Gertrude W. Morrison

“ Jess’s eyes were almost blinded by tears when she went back to her seat. But they were angry tears. The unkind suspicion and accusation of the teacher cut deeply into the girl’s soul. She could see some of the girls looking at her askance—girls like Hester Grimes and Lily Pendleton, and their set. Of course, they had not heard all that Miss Carrington said; but they could easily suspect. ”

“ Great, eh?”
“How can we tell till we see it work?” demanded Laura.
“And you don’t have to lie down for ‘low bridge’ when the boom goes over on this iceyacht!” cried Jess, enthusiastically. “We can sit up.”
“All the time,” agreed Lance.
“I think it’s simply great!” declared Laura.
“All because you, Mother Wit, suggested using the kite for motive power that day,” said her brother, admiringly. “That gave us the idea. If a kite would give motive power to a man skating, why not use a more up-to-date air-power scheme on the ice?” ”

“ At that moment a gun was fired back in the thicker woods, and then out of the brush the girls saw an animal charging directly for the pond. Patrick saw it, too, and leaped up from before the fire and ran toward the beast.
“It’s a big hog!” cried Bobby.
“That’s the one they want to catch,” said Eve. “She is ugly, too, I believe.” Then she raised her voice in warning to Patrick; “Look out, Patrick! She is real cross.”
“Faith!” returned the Irishman, half squatting down in the path of the charging sow. “It’s not afraid I be of the likes of a pig. ”

“ As the girls were laughing over this story of Bobby Hargrew’s, Eve Sitz came up briskly. Laura and Jess were near at hand, and in a moment a group of the Juniors who always “trained together” were in animated discussion.
“Yes. It’s frozen hard. Otto was on it with a pair of horses and our pung,” declared Eve, who came in every morning from the country on the train, and whose father owned a big farm over beyond Robinson’s Woods.
“What’s frozen?” demanded Dora.
“Peveril Pond. It’s as smooth as glass. I want you to all come over on Saturday afternoon; we’ll have a lot of fun,” declared Eve. ”

“ All the young folk were soon on the ice, the boys starting a hockey game at the far end, and the girls circling around in pairs at the end nearest to the fire.
“That’s what Mrs. Case, our physical instructor, says we ought to learn,” said Laura, watching the boys.
“And it’s jolly good fun, too,” cried Bobby. 79
“But suppose you turned your ankle, or fell down and tore your dress?” suggested Nellie. “I believe hockey on the ice is too rough.”
“No game needs to be rough,” declared Laura. “That isn’t the spirit of athletics. Didn’t we learn how to play basketball without being rough?” ”

“ I’ll never be able to hold up my head again if it’s not liked,” Jess pursued. “It will just kill me.”
“Don’t die so easy, Chum,” said Laura. “You know we’ll need you in the big inter-school meet after Easter.”
“Oh! I’ll never be fit to do anything in athletics again!” gasped Jess.
Which was certainly not borne out by the facts, for Jess Morse took a most important part in the spring meet of the Girls’ Branch Athletic League, as a perusal of the next volume of this series: “The Girls of Central High on Track and Field; Or, The Champions of the School League,” will prove. ”

“ All the girls will try, I expect, and Laura, or Nell Agnew, will get it. But I want that two hundred dollars worse than I ever wanted anything in my life!”
She spoke so earnestly that Bobby was impressed. The latter glanced at her sidewise and a shrewd little smile hovered about her lips for a moment, which Jess did not observe.
“Where are you bound for, Jess?” she asked abruptly.
“Marketing.”
“You trade at Heuffler’s market, don’t you? That’s right around the corner from father’s store. Why don’t you ever patronize our place for groceries. I’m drumming up trade,” said Bobby, grinning. ”

“ However, Laura and Jess, with little Maggie, reached the door in question in a few minutes, A puff of steamy air—the essence of countless washings—met the girls as the lower door was pushed open. That is the only way the long and barren halls were heated—by the steam from the wash-boilers. For Number 93 Governor Street was one of those tenement houses which 179 seem always to be in a state of being washed, and laundered, and cleaned up; yet which never show many traces of cleanliness, after all.
“We live on the top floor,” said Maggie, volunteering her first remark since starting homeward. ”

“ If Miss Gould had not given so much time to the rehearsals of “The Spring Road” the play would have not been half the success it promised to be. And, of course, the Central High teacher gave her attention mainly to the girls in the cast of characters.
When Lance and Chet lounged off to the latter’s den Jess instantly poured into Laura’s ears her discovery of the identity of “Mr. Pizotti.”
“Well, even at that he may be a man trying to earn his living. Many stage people change their names for business reasons. ‘Plornish’ is not an attractive name, you must admit,” said Laura, smiling. ”

“ But, of course, Bobby Hargrew would have bad luck! She was thrown from Short and Long’s bobsled one night and had to be helped home. The hurt to her foot was a small matter; but the doctor said she would have to wear her arm in a sling for a time.
“And how can I play Arista with my arm strapped to my side?” wailed Bobby, when Jess and Laura came in to commiserate with her over the accident. “Oh, dear me! I am the most unlucky person in the world. If it was raining soup I’d have a hole in my dipper!”
Mr. Monterey, the local manager, came himself to the dress rehearsal. ”

“ But Laura dropped upon her knees, ran her arm to the shoulder into the aperture where the last drawer came out, and drew forth the missing packet of papers, which lay crowded back upon the carpet.
“There!” said Mr. Sharp, quite in a matter-of-fact tone, “I have suggested to the Board of Education more than once that all these old unsanitary desks should be done away with. The only roll-top desk fit to use in the schools are those which stand upon feet, the bottom of the lower drawer being a few inches from the floor. ”

“ Belding looked doubtfully at her husband. “Do you think that iceboat Chet has built is really safe for the girls, James?” she asked.
“Bless your heart, Mother!” returned the jeweler, his eyes twinkling, “it’s quite as safe for Laura and Jess as it is for the boys.”
“Ye—es, I suppose so,” admitted the good woman. “But it doesn’t seem so safe. Girls are different from boys.”
“Not so different, nowadays,” grumbled Chet. “You ought to see some of those husky Central High girls going off with Mrs. Case on their skis. And ski running is as dangerous as iceboating—believe me!” ”

“ She lay down and Patrick tumbled off, kicking at the dog. Dandy seemed much surprised to discover that he had locked his teeth on the wrong individual!
The boys were convulsed with laughter; but the girls were afraid that the Irishman had been seriously hurt. And, from the squealing of the hog, they were positive that she was suffering.
However, Mr. Sitz and Otto appeared, and tied the legs of the struggling beast, and so bore her away. They had already trapped her litter of young ones, and Patrick limped after his master and Otto, vowing vengeance against both the hog and the dog. ”

“ Skating was done for, for the ice on the lake had become overloaded, and had broken up into a shifting mass of blocks, grinding against each other when the wind blew, and threatening the safety of any craft that tried to put out in it. ”

“ The struggle between the two teams for supremacy among the girls of Central High in this particular sport really led, however, to good results. Hester was backed by strong players; and being so muscular a girl herself she carried her side to victory two out of every three times. 130
“We ought to beat her—she’ll get too uppity to live with,” declared Bobby, discussing these games.
“It will do us good to be beaten occasionally,” laughed Laura. “You begin to think, Bobby, that you must belong to the winning side all the time.” ”

“ Lance took his place on the crossbeam—to act as weight on either end if such balance was needed; Chet took the tiller.
“Open her up!” the latter commanded his chum. “Only quarter round with the switch when the engine gets her stroke. Now, careful! Hang on, girls!”
The next moment the engine began to throb regularly, and the blades of the propeller whirled. In half a minute they had gained such momentum that the eye could not distinguish the blades themselves—they simply made a blur in the moonlight. ”

“ Kerrick responded, slowly. “The society should not pay rent. We should own our own house. We should build. We should raise a goodly sum of money this winter toward the building fund. But we must find some method of interesting everybody in our need.
“A membership in the M. O. R. has always been a reward of merit. Freshmen cannot, of course, be ‘touched’ for the M. O. R., and few sophomores attain that enviable eminence. But by the time a girl has reached her senior year at Central High it is her own fault if she is not a member. ”

“ Jess, however, was serious once more.
“Are you really going in for that prize Mrs. Kerrick is going to put up for us?” demanded Bobby.
“Do you know what it’s for?”
“No—I haven’t heard that,” said the younger girl. “But for two hundred dollars I’d learn tatting—or darn socks. Daddy says I ought to learn to darn his. What’s it all about, anyway? I suppose Laura knows?”
“Yes. It’s a play. The girl who writes the best one, that can be acted by us boys and girls of Central High, is to get the prize.”
“Gee! won’t that be nuts for Miss Gould?” cried Bobby. ”

“ Once a week on the court isn’t enough to keep us alive.”
“If you knew the number of things Eve Sitz does, in and out of doors, before she comes to school in the morning, and after she gets home again, you wouldn’t wonder that she keeps her color, and is so brisk and strong,” laughed Laura.
“I expect she is a busy little bee,” admitted Bobby.
“She helps milk the cows night and morning——”
“There!” interrupted the irrepressible Bobby. “That’s what I’ve always intended to ask Eve; but I forget it.”
“What’s that?” asked Jess. ”

“ Chet and Lance Darby, had they not been so extremely busy learning their parts in the new play, could not have used their aero-iceboat during this time. Sleds were out in force, however—bobsleds, double-runners, toboggans, “framers,” and every sort of coasting paraphernalia. Even the Whiffle Street hill was made a coasting place by the 147 young folk of the neighborhood, much to the despair of some grouty people who had forgotten their own youth, and who either telephoned their complaints to the police, or sprinkled ashes on the slide in the early morning hours. ”

“ Chumley doesn’t want us any longer,” interposed Jess.
“Tut, tut! that is only the old gentleman’s way. He really will not raise our rent, do you think?”
“Why, Mother!” expostulated the girl, “he has already raised it and threatened to put us out if we don’t find the increased three dollars on the first.”
“I am afraid you were not politic enough,” said her mother.
“One cannot be politic with Mr. Chumley. 114 He wants his house for another tenant; he has as good as said so. And do come and see Mrs. Prentice’s little cottage. It is a love.” ”

“ Who doesn’t?” sniffed Miss Hargrew. “It’s all right—all this talk about playing the game for the game’s sake; but right down in the bottom of our hearts, don’t all of us play to win? If we don’t, we never play well, that’s as sure as shooting.”
When the school re-opened, however, on the first Monday in January, the subject uppermost in the minds of the girls of Central High was the prize contest in play-writing for the M. O. R’s. The girls crowded into Assembly that morning, all on the qui vive to hear what the principal would have to say. ”

“ And Gee Gee knows I’m not prepared and she will be down on me like a hawk.”
“Maybe not.”
“She knows I am weak. She just told me so, and she showed me the papers and said there were awfully hard questions in them. She just delights in catching us girls. And she says all of us who are trying for the prize are neglecting our regular work.”
“I expect we are, Jess,” admitted Laura. “Oh, dear! it’s not easy to write a play, is it?” ”

“ The last few days before the first performance of “The Spring Road” was a whirl of excitement for most of the girls of Central High, and all those belonging to the M. O. R.’s. or who were to take part in the play. Mr. Sharp, on his own responsibility, announced a general holiday for Friday, with certain lessons to be made up to pay for the deducted time.
“It is my opinion that little work can be expected from either the young ladies or young gentlemen on the momentous day,” he said. ”

“ All three of them—Jess, Griff, and the excited loser of the purse—reached for the umbrella; but Griff was the first.
“Hold on!” said he to the landlord. “Let me have that, sir. The purse was lost in our store. We’re just as much interested in the matter as anybody.” ”

“ Wait till we let her out.”
“My goodness!” cried Jess. “Can you go faster?”
“We’ll show you, going home,” said Chet.
Just then the boat with the green and red light swooped down upon them and a voice shouted:
“What kind of a contraption is that you’ve got there, Belding?”
“Hullo!” exclaimed Chet. “That’s Ira Sobel’s yacht. Ira is Purt Sweet’s cousin.” Then he answered: “Oh, this is a little rigging of my own, Mr. Sobel. But she can travel. Rather beat’s your Nightkawk, eh?” ”

“ But Laura was sure that there could not be two Plornish families in Centerport, and if Jess had seen the stage director in Lily Pendleton’s sleigh, it was plain that Maggie had seen him, too. And she had recognized him.
“Where do you live, little girl?” asked Laura, quietly, as she saw Jess returning with a fresh bottle of milk.
“Over ’ere on Governor Street. Number ninety-three, Miss.”
“Lead the way, then,” said Laura, promptly. “We’ll help you carry your things home and explain to mamma how you came to get them scattered. You surely have a mamma, haven’t you?” ”

“ Pendleton knew of Lily’s familiarity with the foreign-looking Pizotti. The man might know his business as a stage director; but he certainly was neither of the age, nor the condition in life, to be cultivated as a friend by any young girl.
Lily Pendleton was so foolishly romantic, and 152 so crazy about theatrical matters, that to be noticed by any person connected with the stage, or theatrical affairs, quite turned her head. And then, she still talked a great deal about her own play, “The Duchess of Dawnleigh.” She was sure it had not been given a proper reading—especially by Mr. Monterey. ”

“ In twenty seconds the wind rushed past them so that the girls were forced to bend their heads. The way was clear and Lance had “let her out.” Chet bent sidewise watching the ice through his goggles. Occasionally he screamed an order to his chum, who signaled with his hand that he heard and understood. 126
It was like the flight of a meteor! Laura and Jess never had realized before what it meant to travel fast. Motoring on land was nothing like this. As though shot out of some huge cannon the aero-iceboat skimmed the lake. ”

“ Closewick’s, where they usually traded. Was it honest to try and obtain credit at another grocery?
“I am afraid your father wouldn’t welcome me as a customer,” said Jess, gravely. “Ours isn’t always a cash trade. Mother’s money comes so very irregular that we have to run a bill at the grocery and the market and other places.”
“Come on and give us a sample order,” urged Bobby. “Father will be glad to get another book account. Now, if you were running a store I’d patronize it! We Central High girls ought to work together—just like a lodge. Come on.” ”