human
Betty, said she,
gpt
I'm really in earnest about your being on the hockey team. I'm afraid not enough of the girls are going to take an interest. I mean the kind of girls that count. You are so quick and graceful about your swimming and good at everything you do, and I saw you play hockey once last year.
human
I haven't a quarter about me, I'm afraid,
gpt
A quarter--what for? asked Selma before she sensed what Betty meant.
human
Oh, that's all right. You needn't pay me for the compliments, and I'm not saying it just to get you to be on the team. Miss Fox has charge of the hockey this year and she asked me to keep an eye out for good material. The team is pretty well made up, I guess, and she says that I should be captain, but that is as it may be, Betty. Please don't mention my speaking of it to you.
gpt
But I want a second team to play against, and a good one at that. I'd give a lot for the sophomores to beat the other classes at hockey.
human
Hurrah for the sophomores, remarked Betty.
gpt
I can't get used to our being sophomores, Selma, but isn't it nice not to be freshmen any longer?
human
Yes, though we _were_ such unusually fine ones! Selma chuckled.
gpt
We're a good deal of a mob yet, but not like the freshman bunch. Were we really like that last year?
human
I suppose so. Well, Selma, I don't know what to say about the hockey proposition. I'm pretty sure that Mother thinks hockey too rough. Perhaps not exactly that, either; and I did like to play last year occasionally, just on the side. Possibly, if it is just as a sort of substitute, I might do it. I'm a full-fledged G. A. A. and ought to help out where I can, oughtn't I?
gpt
It's your duty to be a good sophomore, too.
human
I remember how seriously I took everything last year, said Betty,
gpt
Not to break up a team, though, Betty.
human
Oh, no. I didn't mean that, and I like to do anything pretty thoroughly, too. All right, I'll see about it.
gpt
Bye,
human
Going to wait for Lucia Coletti?
gpt
No; she knows how to get to the home room now, answered Betty.
human
Anything I can do for you? Betty smiled pleasantly, though she intended to be a little reserved with Mathilde. From all she had heard, she did not have the greatest confidence in Mathilde's sincerity. But Betty was always glad to be on a friendly footing with other girls. She did
gpt
You are a bit new yourself, aren't you?
human
Oh, yes, but not like Lucia, and my work was all fixed up in plenty of time. I do feel strange in a public school and I can't say that I like it now; but if Lucia can stand it, I think I can. You don't have to know everybody, of course. Some of the boys and girls are too common--for words!
gpt
Perhaps so, she answered,
human
Oh, I suppose they all behave well enough, carelessly replied Mathilde.
gpt
They have to. But look at their clothes, and the way they talk!
human
I never dress up much for school myself, said Betty, who had a sound suspicion that the reason Mathilde was attaching herself to her this morning was her relation to Lucia Coletti.
gpt
And when it comes to language, do you know, some of the worst I've heard came from girls out of wealthy homes. So far as I'm concerned, give me the good old public schools, though I'd love to go to boarding school some time, just for the fun of it. Why, there's Lucia now!