ntertainments and it had been waxed not a week before.

Polly took in all these disadvantages at once and realized their
probable effect on her team.

"Don't lose your nerve or your head," she said, cautioning them before
the game started. "The lights are a bother, but try not to pay any
attention to them. If you hit them, never mind. Be careful of the floor,
and if you want to go after a ball, let the girls on the side lines look
out for you."

"I do wish they'd move back," Fanny said, almost tearfully. "They might
just as well be following you around, holding your hand? They're so
close I declare I can hear them breathing."

"The lines are awfully faint," Eleanor said, dejectedly. She was looking
hard at the big broad-shouldered girl it would be her duty to guard.

Polly glanced from one face to the other. Even Lois' and Betty's
reflected apprehension. She sighed.

"Remember," she said, as they took their places, "we're playing for
Seddon Hall."

When the first whistle blew she felt that she was facing a sure defeat
and she tried valiantly to keep her glance from straying in the
direction of the silver cup. But, as the game progressed, she discovered
that, though her team was heavily handicapped, the only danger that they
really had to face was surprise. For they had expected to fight, and
fight hard for every point, and they were totally unprepared for the
unexplainable collapse of the opposing team. From the very start, the
ball was theirs. It took time for them to recover from the shock before
they could use their advantage. Before the end of the first half,
Whitehead had put in four substitutes.

"What can be the matter?" Lois demanded between halves. "Why, they're
not putting up any fight at all."

"They're all sick," Betty said. "Both the centers have terrible colds.
It's a shame."

The second half was a repetition of the first, and Seddon Hall won an
easy victory.

[Illustration: Polly felt that she had not really earned the cup when it
was presented to her at the close of the game.]

Polly felt that she had not really earned the cup when it was
presented to her at the close of the game.

The score was twenty-seven to nothing in their favor.

"It's too bad your team are all laid up," she said to the other captain.
"I'm sorry; I know that we would never have made such a score if you'd
all been well."

The other girl smiled. "Why you won it fairly," she said. "We played a
miserable game. A few