Part 40

XII SOME EVERY-DAY FUN

"It can't rain," cried Polly Pepper, "and it isn't going to. Don't think it, girls."

"But it looks just like it," said Alexia obstinately, and wrinkling up her brows; "see those awful, horrid clouds, girls." She pointed tragically up to the sky.

"Don't look at them," advised Polly. "Come on, girls. I challenge you to a race as far as the wicket gate."

Away she dashed, with a bevy at her heels. Alexia, not to be left behind staring at the sky, went racing after.

"Wait," she screamed. The racers, however, spent no time attending to laggards, but ran on.

Polly dashed ahead, and touched the green wicket gate. "Oh, Polly got there first!" Almost immediately came another girl's fingers on it.

"No--I don't think so," panted Polly. "Philena got there just about as soon."

"No, you were first," said the girl who plunged up next; "I saw it distinctly."

"Well, it was so near that we ought to have another race to decide it," declared Polly, with a little laugh, pushing back the damp rings of hair from her forehead. "Girls, isn't it lovely that we have this splendid place where we can run, and nobody see us?"

"Yes," said Alexia, throwing herself down on the grass; which example was immediately followed by all the other girls. "I just love this avenue down to the wicket gate, Polly Pepper."

"So do I," chimed in the others.

"Oh dear me! I'm just toasted and fried," declared Alexia. "I never was so hot in all my life."

"You shouldn' have run so, Alexia," said Polly reproachfully, patting the arm still in its sling. "Oh, how could you!"

"Well, did you suppose I was going to see you all sprinting off and having such fun, and not try it too? No, indeed; that's asking too much, Polly."

Then she threw herself at full length on the grass, and gazed at her meditatively.

"Well, we mustn't have the second race, Philena," said Polly; "because if Alexia runs again, it surely will hurt her."

"Ow!" exclaimed Alexia, flouncing up so suddenly that she nearly overthrew Amy Garrett, who was sitting next, and who violently protested against such treatment, "now I won't keep you back, Polly. Oh dear me! it can't hurt me a single bit. I'm all ready to take off this horrible old thing, you know I am, only Dr. Fisher thought--"

"He thought it would be safer to keep it on till after the picnic," Polly was guilty of interrupting. "You know he said so, Alexia. No, we won't run again, girls," Polly brought up quite decidedly.

"Polly, you shall; I won't run--I really won't; I'll shut my eyes," and Alexia squinted up her pale eyes till her face was drawn up in a knot. "I'll turn my back, I'll do anything if you'll only race; please try it again, Polly."

So Polly, seeing that Alexia really wished it, dropped a kiss on each of the closed eyes. "Put your hand over them, and untwist your face from that funny knot," she laughed. "Come on, girls," and the race began.

Alexia twisted and wriggled, as the pattering feet and quick breath of the girls when they neared her resting place, plunged her in dreadful distress not to look. "Oh dear--um! if I could just see once; um--um! I know Polly will win; oh dear! She must."

But she didn't. It was Cathie Harrison, the new girl; that is, new to them, as they hadn't drawn her into their set, but a few weeks. She was a tall, thin girl, who got over the ground amazingly, to touch the green wicket gate certainly three seconds before Polly Pepper came flying up.

"You did that just splendidly, Cathie," cried Polly breathlessly. "Oh dear me, that was a race!"

"Goodness me!" cried Alexia, her eyes flying open, "my face never'll get out of that knot in all this world. My! I feel as if my jaws were all tied up. Well, Polly, this time you beat for sure," she added confidently, as the girls came running up to throw themselves on the grass again.

"But I didn't," said Polly merrily. "Oh dear! I am so hot."

"Yes, you did," declared Alexia stubbornly.

"Why, Alexia Rhys! I didn't beat, any such a thing," corrected Polly--"not a single bit of it."