THE GIRL AND THE GAME
have no business thinking about girls; it makes them worry, and then they get off condition. I went into the game in good enough condition, but I knew she was there, and was looking critically at me, and I knew that she wasn't surprised to see me make a fool mistake. I remembered what she had said to me in the morning. "Oh," she said, "so you haven't got over your big head yet, have you? You will this afternoon." It was only this morning she said that: It seems years ago. It was right here in this very hotel, and I only grinned like a big awkward fool, and tried to be nice to her aunt to show I didn't care. Then little Howland came in. He was the one I wanted to spank all last summer. He came in with some nice clothes, and a big bunch of flowers in his hand. They were his college flowers. So then I guessed why she hadn't put on the ones I had sent up to her room. I went away without saying good-by. Sort of an ass, wasn't I? But I sneaked down stairs to the team and swore that I'd put up such a game that I'd make her proud to be my
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