Isabel Hunt was gracefully flying over wooden horses in the gymnasium and landed, after the last jump, in front of Lilian and Cathalina, who had just arrived after a swim in the pool. Fresh and pink after their shower, they were considering whether to take any further exercises or to let well enough alone.

“Think of swimming in the pool when there is a perfectly good lake outside!” exclaimed Lilian. “Don’t you hope this miserable cold spell will soon be over? If it doesn’t warm up before Commencement I shall be perfectly disgusted!”

“Oh, it always does. Besides, if the lake weren’t so rough, we would go in,—the lake water is always cold anyhow. We have to have a few storms once in a while. But it is fine and sunshiny today. Let’s take a run out to the athletic field.”

“All right. There are Pauline and Hilary, Isabel. I wonder if they would not like to come, too. We can practice for our fifty-yard dash.”

Lilian beckoned to Pauline and Hilary, who joined the girls presently, and the group walked to the athletic field. This was back of the gymnasium and separated by a fence from the pastures where grazed the riding horses. There were very few interscholastic events and games, but the trustees had provided enough seats under a canopy to accommodate about five hundred spectators. The tennis courts stretched beyond.

“Do you suppose that we shall be able to remain friends after the contests?” asked Isabel. “There is the collegiate field meet, in which seniors and juniors will be pitted against each other in a desperate battle. Then there are the canoe races in which the non-beatable juniors meet the unsurpassable seniors. What will happen then, who can foretell?”

The girls laughed, and Lilian said, “I was needing some new words for a poem on our athletics for the Star. ‘Non-beatable’ and ‘unsurpassable’ are good, though I am not sure how they will fit into the meter.”

“There is one thing, Isabel,” said Hilary, “which may soothe the disappointment of either side; the future success of the Whittiers, when you and Virgie win honors for us all in the inter-society debate. All our crowd are Whittiers, you know.”

“It is a great responsibility,” said Isabel, gravely shaking her head. “Absolute split in the Psyche Club unless the Whittier Society wins in debate!”

“Come on, girls,” said Hilary. “I’ll beat the bunch in a dash to the fence where the horses are looking over at us. The first one who touches it wins.”

“I accept the challenge,” said Isabel. “Line up, girls. On your mark. Get set. Go!”

The five girls scampered like mad. Five gym suits, five pairs of gym shoes on flying figures crossed the field. Cathalina gave it up when she was two-thirds of the way across and sat down in the grass to laugh. Prince, Poky and Lady Gay, were looking over the fence and had hoped for lumps of sugar, threw up their heads, snorted, and with cavortings and kicking of heels, fled, galloping over the pasture.

Isabel and Hilary touched the fence at the same time; Lilian, breathless, bumped into Pauline and both sat down suddenly. Both were convulsed with laughter, and Pauline leaned back against the fence remarking that it was by intention that she sat there. “If Lilian and I had not run into each other I would have beat you, Hilary,” she continued.

“You were laughing too much,” returned Hilary. “Isabel and I paid strict attention to business and won. Shake hands, Izzy.”

“You shake hands with the defeated, Hilary,” said Lilian, holding out her hand to Hilary, who pulled her to her feet, and hastened to hold out her other hand to Pauline. She scrambled to her feet without assistance, however.

Cathalina was still sitting on the ground embracing her knees, as the rest of the girls came toward her. “Anything the matter, Cathalina?” inquired Hilary.

“Oh, no; I was just laughing so hard I had to stop. And you ought to have seen yourselves and the way the horses looked at you. They ought to be used to such performances by this time.”

“They probably enjoyed it.”

“I shall enter the result of this contest upon the sporting page of the Greycliff Star,” said Lilian. “Will you write it up, Cathalina? You saw it all.”

“I will. Prince won in the pasture, and I suppose you want him mentioned.”

“Yes, indeed.”

On the day of the Collegiate Field Meet, almost the entire school was out to see the events. The ranks of the Faculty were invaded for judges. Patty West Norris and Miss Perin were among the popular ones. Music teachers and instructors, indeed, almost all the women teachers were present, including Miss Randolph and even Dr. Carver, who was daily becoming more human. She even had a favorite pupil among the seniors, one who had Ph.D. aspirations, in whom she was very much interested, and who returned great admiration for Dr. Carver’s attainments.

The girls were all in good spirits, the day was bright, cool but too cool, and the athletic grounds were in fine condition. There were little jokes and some fun, but this was more or less of a serious occasion, for success in the events might mean a good deal in the final athletic honors. The All-Around G’s, the class trophies, and the senior silver trophy to go to one girl for her entire school record,—all were worth striving for.

Most of the spectators were assembled, either in the seats or scattered about the field when the junior and senior teams came over from the gymnasium.

“Start up the new song, Lilian and Eloise,” said Juliet. “Here, get in front.”

There was some shifting, and Eloise and Lilian, as the “World-renowned senior songsters,” according to Isabel, took their places in front. They had collaborated on this newest of senior songs, and the singing seniors made an effective entrance on the athletic battlefield, eliciting great applause from the bleachers, where academy girls and such juniors and seniors as were not taking part in the contest, with the faculty not engaged as judges, were gathered. The tune was lively, and the girls made great effort to have the words clearly sung:

The senior girls wore their colors, silver and blue, around their arms in a band, and after parading in front of the spectators they settled down on the benches, to wait until the contests began. The juniors, likewise wearing their colors, green and gold, modestly let the seniors have their little parade, applauded the song, and scattered around in groups. As usual, there were more juniors taking part than seniors.

“Deeds, not words,” announced Isabel.

Cathalina and Betty were going to take part in the broad jump, the relay broad jump, and in the basket-ball and base-ball throwing, but would not run. Juliet was the star runner among the seniors and they expected her to score high in the high jump. Eloise, too, was quick and good at either high or low hurdles. After much practice, in the gymnasium and outside, for these several school years, the girls knew pretty well the ability of the different girls entered for the events. The great question, however, was who would win. There is something exciting about any contest, for often the most surprising things occur, and no one is sure of the result until the end.

First a fifty-yard dash was called. Four ran at a time and four teachers were taking the time for each heat. Two seniors and two juniors ran first, Juliet and Jane Mills, Isabel, and a chubby little junior, who did not look as if she could run, but did. It was quite evident that Juliet made the best time. Sometimes it was hard to tell, when the contestants were more evenly matched. Hilary and Lilian were called next and ran with Virginia Hope and another junior.

“Hilary and Lilian are pretty nearly even,” said Cathalina to Betty. “I shouldn’t be surprised if they do pretty well.”

“Look at Virgie!” exclaimed Betty. “She is just skimming over the ground! I didn’t know she could run like that! Good for you, Virgie,” she called, as Virginia came off the track and toward them.

“Thanks, dear enemy.”

There were many entered for the first dash and some time was spent, but at last it was finished; the judges and timekeepers consulted, and presently announced the winners as Juliet Howe for first place, Hilary Lancaster, second, and Virginia Hope, third.

“Two seniors!” exclaimed Eloise. “First place counts five, and second place three, and the juniors only one point. That is a fine start for us.”

The standing broad jump came on next. In this, again, there were many entries. Cathalina, to her horror, was called on first to jump. She had not outgrown all her timidity and the eyes of all this audience were almost too much for her. Her first effort was graceful but short. “Try it again, Cathalina,” called Hilary encouragingly when her turn came again. “Never mind how you look, but jump for your class!” Spurred on by this, Cathalina gave a prodigious leap and did very well indeed. She took her third chance, but did not surpass her second attempt. Patricia Norris and Miss Perin were very busy measuring and recording. To her own surprise, Lilian had made the best record in this event, Virginia won second place, and Dorothy Appleton, third.

“Six points for the seniors,” was Betty’s comment, “and three for the juniors in this event.”

“We are still ahead,” said Eloise, “and a good deal ahead.”

“Yes, on this, but is anybody watching the ball throwing? I guess we can’t keep track of it all.”

“Evelyn is watching that. Diane and Pauline are doing some fine basket-ball throwing. They’re calling you, Betty, now.”

The bleachers were deserted, everybody wanting a closer view of the jumping and ball throwing, which were going on at the same time. The spectators stood around in groups, according to their interest in the several events.

“Let’s have the relay broad jump, Miss Perin, while everybody is in the jumping mood, can’t we?” asked Cathalina.

“It is on next,” replied Miss Perin, “then the hurdles, and last the relay race.”

The relay broad jump started badly for the seniors. Jane Mills fully expected to break the record, she said afterward, but slipped, digging her heel firmly into the ground, yet, alas, sitting down back of them. The distance measured from where she sat to the starting place was not one to boast about. Hilary really did break the record, but Isabel, roused to a supreme effort, landed six inches beyond Hilary’s mark, and although she fell, it was forward and did not spoil her feat. The juniors loudly applauded her, both then and later when they had won the event.

In the ball throwing, meanwhile, Pauline, Diane and Juliet were making fine records, but Hilary went over from the relay jumping to win first place in throwing the basket-ball, and was second to Diane’s first in throwing the base-ball. Juniors scored among all those entered for the hurl ball event.

“There are so many of them,” sighed Evelyn, “that they have more chances to win.”

“I don’t know that it makes so much difference,” replied Dorothy, “if we have an expert or two on.”

“But we haven’t enough experts to be in everything when we are limited in entering events.”

“They don’t want us to overdo our little selves,” answered Dorothy with a smile.

Lilian in the “sixty yard low hurdle,” and Eloise in the high hurdle were light and graceful, carrying off the honors. Juliet, to the surprise of every one, was only second in the high hurdle. Juniors won second and third place in the low hurdle event.

“Oh, why didn’t you do the low hurdle, too?” Lilian regretfully asked Eloise.

“They wouldn’t let me enter any more, and I really forgot it when I entered to my limit in the other events.”

A seventy-five-yard dash followed the hurdle events, and last came the interesting relay race. One senior and one junior ran, handing the stick to the next senior and junior, and so one. This was the most exciting of all the events. The spectators stood as close to the track as they were permitted to come, the academy girls rooting for their favorites.

In this event, the juniors started under a handicap, for one of their best runners turned her ankle, and could scarcely get over the remaining distance. It was to Virginia that she handed her stick, but although Virgie ran like the wind, the seniors were already much in the lead. Some of the ground lost was recovered by the juniors, but at the end the junior stumbled and fell.

“Goodbye, juniors!” exclaimed Isabel as the senior covered the distance to the final goal before the junior had risen to her feet. “I most certainly didn’t think it would be as bad as that!”

The events were over. All that remained was the announcement by the judges of the winning class, and the awarding of the trophy. The girls who had not kept account of the results in the separate events were uncertain, some hoping, each for her own class.

“I am sure that we have it,” said Evelyn, running over her record and comparing it with that of another senior girl.

At last Miss Randolph rose from a seat in the bleachers where she had been conferring with the judges, and announced that the silver cup was awarded to the senior class. The events have been of unusual interest said she. “Both classes deserve great credit for their good work and spirit of good sportsmanship. I congratulate the seniors, and remind the juniors that they have another year.”