former freshman class had many scores against the present juniors. As
sophomores, the winter before, they had never missed an opportunity to
annoy and irritate the freshmen in a hundred disagreeable ways. "The
Black Monks of Asia" still rankled in their memories. Moreover, was not
Julia Crosby, the junior captain? She was the same mischievous sophomore
who had created so much havoc at the Christmas ball. She was always
playing unkind practical jokes on other people. It is true, she was an
intimate and close friend of Miriam Nesbit, but they all were aware that
Miriam was a law unto herself, and none of them had ever attempted to
explain certain doings of hers in connection with Julia Crosby and her
friends during the freshman year.
Grace's mind was busy with these thoughts when the door of the gymnasium
opened noisily. There was a whoop followed by cries and calls and in
rushed the junior players, most of them dressed in gymnasium suits.
Julia Crosby, at their head, had come with so much force, that she now
slid halfway across the room, landing right in the midst of the
sophomores.
"I beg your pardon," said Grace, who had been almost knocked down by the
encounter, "I suppose you did not notice us. But you see, now, that we are
in the midst of practising. The gym. is ours for the afternoon."
Julia Crosby looked at her insolently and laughed.
How irritating that laugh had always been to the rival class of younger
girls. It had a dozen different shades of meaning in it--a nasty,
condescending contemptuous laugh, Grace thought, and such qualities had no
right to be put in a laugh at all, since laughing is meant to show
pleasure and nothing else. But Julia Crosby always laughed at the wrong
time; especially when there was nothing at which to laugh.
"Who said the gym. was yours for the afternoon?" she asked.
"Miss Thompson said so," answered Grace. "I asked her, this morning, and
she gave us permission, as she did to you last Monday, when the boys were
all out at the football grounds."
"Have you a written permission?" asked Julia Crosby, laughing again, so
disagreeably that hot-headed Nora was obliged to turn away to keep from
saying something unworthy of herself.
"No," answered Grace, endeavoring to be calm under these trying
circumstances, but her voice trembling nevertheless with anger. "No, I
have no written permission and you had none last Monday. You know as well
as I do that the boys principal is willing to lend us the gym. as often as
we like during football season, when it is not much in use; and that Miss
Thompson tries to divide the time as evenly as possible among the girls."
"I don't know anything about that, Miss Harlowe," said Julia Crosby. "But
I do know that you and your team will have to give up the gymnasium at
once, because our team is in a hurry to begin practising."
Then a great chattering arose. Every sophomore there except Miriam Nesbit
raised a protesting voice. Grace held up her hand for silence, then
summoning all her dignity she turned to Julia Crosby.
"Miss Crosby," she said, "you have evidently made a mistake. We have had
permission to use the gymnasium this afternoon, which I feel sure you have
not had. It was neither polite nor kind to break in upon us as you did,
and the least you can do is to go away quietly without interrupting us
further."
"Really, Miss Harlowe," said Julia Crosby, and again her tantalizing laugh
rang out, "you are entirely too hasty in your supposition. As it happens,
I have the best right in the world to bring my team to the gym. this
afternoon. So, little folks," looking from one sophomore to another in a
way that was fairly maddening, "run away and play somewhere else."
"Miss Crosby," cried Grace, now thoroughly angry, "I insist on knowing
from whom you received permission. It was not granted by Miss Thompson."
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