Edith K. Dunton

“ Next morning she woke in the midst of a long complicated dream about Georgia and the green lizard. Georgia had stolen him and put a ring around his tail, and the lizard was protesting vigorously in a metallic shriek that turned out, after awhile, to be the Belden House breakfast-bell jangling outside her door.
“They never ring the rising-bell as loud as that,” wailed Betty, when she had consulted her clock and made sure that she had slept over. Before she was dressed Georgia Ames appeared, bringing a delicious breakfast tray. ”

“ On the way back to the campus the girls discussed Mary’s amazing attitude toward the pleasures of college life.
“She must be awfully used up,” said Roberta, solemnly. “Why, she used to be crazy about plays and dances and ‘eats.’”
“No use in coming up at all,” grumbled Katherine, “if she’s only going to lie around and sleep.”
“She doesn’t look one bit tired,” declared Betty, “and she seems glad to be back, only she doesn’t want to do anything. It’s certainly queer.”
“She must be either sick or in love,” said Madeline. “Nothing else will account for it.” ”

“ Betty put out her hand impulsively. “I’m glad you changed your mind, Jean. It’s too bad that you can’t have a part, but you wouldn’t want it in any such way.”
“I did though,” said Jean, blinking back the tears. “I knew it would come out in the end,—I counted on that, and I shouldn’t have minded Miss Stuart’s rage or the committee’s horror. But you’re so dreadfully on the square. You make a person feel like a two-penny doll. I don’t wonder that Eleanor Watson has changed about a lot of things. Anybody would have to if they saw much of you.”
Betty’s thoughts flew back to Georgia. ”

“ They looked exactly like the little iron figures of brownies that every Harding girl who kept up with the prevailing fads had put on her desk that spring in some useful or ornamental capacity. They danced indefatigably, pausing now and then to heap on fresh wood or to poke the fire into a more effective blaze, and looking, in the weird light, quite fantastic enough to have come out of the little hillside behind the fire, tempted to upper earth by the moonlight and the great pile of dry wood left ready to their hands. ”

“ So it was six o’clock before any one dreamed that it could be so late, and the men went off to their hotels for dinner, leaving the girls to gloat over the flower-boxes piled high on the hall-table, to gossip over the afternoon’s adventures, and then hurry off to dress, dinner being a superfluity to them after so many salads and sandwiches, ices and macaroons, all far more appetizing than a campus dinner menu. ”

“ So, as I started her on her mad career as an actress, I feel responsible.”
“You always feel responsible for something,” laughed Madeline. “While you’re in the business why don’t you remember that you’re responsible for a nice little slice of to-night’s performance. Miss Ferris says it’s the best house-play she’s seen.”
“I know. Isn’t it just splendid?” sighed Betty rapturously. “And isn’t the Princess a dear? But Madeline, you haven’t any idea how my feet ache.” ”

“ The seniors dress for luncheon in “little girl” fashion, skirts up and hair down, and the minute the meal is over they rush out into the sunshine to roll hoop, skip rope, swing in the long-suffering hammocks under the apple trees, and romp to their hearts’ content. Freshmen hurrying by to their Livy exam, turn green with envy, and sophomores and juniors “cramming” history and logic indoors lean out of their windows to laugh and applaud, finally come down to watch the fun for “just a minute,” and forget to go back at all. ”

“ Betty assured her. “Eleanor knows how queer Jean is, and what horrid things she says about people who won’t follow her lead. None of that crowd would help about the toy-shop except Kate Denise, but every one else has been fine. And I know they haven’t thought that Eleanor was trying to get anything out of them.”
Madeline sighed mournfully. “In Bohemia people don’t think that sort of thing,” she said. “It complicates life so to have to consider it always. Good-night, Betty.” ”

“ Just as Helen’s train pulled in Bob appeared with the rest of the “Merry Hearts” as escort and a small boy to help with her luggage; and they had a minute all together.
“Well,” said Madeline lightly, “we’re starting out into the wide, wide world at last. I’ll say it because I’m used to starting off to queer places and I rather like it.”
“Here’s hoping it’s a jolly world for every one of us,” said Rachel.
“Here’s to our next meeting,” added Katherine.
“Girls,” said Betty solemnly, “I feel it in my bones that we are going to be together again some time. ”

“ A moment later, three girls and a Japanese screen fell through Georgia’s door into the midst of an amazed freshmen fudge party.
“Goodness,” said Georgia, when she had recovered her breath. “Did you hear that horrid Lucile? ‘A regular freshman trick’—that’s what she said to her man. They blame everything on us.”
“Well if this fudge is regular freshman fudge, it’s the best I ever tasted,” said little Helen Adams tactfully.
Later in the evening Betty trailed her red kimono into Helen’s room. “Helen,” she began, “did I have on my pearl pin when we started down-stairs to-night? ”

“ The next night at the Westcott House dance Mary was again her gay and sportive self. If she was bored, she concealed it admirably, and that in spite of the fact that her little scheme of playing freshman seemed doomed to failure. Mary had walked out of chapel that morning with the front row, and, even without the enormous bunch of violets which none of her senior friends would confess to having sent her, she was not a figure to pass unnoticed. ”

“ We’ve drunk to the cast363 and the team, to our presidents, our engaged girls, our faculty. Now I ask you to drink to the very greatest pride and honor of this class,—to the way we’ve always stood together, to the way we stand together to-night, to the way we shall stand together in the future, no matter where we go or what we do. It’s not every class that can put this toast on its supper-card. Not every class knows what it means to be run, not in the interest of a clique or by a few leading spirits, but by the good-feeling of the whole big class. ”

“ Georgia flushed a little and made the answer that Betty had hoped for. “The senior Miss Harrison gave it to me last Christmas. I know you and Madeline don’t like her, and I don’t like her a bit better. But what can you do, Betty, when some one takes a fancy to you? You can’t snub her just because she happens to be stupid and unpopular—not if you’re a ‘Merry Heart,’ anyway.” ”

“ Betty held out her arms, with a merry laugh. “Why, of course I could. I’m not one bit hurt, except scratched. The ferns are just as soft as a feather bed down here, but the thorns up above are dreadful. I can’t seem to pull myself up. I’m a little faint, I guess.”
A minute later she was standing in the road, leaning against Madeline, who felt of her anxiously and asked again and again if it didn’t hurt.
“Hasn’t she broken her collar-bone?” asked Bob, who was holding the horses. “People generally do when they have a bad spill. Are her arms all right?” ”

“ Masters called her a genius. “And bridesmaids,” added Mary, with the proper feeling for climax. “Laurie is going to be maid-of-honor, and if you two can come and be bridesmaids and the rest of the crowd almost—bridesmaids, in the words of the poetical Roberta——”
She never finished her sentence for the rest of the crowd had discovered her retreat, and guessing at the news she had for them bore noisily down upon her.
“It’s so convenient that she’s going to be married this summer,” said Babbie jubilantly. “We can have our first reunion at the wedding. ”

“ Betty Wales was going to tell us how the ‘Merry Hearts’ could go out with a splurge.”
“I object to the president’s English,” interrupted Madeline. “The connotation of the term splurge is unpleasant. We don’t wish to splurge. Now go ahead, Betty.”
“Why, it’s nothing much,” said Betty modestly, “and probably it’s not at all what Bob is thinking of. It’s just that, as Helen says, everybody who is in anything is in a lot of things and most of the class are being left out of the commencement plans. ”

“ The girls are all willing to help, but they insist upon having the idea to start with. I know you hate committees, Madeline, and I’m not asking you to be on one—”
“You’d better not,” interpolated Madeline, darkly, remembering the drudgery she had submitted to to make the Belden House play a success.
“Just think up the idea,” Marie went on, persuasively, “and I’ll make a committee do the rest. I don’t care what we have, so long as it’s new and taking—the sort of thing that you always seem to have in your head. That’s what we want. Plays and lectures are too commonplace.” ”

“ I never feel at home in anything but a shirt-waist. Beside my neck looks awfully bony to me, but mother says it’s no different from most people’s. The men are coming, I suppose?”
“Oh, yes, they’re coming,” assented Betty gaily, “and between us we’ve been asked to every tea on the campus, I should think. So they ought to have a good time in the afternoon, and college men are always crazy over our concerts.”
“Your man will be all right,” said Georgia admiringly, “and I’ll do my best for the other one. Truly, Betty, I am grateful to you. I think it’s awfully good of you to ask me. ”

“ Betty had no trouble in explaining that to everybody’s satisfaction, but she longed desperately for Madeline’s support, as she listened to Dr. Hinsdale’s stern arraignment of the innocent little gathering.
“It’s not lady-like,” he asserted. “It’s aping the men. Hazing is a discredited practice anyhow. All decent colleges are dropping it. We certainly don’t want it here, where the aim of the faculty has always been to encourage the friendliest relations between classes. The members of the entering class always find the college life difficult at first. ”

“ Just then Babbie appeared, bringing Roberta and Rachel Morrison who had met them in the hall, and in the general attack upon the fudge pan more serious issues were forgotten.
It was now the busiest, gayest part of the long fall term. Flying fast on the heels of the house play came Thanksgiving Day.
“And just to think of it!” wailed Bob. “Only two days vacation this year, and Miss Stuart and the president dropping the most awful hints about what will happen if you cut over. Nobody can go home. I hope the faculty will all eat too much and have horrible attacks of indigestion.” ”

“ Babbie reminded her, “and I think she’s tired of acting as if she wasn’t.”
“I hate freaks,” said Babe, “but it is fun to see them bustle around, acting as if they owned the earth. Leslie’s whole family is coming to commencement, down to the youngest baby, and the fat Miss Austin is fairly bursting with pride just because she’s on the supper committee. She has some good ideas, too.”
“Of course they’re proud,” said little Helen Adams sententiously. “Things you’ve never had always look valuable to you.” ”

“ Betty shut her fountain pen with a snap, and tossed the much blotted page on top of a heap of its fellows, which were piled haphazard in a chair beside her desk.
“Who cares for Madeline Ayres?” she said, and arm in arm the two friends started for the back campus, where they found all the rest of the senior “Merry Hearts” waiting for them. Dora Carlson couldn’t come, Eleanor293 explained; and Anne Carter and Georgia thought that they were too new to membership in the society to have any voice in deciding how it should be perpetuated.
“It’s rather nice being just by ourselves, isn’t it?” ”

“ Eleanor Watson had come straight from her father’s luxurious camp in the Colorado mountains, where she and Jim had been having a house-party for some of their Denver friends.
“You girls must all come out next summer,” she declared enthusiastically. “Father sent a special invitation to you, Betty, and he and—and—mother”—Eleanor struggled with the new name for the judge’s young wife—“are coming on to commencement, and then of course you’ll all meet them. Mother is so jolly—she knows just what girls like, and she enters into all the fun, just like one of us. ”

“ I never get a chance to make plans, because the things that turn up of themselves take all my time. I’m just going to be at home with my family.”
“Leave out the ‘just,’” advised Miss Ferris. “So many of you seem to feel as if you ought to apologize for staying at home.”
“Oh, I’m glad to hear you say that,” said Betty soberly. “A lot of girls in our class who don’t need to a bit are going to teach, and Carlotta Young said to me the other day that she thought we all ought to test our education in some such way right off, so as to be sure it was really worth something.” ”

“ It hit everybody with its absurd humor, which no one enjoyed better, apparently, than the quiet little freshman herself.
“Encore! Encore! Give us another!” shouted the freshmen when she had finished; but their quiet little classmate only shook her head, and assuming once more the mincing, confidential tone she had been using in the monologue, remarked: “Do you know, there are some girls in our class that will forget their heads before long. Why, when they’re being hazed, they forget it and think they’re at a real party.” ”

“ Betty shook her head. “That wouldn’t do. Eleanor knows how I feel toward her. It must come from the people who haven’t wanted her. They’re all here, I think.” Betty peered uncertainly through the gloom to make sure that Jean and her friends and the Blunderbuss were still out. “If the whole class wants her badly enough, they’ll think of her.”
Marie stepped out into the light of the one lantern and called the class to order. “It’s a queer time to have a class-meeting,” she said, “and I’m not sure that it’s constitutional, but who cares about that? ”

“ Our commencement is pretty enough to pay our families for coming even if the girls they are particularly interested in don’t have parts. Being on a committee isn’t a part anyway.”
“Girls who are never on them think it is,” said Helen Adams.
There was an ominous silence.
At the end of it Babbie slipped out of the hammock and sat down beside Betty on the grass. “It’s no use at all fighting you, Betty Wales,” she declared amiably. “You always twist the things we don’t want to do around until they seem simple and easy and no more than decent. ”