The games were new to June, and often Hale would stroll up to the
school-house to watch them--Prisoner's Base, Skipping the Rope,
Antny Over, Cracking the Whip and Lifting the Gate; and it pleased
him to see how lithe and active his little protege was and more
than a match in strength even for the boys who were near her size.
June had to take the penalty of her greenness, too, when she was
"introduced to the King and Queen" and bumped the ground between
the make-believe sovereigns, or got a cup of water in her face
when she was trying to see stars through a pipe. And the boys
pinned her dress to the bench through a crack and once she walked
into school with a placard on her back which read:
"June-Bug." But she was so good-natured that she fast became a
favourite. Indeed it was noticeable to Hale as well as Bob that
Cal Heaton, the mountain boy, seemed always to get next to June in
the Tugs of War, and one morning June found an apple on her desk.
She swept the room with a glance and met Cal's guilty flush, and
though she ate the apple, she gave him no thanks--in word, look or
manner. It was curious to Hale, moreover, to observe how June's
instinct deftly led her to avoid the mistakes in dress that
characterized the gropings of other girls who, like her, were in a
stage of transition.
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