CHAPTER XVIII.
THE FOOTBALL GAME
During those fast flying weeks which tread on one another's heels sorapidly between Thanksgiving and Christmas, came one of the mostimportant events of the season.
It was announced on the bulletin board as the "Harboard-Snail FootballGame," and was, in fact, a grand burlesque on a game played not longbefore between two university teams.
Quite half of the Wellington students took part in the affair and thosewho were not actively engaged were placed in the cheer sections to yellthemselves hoarse. There were a dozen doctors, an ambulance, stretcherbearers, trained nurses and the two teams in proper football attire.
Everybody in college turned out one Saturday afternoon to witness thiselaborate parody. A coach drove over from Exmoor fairly alive withstudents, and the fields outside the Wellington athletic grounds wereblack with people.
Judy was a member of the corps of physicians who were all dressed alikein frock coats reaching well below the knees, gray trousers and silkhats. They had imposing mustaches, carried bags of instruments and werethe most ludicrous of all the actors that day.
But it was the stretcher bearers who seemed to excite the greatestmerriment in the grand parade which took place before the game began.They were dressed something like "Slivers," the famous clown, in fullwhite pantaloons and long white coats cut in at the waist with wideskirts. The members of the cheering sections which headed the grandcolumn were dressed in every sort of absurd burlesque of a college boy'sclothes that could be devised.
"How they ever collected all those ridiculous costumes is a marvel tome," exclaimed President Walker to Dr. McLean, whose face had turned anapoplectic purple from laughter and who occasionally let out a roar ofjoy that could be heard all the way across the field.
Following the cheering sections in the parade were the two teams, hardlyrecognizable at all as human beings. Their wigs of tousled hair stoodout all over their heads like the petals of enormous chrysanthemums.Most of them wore nose guards or their faces were made up in a savageand barbaric fashion. In their wadded football suits, stuffed out of allhuman recognition, they resembled trussed fowls. In the vanguard of thisstrange and ludicrous procession stalked a gigantic figure of Liberty.She was about fifteen feet high, and her draperies reached to theground. Her long red hair blew in the breezes and she carried aWellington banner, which she majestically waved over the heads of themultitude. By her side ran a dwarf. They were the mascots of the twosides.
"Why, if that isn't our little friend, Miss Molly Brown," exclaimedDr. McLean, pointing to Liberty. "She's a bonnie lass and a sweet one.Think now, of her being able to walk on those sticks without losingher balance. It's a verra great achievement, I'm thinking, for agiddy-headed young woman. For they're all giddy-headed at seventeen orthereabouts."
It was indeed Molly, the only girl in all Wellington who could walk onstilts. The seniors had advertised in _The Commune_ for a first-class"stiltswoman," and Molly had promptly offered her services. Jessie hadbeen selected as the dwarf.
"I hope the child won't fall and break her neck," said Mrs. McLean onthe other side of the doctor. "It's verra dangerous. Suppose she shouldbecome suddenly faint----"
"Don't suppose anything of the sort, mither. You've no grounds forthinkin' the lass will tumble. She seems to be at home in the air."
Professor Green, just beyond Mrs. McLean, frowned, and put his handsin his pockets. He wondered if Dr. McLean had forgotten that he hadbeen sent for just three weeks before when Molly had fainted in thegymnasium, and the Professor breathed a sigh of relief when Libertypresently descended to the earth and the game began.
It was one of the bloodiest and roughest games in the history offootball. The ambulance bell rang constantly. Every time a victim fell,the cheering section on the other side set up a wild yell. Doctors andnurses were scattered all about the edges of the field attending to thewounded and the stretchers were busy every minute. As fast as one mantumbled another jumped into his place, and at last when there came atouchdown the players seemed to have fallen on top of each other in amad squirming mass.
People laughed that day who were rarely seen to smile. Even Miss Steel'ssevere expression relaxed into a cold, steely smile.
Molly had gathered up her long cheesecloth robe and was sitting withJessie on a bench at the side of the field.
"Isn't it perfect, Jessie?" she was saying. "I don't think I everenjoyed anything so much in all my life. It will make a wonderful letterhome."
Jessie smiled absently. With a pair of field glasses, she was searchingthe faces of the spectators for two friends (men, of course), who hadmotored over to see the sport. At her belt was pinned the most enormousbunch of violets ever seen. In fact, they were two bunches worn as one,from her two admirers. Presently Judith joined them on the bench. Eversince the Thanksgiving spread she had endeavored to be very nice toMolly.
"Hello, Ju-ju!" called Jessie; "you are a sight."
"I know it," she said. "I feel that I am a disgrace to the sex. I onlyhope I'm not recognizable."
"Your shiny black eye is the only familiar thing about you. The rest isentirely disguised."
"I think I'd recognize that ring, Miss Blount," put in Molly. "Almosteverybody knows that emerald by sight now, who knows you at all."
Judith glanced quickly at her finger.
"Do you know," she exclaimed, "I forgot I was wearing it? How stupid ofme! I am booked to take Rosamond's place in a minute. Will one of yougirls take care of it for me? I shall be much obliged."
"You'd better take it, Jessie," said Molly, looking rather doubtfully atthe ring. She had only one piece of jewelry to her name, a string ofsapphires, which had belonged to her mother when she was a girl.
But the ring was too big for Jessie's slender, pretty little fingers.
"I can't," she said, "unless I wear it on my thumb, and it might slipoff, you know. You'll have to take it, Molly."
Molly slipped it on her finger and held it up for admiration.
"It's the most beautiful ring I ever saw," she exclaimed. "It's thecolor of deep green sea water. Not that I ever saw any, but I've heardtell of it," she added, laughing.
"You don't mean to say you have never seen the ocean!" cried Judith ina pleasant tone of voice.
Molly had never seen her so amiable before.
"No," replied the freshman, "this is the nearest I have ever been toit."
"Well, thanks for taking care of my ring," went on Judith. "I'll see youafter the game," and she departed to take up her duties on the field,just as Rosamond, at the appointed time, with a gash across her face,made with finger-nail salve, was borne from the field on a stretcher.
After the game came another grand procession in which all the woundedtook part, Molly on stilts, with Jessie running beside her, as before.
All that morning Molly had felt buoyed up by the fun and excitement ofthe great burlesque. But, now that the game was over, as she strodealong on the giant stilts, she began to feel the same overpoweringfatigue she had experienced that night at the living picture show. Fora week she had been living on her nerves. Often at night she had notslept, but had tossed about on her bed trying to recall her lessons ormake mental notes of things she intended to do. On cold mornings, herfeet and hands were numb and dead and Judy often made her run across thecampus and back to start her circulation. And now that numbness began toclimb from her toes straight up her body. Molly turned unsteadily andwith shaky strides at least six feet long, hastened across the field.Her feeling that she must get out of the noise and turmoil, away fromeverybody in the world, carried her back of a row of sheds under whichthe players sat during the intermissions. Once in this quiet place shelet herself down from the stilts. She was conscious of being very cold.There was a deep red light in the western sky from the setting sun, thenthe numbness reached her brain and she remembered nothing more until sheopened her eyes and saw Dr. McLean at one side of her and ProfessorGreen at the other.
"Here she come
s back at last," exclaimed the doctor. "Aye, lass, it's agood thing this young man has an observant eye. Otherwise ye might havebeen lying out here in the cold all night. You feel better now, don'tyou?"
"Yes, doctor," answered Molly weakly.
"I don't like these fainting spells, my lass. You're not made of iron,child. You'll have to give up one thing or t'other--study or play."
But there were other things Molly did beside studying and playing. Ofcourse the doctor did not know about the "cloud-bursts" and theshoe-blacking and the tutoring.
"Aye, here comes one of my associates with a carriage," he went on,chuckling to himself. "Shall we have a consultation now, Dr. Kean?"
Judy, still in her absurd burlesque costume, had driven up in one of thevillage surreys.
As the two men lifted Molly into the back seat, she noticed for thefirst time that she was wearing a man's overcoat. It was dark blue andfelt warm and comfortable. She slipped her hands into the deep pocketsand snuggled down into its folds. Certainly she felt shivery about thespine, and her hands and feet, which were never known to be warm, werenow like lumps of ice. As the doctor was still wearing his great coat ofScotch tweed, it was evidently the coat of the Professor of EnglishLiterature she had appropriated.
"It's awfully good of you to lend me your coat," she said to ProfessorGreen, who was standing at the side of the carriage while the doctorclimbed in beside her. "I'm afraid you'll take cold without it."
"Nonsense," he said, almost gruffly, "I'm not dressed in cheesecloth."
"But I have on a white sweater under all this," said Molly timidly.
The carriage drove away, however, without his saying another word, andlater that afternoon, after Molly had taken a nap and felt rested andrefreshed, she engaged one of the maids at Queen's cottage to returnProfessor Green's overcoat with a message of thanks. Then, with a sighof relief, because when she had borrowed anything it always weighedheavily on her mind, and because she felt somehow that the Professorwas provoked with her, she turned over and went to sleep again.
Just as the clock in the chapel tower sounded midnight she sat up inbed.
"What is it, Molly, dear?" asked Nance, who was wakeful and uneasy abouther friend.
Molly was looking at her right hand wildly.
"The ring!" she cried. "Judith's emerald ring--it's gone!"
The ring was indeed gone. Neither of her friends had seen it on herfinger since she had been in her room.
It was gone--lost!
"It must have slipped off my finger when I fainted," sobbed the poorgirl.
Nance had summoned Judy at this trying crisis, and the two girlsendeavored to comfort their friend, who seemed to be working herselfinto a state of feverish excitement.
"Never mind, we'll find it in the morning, Molly," cried Nance. "Youknow exactly where it was you fell, don't you? Somewhere behind thesheds. It's sure to be there. Judy and I promise to go there firstthing, don't we, Judy?"
"Yes, indeed," acquiesced Judy, who loved her morning sleep better thananything in life. But Judy was learning unselfishness since she had beenassociating with Molly and Nance.
There was no more sleep for poor Molly that night, however, and she laythrough the dragging hours with strained nerves and throbbing templeswondering what would happen if she did not find the ring.