Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/140

130 "We ought to beat her—she'll get too uppity to live with," declared Bobby, discussing these games.

"It will do us good to be beaten occasionally," laughed Laura. "You begin to think, Bobby, that you must belong to the winning side all the time."

"Yes. Who doesn't?" sniffed Miss Hargrew. "It's all right—all this talk about playing the game for the game's sake; but right down in the bottom of our hearts, don't all of us play to win? If we don't, we never play well, that's as sure as shooting."

When the school re-opened, however, on the first Monday in January, the subject uppermost in the minds of the girls of Central High was the prize contest in play-writing for the M. O. R's. The girls crowded into Assembly that morning, all on the qui vive to hear what the principal would have to say.

But after the opening exercises, when Mr. Sharp came forward to speak, he surprised everybody by saying:

"We are not ready to report upon the matter of the plays. Mr. Monterey will confer with us at noon, and before school is dismissed to-day we will announce the winner.

"It is not often that a committe having in