Girls -- Juvenile fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile fiction
Their opponents won the third game against a thirty. That spurred
Keineth; the fourth game was faster with some hot volleying and pretty
returns and won by Keineth and Billy in a quickly mounting score.
Excited, Keineth did not notice that Billy had not returned one or two
balls with his usual skill.
The next, a deuce game, was hotly contested. Her face ablaze with
interest, Keineth held her little body tensely poised on one toe, ready
for instant action. The faces of the crowd around her blurred into
nothing--there seemed only left in her small world those two beyond the
net!
The next game was bewildering. Keineth played desperately, but they had
only won thirty points when the others made the game! The set stood
four to two in Keineth's favor, but their opponents were playing
stronger with each game.
In the seventh game Billy dropped off shamelessly. He was never quite
ready. Before Keineth realized the situation the others had won and won
easily!
"Billy!" Keineth whispered imploringly. The indifferent look on Billy's
face struck terror to her heart. What _was_ the matter with him?
The next game Keineth won alone--if Billy could not play she'd play for
him! Her little teeth, clenched tight together, gleamed white through
her parted lips. The crimson of her cheeks mounted into her fair hair.
"What a picture!" Mrs. Lee whispered to her husband. She was not
thinking of the game at all. "What a spirit! Think, William, what that
can mean in this world when the child's grown up!"
"That's just why this sort of sport is good for them," Mr. Lee
whispered back. "But what is the matter with Billy?"
That is what Keineth wondered, too. They had won five games--they
_must_ win the next and set! Walking close to Billy she confronted him,
her face ablaze. For just a moment they looked hard into one another's
eyes; not a boy and girl, the one proudly conscious of his boyhood and
two years' difference in age, the other a very young and all-admiring
girl--but just two mortals contesting together against two others.
And at last they, Keineth and Billy, met on equal ground--Keineth had
proven her mettle--let Billy show his! Keineth's clear, straightforward
gaze made Billy drop his eyes in sudden shame.
"Play square," she said sternly. And Billy played square! Their
opponents had not a chance!
"Well, Billy did wake up," some one said and some one else added: "If
they'd lost it would have been his fault. That Randolph girl played a
corking game for her age!"
They had won the tennis tournament! Keineth did not enjoy half so much
the silver cup they placed in her hands as she did Peggy's delight and
Mr. Lee's hearty handclasp of congratulation. The young people carried
them off to luncheon at the club-house, where they made merry far into
the afternoon.
That evening Billy, with a very serious face, approached his father,
where he sat alone on the veranda.
"Dad, I've withdrawn my name from the paddle races!"
"What's wrong, son?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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