When the two teams appeared on the field there were shouts of enthusiasm from the friends of the players, and the band burst forth with the High School song, in which the students joined.

After the usual preliminaries, the game began, and for the next hour everything else was forgotten save the battle that waged between the two teams.

Miriam Nesbit, Eva Allen and Marian Barber, with their guests, joined Grace’s party, and soon the place they occupied became the very center of enthusiasm.  Reddy, who was playing left end on the home team, received an ovation every time he made a move, and when towards the end of the game he made a touchdown, his friends nearly split their loyal throats in expressing their approval.

It was over at last, and Oakdale had won a complete victory over the Georgetown foe, who took their defeat with becoming grace.  As soon as Reddy could free himself from the grasp of his school fellows, who would have borne him from the field in triumph if he had not stoutly resisted, he hurried to his friends, who showered him with congratulations.

“O you Titian-haired star!” cried Hippy, clasping his hands in mock admiration.  “You are the rarest jewel in the casket.  Words fail to express my feelings.

“’O joy, O bliss, O rapture!  Let happiness now hap! 
I am a sea of gurgling glee, with ecstacy on tap.’”

Hippy recited this effusion in a killing falsetto voice, and endeavored to embrace Reddy fervently, but was dragged back by Tom and David, to Reddy’s visible relief.

“He’s the idol of the hour.  Don’t put your irreverent hands on him,” was David’s injunction.

“But I adore idols,” persisted Hippy.  “Let me at him.”

“Quit it, fat one!” growled Reddy, with a grin.  “I’ll settle with you later.”

With gay laughter and jest, the young folks made their way from the grounds and started down the road toward home.

The whole party, walking four abreast, had just turned the curve where the road ended and Main Street began, when there was a hoarse honk! honk! and a runabout decorated in blue and white, containing Eleanor and Edna Wright, bore down upon them at lightning speed.  The girls, uttering little cries of alarm, scattered to both sides of the road, with the exception of Mabel Allison, who, in her hurry to get out of the way, stumbled and fell directly in the path of the oncoming machine.

CHAPTER XIII

A THANKSGIVING FROLIC

But sudden as had been Mabel’s fall, Grace Harlowe was equal to the emergency.  With a bound she reached the middle of the road, seized Mabel and dragged her back just as the runabout passed over the place where she had fallen.  It almost grazed her outstretched hand, then shot on down the road without slackening its speed for an instant.

There was a cry of horror from the young folks that ended in a sigh of relief.  David and Tom Gray quickly raised Mabel to her feet and turned to Grace, whose face was ghastly, while she trembled like a leaf.  The reaction had set in the moment she realized that Mabel was safe.  Jessica and Nora had both begun to cry, while the faces of the others fully expressed their feelings.