CHAPTER II--ATHLETICS--PRO AND CON
Billy Long (called "Short and Long" because of his diminutive stature)galloped on to the street corner, shouting "Fire! Fire!" in anastonishingly weak voice. Billy was so excited that it choked him!
On the corner was one of the city fire-alarm boxes. There was no placeof deposit of the key indicated upon the box; but it had a glass front.Billy looked wildly about for a stick, or stone, with which to break theglass. There appeared to be nothing of the kind at hand.
Down the side street, not half a block away, was the fire station; butthat fact never crossed Master Billy's mind. Besides, the importance ofhaving a legitimate reason for sending in an alarm was the prominentidea in Short and Long's mind at that moment.
He glanced back once and saw the spiral of smoke rising behind the broadplate glass window of the grocery store. Laura Belding stood before itunable, as he had been for the moment when he first sighted it, to do athing. Indeed, what was there to do but turn in the alarm for thedepartment?
The loaf of bread nestling in its bed of tissue paper was already burnedto a cinder; the paper would soon be in flames.
Billy hesitated only a moment when he reached the box and found noweapon with which to break the glass. He pulled out his handkerchief,wrapped it about his knuckles, and splintered the glass with one blow.At that he cut his hand a little; but he scarcely noticed this in hiseagerness.
Standing on his tiptoes he was just able to pull down the hook inside.He could hear the alarm bell sound in the station half a block away atalmost the instant he set the telegraph to working.
By this time several citizens had run to the store front. They were allquite as excited as Billy Long, the short boy.
"Tom's locked up and gone!" cried one, shaking the latch of the storedoor.
"Of course he has--gone to the ball game!" said another.
"This door'll have to be smashed in."
"No! break the window pane!"
"Lock will cost less than the glass," cried another man.
"That burning glass is what did it," said one more reflective man. "Fooltrick--that was."
"That young one of his did it," declared the first speaker. "Always upto some trick or other."
"Say! where's the fire department? They must have all gone to the ballgame, too."
"I'm going to break the glass in this door!" shouted the first man toarrive.
"What good will that do?" cried his friend, mopping his brow. "There'sthe wire screen behind it. You can't bust _that_ with your fist."
"Break the big window, then!"
"No! Smash the lock of the door."
But they had no tools with which to do this. Had there been a loosepaving block in the street the urgent man would surely have burst in thebig plate glass. Just then a man with a helmet on his head and an axe inhis hand rushed around the corner--the first fireman on the scene.
"Where is it, boy?" he demanded of Billy Long. "You rang in the alarm,didn't you?"
"Here it is, Ned!" yelled one of the men in front of the grocery store."You've got to break down this door to git to it."
"You got to break the window--that's quickest!" declared the insistentman.
The fireman ran to the door. He poised his axe for a blow as the othersstood back. But suddenly Laura Belding halted the whole proceedings.
"Wait! wait a moment!" she cried, darting to the side of the window.
The fireman looked over his shoulder at her. The girl, with nimblefingers, released the awning ropes. In half a minute the heavy awningdropped over the walk and shut out the hot rays of the sun. The cinderof bread stopped smoking. _The fire was out!_
"Well! don't that beat all?" cackled one of the men.
The fireman grinned sheepishly and walked to the middle of theshow-window to make sure that the danger was really over.
"You've got a head on you--that's what you've got!" he said to Laura.
"She's Belding's daughter--a smart little girl," declared another of themen.
The engine and hose carriage came tearing around the corner just then.From up the street thundered the ladder-truck, three huge horsesabreast. A crowd came running to the scene.
Laura slipped away, and found Short and Long at her side.
"Huh!" he said, with a grimace. "I thought I was going to be a hero.You've got me beat, Laura. You stole my laurel wreath right off myhead!"
"You ought to have used what's in your head a little better, Billy,"returned the girl, laughing. "What is your gray matter for?--as ProfessorDimple would say."
"Huh! Old Dimple! That's exactly what he would say. He certainly doesstick the gaff into us," grumbled the short boy. "I've got a page ofVirgil extra to translate between now and Monday morning. He's a meanold hunks."
"Such language!" sighed Laura. "I should think you needed extra work inEnglish, not Latin, Billy."
"I don't need extra work at all," proclaimed Master Billy, with scorn."I've got too much work as it is. And he and Mr. Sharp between themthreaten to cut me out of the ball team altogether this season if Idon't catch up. And what's the team going to do for a short stop?"
"Well, Miss Carrington tells us girls that if we are going in forathletics we have all got to have good marks, too. Only the girls whostand high can join the new athletic association. Some of the lazy girlswill be disappointed, I fear."
"Are you girls really going in for athletics?" demanded Billy.
"We are. Why shouldn't we? It isn't fair for you boys to have all thefun."
"And they say they are going to start girls' branches in East and WestHigh, too?"
"Yes. We want to have inter-school matches. Inter-class matches areforbidden right at the start. The doctor says there must be no rivalryamong classes."
"Yah! but there will be," said Billy. "There always is. Purt Sweetpretty near broke up the ball team this season because he couldn'tplay."
"Now we girls will show you how much nicer we can conduct affairs,"laughed Laura. "We sha'n't squabble."
"Oh, no!" scoffed Billy. "What do you s'pose Hessie Grimes will do ifshe isn't allowed to boss everything? Didn't she and that chum of hers,Lil Pendleton, break up the class supper last year--when we werefreshmen? Oh, no!"
"Well, that won't happen again," said Laura, firmly.
"Why not?"
"Because the rest of us girls will not agree to follow her," declaredLaura, confidently.
"You know she won't play if she can't be 'it,'" grinned Billy.
"Now you see," returned Laura, good naturedly, and a moment later sheparted from the short boy.
She had not walked another block toward the schoolhouse when she heard avoice calling her name:
"Laura! Laura Belding!"
"Why, Jess!" exclaimed Laura, eagerly. "I was afraid you wouldn't come."
Josephine, or "Jess," Morse was a taller girl than her friend, withbright gray eyes, and hair of that "fly-away" variety that never _will_look smooth. Despite Miss Morse's bright eyes she often did the mostridiculous things quite thoughtlessly. Her mind was of the "wandering"variety. And almost always one could find an ink stain on her finger.This marked her among her girl friends, at least, as being "literary."And, as the old folk say, "she came by it naturally." Her mother, Mrs.Mary Morse, had some little reputation as a writer for the magazines.
"Yes," said Miss Morse, putting her arm around her chum's waist as theywalked on together. "I just _had_ to come. If you are going in forathletics, Laura, of course I've got to."
"Too bad," laughed her friend. "You're just whipped into it, I suppose?"
"I just am."
"Why, it will be fun, Jess!"
"Who says so? I'd lots rather go to the theater--or to a party--or even goshopping. And you can't dress up and play those horrid games the gym.teacher tells about."
"But you like to play tennis."
"Er--well---- Yes, I play tennis. I like it because there aren't many ofthe girls--nor the boys, either--who can beat me at that. I've got such alon
g reach, you see," said the tall girl, with satisfaction.
"Then you'd like any athletic game in which you could excel?"
"Why--I suppose so," admitted Miss Morse.
"That's a poor attitude in which to approach school athletics," saidLaura with a sigh.
"Why is it?"
"Because, as I understand it, we should play for the sport's sake, notso much to win every time. That's the way to play the game. And that iswhat Mrs. Case will tell us to-day, I know."
"She will be at the meeting, I suppose?"
"And Miss Carrington."
"Oh--Gee Gee! Of course. To keep us up in our deportment," said Jess,making a face.
"You all find her so strict," observed Laura, seriously. "She treats menicely."
"Why, you know very well, Laura, that you never in your life didanything to get a teacher mad."
"I don't know what you mean by that. We don't go to school to playtricks on the teachers. I want them to respect me. And father and motherwould be disappointed if I brought home a bad report, especially indeportment."
"Oh, I know!" said Jess. "For a girl who likes fun as you do, you domanage to keep concealed all your superabundance of spirits--in school,at least. But some of us have just _got_ to slop over."
"'Slop over!'"
"Yes, Miss Nancy. Don't be a prude in your English, too," laughed Jess."Say! did you hear how Bobby got Gee Gee going yesterday in chemistryclass?"
Laura shook her head, seeing that it would be useless to take her chumto task further on the topic of slang.
"Why, Gee Gee had been expatiating at great length on the impossibilityof really creating, or annihilating, anything--the indestructibility ofmatter, you know."
"I see," said Laura, nodding.
"Oh, she brought up the illustrations in ranks and platoons, andregiments. I guess she thought she had got the fact hammered home atlast, for she said: 'You absolutely cannot make _anything_.' And thenBobby speaks up, just as innocent, and says: 'But, Miss Carrington,can't we make a noise that didn't exist before?'
"And what do you think?" cried Jess, giggling, "Poor Bobby got a blackmark for it. Gee Gee said she did it to make the class laugh."
"And Bobby did, didn't she?" said Laura, but laughing, too.
"Oh, we laughed all right. But the lesson was practically over. Gee Geeought to be glad if we can leave her class room in anything but a floodof tears!" completed Jess, as they came to Central High School.