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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20472-8.txt b/20472-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4b5a03 --- /dev/null +++ b/20472-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7491 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School, by +Jessie Graham Flower + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School + The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls + +Author: Jessie Graham Flower + +Release Date: January 28, 2007 [EBook #20472] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR *** + + + + +Produced by David Newman, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School + + OR + + The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls + + By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. + +Author of Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School, Grace Harlowe's +Junior Year at High School, Etc. + + + + +PHILADELPHIA +HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY +Copyright, 1910 + + + + +[Illustration: A Troop of Black-Robed Figures Were Stealthily +Approaching.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. The Accident of Friendships + + II. The Sponsor of the Freshman Class + + III. Mrs. Gray Engages a Secretary + + IV. The Black Monks of Asia + + V. Anne Has a Secret + + VI. The Sophomore Ball + + VII. All Hallowe'en + + VIII. Miss Leece + + IX. Thanksgiving Day + + X. Grace Keeps Her Secret + + XI. Mrs. Gray's Adopted Daughters + + XII. Miriam Plans a Revenge + + XIII. Christmas Holidays + + XIV. A Midnight Alarm + + XV. Tom Gray + + XVI. The Marionette Show + + XVII. After the Ball + + XVIII. A Winter Picnic + + XIX. Wolves! + + XX. The Gray Brothers + + XXI. The Lost Letter + + XXII. Danger Ahead + + XXIII. In the Thick of the Night + + XXIV. The Freshman Prize + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A Troop of Black-Robed Figures Were Stealthily Approaching. + +"Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?" + +"Give That Back! It Is Not Yours." + +Tom Gray Escapes from the Wolves + + + + +Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ACCIDENT OF FRIENDSHIPS + + +"Who is the new girl in the class?" asked Miriam Nesbit, flashing her +black eyes from one schoolmate to another, as the girls assembled in the +locker room of the Oakdale High School. + +"Her name is Pierson; that is all I know about her," replied Nora +O'Malley, gazing at her pretty Irish face in the looking glass with +secret satisfaction. "She's very quiet and shy and looks as if she would +weep aloud when her turn comes to recite, but I'm sure she's all right," +she added good naturedly. For Nora had a charming, sunny nature, and +always saw the best if there was any best to see. + +"She is very bright," broke in Grace Harlowe decisively. "She went +through her Latin lesson without a mistake, which is certainly more than +I could do." + +"Well, I don't like her," pouted Miriam. "I never trust those quiet +little things. And, besides, she is the worst-dressed girl in----" + +"Hush!" interrupted Jessica Bright, touching a finger to her lips. "Here +she is." + +A little, brown figure entered the room just as Miriam finished +speaking. But Jessica was too late with her warning. The young girl had, +without doubt, heard the cruel speech and her face flushed painfully as +she pinned on a shabby old hat, slipped her arms into a thin black +jacket and stepped out again without looking at the crowd of schoolmates +who watched her silently. + +"Miriam, I should think you'd learn to be more careful," exclaimed +hot-tempered Nora, her soft heart touched by the appealing little +stranger. + +"Well, what difference does it make?" replied Miriam. "If Miss Pierson +doesn't know already that she's the shabbiest girl in school, it's high +time she found it out. I have a suspicion her mother takes in washing or +something, and I mean to find it out right now. We can't invite a girl +like that to our class parties and entertainments. She would disgrace +us." + +"Miriam," said Grace quietly, "I believe we are all privileged to invite +whom we please to our homes. I intend to give a class tea next Saturday, +and I mean to follow Miss Pierson right now and ask her to help me +receive." + +The two girls looked into each other's faces for a moment without +speaking. Grace was quiet and contained, Miriam flushed and furiously +angry. They had been rival leaders always at the Grammar School, but the +rivalry had never come to open battle until now. + +Miriam was the first to drop her eyes. She did not reply, but from that +moment she was the sworn enemy of Grace Harlowe and her two friends, +Nora and Jessica. + +"Well, we had better hurry," said Jessica, trying to calm the troubled +scene. "Nobody knows exactly where Miss Pierson lives and she will be +out of sight before we can catch her." + +The three girls ran lightly out of the basement of the fine old building +that was the pride of Oakdale. It was large and imposing, built of +smooth, gray stone, with four huge columns supporting the front portico. +A hundred yards away stood the companion building, the Boys' High +School, exactly like the first in every respect except that a wing had +been added for a gymnasium which the girls had the privilege of using on +certain days. A wide campus surrounded the two buildings, shaded by elm +and oak trees. Certainly no other town in the state could boast of twin +high schools as fine as these; and especially did the situation appeal +to the people of Oakdale, for the ten level acres surrounding the two +buildings gave ample space for the various athletic fields, and the +doings of the high schools formed the very life of the place. + +But we must return to our three girls who were hurrying down the shady +street, followed in a more leisurely and dignified fashion by Miriam and +her friends. The shabby figure of the little stranger had just turned +the corner as the girls left the High School grounds. + +"Come on," cried Grace breathlessly, leading the way. Having once made +up her mind, she always pursued her point with a fine obstinacy +regardless of opinion. + +When they had come to the cross street they saw their quarry again, now +making her way slowly toward the street next the river. This was the +shabbiest street in Oakdale, though no one knew exactly why, since the +river bank might have been the chosen site for all the handsomest +buildings; but towns are as incorrigible as people, sometimes, and +insist on growing one way when they should grow another, without the +slightest regard for future appearances. + +And so, when little Miss Pierson stopped in front of one of the smallest +and meanest cottages on River Street, the girls knew she must, indeed, +be very poor. The house, small and forlorn, presented a sad countenance +streaked with tear stains from a leaky gutter. An uneven pavement led to +the front door, which bore a painted sign: "Plain Sewing." + +They paused irresolutely at the gate, and were taking counsel together +when Miriam Nesbit passed with her friends. She pointed at the door and +laughed. + +"Really, that girl's conduct is contemptible!" exclaimed Grace, giving +the wooden gate a vigorous push. "I simply won't tolerate her rudeness. +She is an unmitigated snob!" Grace knocked on the door rather sharply to +emphasize her feelings. It was opened almost immediately by Miss Pierson +herself, still in her hat and coat; and in her surprise and +embarrassment she almost shut the door in their faces. But Jessica's +gentle smile reassured her, and Grace, who was a born leader, took her +hand kindly and plunged at once into the subject. + +"You left school so quickly this afternoon, Miss Pierson, that I didn't +have a chance to see you. I have something very particular I want to ask +you to-day." + +"Won't you come in?" said the other, opening the door into the parlor, +which had an air of refinement about it in spite of its utter poorness. + +"Anne!" called a querulous voice down the passage. + +"Yes, mother, I'm coming," answered the girl, hurrying out of the room +with a frightened look in her eyes. In a few moments she was back again. + +"Please excuse me for leaving you," she said. "My mother is an invalid +and needs my sister or me with her constantly." + +"Her name is Anne, then," thought Grace. "I shall call her so at once +and break the ice." + +"Anne," she said aloud, "I think you know my friends, don't you--Jessica +Bright and Nora O'Malley? And I am Grace Harlowe." + +"Oh, yes," replied Anne, brightening at the friendly advances of the +others. "I remember your names from the roll call." + +"Of course," replied Grace. "But I think we should all be more to each +other than roll-call acquaintances, we freshmen. I am very ambitious for +our class. I want it to be the best that ever graduated from Oakdale +High School, and for that reason, I think all the girls in it should try +to be friends and work together to advance the cause. I'm going to start +the ball rolling by giving a tea to our class next Saturday afternoon. +Will you come and receive with Jessica and Nora and me?" + +Anne clasped her hands delightedly for a moment. Then her eyes filled +with tears and her lips trembled so that the girls were afraid she might +be going to cry. Tender-hearted Jessica turned her face away for fear of +showing too much sympathy. + +"I'm sorry," said Anne at last, rather unsteadily, "but I am afraid I +can't accept your delightful invitation. I----" + +"I beg your pardon," said a voice at the door, "I didn't mean to intrude +on your visitors, Anne, but I couldn't help overhearing Miss Harlowe's +invitation." + +A small woman, much older than Anne, but very like her in face and +figure, appeared at the door. + +"This is my sister," said Anne, taking the other's hand affectionately. + +"Anne imagines she can't go, but she certainly can," went on the older +Miss Pierson, calmly, not in the least embarrassed by the strange young +girls. "Of course, she must go. I can arrange it easily." + +"But, Mary----" protested Anne. + +"Never mind, little sister," interrupted Mary, "it will be all right. +Miss Harlowe, what time must she be there?" + +"At four o'clock," answered Grace, rising to go, "and I am delighted +that she can come. Remember, Anne, I'm counting on you to pour the +lemonade. The other girls are going to help with the sandwiches and ice +cream. By the way," she added, as they went down the steps, "be sure and +come to the basketball meeting at the gym this afternoon." + +And so it was arranged that Anne Pierson, the shabbiest and poorest girl +in Oakdale High School, was to help receive at one of the prettiest and +most charming houses in town. Miriam Nesbit's rudeness was to bring +about a friendship between Anne Pierson and her three schoolmates that +lasted a lifetime. + +After the half-past two o'clock dinner, which was the universal custom +in Oakdale, the chums met again at the gymnasium in the Boys' High +School. Wednesdays and Saturdays were nicknamed "ladies' days" by the +High School boys, for on these afternoons the girls were permitted free +use of the gymnasium. + +The meeting to-day was not for gymnastic exercises, however, but an +important subject was to be discussed--the Freshman Basketball Team. +Also the captain of the team was to be elected. + +Other club meetings were in full force when the girls arrived, and the +great room vibrated with the hum of voices. The three freshmen, who knew +better than to interrupt sophomores and juniors at their pow-wows, made +their way quietly across the hall to the appointed place of rendezvous. +Of course, the entire Freshman Class did not assemble to discuss this +subject. Many members were not interested in basketball, except to look +on. Girls who were overstudious, and not physically strong, could not at +any rate play on the team, and therefore they seldom attended such +meetings. Jessica Bright was one of these, nevertheless, she followed +her two friends, who had always been foremost in athletics at the +Central Grammar School. + +The election of a captain was the first business of the meeting. That +over, the captain, after due and serious consultation with a friendly +cabinet, chose the players and their substitutes. + +Undoubtedly Grace Harlowe had the coolest head in the class, and was the +most to be relied upon at critical moments; yet Miriam Nesbit exerted a +strange influence over her followers, who were almost her slaves. She +was the richest of all the girls and wore the costliest clothes. The +parties she gave, from time to time, in her mother's large and handsome +home were the talk of the place. She was also the cleverest girl in the +class, and had taken undisputed first place since she was a child. She +was not a close student, but seemed to absorb her lessons in half the +time that it took her friends to master them. Popular she certainly was, +or rather she was feared by her schoolmates. Her masterful, overpowering +spirit seemed to sweep everything before it. + +Grace Harlowe was quite as powerful in her way, but she had a noble, +unselfish disposition and was much beloved by her friends. She stood +well in her studies, but had never taken first place. Perhaps this was +because she had interested herself so much in outdoor sports that she +had not given enough time to study. + +Both girls were handsome--Miriam tall, dark and oriental-looking, with +flashing eyes and an imperious curve to her lips; Grace was also tall, +with wavy, chestnut hair, fine gray eyes, regular features, a full, +generous chin and cheeks glowing with health. + +Miriam Nesbit had already done a good deal of lobbying when the three +girls arrived on the scene. She wished to be elected captain of the team +at any cost; but Grace's adherents were holding off, quietly waiting for +her arrival. + +"Well, here you are at last!" said Marian Barber, who had been preparing +the ballots for the coming election. + +Marian was the busy girl of the class, and always made herself useful. + +"Is everyone here?" demanded Nora, scanning the crowd of freshmen with a +view to ascertaining what her chum's chances were. + +"All that intend coming," replied Miriam. "The softies stayed away, as +usual." + +"Suppose we wait five minutes," said Grace, looking at her watch, "and +then, if no one comes, we will cast the votes." + +"No, no," exclaimed Miriam impatiently. "I have an engagement and can't +spare any more time. I vote that we have the election at once, without +waiting another moment." + +"Very well," assented Grace. "I only suggested waiting because Anne +Pierson promised to come, and, of course, every girl in the class has a +right to vote at the class elections." + +"Anne Pierson?" cried Miriam, turning crimson with suppressed rage. + +"Yes," answered Grace calmly; "but, if everybody is agreeable, suppose +we go ahead." + +"Agreed!" cried the others and the ballots were cast. + +There was not much parliamentary practice in these class elections. Each +girl wrote the name of her choice on a slip of paper and dropped it in a +hat. Four of the girls then counted the votes, and the one receiving the +most slips was declared elected. + +The slips were dropped into the hat, amid the silence of the company. +Some of the sophomores and juniors, perched on parallel bars, watched +the scene with superior amusement, but no notice was taken of their +half-whispered jeers. + +The four girls then retired to count the votes. + +"It's a tie," announced Marian Barber, returning presently; "a tie +between Grace and Miriam. I wish some of the others would come and +settle the matter." + +"Here's some one," cried Nora. "Here's Anne Pierson. Let her cast the +decisive vote." + +Miriam's eyes blazed, but she held her peace. There was nothing to do +but submit with an uneasy grace. But who could doubt what the outcome +would be? However, she felt somewhat relieved when Grace said: + +"I think we should cast the votes over again, and, according to the +rules we made last year, Miriam and I should not vote, since the +election rests between us." + +The votes were cast again, Anne timidly dropping her slip in the hat +with the others, and, as might have been expected, Grace was elected +captain of the Freshman Basketball Team of the Oakdale High School. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE SPONSOR OF THE FRESHMAN CLASS + + +"Grace," asked Mrs. Harlowe, the day of the famous freshman tea, "have +you asked some of the girls to help this afternoon? Bridget can attend +to the sandwiches, but some one ought to pour the lemonade and generally +look after the wants of the others." + +Grace was arranging a bowl of China asters on the piano in her mother's +charming drawing room. The shining mahogany chairs and tables reflected +the glow of the wood fire, for the day was chilly, and bright chintz +curtains at the windows gave a cheerful note of color to the scene. + +"Oh, yes, mother," replied Grace. "Nora and Jessica, of course, and Anne +Pierson." + +"And who is Anne Pierson?" + +"I don't know who she is," answered Grace. "I never knew her until she +entered the High School. But she is terribly poor. Her mother is an +invalid and her sister takes in plain sewing. I really asked her at +first because Miriam Nesbit was rude to her one day. But I'm beginning +to like her so much, now, that I'm glad I did it. She's as quiet as a +little mouse, but she is fast taking first place in class. I believe she +will outstrip Miriam before the end of the year. Don't ask me who she +is, though. I haven't the least idea, but she's all right, I can promise +you that. I'm sorry for her because she is poor. They live in a little +broken-down cottage on River Street." + +Mrs. Harlowe looked dubious. Grace was always bringing home stray people +and animals, and the mother was accustomed to her daughter's whims. The +young girl was familiar to all the ragamuffins of the town slum, and +when she sometimes found one gazing wistfully through the fence palings +of her mother's old-fashioned garden, she promptly led him around to the +kitchen, gave him a plate of food on the back steps, picked him a small +bouquet and sent him off half-dazed with her gracious and impetuous +kindness. + +"Well, my dear, I shall be prepared for anything," exclaimed Mrs. +Harlowe; "but remember that feeding people on the back steps and asking +them into the parlor to meet your friends and acquaintances are two +different matters altogether." + +"Don't be afraid, mother," replied Grace. "You will like Anne as well as +I do, once you get to know her. You must be careful not to frighten her +at first. She is the most timid little soul I ever met." + +Just then the front gate clicked and two girls strolled up the red-brick +walk, their light organdie dresses peeping out from the folds of their +long capes. + +"Here come Nora and Jessica," cried Grace excitedly, running to the door +to meet her friends. + +Mrs. Harlowe smiled. In spite of Grace's sixteen years she was still her +little girl. + +There was another click at the gate and Mrs. Harlowe saw through the +parlor window a little, dark figure, pathetically plain in its shabby +coat and hat. + +"Poor little soul," thought the good woman. "How I wish I could put her +into one of Grace's muslins, but, of course, I couldn't think of +offering to do such a thing." + +"Mother," said Grace some minutes later, when the girls had laid aside +their wraps and descended into the drawing room, "this is Anne Pierson, +our new friend." + +Anne Pierson, small and shrinking, was dressed in a queer, old-fashioned +black silk that had evidently been taken up and made short for the +occasion. Mrs. Harlowe's heart was touched to the quick and she bent and +kissed the young girl gently. + +"How do you do, my dear?" she said kindly. "I am always glad to meet +Grace's friends, and you are most welcome." + +Anne was too frightened almost to speak. This was the first party she +had ever attended, and the beautiful room, the girls in their light, +pretty dresses, the bowls of flowers and the cheery firelight nearly +stupefied her. + +Mrs. Harlowe disappeared into the little conservatory off the dining +room, returning in a moment with two big red roses which she pinned to +Anne's dress. + +"These red roses have been waiting for you all morning," she said, "and +they're just in their prime now." + +More guests began to arrive, and soon the room was full of young girls +talking gayly together in groups or walking about, their arms around +each other's waists after the manner of fifteen and sixteen. + +Grace had seated Anne at the dining room table behind a large cut glass +bowl which almost hid her small figure. Grace knew from experience that +this would be the most popular spot in the room, and she cautioned many +of her friends to be kind to the timid little stranger. She knew also +that giving Anne something to keep her occupied would relieve her +embarrassment. Anne conscientiously filled and refilled the glasses, and +in the intervals answered the questions put to her; but never asked any +herself. + +Miriam Nesbit came in late with her two most intimate friends. She wore +a resplendent dress of old rose crepe and a big black hat. Anne forgot +her resentment when she caught sight of the vision and was lost in +admiration. But she was brought sharply to her senses by a rude, +sneering laugh from the ill-bred girl, who was staring insolently at the +old black silk gown. + +Anne flushed and hung her head. + +"I am glad Mrs. Harlowe gave me the flowers," she thought. "They hide it +a little, I think." + +Meantime there was the bustle of a new and important arrival. Grace and +her mother ushered in a charming little old lady and seated her in the +place of honor, a big leather chair between the windows. She wore a gray +silk dress and a lavender bonnet daintily trimmed in lace and white +ostrich tips. + +"Girls," said Grace, as a hush fell over the room, "there is no need for +me to introduce any of you to Mrs. Gray, who is the sponsor for the +freshman class." + +There was a buzz of laughter and conversation again, and through the +double doors Anne caught sight of the little old lady, talking gayly to +her subjects, seated, like a diminutive queen, on a large throne. + +"Why is she the sponsor of the class?" Anne asked of Jessica, who was +hovering near by. + +"Oh, have you never heard?" returned Jessica. "Mrs. Gray's daughter died +during her freshman year at High School, long ago, and ever since then, +Mrs. Gray has offered a prize of twenty-five dollars for the girl who +makes the highest average in her examinations at the end of the freshman +year. She was made sponsor of the freshman class about ten years ago, so +each year, soon after school opens, some one of the freshmen gives a tea +and invites her to meet the new girls. You must come in and be +introduced, too, as soon as you are through here." + +"A prize of twenty-five dollars," repeated Anne. "How I wish I might win +it!" + +"It's even more than that," said Jessica. "For a perfect examination she +offers one hundred dollars. But, needless to say, no one has ever won +the hundred. It is considered impossible to pass a perfect examination +in every subject." + +"One hundred dollars!" exclaimed Anne. "Oh, if I only could!" + +"Well, you may win the twenty-five dollars, anyway, Anne," said Jessica. +"I suppose the one hundred dollar prize is beyond the reach of human +beings." + +"And now, young ladies," Mrs. Gray was saying, smiling at the group of +girls who surrounded her, as she examined them through her lorgnette, +"most of you I have known since you were little tots, and your fathers +and mothers before you; but I don't know which of you excels in her +studies. Is it you, Grace, my dear?" + +Grace shook her head vigorously. + +"No, indeed, Mrs. Gray," she replied. "I could never be accused of +overstudy. I suppose I'm too fond of basketball." + +"It won't hurt you, my dear," said the old lady, tapping the girl +indulgently with her lorgnette; "the open air is much better than that +of the schoolroom, and so long as you keep up an average, I daresay you +won't disappoint your mother. But none of you have told me yet who leads +the freshman class in her studies." + +"Miriam Nesbit," said several voices in unison. + +"Ah!" said Mrs. Gray, looking intently at Miriam. "So you are the gold +medal girl, Miriam? Dear me, what a young lady you are growing to be! +But you must not study too hard. Don't overdo it." + +Mrs. Gray had gone through this same conversation every year since any +of the girls could remember, and never failed to caution the head girl +not to overstudy. + +"There's no fear of that, Mrs. Gray," replied Miriam boastfully. "My +lessons give me very little trouble." + +"Mrs. Gray," broke in Nora O'Malley mischievously, "Miriam Nesbit has a +close second in the class. The first girl who has ever been known to +come up to her." + +Miriam flushed, half-angry and half-pleased at the adroit compliment. + +"And who may that be, my dear?" queried Mrs. Gray, searching about the +room with her nearsighted blue eyes. + +"It's Anne Pierson" replied Nora. + +"Pierson, Pierson?" repeated the little old lady. "Why have I not met +her? I do not seem to remember the name in Oakdale. But where is this +wonderful young woman who is outstripping our brilliant Miriam? I feel a +great curiosity to see her." + +"Anne Pierson, Anne Pierson!" called several voices, while Grace began +to search through the rooms and hall. + +At the first mention of her name Anne had darted from her seat behind +the lemonade bowl, and rushed to the nearest shelter, which was the +conservatory. + +Grace found her, at last, in the conservatory crouched behind a palm. + +"Come here, you foolish child!" exclaimed Grace. "You are wanted at +once. Why did you run and hide? Mrs. Gray--the great Mrs. Gray--wishes +to meet you. Think of that!" + +Anne clasped the girl's strong hand with her two small ones. + +"Oh, Grace," she whispered, "won't you excuse me? I--I----" + +"You what? Silly, come right along!" + +Grace fairly dragged the trembling little figure into the drawing room, +where a silence had fallen over the group of young girls who watched the +scene. + +"Tut, tut, my dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray gently. "You mustn't be afraid +of me. I'm the most harmless old woman in the world." + +Then she tried to get a glimpse of Anne's downcast, crimson face. + +"I wanted particularly to meet you, child," went on Mrs. Gray, "because +I hear you are a formidable rival of the best pupil in the freshman +class. That is a great boast for your friends to make for you, my dear. +Miriam Nesbit is a famously smart girl, I'm told. But I wanted to meet +you, too, because you bear the name I love best in the world." + +Here the old lady's voice became very soft, and the girls suddenly +remembered that the young daughter had been called Anne. Was there not a +memorial window, in the chapel of the High School, of an angel carrying +a lily and underneath an inscription familiar to them all: "In Memory of +Anne Gray, died in her freshman year, aged sixteen"? + +The girls moved off quietly, conversing in low voices, leaving Anne +alone with her new friend. + +"You are a very little girl to be so clever," said Mrs. Gray, patting +one of Anne's small wrists as she looked into the dark eyes. "Where do +you live, dear?" + +"On River Street," replied Anne undergoing the scrutiny calmly, now she +found herself alone. + +"River Street?" repeated Mrs. Gray, trying to recall whom she had ever +known living in that strange quarter of the town. "Have you been long in +Oakdale?" she went on. + +"A few years, ma'am," replied Anne. + +"And what is your father's business, my child?" continued the old lady +remorselessly. + +Anne blushed and hung her head, and for a moment there was no reply to +the question. Presently she drew a sharp breath as if it hurt her to +make the confession. + +"My father does not live here," was what she said. "My mother is an +invalid. My sister supports us with sewing. As soon as I finish in the +High School, I shall teach." + +Mrs. Gray put an arm around the girl's waist and drew her down beside +her. + +"I'm a stupid old woman, child. You must forgive me. Old people forget +their manners sometimes. Will you come and see me very soon? Perhaps +to-morrow after church you will take luncheon with me? I want to know +you better." + +She drew a card from the beaded reticule that hung at her side. + +"Remember, at half-past twelve," she said, giving the girl's hand an +extra squeeze as she rose to go. + +After Mrs. Gray had taken her departure a free and easy atmosphere was +restored and the girls began talking and laughing without the +restriction of an older person's presence. Mrs. Harlowe shortly after +this also left them to themselves. + +"Let's do some stunts," proposed Grace. "Nora, will you give us your +imitations?" + +"Certainly," replied Nora, "if Miriam will promise to sing, and Jessica +will do her Greek dance, and Georgie will play for us." + +"All right!" came a chorus of voices. + +"We've done it oft before, but we'll do it o'er again if the company so +wishes," said Georgie Pine, one of the brightest and gayest girls in the +class. + +The others seated themselves in a semicircle, while each girl gave her +little performance, and, at the conclusion, was applauded +enthusiastically. Nora had a real talent for mimicry; she convulsed her +audience with imitations of some of the High School teachers. When it +came Miriam's turn she sat down at the piano with a queer look on her +face. + +"I believe she means mischief," thought Grace to herself, as she watched +the girl curiously. + +Miriam ran a brilliant scale up the piano, for music was another of her +many accomplishments. Then she paused and turned to the others. + +"I won't sing," she said, "unless Miss Pierson promises to recite us +something first, Poe's 'Raven,' for instance." + +Grace flushed angrily and was about to interfere when, to her surprise, +Anne herself replied: + +"I shall be glad to if that is the poem you like best. I always +preferred 'Annabel Lee.'" + +Miriam was too amazed to answer. She could never form an idea of what it +cost Anne in self-control to acquiesce; but the young girl had gained a +new strength that day. So many people had been kind to her, and what is +more, interested in her welfare. She rose quietly and walked to the +middle of the semicircle. + +Grace and her chums were in an agony of fear lest poor Anne should break +down, and so distress them all except the unkind Miriam. However, they +need not have troubled themselves. Anne fixed her eyes on the far wall +of the dining room and commenced to recite "The Raven" in a clear, +musical voice that deepened as she repeated the stanzas. The girls +forgot the shabby little figure in its ill-fitting black silk and saw +only Anne's small, white face and glowing eyes. Not Miss Tebbs, herself, +teacher of English and elocution at the High School, could have improved +upon the performance. + +"It was perfectly done," said Grace afterwards, telling the story to her +mother. "It was almost uncanny and quite creepy toward the last." + +When the performance was over the girls crowded around little Anne with +eager congratulations; but, strange to say, everyone forgot that Miriam +had given her promise to sing. + +What the crestfallen Miriam kept wondering was: "Wherever did she learn +to do it?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MRS. GRAY ENGAGES A SECRETARY + + +Grace and her two friends, Jessica and Nora, were also invited to Mrs. +Gray's luncheon the next day, after church. Grace had often taken meals +in the beautiful house on Chapel Hill, but the other girls had never +been privileged to do more than sit in the large, shady parlors while +their mothers paid an afternoon call. + +It was with some excitement, therefore, that the three girls met in +front of the Catholic Church, of which Nora was a member, and strolled +up the broad street together. As they passed the little Episcopal +Chapel, which had given the hill its name, Anne Pierson joined them. She +looked grave and excited, and there was a feverish glow in her eyes. + +"Anne, my child," exclaimed Grace, who always seemed much older than the +others, "how late do you study at night? I believe you are working too +hard. You look tired out." + +"I'm not tired," replied Anne. "I don't mind studying. Only so much has +happened in the last few days! And now we're going to luncheon with Mrs. +Gray. I've seen her house. It's very beautiful from the outside, more +beautiful than the Nesbits', I think, because it is older and there is +such a pretty garden at the side." + +"Anne," said Jessica, "we're counting on you to win the prize. There is +no reason why a rich girl like Miriam Nesbit should get it. She doesn't +need the money, in the first place; and, in the second, she's already +had enough glory to turn her head. Being beaten won't hurt her at all." + +"I would rather win it," answered Anne, with passionate fervor, "than +almost anything in the world. And think of the big prize of $100! If I +could win that----" Words failed to express her enthusiasm and she +paused and clasped her hands. + +"Oh, well, we won't expect that of you," replied Grace, "Nobody could be +expected to pass a perfect examination. That's an impossible +achievement." + +"_I_ shall try, anyway," said Anne in a low voice. + +Just then they were joined by a young man of about eighteen, who lifted +his hat politely to them. + +"May I walk with you?" he asked of Grace. "You seem to be going my way +this morning." + +"Certainly, David, we are going your way. We are lunching with your next +door neighbor, Mrs. Gray. But you must let me introduce you to Miss +Pierson. Anne, this is Mr. Nesbit, Miriam's brother." + +Anne flushed at the mention of Miriam's name and bowed distantly to the +newcomer, who was a junior at the High School and quite grown-up to the +young freshmen. + +David Nesbit, like his sister, was tall, dark and handsome; but unlike +her, he was quiet and unassuming. He, too, stood at the head of his +classes, but he was not athletic, as Miriam was, and spent most of his +time in the school laboratory, experimenting, or working at home on +engines and machinery of his own contriving. + +However, there was nothing snobbish in David's attitude. He greeted Anne +as cordially as he had the others. + +"We never see you now, David," continued Grace. "You are always so busy +with your inventions and contrivances. What is the latest? A flying +machine?" + +"You guessed right the very first time," replied David. "It is just +that." + +"Really?" laughed the girls, incredulously, while Anne's eyes grew large +with interest. + +"Shall you fly around Oakdale in it?" asked Jessica. + +"Oh, we are not building big ones yet," answered David. "These are +little fellows. Models, you know. The big ones may come later. Six of +the junior and senior fellows have been working on them all summer. We +started it in the manual training course. After we had learned to hammer +things out of silver, and do wood carving and a few other little useful +accomplishments, I suggested a flying machine to Professor Blitz and he +fell to it like a ripe peach. It was too late to do anything last spring +except talk, however. But we are almost ready now, after our labors this +summer." + +"Ready for what?" demanded Grace. "If you are not going to fly +yourselves." + +"For our exhibition. Why don't you come and see it at the gym. next +Friday night?" + +"We can't. We aren't invited," answered Nora, tossing back her saucy +little curls. + +"I'll invite you," said David. "This will admit four young ladies to the +High School gym.," he continued, taking out a card and writing on it, +"At 7.30 Thursday evening." + +"Then everybody isn't invited?" demanded Jessica. + +"No, not everybody," replied David. "Just a chosen few. And you must be +sure to come, too, Miss Pierson," he added, turning to Anne, who, all +this time, had been silently listening to the conversation. + +"I should love to," she answered, giving him a grateful glance. + +"I'll leave you here," said David, turning in at a graveled driveway +that led to the Nesbit house, a very large and ornate building standing +far back from the street in the midst of a well-kept lawn. + +"I wish Miriam would take a few lessons in manners from her brother," +murmured Grace, when they were out of hearing distance. + +"He is certainly one of the nicest boys in High School," said Jessica. + +"If he only played football!" said Grace, with a sigh. + +"And danced," added Nora. + +"I don't know how to dance, nor did I ever see a game of football," said +Anne. + +"Meaning that Mr. David suits you, Miss Anne," said Grace teasingly. + +"It was nice of him to ask me, too," was all Anne said in reply. + +"How do you do, my dears?" said Mrs. Gray, a few moments later, when +John, the aged butler, ushered the girls into the long, old-fashioned +parlor. "You are most kind to come and cheer up a lonely old woman. I +shall expect you to be very gay and tell me all the gossip of the +Oakdale High School, the four of you." + +"Luncheon is served, ma'am," announced John, whereat the sprightly old +lady led the way to the dining room. + +Over the delicious broiled chicken and other good things they discussed +the affairs of the school, the new teacher in mathematics, Miss Leece, +who was so unpopular; the girls' principal, Miss Thompson, beloved by +all the pupils; the merits of the Freshman Basketball Team and a dozen +other schoolgirl topics that seemed to delight the ears of Mrs. Gray. + +"The truth is," she said, "I believe this freshman class is going to be +one of the finest Oakdale High School has ever turned out. I have a +feeling that I shall be very proud of my new girls, and at Christmas +time I mean to do something I have never done before, if all goes well." + +"Oh, do tell us what it is, Mrs. Gray," cried the girls in great +excitement. + +"I mean to celebrate with the largest Christmas party that's been given +in Oakdale for many a long year. Grace, you shall manage it for me, and +all of you shall help me decorate the tree and the house. We'll invite +the freshmen boys and have a real dance with Ohlson's band for the +music." + +"Oh, oh!" cried the girls ecstatically, even quiet Anne joining in the +chorus. + +"By the way," went on Mrs. Gray, "do you know any girl who would like to +come up and read to me twice a week, and write my notes for me? I'm +getting to be an old woman. My eyesight is growing dim. Is there any +girl who would like to earn a little pocket money? But she must have a +sweet, soft voice, like Anne's here." + +"Anne would be the very girl herself, Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace. "She +reads and recites beautifully." + +"You are not sure it would trespass on your time too much, Anne?" +observed the wily old lady. "I don't want to impose on you." + +Anne's face fairly radiated with happiness. Could those girls possibly +guess how much it meant to her to earn a little money! Five dollars was +to her an enormous sum, and perhaps she might earn as much as that in +time. + +"Might I do it?" she exclaimed, beside herself with joy. + +Grace turned her face away a moment. She felt almost ashamed of her own +comfortable prosperity. And how like Mrs. Gray it was to do a kind thing +in that way, as if Anne would be conferring a favor by accepting the +position. + +"Indeed, you might, my dear. And I feel myself lucky to get the +brightest girl in her class, and maybe in Oakdale High School, to come +and entertain me twice a week." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BLACK MONKS OF ASIA + + +"Who wants to go nutting?" demanded Grace Harlowe in the basement +cloakroom a few afternoons later. + +"We do," came a chorus of voices. + +"I don't," answered one. + +"Don't you like nutting parties, Miriam?" asked Grace. + +"She's too old," put in a sophomore. "This is a young people's party, I +presume?" + +"Well, it's not a sophomore party, at any rate," retorted Nora. + +"Ma-ma, ma-ma," cried a number of other sophomores, imitating the cries +of a baby. + +The freshmen were nettled by the superior attitude of the older class, +but they knew better than to say anything more just then. + +"Never mind, girls," said Grace in a low voice, after the sophomores had +strolled away, "we'll be sophomores ourselves next year. Now, all who +want to join the party, meet Nora and Jessica and me at the old Omnibus +House at three-thirty. And, above all, don't give the meeting place +away." + +"Not in a thousand years," said Marian Barber. + +It was evident that Miriam Nesbit had hoped to break up the party by +declining to go herself. But she was not quite strong enough in the +class to divide it utterly, and she went off in a huff, with the secret +wish to take revenge on somebody. As she started up Chapel Hill to her +home she was joined by one of the sophomore girls, who lived across the +street. + +"Your plebes are getting away from you, Miriam," exclaimed the older +girl in a bantering tone. "You haven't got them well in hand yet. +Nutting parties should be left behind for the Grammar School pupils." + +"They certainly should," replied Miriam in a disgusted tone. "It's Grace +Harlowe who gets up all these foolish children's games. She's nothing +but a tomboy, anyhow." + +"She's the captain of the basketball team, isn't she?" asked the other +dryly. + +"Yes," admitted Miriam reluctantly, "but she never would have been if +she hadn't brought along all her friends to vote for her." + +"Whew-w-w!" whistled the sophomore. "You don't mean to say it wasn't a +fair election?" + +"Oh, fair enough," said Miriam, "except that I didn't bother to bring +any of my special friends, and she did. I don't call that exactly fair." + +"Oh, well," consoled the other, "you have a few things coming to you +anyway, Miriam. You're at the head of your class, as usual, I suppose?" + +Miriam nodded her head without answering. She was thinking of little +Anne Pierson and what a close race they were running together. Even +studying harder than she had ever had to do before, Miriam found it +difficult to keep up with Anne. + +"Where are they going?" asked the other girl suddenly, after they had +walked along a few minutes in silence. + +"Where are who going?" asked Miriam. + +"Why, the nutting party, of course." + +Here was Miriam's chance for revenge. The sophomores were a famously +mischievous class, and this girl was one of its ringleaders. Back in +Grammar School days they had played many pranks on their school fellows, +and even in their freshman year they had dared to turn off all lights, +one night at a dance of older schoolmates. + +"If I tell, you won't give me away, will you?" asked Miriam. + +"I promise," said the older girl. + +"Very well, then. They meet at three-thirty at the Omnibus House on the +River road." + +"Good," said the sophomore. "Don't you want to come along and see the +fun?" + +"Don't count on me," answered Miriam, turning in at her gate, with mixed +feelings of shame and triumph. + +The Omnibus House, which had been chosen by Grace as the class meeting +place, was an old stone building standing in the middle of an orchard. +It was now in ruins, but tradition set it down as a former inn and stage +coach station built before the days of railroads, and finally burned by +the Indians. There was a curious hieroglyphic sign cut in a stone slab +in the front wall which one of the High School professors interested in +archæology had deciphered as follows: "Peace and Justice Reign Over +Mount Asia Tavern." + +Here the crowd of High School "plebes," as the sophomores scornfully +dubbed them, met in conclave, partly to gather nuts in the woods near +by, partly to discuss class matters, but chiefly to enjoy the crisp +autumn weather. The woods were still gorgeous in russets and reds, in +spite of the recent heavy frosts, and there was a smell of burning +leaves and dry bracken in the air. The girls skipped about like young +ponies. + +"If this is childish," cried Grace, "then I'd like to be a child always, +for I shall play in the woods when the notion strikes me, even if I'm a +grandmother." + +There was a smothered snicker at this from the inside of the old stone +house, but the girls were too intent on their enjoyment to notice it. + +"Young ladies," exclaimed Nora O'Malley, trailing her cape after her to +make her skirts look longer, and twisting her mouth down to give her +face a severe expression, "you are not in your usual form to-day. I must +ask for better preparation hereafter." + +There was a peal of joyous laughter from the other girls. + +"Miss Leece to a dot," cried Jessica. + +"Miss Bright," went on Nora, "you will please pay attention to the +lesson. If you do not, young woman, I shall have to punish you in the +old-fashioned way." + +"You will, will you?" cried Jessica, rushing gayly upon her friend. +"Come on and try it then!" + +The other girls followed, and there was a tussle to pull Nora down from +the stone upon which she had clambered to protect herself. + +Shrieks, struggles and wild laughter followed, while Nora fought +desperately to hold her position. So absorbed were they in friendly +battle that they had not noticed a troop of black-robed figures leaving +the ruined Omnibus House and stealthily approaching. + +Nora was the first to see the ominous circle. She stopped short, and +pointed with unmistakable terror at the masked and hooded persons, who +were watching them silently. There was a moment of frozen horror when +the girls turned around. This was a lonely spot, too remote from any +dwelling to call for help. Besides, the freshmen were outnumbered by +these weird figures, who appeared not unlike monks in their somber +cowls, although their faces were absolutely hidden by black masks. + +The girls clustered together around the rock like a group of frightened +chickens. Jessica had turned pale. She was not very robust and often +overtaxed her strength to keep up with her two devoted friends. + +The tallest of the masked figures then spoke in a queer, deep voice. + +"Young women, are you not aware that this is a sacred spot, devoted for +generations past to the Black Monks of Asia, whose home this building +was before it became a roadhouse for stage coaches? Never invade this +spot again with your hilarity. And now we will permit you to go, +marching out single file, without looking back. But first, through your +leader you must give your word never to mention this meeting to anyone. +If you refuse this promise we shall punish you as only the Black Monks +of Asia know how to punish persons who have offended the order. The +leader will please step forward." + +There was a moment's whispered conversation among the freshmen. Then +Grace, urged by her friends, said: + +"We promise." + +"Now march out, single file, as agreed," resumed the Black Monk of Asia, +his voice trembling a little with suppressed emotion of some sort. + +The girls started to move out of the enclosure single file, Grace +leading the procession, when a gust of wind blew the robe of the leading +monk apart, disclosing a navy blue serge walking-skirt. Grace's quick +eye caught sight of the skirt at once, and breaking from the line, she +charged straight into the group of black monks, crying: + +"Sophomores! Sophomores!" + +The other girls ran after her, screaming at the tops of their voices; +and there might have been almost a free fight between the two classes +had not the Black Monks of Asia scattered in every direction, running at +utmost speed. + +"Come on back, girls," cried Grace in a disgusted tone. + +She had chased a monk half-way across the orchard; then stopped to +wonder what she would do if she caught the tall, black-robed individual +who had indecorously caught up her skirts and was flying well ahead over +the rough ground. + +One by one the plebes returned to their meeting place. + +"Well, that was a sell!" uttered Nora disgustedly. "How shall we ever +manage to get even with those mean sophomores!" + +"If we don't," exclaimed Grace, "we shall never hear the last of it in +Oakdale." + +"But who gave us away?" demanded Jessica. "Did anyone drop a hint to the +sophomores of our secret meeting place?" + +"I didn't," said one girl after another. + +"Perhaps they followed us," suggested Marian Barber. + +"No one followed me," asserted Grace. "I was careful to look behind and +see." + +"Nor me." + +"Nor me," exclaimed several of her classmates. + +"No," said Nora. "Somebody must have overheard and given the secret +away." + +"Not Mi----" but Grace stopped before she had finished the name. + +The girls looked at each other. + +Could Miriam Nesbit have been so false to her class? + +No one replied, but each made a secret resolution to ferret out Miriam's +suspected treachery if it were the last act of her life. + +"Let's start home, now," said Grace. "It's too late to go nutting +anyhow, and these foolish sophomores have spoiled the afternoon, for me +at least. If we don't cook up something to pay them back, the name of +freshman will be disgraced forever more." + +However, the afternoon adventures were not at an end. + +As the group of girls started toward the road, some distance away, +trying not to look crestfallen, a gruff voice from the far side of the +Omnibus House called: + +"Hold up there!" + +The girls took no notice, thinking it was more upper-class tricks. + +Five rough-looking men emerged from a grove of alders which grew about +the building. + +The young girls were really frightened this time. No sophomore could +disguise herself like this. These were undoubtedly genuine ruffians of +the worst type, hungry, blear-eyed and ragged. + +"What shall we do?" whispered Jessica, clinging to Grace desperately. + +"Everybody run," answered her friend, trying to be calm as the five men +advanced on them. But when they broke away to run toward the distant +road they found their retreat cut off by the tramps, who were active +enough as soon as the girls showed signs of flight. Back of them lay the +dense woods into which the sophomores must have plunged and departed for +town by another road. Seeing that escape was impossible, since, if some +got away, others would be caught--and no girl was willing to desert her +friends--the frightened plebes paused again and clustered about their +leader. + +"What do you want?" asked Grace of one of the men. + +"First your money, then your jewelry," answered the tramp, insolently +leering at her. + +"But suppose we haven't any money or jewelry," replied Grace. + +"So much the worse for you, then," answered the tramp in a threatening +tone. + +"He can have this gold bracelet," exclaimed Jessica, slipping the band +from her arm. + +But Grace was not listening. Her attention was absorbed by a group of +people passing in a straggling line on the road. Lifting up her voice +she gave the High School yell, which had been familiar to every High +School boy and girl for the last twenty years: + +"Hi-hi-hi; hi-hi-hi; Oakdale, Oakdale, HIGH SCHOOL!" + +As she expected, the call was answered immediately, and some of the +loiterers along the highway vaulted the fence at one bound. + +"Help!" cried all the girls in chorus. "Help! Help!" + +"It's some of the High School boys!" exclaimed Nora, in a relieved voice +as the rescuers came bounding through the orchard. + +The tramps looked irresolute for a moment, but when they saw that the +newcomers were five boys they held their ground. + +"What do you want?" said the tallest boy, with a flaming head of red +hair, as he confronted one of the tramps. + +"Thank heaven it's Reddy Brooks, pitcher on the sophomore baseball +team!" whispered Grace, unable to conceal her joy. + +"Is that any of your business, young man?" demanded the tramp, showing +his teeth like an angry dog. + +"It's my business to protect these young ladies," answered Reddy Brooks, +"and I'll do it if I have to shed somebody's blood in the attempt." + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the big tramp, clapping his hands to his sides and +almost dancing a jig in his amusement. + +In the meantime Reddy had cast his eyes about for some kind of a weapon. +There was not a stick nor stone in sight. The only thing he could find +was a pile of winter apples that had evidently been collected by the +owner of the orchard to be barreled next day. + +Reddy made a rush for the pile, to the amazement of his fellow-students, +who imagined for a moment that he was running away. They soon found out +his purpose, however, when the apples came whizzing through the air with +well-aimed precision. + +The first one hit the biggest tramp squarely on the chin and almost +stunned him. Each boy then chose his man and the five ruffians were soon +running across the orchard to the wood, the boys after them, their +pockets bulging with apples. Laughing and yelling like wild Indians, +they pelted their victims until the men disappeared in the forest. + +The girls, who had forgotten their fright in the excitement of the +chase, were laughing, too, and urging on the attacks exactly as they +would have done at one of the college football games. Perhaps they had +had a narrow escape, but it was great fun, now, especially when Reddy +Brooks threw one of his famous curved balls and hit a tramp plump on the +back of the head. + +"Oh," cried Nora, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, "I never had +such a good time in all my life! Wasn't it great?" + +"Wasn't it though?" grinned Reddy, as the boys returned from the field +of victory. "Lots more fun than throwing balls at dummies at the county +fair, wasn't it, fellows?" + +"You girls ought to be careful how you walk out here alone at this time +of the year," said Jimmie Burke. "There are a great many tramps around +now, going south in bunches to spend the winter in Palm Beach, no +doubt." + +"We'll never do it again," answered Grace. + +"Never again!" exclaimed Nora, raising her right hand to heaven. + +"I suppose Farmer Smithson will wonder what became of his apples," +observed Reddy. + +"Oh, well, he has so many acres of orchards, I don't suppose he'll miss +this one little pile." + +And the crowd started gayly off to town. + +But the girls of the freshman class had not forgotten--or forgiven--the +Black Monks of Asia. + +All along the walk Grace was turning over and over in her mind some +scheme of revenge. Nothing seemed feasible, however. The sophomores were +so well up in tricks that it would be difficult to deceive them. + +"Suppose," Grace proposed suddenly, aloud, "we ask David Nesbit's advice +to-morrow night, when we go to the flying machine exhibition." + +After that she dismissed the subject from her mind for the time being. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ANNE HAS A SECRET + + +On the night of the flying machine exhibition, the four chums, for Anne +had now been formally adopted by Grace and her friends, arrived somewhat +early at the great arched doorway leading into the gymnasium. + +They were all somewhat excited over this new experience. There had been +many balloon ascensions at the State Fair, and once a dirigible airship +had sailed over the town of Oakdale. But to see a real flying machine +with all its grace and elegance and lightness was like stepping onto +another planet where progress had advanced much faster than it had on +this. + +At least, so thought Anne as she followed her friends into the building. +There was a sound of puffing and churning, during which David arrived in +a cloud of smoke on his motor cycle. + +"I mean to learn to ride one of those queer machines," exclaimed Grace +from the doorway, never dreaming what an important part that very +machine was one day to play in the history of Oakdale. + +"All right, you're welcome to," replied David, jumping off as he stopped +the motor. "Come over to the campus to-morrow afternoon, and I'll give +you your first lesson." + +"Is that really an invitation?" asked Grace. "For I shall accept it, if +it is." + +"It certainly is," answered the young man, "and I shall expect you to +make a very excellent prize pupil, not like Reddy Brooks, who tumbled +off and smashed his nose because he suddenly forgot how to manage the +brakes." + +A few other people gathered in the roomy gymnasium to see the +exhibition, but the girls could see that it was a very exclusive company +they had been invited to join. There were, in fact, no other girls, +except Miriam Nesbit, who came late with her mother, a handsome, quiet +woman to whom her son David bore a marked resemblance. + +Grace and her friends spoke to Mrs. Nesbit cordially, while Miriam bowed +coldly and confined all her attentions to Miss Leece, the unpopular +teacher of mathematics. Miriam ignored Anne entirely. + +"And now, ladies, if you will all be seated, the show will begin," +announced David, leading them to the spectators' benches ranged against +the wall. "Don't expect anything wonderful of mine," he added. "It's +only in the first stages so far. I'm afraid she'll break down, but she's +a great little machine, just the same. Isn't she, mother?" + +"She is wonderful, I think, David," replied Mrs. Nesbit, who was a very +shy, quiet woman, almost entirely wrapped up in her only son. Miriam had +always been too much for her, and she had long since given up attempting +to rule or direct her brilliant, willful daughter. + +"Mrs. Nesbit," said Grace, "this is Anne Pierson, one of the brightest +girls in the freshman class." + +"How do you do?" said Mrs. Nesbit cordially, giving the girl her hand. +"You are a newcomer, are you not? I haven't heard Miriam speak of you." + +"She is a newcomer, mother, but I hear she's giving your daughter Miriam +a stiff pull for first place," said David teasingly. + +"I wish you'd keep quiet, David," exclaimed his sister angrily. "You +always talk too much." + +"Miriam!" remonstrated her mother. + +"Miss Nesbit," said Miss Leece in a disagreeable, harsh voice, "will +have no trouble, I think, in holding her own." + +The teacher gave Anne such a glare from her pale blue eyes that the poor +child shrank behind Grace in embarrassment. + +"Dear, dear," murmured Mrs. Nesbit helplessly. She disliked exceedingly +the scenes to which her daughter often subjected the family. + +David only laughed good-naturedly. + +"The exhibition is about to begin," he said, and disappeared into the +room where the ships were to be put through their performances. + +In a few moments six young airship builders appeared, each carrying in +his arms the result of his summer's labors. There was vigorous applause +from everybody except Miriam, who was too angry with her brother to +enjoy the spectacle. + +The aeroplanes were all copies of well-known models, except David's, +which was of an entirely new and original design of his own invention. +It looked something like a flying fish, the girls thought, with its +slender, oblong body, gauzy fins at the sides and a funny little forked +tail at the stern. + +The models were too light for machinery, so rubber bands, secured +cris-cross in the bows, when suddenly released with a snap gave the +little ships the impetus they needed to fly the length of the gymnasium. + +Only four of the six, however, were destined to fly that evening. They +soared straight down the big room, as easily and gracefully as great +white birds, and dropped gently when they hit the curtain at the other +end, their builders running after them as eagerly as boys sailing kites. +One of the models fluttered and settled down before it reached the other +side, and David's machine, which had commanded most attention because it +was different, started out bravely enough, its little propeller making a +busy humming as it skimmed along. But it had gone hardly ten yards +before it collapsed and ignominiously crashed to the floor. + +"I'm glad of it," said Miriam above the din, for everyone had gathered +about the young man to offer sympathy and congratulations at the same +time. + +"It's very, very clever, my boy," said Professor Blitz, "and you'll +succeed yet, if you keep at it." + +"She wouldn't go far, David," said Grace, stroking the little model, as +if it had been a pet dog, "but she's the prettiest of all, just the +same." + +"Did it hurt it when it fell?" Anne asked him. + +"I think it broke one of its little fins," laughed David. "It hurt me +much more than itself, because it wouldn't be good and fly all the way." + +"Anne," called Grace, "here is some one looking for you. It's a boy with +a note." + +Anne looked frightened as she opened a soiled looking envelope the boy +handed her. + +"Is anything the matter?" asked Jessica, seeing the expression of fear +on her face. + +"No--yes----," answered poor little Anne, undecidedly. "I must go home, +or rather I mustn't go the way I came. Don't you think I could leave at +a side entrance? I don't want to see the person who is waiting for me in +front." + +"Of course, child," spoke up Grace. "We'll see you home ourselves. Won't +we, girls!" + +"Wait until I lock up my motor cycle and I'll go along," called David. +"We'll all protect Miss Anne." + +"Tell him," said Anne to the boy, putting the note back in the envelope +and giving it to him, "that what he asks is impossible." + +"Couldn't you squeeze us into the carriage, mother?" asked David, +returning presently with his hat. + +"I have invited Miss Leece to drive home with us, mother," interrupted +Miriam, giving her brother a blighting glance. "There is room for only +one more person. Perhaps Jessica will take it." + +"You are very kind," said Jessica coldly, "but I prefer to walk with the +girls." + +"_You'd_ better walk, too, cross-patch, and learn a few manners from +your friends," was David's parting advice to his sister. + +"Children, children!" exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit, "don't, I beg of you, +quarrel in public." + +Presently the five young people had slipped out of a side door of the +gymnasium and started down a back street in the direction of Anne's +house. They had not gone far, however, before they became aware that +they were being followed. Grace was the first to call the attention of +Nora and Jessica to a long, slim figure stealing after them in the +shadows. + +"Here he comes," whispered Jessica. "What in the world do you suppose he +wants with our poor little Anne?" + +"I believe he's going to stop us," returned Grace. "He is coming nearer +and nearer." + +"Anne, I command you to wait!" called a voice from behind them. + +They all stopped suddenly and Anne jumped as though she had received a +shock. + +A tall, theatrical-looking individual had come up to them. He wore a +shabby frock coat and a black slouch hat, which he raised with an +elaborate flourish when he saw the young girls. + +"Pardon me, ladies," he said, "but I wish to speak with my daughter." + +Anne controlled herself with an effort. + +"I cannot see you now, father," she said. "It is quite late and I must +get back." + +"You shall not only speak to me but you shall come with me," exclaimed +the man, with a sudden flare of anger. "I will not submit to +disobedience again. Come at once!" + +"Father, I cannot go with you," cried Anne, clinging to her friends. "I +would rather be with mother and Mary. They need me more than you do and +I want to go to school and study to be a teacher." + +The man was now beside himself with theatrical rage. + +"Miserable child!" he cried, waving his arms wildly. "I shall take you +if I must by force." Breaking through the group, he seized the hand of +his daughter and dragged her after him. + +"Oh, save me!" cried the poor girl, struggling to release herself. + +"I can't stand this! If she doesn't want to go with him, she shan't, +father or no father," growled David, dashing after the pair. + +"Stop, sir!" he cried, seizing Anne's other hand. "I must ask you to +release this young lady at once." + +"Insolent boy!" cried the other, giving each word an oratorical +flourish, "are you not aware that this young lady, as you call her, is +merely a child, and that she happens to be my daughter? I cannot see +that you have a right to interfere in a family matter." + +"But I have no proof that Miss Pierson is your daughter," retorted +David. "It is enough that she doesn't want to go with you. I undertook +to see her safely to her own home, this evening, and I mean to do it. +After that you may settle your difficulties as you please." + +"Miserable upstart!" cried the man, now so thoroughly angry that he let +go Anne's hand, "I have a good mind to give you what you deserve. As for +you, undutiful, wretched girl," he added, his voice rising to an +emotional tremolo, "you shall be well punished for this!" + +"Don't wait," whispered Anne. "If we run, we can get away, now, while he +is so angry." At that they all took to their heels, David following +after them, much relieved to have given Anne's father the slip without +further disagreeable argument. + +No one spoke until they had reached the Pierson cottage and had seen +Anne safely to the front door. + +"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed at last, trying not to cry. "I wouldn't +for anything have had it happen, and just when you were all beginning to +like me a little. Will you forgive me?" + +"Forgive you, Anne!" cried Grace. "It wasn't your fault. We are only +awfully sorry for you." + +"We will just forget all about it, and never speak of it to anyone," +promised Jessica, taking the girl's hand kindly. + +"But I want you to understand that I was right in not going," protested +Anne. "Some day I will explain." + +"Of course you were right," said David, "and I hope you will never be +persuaded to go." + +"Thank you, all, a thousand times!" came gratefully from Anne; "and good +night." Then she disappeared into the cottage. + +"Well, this was a night's adventure," observed Grace, as they started +homeward. + +"I am afraid Anne's father is a night's adventurer," muttered David. "He +looks mightily like one of those strolling actors who go barnstorming +through country towns." + +"Poor Anne! Do you suppose he wants her to barnstorm?" asked Nora. + +"I haven't a doubt of it," replied the young man. "I think you girls had +better adopt that poor child and look after her." + +"We have already," answered Grace. "Didn't Miriam tell you about it?" + +"Miriam? No; she never tells me anything. Besides, what has she to do +with it?" + +The girls were silent. + +"By the way," continued Grace, "speaking of barnstorming, we want to ask +your advice, David. The sophomores played a mean trick on us the other +day at the old Omnibus House." + +"I heard something about the Black Monks of Asia," answered David, +laughing. + +"Can't your inventive brain devise a scheme of revenge?" went on Grace. +"If we don't get even with them soon, the story will be all over town." + +"Well," replied David, "I can tell you a secret I happened to have +overheard when one of the sophomores was calling on Miriam. I was an +eavesdropper entirely by accident, but what I heard might help some. The +sophomores are going to give an initiation mask ball a week from +Saturday night. Only the class and a few outsiders, among them Miriam, +are to be present. Everybody is to be in fancy dress, and disguised out +of all recognition. Can't you work up a scheme with that to go upon, +girls?" + +"We certainly can," cried Nora. "It's the chance of a lifetime." + +"Just wait and see!" exclaimed Grace. + +"By the way, David, you didn't happen to overhear the password, did +you?" asked Jessica. + +"I did," he replied. "Nothing escaped me, for I was caught in a trap. +You know I don't care for that large, husky young damsel who leads the +sophomores, and if I had made my presence behind the screen known, I +should have had to speak to her. So I just sat still and said nothing. +The password is 'Asia.'" + +"They are trying to rub it in, I suppose," cried Grace. "But I think +they won't be so ready to use that word after their old ball is over." + +"If you want any help," offered David as he left Grace at her front +door, "you know where to come for it, don't you?" + +"You're a true brick, David!" said Grace. "Good night." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SOPHOMORE BALL + + +There was an undercurrent of excitement in the air on the day of the +sophomore ball. + +The sophomores themselves were full of secrets, whispering around in +groups, their faces grave with self-important expressions. This was to +be their annual Initiation Ball, and many new members, after receiving +initiation into the various sophomore societies, were to be invited to +the gymnasium, which had been turned over to the class for the evening. + +There was no end to the fun of these balls, according to feminine +gossip, for no male was ever admitted and only three invitations were +issued to girls of other classes. It was, in fact, to be nothing but fun +and frolic, and every costume had been planned weeks ahead. + +One teacher was asked to be present to keep order in case of intrusion, +for the gymnasium door, on that famous night, was always besieged by +youths from the Boys' High School, who roared and jeered as each cloaked +and masked figure rushed under the archway and disappeared. + +The freshmen, all through the day, were unusually quiet. They kept to +themselves and had little to say. Miriam and her three particular +friends were carefully avoided by their classmates. Miriam, herself, +felt the snub at once. Had she, after all, made a mistake, and was she +losing ground in the class? But her vanity was like a life buoy to her +sinking hopes. She refused to see that the other girls regarded her with +growing dislike. + +When school was over, that afternoon, six girls strolled down the High +School walk arm in arm. They were Grace and her three chums and two +other girls who were popular in the freshman class. + +Anne's small figure seemed almost dwarfed next to Grace, who towered +half a foot above her. Ever since Anne's trying scene with her father, +Grace had been doubly tender and kind to her, until the young girl +seemed to expand under the happy influence. + +"Well, girlies, dear, we are the chosen six. I hope we shall be a credit +to the class." + +"Don't talk so loudly, Nora. I feel as if we were surrounded by spies +to-day. Everybody has been so mysterious and queer." + +"One thing is practically certain," whispered Grace: "I believe it was +Miriam who told the sophomores about the Omnibus House. Why else did +they invite her to their ball?" + +"We can never prove it, though," said one of the others, "unless we get +her up a tree some day and make her admit it." + +"Remember, Anne," cautioned Grace, when they came to the cross street +leading to the Pierson cottage, "eight o'clock sharp at my house! And +don't bother about things. We shall have more than enough among us." + +At half-past eight that night the sound of a stringed orchestra floated +out on the breeze as the door of the gymnasium swung back and forth to +admit disguised sophomores, who each whispered the countersign to the +doorkeeper, after running the gauntlet of the waiting crowd, and slipped +in. + +The music was furnished by a troupe of women players especially engaged +to play in this Adamless Eden. What would not the crowd of waiting boys +have given for one glimpse of the ball room, where ballet girls, clowns +and courtiers, Egyptian snake charmers, Mephistopholeses and +Marguerites, priests and priestesses of the Orient, all whirled madly +together? + +Every door had been locked and bolted and every downstairs window +securely closed. Ventilation was obtained through the half-open windows +opening on the upper gallery, which ran around the four sides of the +gymnasium. The doors to this gallery had also been locked and the only +way to reach it was by steps leading up from the gymnasium. + +Six masked and hooded figures swung down High School Street together, +talking and laughing in low voices. The smallest of the six appeared to +stumble over her feet, and once tumbled in the road. Her friends gayly +helped her up, when it was disclosed that she wore a pair of boy's shoes +much too large for her. + +"If we don't break our necks stumbling over these brogans," whispered +the tallest girl, "we'll be lucky." + +As a matter of fact, each one of the six maskers was wearing a pair of +men's shoes. + +"I stuffed my toes with cotton," laughed another, "but even now they are +hard to manage." + +Just then a motor cycle shot past them, slowed down and stopped +altogether. + +The rider rested it against a tree and came back. + +"I recognized you by your big feet," he said in a whisper. "Grace, +here's the duplicate key to the laboratory. I had some trouble getting +it, but no one knows, and you'll be safe enough. I'll let myself in with +the other duplicate key and lock the door. They will be sure to try it +at intervals. If you get into any trouble, early in the evening, make a +dash for the steps and blow your horn loud. Now, that's all, I think. +I'll be hidden in the laboratory until my turn comes. Good-bye and good +luck!" + +In another instant he was off on his motor cycle. + +Six figures, well disguised in dominoes of as many hues, presently +appeared on the ball room floor, just in time for the grand march. It +was a pity no one, except the lone teacher, was permitted to look at the +brilliant picture. But such was the tradition of the class. After the +march, ten ballet girls in tarlatan skirts, their faces concealed by +little black satin masks, gave a performance. Following this, a Spanish +dancer, whom the six dominoes recognized at once as the treacherous +Miriam Nesbit, gave an exhibition of her skill. + +"I'm going to have some fun with her," whispered the blue domino to the +red one. "Just follow me and see." + +The last speaker joined the dancer as the music struck up a waltz. + +"That was a good day's work you did for our class, not long ago," she +whispered as they danced off together. + +"What do you mean?" asked the Spanish dancer. + +"I mean the Black Monks of Asia. Now, do you understand?" + +"But I thought it was not to be told," exclaimed the dancer, flushing +under her mask. + +"Only to the committee so that you might be rewarded with an +invitation," whispered the domino, as she slipped away. + +"_She_ did confess it, and every freshman in the class shall know it +to-morrow!" the emissary exclaimed privately to her friend, the red +domino. + +"In spite of what her brother is doing for us to-night?" returned the +red domino. + +"You are quite right, child. I never thought of that. Perhaps that is +the very reason he is helping us get even to-night." + +"I think it is," added the other, quietly. + +"Girls, we must hurry up and begin," whispered another of the six +dominoes. "They are all going to unmask at half-past ten." + +So the unrecognized intruders slipped away, stationing themselves about +the room. + +Pretty soon a rumor began to spread among the dancers that there were +young men present. No one knew exactly how it started, but it grew and +spread with such persistency that it finally reached the ears of the +chaperon. + +"Some of the girls saw their feet," said her informant, "and not only +their feet but their trousers, too." + +The teacher rose and rapped sharply for order. + +"Young ladies," she called in a loud voice, "I am sorry to disturb the +dancers, but we have every reason to believe there are some men in the +room. Since it is not yet time for you to unmask, it will be simple to +find out who does not belong here by having you file past me. I will +lift each mask myself." + +The dancers accordingly arranged themselves in a long line and walked +single file past the teacher. She saw only girl's faces, however, as she +peeped under the masks, and the dance proceeded. + +The next disturbance came when the maskers had all taken their stand at +one end of the room at the request of the six dominoes, who managed to +whisper to each sophomore that there was presently to be a surprise. + +An expectant hush fell over the company as the six dominoes filed out of +a side room and stood, for a moment, in full view of the sophomores. +Then the six deliberately lifted their dominoes, disclosing trouser legs +and men's shoes. Instantly the place was in pandemonium; yet before the +sophomores could rush upon the intruders six long horns were blown in +unison, and immediately the lights went out. In the darkness the six +dominoes made for the stairs, rushed along the gallery, and were +admitted to the laboratory by the duplicate key. But, just before the +blue domino disappeared, she called out in a loud voice from the +gallery: + +"The freshmen are avenged!" + +When the doors were safely closed the lights were turned on again, +disclosing the sophomores blinking foolishly at each other after the +sudden startling change from darkness to light. + +"They are in the laboratory!" cried one. "Let's cut off their escape!" + +The angry sophomores made a rush for the door. + +"Hurry girls!" urged David, who had just returned to the laboratory +after manipulating the lights. "They'll catch us before we know it." + +But the young fugitives were too late. Just then there was the sound of +many feet running up the stairs from the other door. + +"How about one of the gallery doors?" asked Grace. + +"They are all locked," answered David. "There only remain the skylight +trap-door and the roof. Do you think you could manage it if I helped +you?" + +"Of course; we could manage anything," protested the freshmen girls. + +It was an easy matter to climb up the ladder, and clamber through the +trap-door on to the roof. + +"We're just in time," whispered David. "They have found the right key to +the gallery door, and they'll be coming in both ways. Crawl carefully +now, girls, for heaven's sake, and don't slip!" + +The seven young people began slowly to draw themselves along the +gymnasium roof on their hands and knees. Fortunately, it was not a very +sloping roof, and their only danger lay in their movements being heard +from below. Meanwhile the gymnasium had emptied itself, and parties of +enraged sophomores were engaged in searching the adjoining class rooms +and passages. + +"Let's surround the building on the outside," cried one of the class +leaders. "They can't escape, then, by any of the fire escapes, and we +are sure to catch them!" + +In a few moments, David peeping over the edge of the roof, saw figures +stationed at every possible exit, waiting patiently. + +"Lie low," he whispered, "and crawl on your stomachs, or you're surely +caught." + +Soon after the seven had reached the end of the hundred feet of +gymnasium, where their flight was stopped short by a blank wall where +the gymnasium joined the High School building. + +"Here's a pretty pass," whispered David. "I forgot about this old school +wall. The only thing to do, now, is to hide behind this chimney and wait +for the row to quiet down." + +There they lay, as flat as possible, listening with bated breath to the +sophomores below. Presently there was a sound of footsteps on the +gymnasium roof and they heard Miriam's voice saying: + +"They must have escaped through the trap-door in the laboratory and come +along here. Wait a minute, girls, and I'll see." + +"O Grace, we're caught!" groaned Jessica. "What shall we do?" + +"No we aren't yet," answered Grace. "Especially if she is coming alone, +and that is what I am praying for." + +"I'll come with you, Miriam," called the voice of the sophomore leader. + +"Why don't you take the other side?" proposed Miriam. "And I'll go +around and meet you." + +"Very well," came the answer. + +The freshmen clutched each other and waited. + +Miriam ran lightly along the roof, and came upon the seven prostrate +figures so suddenly that she almost lost her balance. + +"Don't speak," said Grace, in a distinct whisper, "and don't give us +away. If you do, you will regret it. Remember the blue domino who +waltzed with you!" + +She hoped Miriam would understand what she meant and so save her from +further explanation. In this Grace was right. Miriam was trapped at +last. She deliberately turned and walked away without a word. + +"Come on, girls," they heard her call to the others, "let's waste no +more time on them." When all was quiet the seven intriguers slipped down +the fire escape and disappeared in the darkness--safely escaping +discovery. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ALL HALLOWE'EN + + +"Anne," called a chorus of boys' and girls' voices, "come out and have +some fun. Have you forgotten it's Hallowe'en?" + +The door of the Pierson cottage opened and Anne appeared on the +threshhold. + +"I can't," she answered; "I must study to-night." + +"Oh, bother lessons!" exclaimed Grace Harlowe. "Skip them, for once, and +join the crowd. We are going Hallowe'ening. Mother allowed it because +David Nesbit and Reddy Brooks are along to look after us." + +Anne looked longingly at the little company. + +"I'll come," she sighed, "although it was my algebra I was working on. +You know Miss Leece hates me, and, if I slip up, she'll be much harder +than any of the other teachers." + +"Hang Miss Leece!" said David promptly. + +"Well, let's hang her, then," exclaimed Nora. "Let's dress her up and +hang her on a limb of a tree." + +"What do you mean by 'hang' her?" asked Grace, while Anne went in to put +on her hat and coat. + +"Don't you know?" replied Nora. "You stuff an old dress full of hay and +paper, make a head out of any old thing, put a hat on it, and there you +have her mighty fine." + +"That's an old stunt, Nora," observed David. "Let's have something more +improved and up-to-date. Suppose, for instance, we use Marian's +Jack-o'-lantern for the head. I'll put some little electric bulbs in the +eye holes and attach them to a battery so that we can turn her eyes off +and on. And we'll ride her on a broomstick in good style." + +"Only, nobody must know it's Miss Leece whose being effigied," urged +Grace. "This must be merely for our own private satisfaction. Everybody +promise not to tell." + +Everybody promised; so, with Anne safely in tow, they started for +Jessica's house to make the figure. Here they were not likely to be +interrupted. Jessica's mother was dead and her father spent most of his +evenings in his library. + +Half a broomstick, with a small pumpkin attached to one end, formed the +framework of Miss Leece's effigy. A cross beam gave a human touch to the +shoulders and with the skeleton ready, the business of stuffing an old +ulster and hanging it over the figure was simple. Tiny electric bulbs +were placed in the eyes and a bonnet tied on the head with a green veil +floating behind. Miss Leece, Nora insisted, always wore one growing out +of her left ear. There was nothing left to do now, but to place the +figure in a legless chair that had been nailed to two poles, and the +procession was ready. + +"She's a very fine lady," cried Grace, running ahead to get the effect +of the absurd lopsided figure whose eyes glared and went out +alternately. "I wish the real Miss L. could see herself now. She would +know exactly what she looks like when she glares at poor little Anne in +class." + +"Yes, Anne," said David, "this shall be your party. We are going to give +you satisfaction for your wrongs in the only way that lies in our +power." + +"Oh, I don't really mind her," replied Anne, "only I'm afraid she'll +catch me unprepared, some day, and then I _will_ get it in earnest." + +"It's a perfect outrage," exclaimed Grace. "Miss Leece is so cruel to +little Anne, David, that it makes my blood boil. I sometimes think she +is trying to make Anne lose the freshman prize." + +"The old Hessian!" cried David, who was on a sort of rampage that +evening. "What shall I do to her, Anne? Give her an electric shock?" and +he pressed the electric button rapidly up and down, which made the eyes +glare hideously and go out several times in succession. + +In a town the size of Oakdale strolling parties of boys and girls, on +Hallowe'en night, made a not unusual sight, so when our young people +paraded boldly down the main street, singing and blowing horns, nothing +was thought of it. What they were doing might be considered exceedingly +out of place by a few straightlaced persons, but boys and girls will +have their fun, even if it must sometimes be at the expense of other +people. + +Certainly Miss Leece was the most unpopular teacher ever employed in the +High School as far back as memory could reach. She was cruel, strict and +sharp-tongued. Often her violent, unrestrained temper got the better of +her in the class room; then she gave an exhibition that was not good for +young girls to see. Anne, especially, was the victim of her rages--poor +little Anne who never missed a lesson and studied twice as hard as the +other girls. Miss Leece had but one weakness, apparently, and that was +Miriam Nesbit. + +Twice had the faculty convened in secret session to consider Miss +Leece's case, but it had been decided to keep her through the year at +least, since she was engaged by contract and was moreover an excellent +instructor in mathematics. + +So, it was no wonder that even this early in the school year, she was +the object of dislike to the High School girls. But could our girls have +foreseen what the evening's fun would bring forth, they would never have +been so reckless in carrying the effigy about town. + +"Suppose we take her across the square," cried Reddy; "then over the +bridge to the old graveyard and hang her on the limb of the apple tree +just outside the wall?" + +Off they started, singing at the tops of their voices: + + Hang a mean teacher on a sour apple tree, + Hang a mean teacher on a sour apple tree. + +When they reached the center of the public square, where a big electric +light shed its rays, who should spring out of the shadows, from nowhere +apparently, but Miss Leece herself? Nothing escaped her sharp ears and +her cold blue eyes; neither words of the song nor the figure in detail, +green veil and all; nor Anne Pierson, who happened to be standing quite +near the effigy at the moment. + +And what was worse, and still more incriminating to the guilty +merrymakers, the moment they caught sight of her they stopped singing. +The eyes in the pumpkin suddenly lost their glare, and a silent +procession wound its way hurriedly from the square. + +"Good heavens!" cried Grace. "Why did we stop the song? If we had only +gone right ahead, it wouldn't have looked half as bad." + +"It was a mistake," admitted David, gravely, "especially as she seemed +to have seen Anne first of all. Anne, if she walks into you to-morrow +morning, you can just lay the blame on me, do you hear? I got up the +whole party and I'm willing to stand for it." + +"No, no," cried Anne. "That wouldn't be fair, David. I couldn't think of +doing that." + +"Well, you are not to get the blame, at any rate," said David, "if I +have to go up and make a confession to the principal herself." + +"Let's go and hang her now, anyhow," cried Reddy. "We'll take no +half-way measures with old Queen Bess." + +But somehow the spice of the adventure seemed to have gone out of it. + +"It really would be dangerous now," said Grace. "She would be certain to +hear of it and make it worse for all of us." + +"Why not burn her," put in Nora, who was afraid of nothing and had often +looked at the scolding teacher with such cold, laughing eyes, that even +Miss Leece was disconcerted. + +"Good!" cried several of the others. "We will take her down below the +bridge and burn her as a witch." + +No one objected to this, since the ashes of the effigy would tell no +tales. Once more they started singing: "Merrily we roll along!" as they +marched out of the village, crossed the bridge over the little river and +finally paused on the bank below. + +"Plant the pole in deep," said David, "so she won't topple, and fix her +up to suit yourselves, girls, while we get the fagots." + +The boys began to search about for dried sticks and twigs, while the +girls were arranging the figure for her funeral pyre. + +Suddenly, there was a wild war whoop. A crowd of boys dashed out of a +thicket near by, each one carrying a lighted Jack-o'-lantern on top of a +pole, and surrounded the effigy of the teacher. + +"Help!" cried the girls, trying to defend the absurd thing from the +attack, but they were too late. One of the boys seized the pole and +rushed off in the darkness. + +Miss Leece, in effigy, had been kidnapped in an instant, before David +and his friends had had time to realize what had happened. + +"Which way did they go?" he asked breathlessly. + +"Through the thicket," cried Grace. + +And the whole crowd dashed after the kidnappers. It was great fun for +everybody except Anne, who was too tired to keep up the chase for long, +and was soon lagging behind the others. David saw her and turned back. + +"You are too little for all this junketing, Anne," he said kindly. +"Suppose I take you home? Shall I?" + +"I wish you would, David," answered the girl. "I'm just about ready to +drop, I'm so tired." + +Taking her arm, he helped her over the ruts and rough places, until they +finally emerged from the wood and started on the road to town. + +There were many other Hallowe'en parties out that night; singing and +laughing was heard in every direction. + +"It's like a play," said Anne, "only everything is behind the scenes. +Don't think I haven't enjoyed it, David, just because I got tired. I +never played with boys and girls of my own age before. What fun it is!" + +"Isn't it?" replied the young man, "I love to get out, once in a while, +and have a good time like this. I find I can work all the better after +it's over." + +Presently the others caught up with them, breathless and laughing. + +"Miss Leece is stolen," cried Grace, "before ever she was hanged or +burned. I do wonder what they'll do with her." + +"Oh, leave her in the woods," responded Reddy, "to scare the birds +away." + +"Good night, Anne," continued Grace. "David will take you home. We go +this way. Don't be frightened about to-morrow. I doubt if she says +anything; and if she does, we are all implicated." + +The young people separated, still singing and laughing; never dreaming +of the storm brewing from their evening's prank. + +"Anne," pursued David, as they strolled down River Street together, +"when I make my flying machine will you be afraid to take a sail with +me?" + +"Never," replied Anne, "but I wish it had been made in time to carry me +away from Miss Leece to-morrow morning." + +And Anne's words had more meaning than either of them realized at the +time. + +Imagine the surprise and horror of the Hallowe'en party when, next +morning, they discovered the effigy of Miss Leece planted right in front +of the Girls' High School! + +And the teacher herself was the first to see the impious outrage. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MISS LEECE + + +Yes, there stood the hideous, grotesque effigy just where her abductors +had left her the night before, her green veil floating in the breezes. +As a figure of fun and an object of ridicule, she might not have created +more than a ripple with the faculty. But it was evident that Miss +Leece's function, even in effigy, was to make trouble. + +And trouble was certainly brewing that memorable morning. The figure +itself might never have been recognized, but a placard which had been +pinned on the front of the old ulster left no room for doubt. Across it +had been inscribed in large printed letters: + +"THE MOST UNPOPULAR TEACHER IN SCHOOL." + +No one dared take the effigy away for fear of being implicated. +Everybody had seen it, both men and women professors and the boys and +girls of the two schools. But it was not until Miss Thompson, the +principal of the Girls' High School, had arrived that the figure was +removed. + +"How could those boys have been so mean!" exclaimed Grace to her three +friends just before the gong sounded. "They might have known what would +happen." + +There was an ominous quiet in the various class rooms all morning; but +nothing was said or done to indicate just when the storm would burst. +When the first class in algebra met, Anne trembled with fear, but Miss +Leece, in a robin's egg-blue dress, which offset the angry hue of her +complexion, was apparently too angry to trust herself to look in the +direction of the young girl and the lesson progressed without incident. + +However, she was only biding her time. + +"Miss Pierson," she said, toward the end of the lesson, in a voice so +rasping as to make the girls fairly shiver, "go to the blackboard and +demonstrate this problem." + +Then she read aloud in the same disagreeable voice, the following +difficult problem: + +"'Train A starts from Chicago going thirty miles an hour. An hour later +Train B starts from Chicago going thirty-five miles an hour. How far +from Chicago will they be when Train B passes Train A?'" + +The girls looked up surprised. The problem was well in advance of what +they had been studying and Miss Leece was really asking Anne to recite +something she had not yet learned. + +Anne hardly knew how to reply to the terrible woman who stood glowering +at her as if she would like to crush her to bits. + +"I'm sorry," said the girl. "I cannot." + +"Miss Nesbit," said the teacher, "will you demonstrate this problem?" + +Miriam rose with a little smile of triumph on her face and went to the +blackboard, where she worked out the problem. + +"Why, what on earth does the woman mean?" whispered Grace. "Are we +expected to learn lessons we have never been taught and has that horrid +Miriam been studying ahead?" + +"I think I must be dreaming," replied Anne, looking sorrowfully at Miss +Leece. + +"Miss Pierson," thundered the teacher, "you are aware, I believe, that I +permit no conversation in this class. Stupidity and inattention are not +to be supported in any student, and I must ask you to leave the room." + +Anne rose in a dazed sort of way, looking very small and shabby as she +left the room. + +But Miss Leece was not to come off so easily in the fight, and Anne had +a splendid champion in Grace Harlowe, who could not endure injustice and +was fearless where her rights or her friends' rights were concerned. + +She rose quietly and faced the angry teacher, who already regretted +having gone so far. + +"If Miss Pierson is to be ordered from the room, Miss Leece, I shall +follow her. I spoke to her first. I was naturally surprised that you +gave out a problem so far in advance of our regular work. It is doubtful +if any girl in the class could do it except Miriam, and she must have +been prepared." + +"Miss Harlowe," said Miss Leece, stamping her foot, and again giving way +to rage, "I must ask you to take your seat at once and never interfere +again with the way I conduct this class." + +"You conduct this class with injustice and violence, Miss Leece," said +Grace, turning very white, but holding herself in admirable control +considering the conduct of the older woman. + +"I am in no humor to be answered back this morning, Miss Harlowe, and I +would advise you to be careful," continued the enraged woman. "I have +had enough to try me since last night and this morning. Miss Pierson +must answer to the principal for those insults, and her insubordination +just now has only made matters worse." + +"Miss Pierson has nothing to answer for which I have not, and I shall +join her," replied Grace, and she left the room. + +Miss Leece was about to continue the lesson when Jessica, pale and +trembling, rose and followed her friend. Nora was next to go and in +another moment there was not a girl left in the algebra class except +Miriam and her four particular friends. The gong sounded as the last +pupil closed the door behind her, but there was little doubt that the +first class in algebra had gone on a strike. + +The noon recess gong had sounded before the girls were able to meet and +talk about the incident, and, during the time that intervened, Anne had +received a summons in the form of a small note to meet the principal in +her office at three that afternoon. She said nothing to her friends, +however, and hid the envelope in her pocket. + +The girls in IV. algebra gathered around their friends to hear the +story. They were indignant and expressed their readiness to join the +strike out of sympathy in case there was any more trouble. + +"They have no right to put such a violent woman over us," said Grace, as +she nibbled at a pickle and a cracker in the locker room. "I wish they +would give me the opportunity. I should be more than willing to testify +to her behavior before the entire faculty and the school board +combined." + +Anne, herself, the center of the whole affair was very quiet. This +remarkable young girl seemed to possess some secret force that she was +able to draw upon when she most needed it. + +"Anne, you precious child," exclaimed the impetuous Nora, "you must not +get scared. Whatever happens, the whole class means to stand by you. +Don't we, girls?" + +"Yes," came from all sides. + +"I don't think anything in particular will happen," replied Anne. "I +believe Miss Leece really wants to prevent my winning the prize. That's +all." + +"She has certainly adopted a pet," cried Marian Barber. + +"What did Miriam Nesbit mean by studying ahead like that?" exclaimed +another. "It was disloyal to the whole class." + +"It looks very much as if they had fixed it up between them," continued +Grace. "I'm sorry about the effigy, but I won't stand that kind of +favoritism. It's mean and underhanded." + +After school Anne lingered in the corridor until the other girls had +gone. Then she made her way slowly to the office of the principal. "Come +in," came the answer to her timid knock. + +Miss Thompson, the principal, was a fine woman, much beloved by the +people of Oakdale where she had served as principal of the Girls' High +School for many years. She had adjusted numerous difficulties in her +time, but never such a knotty problem as the present one. It was +incredible that Anne Pierson, who stood so well in her classes that she +had already been mentioned by the faculty, should have engaged in such +an escapade as Miss Leece had accused her of. + +"Sit down," she said kindly to the young girl, whose small, tired face +appealed to her sympathies. "What is this trouble between you and Miss +Leece, Miss Pierson?" she continued, plunging into the subject. + +"I do not know myself, Miss Thompson," answered Anne quietly. + +"But she accuses you of rather terrible things, Miss Pierson," went on +the principal, picking up a slip of paper and reading aloud, +"'inattention, insubordination, impertinence and a tendency to make +trouble.' Have you any answer to make to these charges?" + +"No," replied Anne. + +"Have you nothing to say?" + +"Only that they are untrue." + +"Miss Pierson," continued the principal, opening a closet door, "do you +recognize this figure." + +[Illustration: "Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?"] + +There, hanging by its neck on a coat hook and still wearing its +fantastic bonnet and green veil, was the famous effigy. + +Anne looked at the absurd thing for a moment in silence. Then her eyes +met Miss Thompson's, and both teacher and pupil burst out laughing. + +The young girl never knew how far that laugh went to soften her present +predicament. As a matter of fact, Miss Thompson had never liked the +teacher in mathematics, while the small, shabby pupil appealed strongly +to her sympathy. + +"Were you not the originator of this outrageous plot, Miss Pierson?" + +Anne was silent. She could hardly say she was the originator and still +she had participated. + +"I will put the question in another form," said the principal. "If you +were not the originator, who was?" + +Still Anne made no reply. + +"Miss Leece," continued the principal, "alleges that she distinctly saw +you standing by the figure. She did not recognize the other faces. Do +you think, Miss Pierson, that such an escapade as you engaged in last +night was entirely respectful or worthy of a pupil of Oakdale High +School?" + +"No," replied Anne at last. + +"Do you know that suspension or expulsion are the punishments for such +behavior?" + +Anne clasped her hands nervously. She saw the freshman prize floating +away, and her eyes filled with tears, but she said nothing. + +Instead of being angry, however, Miss Thompson was pleased with the +girl's pluck and loyalty. But she was puzzled to know how to proceed. +Her judgment and her sympathies revolted against punishing this prize +pupil, and still it looked as if Miss Leece had everything on her side. +A tap at the door interrupted her reflections, and Anne opened it, +admitting Mrs. Gray escorted by David and Grace. + +"My dear Miss Thompson," said the old lady, "I know you will consider me +an interfering old woman, but when I heard that my particular child, +Anne Pierson, was in trouble, I came straight to you. I want to talk the +whole matter over comfortably; since it's my own freshman class that's +on the rampage, I feel as if I had a right to put in a word." + +"You are most welcome, Mrs. Gray," replied Miss Thompson, cordially. + +She was exceedingly fond of the lonely old lady who had been a +benefactor to the school in so many ways. "But what's this you say about +the freshman class? I have heard nothing about it." + +"Grace," said Mrs. Gray, "suppose you tell Miss Thompson what you have +just finished telling me." + +Then Grace related the incident in the algebra class and the long +succession of insults Anne had endured from the terrible Miss Leece. + +"Dear, dear," murmured Miss Thompson, "this looks like persecution and +very strong favoritism on the part of Miss Leece. A thing we wish to +keep out of the school as much as possible. But what about this!" and +she opened the door of the closet where the pumpkin face of the effigy +grinned at them grotesquely from the shadows. + +"I have something to say about that, Miss Thompson," declared David. "I +am the author of this 'crime' and I intend to take the blame for it. +Miss Pierson had so little to do with it that we had fairly to drag her +out of her own house to make her join the crowd." + +"I think, Miss Thompson," put in Mrs. Gray, "that a teacher must have +been exceedingly sharp and disagreeable to have inspired such nice +children to this," and she pointed to the figure. + +"I believe you are right," admitted the principal after a moment's +thought, "and I trust, under the circumstances, that the whole affair +can be settled without the interference of the School Board. Suppose you +leave Miss Leece to me. And young people," she added, "if you will +promise to say nothing more about the subject, I think Miss Leece may be +persuaded to let the matter drop." + +And so ended the Hallowe'en escapade. Miss Thompson paid a visit to Miss +Leece that evening, at the teacher's rooms in Oakdale, and was closeted +with her for more than an hour. No one ever knew what happened. Miss +Thompson was a woman to keep her own counsel; but the affair never came +up before the School Board and Miss Leece, after that, though somewhat +stiff in her manner, had no more outbursts of rage for some time. +Undoubtedly her display of favoritism in the algebra class had lost her +the day. + +Miss Thompson was a woman of fine judgment and broad and just views. She +was proud of the Oakdale High Schools and the splendid classes they +turned out year after year. She realized perfectly what a disturbance a +woman like Miss Leece could cause and she determined to check her at +every point, especially when the most prominent and finest pupils of the +two schools were implicated. + +Therefore the offenders went scot-free and Anne was once more safe to +pursue the freshman prize. + +Miss Leece, however, was only biding her time. While Anne had won this +battle she might lose the next. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THANKSGIVING DAY + + +"Oh, how I love Thanksgiving!" cried Grace. + +"Oh, how you love turkey, you mean," exclaimed her bosom friend, Nora +O'Malley. + +"Yes," admitted Grace, "the turkey is a grand old bird, bless him, but +football is what I really love, delightful, thrilling football. I wish I +could play center on the home team. I know I could make a touchdown as +well as the best of them." + +The crowd of young people were seated on straw in the bottom of a large +road wagon that was slowly making its way from Grace's house out to the +football grounds. It was decorated with the colors of the Oakdale High +School, sea-blue and white, and the girls wore blue and white rosettes +and carried long horns from which dangled ribbon streamers. Numbers of +Oakdale people were hurrying down the road toward the field, and the +crisp autumn air vibrated with the sounds of talk and laughter. In the +distance could be heard the music of the town band, which always gave a +concert before the Thanksgiving game. + +"And to think that little Anne has never in her life seen a football +game!" exclaimed Jessica. + +Anne blushed. + +"Yes," she replied reluctantly, "I'll have to admit this is my very +first game, but I understand the rules. Grace has explained them to me. +I hope our boys will win." + +"If the Dunsmore boys are in good trim, I'm afraid they'll give us a +stiff pull," observed David, "but the stiffer the pull the more +interesting it is to watch, so long as they don't lick us." + +Just then the wagon drew up at the grounds and the boys and girls jumped +out and made their way through the crowd to their seats. + +Everybody in Oakdale turned out for the annual Thanksgiving football +game. The professors and their wives, the teachers from the Girls' High +School and all the pupils were there in full force, besides the citizens +of Oakdale and their families. There was really a very large assemblage +in the semicircular ampitheater which was hung with bunting and flags in +honor of the great occasion, and probably not one in the whole cheerful +company but had enjoyed a good Thanksgiving dinner that afternoon, so +good humor beamed from every face. + +"Don't you think this is a thrilling sight, Anne?" demanded Grace, for +there was not a soul in Oakdale who was not vain of the High School +football team, which had won for itself honors all over the state. + +"Wonderful!" exclaimed Anne, clasping her hands and waiting impatiently +for the performance to commence. + +Just then the band struck up again, and under cover of the music David +whispered to Jessica: + +"Do you see that man over there to the right on the back seat, with +long, dark hair and a slouch hat?" + +Jessica found the individual presently, starting slightly when she saw +his face. + +"I do believe it's Anne's father," she whispered. + +"It just is," said David, "and he's looking hard at Anne, too. I wonder +if he means to make another scene." + +"Poor Anne!" sighed Jessica. "She seems to have more than her fair share +of troubles." + +The two teams then filed out for warming-up practice; the excitement of +the ensuing game drove all thought of the sinister looking Mr. Pierson +out of their heads, for the time being. The first half ended in a +brilliant touchdown for the High School boys, though the kick for goal +failed. Immediately the place rang with the cheers of the spectators. +Crowds of boys rushed up and down giving the High School yell and when +the noise died down somewhat the girls started the High School song: + + "Here's three cheers for dear old Oakdale, + God bless her, everyone!" + +Anne was thrilled. Never had she enjoyed herself so much. She stood upon +the seat beside Grace and waved a blue and white banner as frantically +as anybody else. + +"I don't think I quite understand what it's all about," she confided to +David, who sat next to her, "but I am very happy all the same." + +David smiled down into the radiant face. What a new dress and hat can do +for one small, insignificant little person is quite wonderful sometimes. +And Anne, with the money she had earned from Mrs. Gray, had replenished +her wardrobe. In her neat brown suit and broad-brimmed hat she was +really pretty, in a queer, quiet sort of way, David thought. He wondered +if the father, hidden by rows of people, in the back, would be able to +see how prosperous and well his daughter was looking. But his attention +was recalled to the football field, for the next half was going against +the High School, and there was apprehension among the sons and daughters +of Oakdale. + +"Dunsmore! Dunsmore!" cried a delegation from Dunsmore College. + +But Dunsmore was not to be the victor that Thanksgiving Day. It was +ordained that, just as hope had almost expired, a slender, fleet-footed +young junior of the High School team should seize the ball and fly like +the wind across the line. Score 10 to 1--Oakdale's score! + +Immediately a terrific hubbub began. Surely the place had gone mad, Anne +thought. The hundreds of spectators, including Grace and her party, had +rushed from the ampitheater, clambered over the railing and dashed into +the field of glory. Such yelling and roaring, such blowing of horns +while the hero of the afternoon was carried about on the shoulders of +his fellows, made her heart palpitate wildly. Her friends had forgotten +all about her, evidently, or perhaps they thought she had followed. + +"Anne," said a voice in her ear, "don't make any disturbance. I want you +to come with me." + +Anne turned around quickly and faced her father. + +"Come at once!" he said. "I want to get out of this howling mob as soon +as possible. We can talk later." + +He took her hand, not ungently, and presently they found themselves on +the other side of the fence surrounding the field. Anne had not meant to +go, but she knew her father was quite capable of making a scene and she +felt she couldn't endure it just then. Once outside, she thought she +might escape. Never once, however, did he release her hand until he had +her safe in one of the town hacks and they had started down the road. + +When Grace and her friends finally recovered from their wild joy and +excitement there was no Anne to be found. + +"Perhaps she stayed in her seat," exclaimed Grace, but the place was +quite empty. + +David and Jessica looked about them uneasily. + +"What chumps we were!" said the young man presently. "We never bothered +to look after her, and now probably that old parent of hers has actually +gone and kidnapped the poor child." + +They searched through the crowds everywhere, but Anne was nowhere about. + +At last David and Jessica confessed their suspicions to Grace. + +"Oh, oh!" cried Grace, "I feel as if we were personally responsible for +her! What shall we do?" + +David thought a minute. + +"Is there a play at the Opera House to-night?" he asked presently. + +"I believe there is," replied Grace. "Why?" + +"Ten to one Anne's father is acting in it," said David, "and that is the +reason he happens to be in Oakdale to-day." + +"That's a very brilliant idea if it happens to be true," said Jessica. +"But don't you think we had better see Miss Mary Pierson before we do +anything?" + +"No," exclaimed Grace decisively. She was in the habit of thinking +quickly and her friends usually let her have her way; but it was +generally the best way. "It would be a pity to alarm her unnecessarily +if we can avoid it. Anne isn't expected home until late, anyway. She is +invited as are all of you to eat supper at my house. Suppose we go right +to town, while David makes some inquiries at the Opera House. Then, if +Anne's father is really acting in town to-night, we shall know what to +do." + +Accordingly, they tumbled into the road wagon, whipped up the horse and +drove back to Oakdale as fast as they could go. On the way in, they saw +a new bill posted on a wall, advertising a play entitled "Forsaken." It +showed, in vivid colors, a young girl very ragged and tired looking, +asleep on the steps of a large church. + +"Let's go to the show," cried Nora, who always managed to combine +amusement with duty; "that is," she added, "if Anne's father is in it. +Of course, Anne will probably be somewhere about, in that case, and we +could spirit her away while he is acting." + +"That isn't a bad idea," answered David. "But I'd better find out a few +things first. I'll come over to your house, Grace, and report," he +called as he jumped out of the back of the cart. + +The girls waited impatiently for his return, feeling that every moment +Anne might be speeding away in some outgoing train, and they were losing +valuable time. Grace had thought of consulting her mother, her best and +wisest counsellor at all times, but Mr. and Mrs. Harlowe had gone on a +long drive to the home of Mrs. Harlowe's mother and would not return +until late that night. In half an hour their patience was rewarded; the +gate clicked and David ran breathlessly up the walk, joining them +presently in the parlor. + +"It's true," he cried excitedly. "Anne is at the Spencer Arms, probably +locked up in a room. Her father is acting to-night in 'Forsaken,' and +the whole company leaves town on the 11.30 train. I suppose Anne must go +to the theater, for there will be no time to go back to the hotel after +the play. I got the whole thing out of the clerk." + +"Then we can all go to the theater," cried Nora triumphantly. + +"What good will that do Anne?" demanded practical Grace. + +"It may do her no good whatever," said David, "but it would be well not +to lose sight of the father, even, if we must follow him to the train. +And if Anne knows we are near, she will be able to get back her nerve." + +"Children," cried Grace suddenly, "I have a scheme. I won't put it into +action unless it's absolutely necessary, but it's bound to work." + +"What is it?" demanded the others. + +"I won't tell," replied Grace mysteriously, "because I may not have to +use it, and I'll warn you that it's rather dangerous. But it will save +Anne, and we just mustn't get caught." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +GRACE KEEPS HER SECRET + + +The "best" Oakdale people did not often see the melodramas that appeared +from time to time at the small opera house. Occasionally, if something +really good came along, Oakdale society turned out in force and filled +the boxes and the orchestra seats; but, generally speaking, the little +theater was only half filled. + +And such was the case on this Thanksgiving night. Most of the audience +was made up of farmers out holiday-making with their families, factory +girls from the silk mills and a few storekeepers and clerks. + +"I am glad there are so few people here," observed Grace, looking around +the scanty audience; "because, if we have to resort to my scheme, it +will make it much easier and less dangerous." + +"What in the world is it?" pleaded Jessica. + +"Never mind," answered her friend. "I'm afraid you'll object, so I won't +tell until the last minute." + +Just then a wheezy orchestra struck up a march and the High School party +settled down in their seats, each with a secret feeling that it was +rather good fun, in spite of the peculiar reason that had taken them +there. + +"Here he is," said Nora, pointing to the name on the programme. "He +takes the part of Amos Lord, owner of the woolen mills." + +At that moment the lights went down and the music stopped short. The +curtain rolled up slowly disclosing the front of a church. It was night +and lights gleamed through the stained glass windows. Snow was falling +and from the church came the sound of organ music playing the wedding +march. The picture was really very impressive, although the music was +somewhat throaty and the flakes of snow were larger than life-size. + +But who was it half lying, half sitting on the church steps, shivering +with cold? + +The girls had not been so often to the theater that they could afford to +be disdainful over almost any passable play, and from the very moment +the curtain went up their interest was aroused. Certainly, there was +something extremely romantic and interesting about the lonely little +figure on the church steps. + +"That's the heroine," whispered Jessica. "Her name is Evelyn Chase." + +Then people began to go into the church. It was a wedding evidently, +although the groom was a tall, lean, middle-aged individual with gray +hair. + +"It's Mr. Pierson himself," exclaimed Nora in a loud whisper. + +The bride-to-be was young and quite pretty. She was not dressed in +white, but it was plain she was the bride because she carried a bouquet +and hung on the arm of Anne's incorrigible parent. As they started up +the steps, what should they stumble over but the half-frozen form of the +young girl! + +Then, there was a great deal of acting, not badly done at all, thought +David, who had had more experience in these matters than his friends. +The bride refused to go on with the ceremony until the poor little thing +was taken care of. The groom would brook no delay, for, oh, perfidy, he +had recognized in the still figure his own child by a former wife +deserted years before. + +Slowly the forsaken girl regained consciousness, lifted her head from +the steps, threw back her shawl, and---- + +"Heavens and earth, it's Anne herself!" exclaimed Grace. + +It was Anne. They were so startled and amazed they nearly tumbled off +their seats. + +"As I live, it is Anne, and acting beautifully!" whispered David. + +"Where did she learn how?" demanded Jessica. "Strange she never told +it." + +But they were too interested to reply, for the action of the play was +excellent and the interest held until the curtain rang down on the first +act. + +"No wonder he wants to keep her with him," ejaculated David when the +lights went up. "She is the star performer in the show." + +"She is wonderful," declared Grace. "To think that little, brown, quiet +thing could be so talented! I always imagined acting was the hardest +thing in the world to do, but it seems as though she had always been on +the stage." + +"Are we still going to try to save her?" asked Nora. + +"Of course," replied David. "She doesn't want to act. Didn't you hear +her say so that night? She wants to go to school." + +"But it seems a pity, somehow, when she is so talented." + +"She's just as talented in her studies," said Grace, "and I've often +heard that stage life is very hard. No, no! I intend to do my best to +get Anne away this very night, if it upsets the entire town of Oakdale." + +When the second act was over, and Anne had actually so moved her +audience that one old farmer was audibly sobbing into a red cotton +handkerchief, and the girls themselves were secretly wiping their eyes, +Grace whispered to David: + +"I'm going to write a note, if you'll lend me a pencil and a slip of +paper, and wrap it around the stem of this chrysanthemum. When Anne +appears in the next act, you go up in the box, and if she's alone an +instant pitch it to her. Then she will know what she's to do." + +"But what is she to do?" demanded the others. + +"I won't tell," persisted Grace. "You'll object, if I do." + +"All right," said David. "I'll obey you Mistress Grace, although I wish +you would confide in me." + +But Grace was obdurate. She would tell no one. + +The last act disclosed an attic at the top of an old tenement, with +dormer windows looking out on a wintry scene. Anne appeared, more ragged +than ever, carrying a little basket of matches. It was evident that she +was a match girl by trade, and that this was her wretched domicile. As +she crept down the center of the stage, ill and wretched, for she was +supposed to be about to die--David saw his opportunity. From behind the +curtain of the box he tossed the chrysanthemum, which fell right at her +feet. + +"If she only sees it," he thought. + +But apparently she didn't. Going wearily to an old cupboard, she took +out a crust of bread. Then she drew the ragged curtains at the windows +and lit a candle. Simultaneously the entire attic was illuminated, for +stage candles have remarkable powers of diffusing light. + +"Why doesn't she pick up the flower?" exclaimed Grace. "If she doesn't +the scheme won't work at all." + +"I believe she's going to die," whispered Nora in a broken voice. + +Just then the Irish comedian appeared, puffing and blowing from the long +climb he had had to the top of the house. He had come to bring help to +the dying girl, but he was funny in spite of the dreary tragedy, and +Nora changed her tears to laughter and began to giggle violently, +burying her face in her handkerchief in her effort to control her mirth. +Her laughter was always contagious, and presently her two friends were +giggling in chorus. + +"Do hush, Nora O'Malley!" whispered Jessica nervously. "You know that if +you once get us started we'll never stop." + +A countryman, sitting back of Nora, touched her on the shoulder. + +"Be you laughing or crying, miss?" he asked. "It ain't a time for +laughing nor yet for crying, since the young lady ain't dead yet and I +don't believe she's goin' to die, either." + +"She just is," exclaimed Nora, wiping the tears from her eyes. "She'll +die before she gets off that bed to-night, I'll wager anything." + +All this while, the chrysanthemum with the note twisted and pinned to +its stem lay in the middle of the stage. In the meantime, Anne had +fallen into a stupor from cold and hunger. The kind little comedian +rushed about the stage, making a fire, putting on the tea kettle and +stumbling over his own feet in an effort to be useful. + +"Now, all the others will enter in a minute," whispered Grace +disgustedly, "and she'll never get it at all." + +Just then Anne turned on her pillow and opened her eyes. They looked +straight at David, who was sitting in the front of the box. He pointed +deliberately at the chrysanthemum. + +"She sees it," said Jessica, for Anne's eyes were now fixed on the +flower. + +When the kind Irishman departed to spend his last cent on medicine and +food for the dying girl, she rose, staggered across the stage, seized +the chrysanthemum and rushed back again, just in time to be lying prone +when her father entered, now a repentant and sorrowful sinner. + +"It's all right," whispered Grace in a relieved tone. "I feel sure that +the plan will work to perfection." + +Anne _did_ die a stage death, and there was not a dry eye in the house +when she forgave her father, bade farewell to the entire company, who +had now gathered in the attic, and her soul passed out to soft music +while the lights were turned very low. + +"Fire! Fire!" rang out a voice from the darkened house. + +Where did the voice come from? Nora and Jessica were so startled they +could only clutch each other and wonder, while Grace whispered: + +"Don't move from your seats." + +"Grace, was that your voice?" whispered David, who had joined the girls +during the death-bed scene. + +But Grace made no reply. She only put her finger to her lips as she held +his arm with a detaining hand. + +There was a panic in the house. The audience rushed for the doors while +the actors leaped over the footlights in their mad scramble to escape. +Several women's voices took up the cry of fire and the place was in wild +confusion. Evidently the man who managed the lights had been too +frightened to turn them on again, for the theater still remained in +semi-darkness. + +The four young people did not move while the audience was crowding out +of the aisles. + +"We might as well be suffocated as crushed," observed David. "It's a +much more comfortable death, and besides I can't smell any smoke." + +Grace smiled but was silent. + +"I'm here at last," announced Anne's well-known voice behind them. + +And there she was, still in her ragged stage dress, carrying her hat and +coat on her arm. + +"Why, Anne Pierson!" cried Nora, "I thought you were dead and gone." + +Anne laughed. + +"Not dead," she said. "But I would certainly have been gone in another +half hour. We needn't hurry," she continued. "I don't believe he would +ever think of looking for me inside the theater, and, for the time +being, this is the safest place." + +"Anne, why did you never tell us you were an actress!" demanded David. + +"I was afraid to," faltered the girl. "I was afraid you would all hate +me if you knew the truth. Besides, I never acted but six months in all +my life. We toured in this play a year ago, and I knew the part +perfectly. It would have been cruel of me not to have played to-night. +The girl who usually does it was sick and there was no one to take her +part. When father told me that, I knew I should have to do it this once, +but if the fire panic hadn't started I couldn't have gotten away from +him very easily. He would have made a terrible scene. And even then, it +might have been difficult. No stranger would have helped me run away +from my own father, who is determined that I shall go on the stage. He +thinks I have the making of an actress. But I don't like the stage life. +It is hard and ugly. I want to study, and be with girls like you." A +charming smile radiated her small, intelligent face. + +"Where do I come in?" asked David, looking at her. + +"I think you are the best friend I have in the world, David," declared +Anne. "I can never forget your kindness." + +"And now, Mademoiselle Annette Piersonelli," asked David, secretly much +pleased at the girl's earnestness, "can't you divest yourself of your +ragged dress before we go?" + +"Yes, indeed," she replied. "I am fully clothed underneath." She slipped +off the stage dress and put on her hat and coat. + +Meanwhile, not a soul was left in the theater except two of the ushers, +who were sniffing around trying to find out where the fire scare had +originated. + +"There comes father," whispered Anne. "Can't we hide behind the seats?" + +"Quick," cautioned David. "He's coming down the center aisle." + +The five young people crouched low while the actor stalked down the +aisle. But it was plain he was not looking for his daughter in the +theater, for he called out to one of the ushers moving about at a +distance: + +"Have you seen anything of the young girl who was with the company? I +lost her during the panic and I haven't been able to locate her since. I +must be leaving town in a few minutes," he added, consulting his watch. +"It's almost time for the train now." + +"The company all left with the audience," said the usher. "I guess she +went along with 'em." + +"Now is our time," said Anne, when the actor had disappeared. "Suppose +we go out the stage entrance and down that side street!" + +Whereupon she led the way back of the boxes and into the wings, followed +by her friends, who looked curiously about them at the unusual sight. + +"What a queer place," said Grace, "and how smudgy the scenery looks! Are +these little places dressing rooms, Anne?" + +"Yes," answered Anne. "You see, it's all horrid when you are close. And +the life is worse--riding almost every day on smoky trains and spending +each night in a different place. The people are so different, too. I +would rather go to Oakdale High School," she exclaimed, "than be the +greatest actress in the world." + +They were standing in one of the larger dressing rooms while Anne +endeavored to wipe the powder and rouge from her face with a pocket +handkerchief. + +A tall figure darkened the doorway, and in the glass Anne saw the +reflection of her father's face. Without a word, she ran to the open +window and jumped out on the fire escape. The others followed nimbly +after her. Mr. Pierson turned and rushed down the passage to the side +entrance. + +"Hurry, Anne!" called David. "He will meet you at the bottom if you +don't." + +They climbed quickly down the ladder, almost treading on each other's +fingers in their haste, and in another moment they were running down an +alleyway. + +"Another narrow escape," cried Anne, when they were out of danger. "How +shall I ever thank you, dear friends?" + +"You have already discharged the debt, Anne, by letting us see you act," +answered Grace. + +"By the way, Grace," commanded David, "own up now. It was you, wasn't +it, who started the fire panic?" + +"I told you I wouldn't tell," answered Grace, "and I never shall." + +"Anne, did she say anything about it in her note?" asked Nora. + +"No," said Anne mysteriously, "she never mentioned the word 'fire' at +all." + +"I feel certain it was you who called 'fire,' Grace," said Jessica. + +"I'll never, never tell," cried Grace teasingly; "so you'll never, never +know." + +She turned in at her own gate and to this day the mystery is still +unsolved. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MRS. GRAY'S ADOPTED DAUGHTERS + + +After Mrs. Gray's luncheon party in honor of Grace and her three friends +a tiny little idea had implanted itself in her mind. As the weeks rolled +on, and Christmas holidays approached, it grew and spread into a real +plan which occupied her thoughts a considerable part of every day. + +As a secretary Anne had turned out admirably. The only drawback was that +Mrs. Gray could not see enough of her. The lonesome old lady almost +lived on Anne's semi-weekly visits, but the girl was too busy to give +any more of her time to reading aloud or driving with her benefactor. + +Finally Mrs. Gray took a bold step. She invited the four girls to meet +at another Sunday luncheon, and announced her intentions from the head +of the table. + +"My dear children," she said, "you are aware that I am a very old +woman." + +"We are not aware of anything of the sort, Mrs. Gray," interrupted +Grace. + +"Nevertheless I am," pursued Mrs. Gray. "A very old, lonesome person +with few pleasures. I have decided, therefore, to do an exceedingly +selfish thing, and give myself a real treat." + +"You deserve it if anyone in the world does, Mrs. Gray," put in Jessica. +"You who are always giving other people treats." + +"Wait until you hear the plan, child, before you pass judgment," +answered Mrs. Gray. "It's been too many years to count since I have had +a really, jolly Christmas," she continued. "I have just sat here in this +quiet old house, and let the holidays roll over me without even noticing +them." + +"Now, Mrs. Gray," exclaimed Grace, "the poor people in Oakdale would not +agree with you on that point. Only last Christmas I saw your carriage +stopping in front of the Flower Mission, and it was simply bursting with +presents." + +"Yes, yes, my dear. It is the easiest thing in the world to give +presents and not so much pleasure after all. What I want is some actual +fun, good Christmas cheer and plenty of young people. But I shall have +to be selfish if I'm to get it all, because it will mean that I'm to rob +mothers and fathers for a whole week of their children. Mr. and Mrs. +Harlowe will have to learn to do without you, Grace, for seven days and +nights. Your father, Jessica, must keep his own house. Nora, your +brothers and sister must not expect to see you at all while you belong +to me. As for my precious Anne, here, I should just like to steal her +away altogether from her mother. In fact, my dears, I am going to adopt +you for a whole week during the holidays and then--such larks!" + +And the charming old lady looked so gay and pretty that the girls all +laughed joyously. + +"Do you mean that you really want us to make you a visit, Mrs. Gray?" + +"I do indeed. That is the exceedingly selfish wish I have been +entertaining for the last six weeks. I not only want it, but I have +arranged for it already. I have made secret calls, my dears, and mothers +and fathers, brothers and sisters are all most agreeable. You are to +come to me a week before Christmas and must settle yourselves exactly as +if you were my own children. I mean to punish any homesick girl severely +by giving her an overdose of chocolate drops. Families may be visited +once a day, if necessary, though I shall frown down upon too frequent +absences. But, young ladies, before we get any further, tell me what you +think of the plan?" + +The girls were almost speechless with amazement and pleasure. To visit +Mrs. Gray's beautiful home and live in a whirl of parties and funmaking +such as would be sure to follow was more than any of them had ever +dreamed of. + +"It's perfectly delightful, Mrs. Gray!" they cried almost in one breath. + +"And we shall give the Christmas party together, my four daughters and +I, and we'll do exactly as we choose and invite whom we please." + +"Oh, oh!" exclaimed the four young girls. "Won't it be fun?" + +"It will for me," said the little old lady. "And I need to have a good +time. I am getting old before my time for lack of amusement. And now, my +lady-birds, who else shall we invite to the house party?" + +"Who else?" said Grace, somewhat crestfallen; for four intimate girl +chums are invariably jealous of admitting other girls to the charmed +circle. + +"Do you mean what other girls, Mrs. Gray?" asked Jessica. + +"No, no, child; I mean what other boys, of course. Do you think I want +any more than my four nice freshmen to amuse me? But I don't think this +party would be complete without four fine fellows to look after us. Who +are the four nicest boys you know?" + +"David," exclaimed all four voices in unison. + +Mrs. Gray laughed. + +"There seems to be no difference of opinion on that score," she replied; +"but is David the only boy in Oakdale?" + +"He's the nicest one," said Anne, who could never forget how kind David +had been to her when his sister was her bitter enemy. + +"Reddy Brooks is nice, too," said Nora. "He threw apples at some tramps +once, and saved us from being robbed." + +"Very good," said Mrs. Gray. "Reddy Brooks shall certainly be invited to +the house party. I admire courage above all things." + +"Then there's 'Hippopotamus' Wingate," said Jessica. + +"Who?" demanded Mrs. Gray. + +"His name is really 'Theophilus', but the boys have always called him +'Hippopotamus,' and now the name sticks to him and everybody forgets he +has any other." + +"Are you agreed on Hippopotamus, my adopted daughters?" demanded Mrs. +Gray. + +It was voted by acclamation, that Hippopotamus was agreeable to the +company. + +"And now, I have a fourth to propose," announced Mrs. Gray. "I think I +should like to import my great-nephew, Tom Gray, from New York. He is a +little older than these boys, perhaps. Nineteen is his age, I think, and +I haven't seen him since he was a child; but he's obliged to be nice +because he bears the name of one beloved by all who knew him." + +"Whose name, Mrs. Gray?" asked Nora. + +"That of my husband," said the old lady, softly. "The nicest Tom Gray +this world has ever known." And she looked at a portrait over the +sideboard of a very handsome young man dressed in the uniform of an Army +officer. + +"He loved his country, my dears, and fought for it nobly. He was a +soldier and a gentleman," went on the old lady proudly, "and I am sorry +he left no son to follow in his footsteps. He was a great hunter and +traveler, too. I used to tell him if he had not loved his family so +dearly, he would certainly have been a gypsy. He liked camping and +tramping, and used to wander off in Upton Woods for hours at a time. He +knew the names of all the trees and birds and animals that exist, I +believe. But he loved his home, too, and no woods had the power to draw +him away from it for long. I used to tell him he had brought a piece of +the forest and put it in our front yard, for he planted all those +beautiful trees you now see growing on my lawn, which my old gardener, +who has been with me since I was first married, cherishes as he would +his own children." + +"And is young Tom Gray like him, Mrs. Gray?" interposed Grace. + +"I hope so, my dear," sighed the old lady. "If he has inherited the +beautiful traits of his uncle, his wholesome tastes for the outdoors and +nature, he can't help being a fine fellow. But I have not seen my nephew +since he was a child. He has been living here and there all these years, +sometimes in America and sometimes in England. His mother and father are +both dead, and he has been brought up by his mother's unmarried sisters, +who are half English themselves. But he must be a nice boy, even if he +has only one drop of his uncle's blood in his veins." + +The girls sighed and said nothing. It was touching and beautiful to see +the old lady's loyalty and devotion after all these years of loneliness; +for her husband had been dead since she was a young woman. Still Mrs. +Gray never brooded. She was always cheerful and happy in doing +kindnesses for other people. + +"If ever I marry," sentimental Jessica was thinking, "I hope it will be +somebody like Mrs. Gray's husband." + +"I should like to have a brother like Tom Gray," observed Grace aloud. + +"Well," said Mrs. Gray, "we shall have to wait and see what the new Tom +Gray is like. He may be utterly unlike _my_ Tom Gray." + +And the old lady sighed. + +"We shall all have to get new party dresses," exclaimed Nora to change +the subject. "I have been wanting one for an age and now I have a good +excuse." + +"Oh, yes," cried Grace enthusiastically. "Now, at last, I shall be able +to get the blue silk mother promised I could have if at any time there +was an occasion worthy of it." + +"I'm going to ask papa to give me a lavender crepe for a Christmas +present," said Jessica. + +"O Mrs. Gray," continued Nora, "we are going to have such fun Oakdale +can't hold us." + +"I think we should have a surprise for Mrs. Gray," announced Grace. "She +is doing so much for us. O girls! I have an idea." + +"What!" demanded the others breathlessly, including Mrs. Gray herself, +who was as full of curiosity as a young girl. + +"No, no," cried Grace, "it wouldn't be a surprise if I gave it away. But +it's going to require a lot of work and planning to carry it out." + +"Is it big or little?" asked the dainty old lady as eager as a child to +find out the secret. + +"It's rather small," answered Grace. + +"Fine or superfine?" + +"Both," laughed Grace. "But you'll not know till Christmas night; so +stifle your curiosity." + +"I suppose I must wait, but it's going to be very hard," replied Mrs. +Gray plaintively. + +And so the party was arranged. Notes, written by Anne, were dispatched +to the four boys; plans were discussed for the week's amusements, and +the four girls finally started home in a state of great excitement to +look over their wardrobes and furbish up their party dresses. + +Only Anne had looked somewhat dubious during the conversation. How could +she spend a week in a beautiful house, with parties every night and +company all the time, and nothing to wear but that hideous black silk? + +"Anne," called Mrs. Gray, as the young girl was about to close the front +door and follow the others down the steps. "Wait a moment. I want to see +you." She led Anne into the big drawing room. "Do you know that I am +greatly in your debt, my child?" continued the old lady, as she drew +Anne down beside her on the sofa. "I don't think I could ever possibly +repay you for the good you have done me this autumn. But I am going to +try, nevertheless, by making you a Christmas present before Christmas +arrives. Now, when I was your age, I preferred clothes to other things. +I think all young girls do; or, if they don't they are most unnatural. +Therefore, child, I have decided to pay off some of my indebtedness to +you by getting my dressmaker to make you some dresses, if it is +agreeable to you. Why, what is this! My little girl crying?" + +The tears were streaming down Anne's cheeks. + +"You mustn't cry, my own child," sobbed Mrs. Gray. "For I always cry +when I see other people doing it, and it's very bad for my old eyes, you +know." + +"You are so good to me!" said Anne. "It makes me cry because I'm so +happy." + +"Well, well!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, drying her eyes and beginning to +laugh. "What a couple of sillies we are, to be sure. Now go, Anne, to my +dressmaker, Mrs. Harvey, who has orders to make you four dresses, two +for evening and two for afternoon. Mrs. Harvey has good taste and will +help you select them. But perhaps you will like the ones she and I +looked at the other day. One of them I am sure you will admire. I chose +it specially because it will give color to your pale cheeks." + +"What is it, Mrs. Gray?" asked Anne eagerly. + +"It's pink crepe de Chine, my dear." + +And Anne held her breath to keep from crying again. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MIRIAM PLANS A REVENGE + + +For weeks Miriam Nesbit had felt a sullen resentment toward her brother, +David, because he persisted in being friends with at least two of the +girls in Oakdale High School whom she disliked most. + +When he announced, one morning at breakfast, that he had been included +in Mrs. Gray's house party, his sister suddenly burst into tears of +passionate rage. + +"Please don't cry, Miriam, old girl," said David, who was not of a +quarrelsome disposition. "I'm awfully sorry if I hurt you, but, you +know, Mrs. Gray was one of my earliest sweethearts." + +Which was perfectly true. When David was a little boy he used to crawl +through the garden hedge and call on the charming old lady nearly every +day. + +David had hoped that Miriam would laugh at this, but she stormed all the +more, while poor Mrs. Nesbit looked wretched. + +"It isn't Mrs. Gray," sobbed Miriam. "But to think that my own brother +would associate with Grace Harlowe, who is always working against me, +and that common little Pierson girl whose sister takes in sewing!" + +"Miriam, Miriam!" exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit, "I am shocked to hear you say +such things. Because the girl is poor she is not necessarily common. +Your grandfather was a poor man, too. He started his career as a +machinist. You would never have had the money and position you have now +if he had not become an inventor. Is it possible you would try to keep +some one else from rising in life, when your own family struggled with +poverty years ago?" + +Miriam was silenced for a moment. She had seldom heard her mother speak +so forcibly; but Mrs. Nesbit had seen, with growing misgivings, the +innate snobbishness in her daughter's character, and for a long time she +had been looking for an opportunity like the one that now presented +itself. + +David had risen during Miriam's contemptuous speech, and had turned very +white; which was always a signal that his slow wrath had been kindled at +last; but since he was a child he had had such admirable control of his +feelings that it had often been remarked by older people. Miriam, +however, knew the sign and resorted again to tears to draw attention to +her own sufferings. + +"You and mother have turned against me," she cried. "Mother, you have +always loved David best, anyhow." + +"Nonsense!" replied David. "You are a willful, selfish girl, jealous +because a poor girl is getting ahead of you in your classes and because +you are not included in the house party. Do you think Mrs. Gray would +ask you to join those four nice girls in her house after that Miss Leece +business? If you had learned to be polite and agreeable you would never +have gotten into this state now." Having delivered himself of his +opinion, and spent his rage, David walked out of the room and quietly +closed the door after him. + +"You see what you have done, Miriam," exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit. "You have +made your brother angry. I have seldom seen him like that before, not +since the stable man beat his dog. But don't cry, my child. It's all +over now," and Mrs. Nesbit drew her daughter to her and stroked her hot +forehead. "Why don't you give a house party, too?" she added after a +moment's thought. "Would it give you any pleasure or help to heal your +hurt feelings?" + +"O mother!" exclaimed Miriam, looking up quickly. "I believe I _will_ +invite four girls and boys to spend Christmas week with me. Wouldn't it +be fun?" + +And it was in this manner that a plan for an opposition house party +sprang into existence; although the son of the house had joined the +other side. + +All through her preparations Miriam carefully guarded the secret that +she was bitterly hurt at having been left out of Mrs. Gray's party, and +she meditated a revenge that was still only a half-formed idea. In the +first place, she chose Julia Crosby as one of the guests of the +Christmas house party; Julia Crosby the tall, mischievous sophomore who +had originated the "Black Monks of Asia." Surely the two together could +work out some scheme which would bring her enemies to her feet and +humble little Mrs. Gray, who had dared to slight her. + +Meanwhile, the holidays were approaching. The crisp, cold air resounded +with the jingle of sleigh bells, for snow had fallen the first week in +December and all the sleighs in Oakdale were taken from their summer +quarters. + +The four chums were full of secret preparations. Grace had devised a +scheme of entertainment which, in the town of Oakdale, would be unique, +but it required much work and practice to perfect it. In the meantime +Nora O'Malley had decided to entertain her friends at a bobbing party to +start the Christmas holidays. And it was at this party that Miriam +seized her first opportunity to make trouble. + +"Anne, you are learned in many things, but not in outdoor fun," said +Grace as the young people in mufflers and sweaters started to climb the +long hill where the coasting was best. + +"Do you mean to say you have never been coasting, Anne?" demanded David. + +"I'm afraid I'll have to admit it," replied Anne. "To tell the truth, I +never did have any fun, except reading, until I started in the High +School and met all of you. You see, little city children are denied all +these nice things unless they go to the parks, but it's no fun going +alone." + +"Well, you won't be alone now," said Hippy Wingate. "There are four to a +sled, and we'll put you in the middle to keep you from getting lost in +the snow." + +"Look out, here comes some one!" called Grace, just as a small sled shot +past them like a flash, with a laugh and a cheer from its occupants, +Miriam and Reddy Brooks. + +"They ought not to have done that," exclaimed David. "We couldn't see +them over the knob of the hill and they might have run us down." + +By this time they had reached the top of the hill, and Anne's heart +bounded at the sight of the long, white track made by the sled which had +just passed them and disappeared far below across a flat meadow now +smooth and hard as a table top. + +"Don't be frightened, Anne," said David, who sat behind her on the sled. + +He pinioned her arms with his own and with a wild whoop the four young +people skimmed down the hill. + +There was no time to be frightened, no time even to think, as they shot +through the fine bracing air like a ball from a cannon. Before they knew +it, they were landed at the bottom. + +"O Hippy," cried Grace, her cheeks glowing like winter berries, "I feel +as if I were riding the comet. But look out for the others," for the +remaining sleds followed in quick succession and the air resounded with +the whoops of the boys and girls as they shot past. "Is there any sport +in the world that can touch it?" she demanded of the world in general. + +Three or four more such rides, and Anne felt an exhilaration she had +never before known. She was climbing the hill for a final trip before +the party returned to Nora's for hot chocolate and sandwiches, when she +heard some one cry out just behind her. She had lingered a little to +watch the sleds pass, and had failed to notice a small sled with a +single occupant come over the brow of the hill well out of the beaten +path and make straight for her. It was Miriam Nesbit, riding flat on her +stomach and going like the wind. + +"Jump to the left, Anne," cried Grace's voice, "or you'll be hurt!" + +Anne looked up and saw the sled. It all happened in a flash, and how +David managed to get there first she never knew; but the next instant +the two were rolling over and over in the snow with Miriam on top of +them and a broken sled skidding on its back down the hillside. + +"It was Miss Pierson's fault," exclaimed Miriam as she pulled herself +out of the snow, and the others came running to the scene of the +accident. "Why didn't she get out of the way? Inexperienced people ought +not to come to bobbing parties. They always get hurt." + +David was binding up a cut in his wrist, which was sprinkling the snow +with blood. He was too angry to trust himself to answer his sister +before the others just then. They had pulled Anne out of a snowdrift and +she was leaning limply against Jessica, trying to collect her senses. It +seemed to her that she had been walking well out of the sled track, out +of everybody's way; but it didn't make any difference since nobody was +killed. + +"All I can say now, Miriam," said Grace, "is that you are entirely +mistaken. If you hadn't hit Anne you'd have knocked me over. I was +walking just ahead of her and nobody can say I am inexperienced." + +"Grace Harlowe, do you think I did it on purpose?" demanded Miriam +furiously. + +"I haven't insinuated anything, Miriam," replied Grace. "I simply wanted +to disabuse your mind of a mistake. That was all." And she turned away +from the angry girl. + +All this time the other young people had said nothing. It was really an +embarrassing situation, considering that David had not said a word +either for or against his sister. + +"I think we had better not coast any more to-night," said Nora, after a +pause. "David has hurt his hand and Anne is so shaken that it would be +well to give her something hot to drink. Come on, everybody." + +"David, are you much hurt?" asked Grace uneasily. + +"Nothing but a little cut," he said shortly, so shortly that Grace +flushed. Perhaps he was angry with her for having spoken out to Miriam. + +"I hope you aren't hurt much, David," said Miriam. + +David made no reply. + +"David," she repeated in a louder voice. + +But her brother had started down the hill, his hands in his pockets. +Nobody took much notice of Miriam as the young people followed after +him. Reddy Brooks was secretly congratulating himself that he hadn't +been riding behind her on the sled as she had wished, insisting that she +wanted to do the guiding herself. It was curious, he thought, and might +have resulted in a serious accident, at least to Anne if David hadn't +pulled her away. If Miriam had only thought to throw herself to the +right when she saw Anne in the way. Girls had no heads, anyway, that is, +most girls. Grace, he decided, was almost equal to a man for coolness +and good judgment. But there were few girls who could touch Grace +Harlowe; and he did a series of cartwheels in the snow to emphasize his +feelings, to the relief of everybody present, for the silence was +becoming uncomfortable. + +"Nora," said Anne when they had reached town, "if you'll excuse me I +think I'll go home. I'm a little tired." + +"I'll take you home, Anne," said David, who had heard her remark. "I +don't feel much like partifying either after this jolt. Come along, +little girl," and he tucked Anne's arm in his and marched her off +without another word. + +"All my party is leaving before the party," cried Nora in despair. + +"No, not all," replied Hippy Wingate. "There are still a few of us left, +and I promise to drink any extra chocolate you may happen to have." + +"Don't give the animals sweets, Nora," exclaimed Reddy. "Especially the +hippopotamus. He has a delicate stomach. You see, his keeper used to +feed him chocolate drops three times a day." + +Hippy grinned good-naturedly. He was a round roly-poly boy, famous for +his appetite. + +"Get away from here, Red Curls," he cried, hitting Reddy in the back +with a snowball. + +"Oh, you coward," cried Reddy, talking in a high falsetto voice, "to hit +a man when his back is turned. I'll slap you for that," and he landed a +snowball on Hippy's chest. + +Hippy crouched behind the girls. + +"I was a fool to throw at a pitcher," he cried; "he'll be sending me one +of his curves in a minute." + +"Hiding behind the ladies, hey?" returned Reddy, beginning to pitch +snowballs at the girls. + +"Let's wash his face," cried Nora to the other boys and girls coming up +just then. They chased Reddy all the way to Nora's house and rolled him +in the snow until he cried "enough." + +Once inside Nora's cozy home, the coasters were soon doing ample justice +to the good things to eat, which Nora's sister had prepared for them. +Although all three of Anne's chums regretted deeply the unpleasant +affair on the hill it was not mentioned again during the evening. Still, +each girl felt in her heart that poor little Anne had, in Miriam Nesbit, +a dangerous enemy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS + + +"Here's the tack-hammer, Hippy, and don't fall off the ladder, please," +cautioned Grace, as she assisted Hippy Wingate to tack up an evergreen +garland in Mrs. Gray's drawing room. + +Not in twenty years had the old house taken on such holiday attire. +Great bunches of holly and cedar filled the vases and bowls and +decorated the chandeliers. Fires blazed on every hearth and the warm +glow from many candles and shaded lamps brightened the fine old rooms. + +"My dear young people," exclaimed Mrs. Gray, coming in just then, "how +happy you make me feel! I do wish you were all really my children and +could forever stay just the ages you are now." + +"This house would be like the palace of everlasting youth, then, +wouldn't it, Mrs. Gray?" suggested Anne. + +"Until some meddlesome little Pandora came along, opened the box and let +all the troubles out," interposed David, who was still feeling very +bitter toward his sister Miriam, and glad to leave home for a time until +his anger had cooled. + +"Ah, well, we have no Pandoras here," answered Mrs. Gray, smiling on the +young guests. "You are all girls and boys after my own heart, and I +trust we shall have a beautiful time together. But here comes that +nephew of mine, Tom Gray. I wonder if he's grown out of all +recollection." + +While she was speaking one of the town hacks had driven up to the steps, +and there was a violent ring at the bell. + +"Mr. Thomas Gray," announced the old butler at the door and Tom Gray, +who had been the subject of endless speculation and conjecture, entered +the room. + +"If he turns out to be disagreeable or stupid or anything," the girls +had been whispering, "it would be such a pity because everybody else is +so nice." + +Neither had the boys felt inclined to be prepossessed in Tom Gray's +favor. He was a stranger, from New York, older than themselves and in +college. + +"I wish he wasn't going to butt in with his city manners," Reddy Brooks +was thinking regretfully. "He is sure to have a swelled head and try to +boss the crowd." + +They had pictured him as a sort of dandy, with needle-toed patent +leather shoes and a coat cut in at the waist and padded over the +shoulders. + +Even David had voiced a few thoughts on the subject of Tom Gray. + +"I'll bet he's an English dude," he said. For Mrs. Gray's nephew had +spent most of his life in England. "He'll probably carry a cane and wear +a monocle." + +They were not surprised, therefore, when a young man entered the room +who bore out somewhat the picture they had conjured. He was tall and +slender, very dapper and rather ladylike in his bearing. His alert, dark +eyes were set too close together, and his face had a narrow, sinister +look that made them all feel uncomfortable. He spoke with a decided +English accent, in a light, flippant voice which sent a quiver of +dislike up and down David's spine, and made Reddy Brooks give his right +arm a vigorous twirl as if he would have liked to pitch something at the +young man's head. + +Mrs. Gray was the most surprised person in the room. It must be +remembered that she had not seen her nephew since he was a child, and +she had hoped for better things than this. However, always the most +courteous and loyal of souls, she now made the best of the situation and +greeted the newcomer cordially, though she did not bestow upon him the +motherly kiss she had been saving. + +Tom Gray bowed low over his aunt's hand. + +"You are so much changed, Tom; I should hardly have known you," +exclaimed the old lady, trying to conceal her disappointment and dismay. +"England has weaned you away from your own country. You look as if you +had just stepped out of Piccadilly." + +"And so I have, aunt," replied the young man, using a very broad "a." "I +have been in this country only a few months. England is the only place +in the world for me, you know. I can't bear America." + +Hippy Wingate gave himself an angry shake, which made all the ornaments +on the mantelpiece rattle ominously. + +"You must let me introduce you to my young friends, Tom," said Mrs. +Gray, changing the subject quickly. + +The introductions having been accomplished, she took his arm and led the +way back to dinner. + +"Do you think we can stand him for a week?" whispered David to Grace, as +they followed down the hall. + +"We'll have to," replied Grace, "or hurt Mrs. Gray's feelings. But isn't +he the limit?" + +"Asinine dandy!" hissed Hippy. + +"I knew he'd be a Miss Nancy," exclaimed Reddy. + +The girls did not express their disappointment, but as the meal +progressed the conversation was strained and stupid. + +"How did you leave your cousins in England, Tom?" asked Mrs. Gray, +trying to keep the ball rolling and inwardly wishing she had never asked +her nephew down. + +"Quite well, thank you, aunt," replied Thomas Gray. "I expect to leave +this beastly country and join them very soon." + +"Indeed?" answered Mrs. Gray, flushing and with difficulty keeping back +the tears of disappointment. To think a nephew of hers could have turned +out like this! + +"Do you play football?" demanded Hippy abruptly. + +"Really, I don't care for the game," answered Thomas. "It's awfully +rough, don't you know." + +"Perhaps you prefer baseball?" suggested Grace. + +"No," continued the young man, "I can't say I do. The truth is, I don't +like outdoor games at all." + +"What do you like, then?" demanded Nora, giving him a glance of +ineffable scorn. + +"I like afternoon tea," he answered, "and bridge." + +Reddy almost groaned aloud, but he remembered his manners and choked his +outburst of disgust. + +"It is a pity," said Tom's aunt, turning her nearsighted blue eyes on +him in amazement and displeasure. "Our Oakdale boys are all athletes. +Even David here, the scholar and inventor, I'll venture to say, knows +football and baseball as well as his friends." + +"I'm not much of an inventor, Mrs. Gray," protested David. "You know my +airship tumbled down before it got half way across the gym. But I shall +never lose hope." + +"Ah, airships?" exclaimed Thomas Gray, and deliberately taking a monocle +from his pocket, he stuck it in his eye and stared at David, who choked +and sputtered in his glass of water, while Hippy dropped a fork that +fell on his plate with a great clatter. + +Mrs. Gray raised her lorgnette and looked at her nephew. + +"Thomas," she said sternly, "don't wear that thing here. It's not the +custom in this town or in this country, for that matter. If you are +nearsighted, buy yourself a pair of spectacles." + +"Certainly, aunt, certainly; it shall be as you wish," replied Thomas, +without a tinge of embarrassment. "I am so unused to America, you know." + +Then Nora relieved the painful situation by laughing. She was taken with +the giggles and she laughed till the tears rolled down her cheeks. The +others laughed, too, even Mrs. Gray, who felt that she might give way to +hysterics at any moment. + +After dinner Thomas Gray detained his aunt in another room, while the +girls and boys returned to the parlor. The two were closeted together +for some time, and when they finally appeared, Mrs. Gray looked +strangely flushed and nervous. But there was a smile on her nephew's +thin lips and a dangerous flicker in his crafty eyes. + +"I'll stake my last cent he's been getting money out of his poor little +aunty," said David to Grace. "He's just the kind to do it." + +"Poor Mrs. Gray!" exclaimed Grace. "I am so sorry for her. You can't +think how she's been planning this party for months. Why did she ever +ask down that wretch of a nephew? David, do try and make friends with +him. Maybe there's something good in him after all, and it will help +things along if Mrs. Gray feels that we want to like him." + +"All right," promised David. "It goes against my grain to talk with a +Miss Nancy dandy like that. It gives me a feeling in my chest like +indigestion and bronchitis combined--but I'll make the effort." + +So he went over and joined the Anglo-American, and began to talk with +him in an easy, friendly sort of way. + +"Won't you come over by the fire," he said. "I think we are going to +play some games the girls have planned." + +"Thanks, no," said the other, stifling a yawn. "I think I'll retire. +I've had a long journey and I'm awfully knocked out. By the way, old +chap," he continued, coming closer to David and whispering in his ear, +which made that sensitive young man draw back with a quiver of dislike, +"you couldn't favor me with a few dollars, could you? I left my check +book in my portmanteau, which is still on the way and I find I haven't a +cent. I'll return it to-morrow." + +David regarded him with amazement. Here was a man whom he had met only +an hour before, already trying to borrow money from him. Schoolboys are +not likely to have money about them, but David did happen to have five +dollars in his pocket. + +"Certainly," was all he said, as he handed over the money. + +The transaction had only taken a moment and when David drew out the five +dollar bill, he was careful not to let anyone see him do it. However, +Mrs. Gray, who had been out of the room, returned at the very moment the +money was changing hands. In a flash she saw what her nephew had done. +Without stopping to think she made straight for the two young men. + +"Tom Gray," she said, speaking too low for anyone except her nephew and +David to hear, "how dare you ask me for money and then borrow from one +of my guests? You are a disgrace to your father, and to the name of +Gray! I am ashamed of you and I command you to give that money back to +David instantly." + +Tom Gray was as angry as his aunt. His face went from red to white, and +he looked as if he would like to break a vase or tear something to +pieces. + +"'Eavens, awnt, don't make a scene. I wouldn't a' awsked 'im, h'if I +'adn't needed more money. I'll pay him to-morrow." + +Mrs. Gray and David were too surprised to speak. It was plain that, when +Tom Gray was angry, he dropped his h's. + +David looked at him curiously, then he drew the old lady's arm through +his. + +"Don't bother, Mrs. Gray," he said. "It was only a small loan, and I was +glad to be of service. I believe Mr. Gray wants to go to bed now. He +just said he was very tired. Shall I take him up?" + +"If you will," replied Mrs. Gray, quieting down. "His room is next +yours, David. Will you show him the way?" + +"Young people," she said, going across to the boys and girls, who had +gathered around the fire and were laughing and talking in low voices, +"would you mind if we all went up early to-night? I feel a little out of +sorts--bewildered--I don't know what. Children change so as they grow +up," she added, sighing. + +The poor old lady's eyes filled with tears. She slipped her arm around +Anne's waist. + +"You will never change, my dear boys and girls. You will all grow into +fine men and women, I feel certain, and be devoted citizens of this +splendid country of ours, which has always been good enough for our +mothers and fathers, and ought to be quite good enough for us." + +"Three cheers for America!" cried Hippy Wingate, giving his plump figure +a twist like a whirling dervish. + +Mrs. Gray laughed. + +"Yes, indeed, my dears, America is a splendid country and every American +should be proud to say so." + +"And Oakdale is one of the nicest places in America," piped up Anne. + +"Hurrah for Oakdale!" cried Hippy again. + +"And Oakdale High School!" added Anne. + +"And hurrah for the sponsor of the freshman class!" exclaimed Grace. + +Whereupon they formed a circle, with Mrs. Gray in the middle, and danced +about her laughing and singing: + +"Hurrah for Mrs. Gray!" + +The pretty, little old lady beamed happily upon her adopted family, as +she called them. + +"My darling children!" she cried. "Kiss me good night, every one of you, +and we'll all go up to our beds." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A MIDNIGHT ALARM + + +The dry, cold air of the outdoors, and the warm fires inside the old +house, certainly had the effect of making a very sleepy crowd of boys +and girls who were not sorry, after all, to turn in early. + +Grace and Anne occupied a room together so large that it could easily +have been turned into two apartments and each have been the size of +ordinary bedrooms. + +"I'm glad our beds are close together, anyway," said Grace. "The rest of +the furniture in this room seems to be miles apart." + +Mrs. Gray's room was just in front; Nora and Jessica were in a smaller +one back of theirs, and across the hall were the boys' rooms. + +"Isn't it a wonderful old house?" replied Anne. "I never slept in such a +big room in all my life. And how kind Mrs. Gray is! There is nothing she +hasn't remembered." + +Each girl had found on her bed a pretty dressing gown of silk and wool +and beside it a pair of bedroom slippers. There was a bowl of fruit on a +table, and just before they dropped off to sleep a maid brought in a +tray of glasses with a pitcher of hot milk. + +"Mrs. Gray says this will warm you up before you go to bed," explained +the maid. + +"Dear, sweet Mrs. Gray," continued Anne, as she curled up on a rug +before the fire to sip the warm drink, "she has planned so many things +for this party. I am so sorry she has been disappointed." + +"He's not a bit like her, Anne," replied her friend, not caring to +mention names. "I do wish she had never asked him." + +"My only hope," said Anne, "is that we will all seem so young and +childish to him that he will get bored and leave." + +"Well, just strictly between us and as man to man, as David is always +saying, don't you think he is horrid? He has no manners at all, and it's +hard to believe he's a product of the Gray family." + +"He has such shifty eyes," said Anne, "and I had a feeling that his +dislike for America was all put on to shock us. I feel so warm and +sleepy," she continued drowsily when the lights were put out and they +had snuggled down in the soft, comfortable beds. + +"I heard him drop an 'h' once," whispered Grace, in a sleepy voice. + +But there was no reply. Anne was already dreaming of her four beautiful +new dresses. + +It might have been midnight, perhaps a little later when Grace awoke +with a start. Not a sound disturbed the peace of the old house except +the ticking of the clock on the mantel and the occasional crackling of +dying embers in the fireplace. Yes; there was one sound and it aroused +her. A loose board creaked in the floor, or was it a door which opened +and closed softly? Perhaps it was nothing after all. And she closed her +eyes and drew the eiderdown quilt close about her shoulders. + +No; there it was again. A distinct footfall. She raised herself on her +elbow and peered into the shadows. Far over at the other side of the +chamber--it seemed an infinite distance just then--stood a figure. Grace +looked at it calmly. She had never been a coward and she was not +frightened now, only she wondered who could be invading their room at +this hour. Perhaps Mrs. Gray; perhaps one of the servants. No, it was +neither; of course it couldn't be because it was the figure of a man. +She saw him now plainly enough hovering over the dressing table. + +A small, cold hand slipped into hers. Anne was awake too. She had seen +the figure and lay quite still watching it. Grace silently returned the +pressure; then the two lay watching the man's stealthy motions for a +moment, while Grace's mind was busy devising a plan by which the robber +might be caught. + +Oakdale was a quiet, prosperous place, and burglars were unusual. +Occasionally the hands in the silk mills made a disturbance, and there +had been a few highway robberies, but an actual house-breaker seldom +troubled the law-abiding town. The two girls, as they lay watching him +from under the covers, guessed that this man was a real burglar. He wore +a black soft hat and carried a small electric lantern, while, with a +practised hand, he picked the lock of a small drawer in the dressing +table where the girls had put their purses. Once he turned the light +toward the beds. Instantly the girls' eyelids dropped and they lay as +still as mice. Having satisfied himself that all was well, the prowler +went on with his work, finally tiptoeing into the front room where Mrs. +Gray was sleeping. Evidently he had made a circuit of the three bedrooms +on that side of the house. As he slipped out Grace leaped from the bed. +Now was the time for action. Putting on her dressing gown and slippers +she dashed to the door leading into the hall, only to come upon the +burglar again who had probably been frightened in his last venture and +had retired to the hall for safety. + +Fortunately he was standing with his back to her while he closed the +door, and feeling that she was safe for the moment, she crouched in the +shadow of the doorway. The thief evidently thought he also was safe, for +he seized a large, heavy-looking valise from the floor and made straight +for the steps without looking to right or left. + +Now a door across the hall opened and another figure appeared. Grace +trembled for a moment, fearing it might be another thief. She had always +heard they traveled in pairs. But it was David, wrapped in a long gray +dressing gown, looking for all the world like a monk. + +He glanced up and down the hall for a moment, then tapped on the door of +the next room and without waiting for an answer walked in. In an instant +he was out again and had started swiftly down the stairs, Grace +following him. She had intended to speak to him, but it had all taken +place so quickly there was no time. David made straight for the dining +room, opening the heavy door. The room was brightly lighted. In a flash, +Grace saw on the table a pile of the beautiful Gray silver, brought over +from England by past generations of Grays. Grace never knew what +instinct prompted her to enter the dining room by the butler's pantry at +the very end of the long hall. As she pushed the swinging door, she +heard David say: + +"You low blackguard, what do you mean by stealing your aunt's silver?" + +Grace started at the mention of the word "aunt." It was, then, the +wretched Tom Gray who was robbing his own relative! + +"Get out!" returned the other coldly, "and attend to your own business. +You are only a kid." + +"Give up those things you have stolen, or I'll pound you to a jelly!" +cried David, making a rush at the burglar, who dodged nimbly. + +Then Grace had an inspiration, which assuredly saved David from very +disagreeable consequences. Real burglars, like rattlesnakes, are not +likely to be dangerous except when they are disturbed. It is then that +they become dangerous characters. Grace slipped back into the pantry, +swiftly opened one of the linen drawers and drew forth what turned out +later to be a breakfast cloth, which was lucky because it was small and +easy to manage. + +When, in the next instant, she had pushed the door open, what she saw +made her blood run cold. Tom Gray had whipped out a small pistol and +pointed it straight at David's head. + +"Get out of here, quick!" he said just as Grace opened the table cloth +with a jerk and flung it over his head. A pistol shot rang out, but +David had dodged in time and the bullet was buried in the mahogany +wainscot back of him. The astonished burglar dropped the weapon, and +began to struggle violently to release himself. + +Instantly David pinioned his arms from the back. But the fellow might +even then have struggled free, if Reddy Brooks and Hippy Wingate had not +burst into the room, followed by Anne, who had roused them after Grace +had gone. The three boys swiftly overpowered Tom Gray and tied him to a +chair with cord Grace had found in the pantry. + +But now, what was to be done? Undoubtedly the noise would awaken Mrs. +Gray and she would have to be told that her nephew was a burglar about +to make off with the family silver. + +Perhaps the loss of the silver would hurt less than family disgrace. + +In the midst of their council Mrs. Gray herself appeared. + +"What in the world is the matter?" she demanded. + +No one replied for a moment. It was a very uncomfortable situation for +the young guests of the house party. If only the burglar had not been a +member of the Gray family! + +Then Tom Gray himself spoke. + +"I must say this is a nice 'ospitable way to treat a guest and a +relation. 'Ere I am taken by a lot of silly children for a burglar. I, +your own nephew, awnt, who 'ad come down stairs on the h'innocent +h'errand of finding some h'ice water." + +Mrs. Gray looked from one to another of the silent group. Her eyes took +in the silver piled on the table, the pistol on the floor and the +burglar's tools and lantern. + +"You are a burglar," she said, "a wretched, common thief. I knew it as +soon as you entered my house last night. I could not then explain the +feeling of repugnance I had, but I know now what it meant. I shall not +offer hospitality to a coward, for all thieves are cowards. Boys, take +what he has stolen from his pockets." + +Reddy and Hippy searched the bulging pockets of the thief's coat and +waistcoat, and brought forth a quantity of jewelry, watches and purses. + +"Now, David," continued Mrs. Gray, firmly, "be kind enough to give me +that pistol." + +David obeyed her, wondering if she meant to shoot her own nephew. + +Mrs. Gray pointed the pistol at the thief with as steady a hand as if +she had been shooting at targets all her life. + +"Untie the cords," she commanded. + +They cut the cords with a carving knife. + +"Now, go!" said the old lady, still pointing the pistol at his head. +"Leave my house quickly. I shall not punish you, because a thief is +always punished sooner or later." + +Tom Gray looked immensely relieved, Grace thought, in spite of his +crestfallen, hangdog air. They followed him down the hall, Mrs. Gray in +the lead, until he slammed the front door after him and disappeared in +the night. + +Then, turning with her old, sweet manner, she continued: + +"My dear children, I want to thank you for helping me rid my house of +this man. I know I can depend on all of you never to mention it to +anyone. It would have been a great blow to me if I had not been so +angry; but now let us all go to our beds and forget this horrid episode. +To-morrow we shall be as happy as ever. I am determined it shall not +interfere with our good time." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +TOM GRAY + + +The company which met around the breakfast table, next morning, was +entirely restored to its old gayety. There was not one member of the +house party, including Mrs. Gray herself, who did not feel unbounded +relief that the place was so well rid of Tom Gray. + +David was glad there had been no arrest, and that the mistress of the +house had with so much dignity and spirit turned out the culprit. It +would have been a bad business, testifying in court against Mrs. Gray's +nephew when he had been visiting in her house. + +"Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace, "if you haven't made any plans this +morning for us, I think we had better spend an hour or so rehearsing our +surprise." + +"Very well, my dear, you may spend as much time as you like at it; but +if I peep over the transom, or listen through a crack in the door, you +mustn't scold. I don't know that I can wait much longer to find out what +it is." + +"No, no! You're not to come near the third story," protested Grace. "We +shall nail down the transom and stuff the keyhole with soap if you do." + +"I never could stand suspense," exclaimed the old lady, shaking her head +until her lace breakfast cap, with its little bows of lavender ribbon, +quivered all over. "I fear I shall be tempted to break into the room +before Christmas night and unearth the whole business. But tell me this +much. Who is in the surprise?" + +"All of us," declared Nora. "But now we'll have to get somebody to take +the place of----" + +She paused and blushed scarlet. + +"Mr. Thomas Gray," announced the old butler at the door, with a peculiar +expression on his countenance. + +There was a dead silence. Mrs. Gray sat as if turned to stone, while +David half rose from his seat and Hippy seized a bread and butter knife +to plunge into the heart of his enemy, if necessary. + +"Aunt Rose," cried a voice outside, "aren't you glad to see me?" + +A broad-shouldered, well-built young man walked into the room and kissed +the old lady right in the mouth, before she could say a word. He had a +sunburned, wholesome face, kindly gray eyes, light-brown hair, and wore +a heavy suit of rough, blue cloth. He carried no cane; neither were his +shoes pointed at the toes, and there wasn't a tinge of English in his +accent except that his enunciation was unusually good. + +Mrs. Gray rose from her chair and examined the young man long and +carefully. + +"The very image of your uncle," she cried at last, and gave him a good +hug. "The very image, my dear Tom. Your old aunty has been a most +egregious fool. Why didn't you come last night?" + +"Didn't you get my telegram? I sent it in good time. I was delayed and +had to take the night train up. I am awfully sorry if it inconvenienced +you." + +"You haven't inconvenienced me, my boy, except for a slight loss of +sleep, and a fright and a narrow of escape from losing the family +silver, which David and Grace, here, prevented." + +Then Mrs. Gray sat down and burst out laughing. The others joined in and +for a few minutes the breakfast table was in an uproar. + +The real Tom Gray, who was the image of his uncle's portrait over the +sideboard, looked from one to another of the strange faces and then +began to laugh too, since it seemed to be the proper thing to do. He had +one of those delightful, hearty laughs that ring out in a whole roomful +of voices. When Mrs. Gray heard it she stopped short, patting her nephew +on the cheek; for he was sitting beside her now in a place hastily +arranged by the butler. + +"Exactly your uncle's laugh. It's good to hear it again. You're a Gray, +every inch of you; and, thank God, you're a fine fellow! If you had come +down here with an English accent and no 'h's' and a monocle, I should +have shut the door in your face. I should, indeed." + +"Who, me?" demanded her nephew, forgetting his grammar in his surprise +at such a state of affairs. "Not me, dear aunt. America's good enough +for me. I've had lots of good times with my English cousins, but +America's my home and country." + +"Hurrah!" cried Hippy, dashing around the table and seizing the young +man's hand. "We're glad to know you. We're proud and happy to make your +acquaintance." + +There was such an uproar of fun and laughter at this that Tom Gray began +at last to see that something had really happened, and that his sudden +and unheralded appearance had brought immense relief to the assembled +company. + +"Don't you think it's time somebody put me on?" he asked finally when +the noise had quieted down a little. + +"Tom," replied his aunt, "did you tell anyone you were coming to Oakdale +for Christmas to visit me!" + +"Why, yes," answered Tom after a moment's thought. "I believe I did. In +fact I know I did. I was staying for a week in New York, with an English +friend, Arthur Butler. I told him all about it. It was on his account +that I stayed over one night. I sent the telegram by his servant, +Richards." + +"Ah, ha!" cried Mrs. Gray. "And pray tell us what that wretch of a +servant looked like." + +Tom laughed. + +"Richards is quite an unusual fellow, a good servant I believe, but +rather effeminate and a kind of a dandy----" + +"That's the man!" + +"He's the one!" + +"The very fellow!" + +Half a dozen voices interrupted at once. + +Then Mrs. Gray explained the rather serious adventure of the night +before. She ended by saying: + +"I never, in my heart of hearts, really believed he was you, Tom, dear." + +"The scoundrel!" exclaimed the young man. "Can't we set the police on +him?" + +"The police in Oakdale are slow, Tom," replied his aunt. "Slow from lack +of occupation. Robbers do not flock here in great numbers." + +"At least, I'll telegraph to Arthur Butler," said Tom, "and warn him. +They may catch him from that end." + +The telegram was accordingly sent. Likewise the police were notified, +but Richards, who turned out to be a well-known English crook, made good +his escape and was heard from no more. + +It did not take our young people long to make the acquaintance of the +real Tom Gray, nor to decide he was a fine fellow and one they could +admit to their circle without regret. + +"He's like a breath of fresh air," thought Grace, and indeed it was +disclosed later that he intended to study forestry because he loved the +country and the open air, and spent all his vacations camping out and +taking long walking trips. But there was nothing of the gypsy in him. He +was full of energy and ambition and infused such a wholesome vigor into +whatever he did that the young people felt a new enthusiasm in his +presence. + +"I propose to celebrate the return of the real Tom Gray," announced Mrs. +Gray, "by sending my boys and girls off on a sleighing party this +afternoon. The big old sleigh holds exactly eight. Reddy, you may drive, +since the roads are so familiar to you. You must all be back at six +o'clock, for, remember, to-night we decorate the Christmas tree and +every girl freshman in Oakdale High School must have a present on it." + +Just after lunch, therefore, after a hard morning's work over Mrs. +Gray's "surprise," the young people bundled into the big side-seated +sleigh, and tucked the buffalo robes tightly around them. The horses +snorted in the crisp, dry air; there was a jingle of merry sleigh bells +as off they started down the street toward the open country. + + Jingle bells, jingle bells, + Jingle all the way. + Oh, what fun 'tis to ride + In a one-horse open sleigh. + +they sang as they bowled over the well-beaten track; and Tom Gray +breathed a sigh of pure delight. + +"Isn't this great!" he exclaimed. "Wouldn't you rather do this than +write an essay or study Latin prose composition?" + +"Next to riding in an airship and skating, it's the finest thing I know +of," answered David. + +"Have you ever ridden in an airship?" demanded Tom. + +"No, but I intend to," replied the other; for David had never for a +moment relinquished his pet scheme, but worked on his experiments +whenever he had a spare moment; little dreaming that one day he was to +become the talk of the town. + +As the sleigh passed the Nesbit house, Miriam and some of her friends +were just entering her front gate. She saw the party and a shadow of +black jealousy darkened her face. + +"Why don't we do the same thing?" she exclaimed aloud, and in another +twenty minutes she had bundled her own guests into the Nesbit sleigh, +while she herself took the reins and guided the pair of spirited black +horses. + +"Miriam, I do wish you would let one of the boys drive," said her +mother, who had come to the door to see her off. + +"I prefer to do the driving, mother," replied the spoiled girl, and with +a crack of the whip, the second sleighful was off after the first. It +was not long before the Nesbit sleigh had met and passed the other, +which was not going at a very great rate of speed. Mrs. Gray's carriage +horses were much older and more staid than Miriam's pair of young +blacks. + +"Who is the girl in front?" asked Tom, as the sleigh flashed past. + +"My sister," answered David shortly. + +"She must be a pretty good driver," observed Tom. + +David made no reply. He knew perfectly well that Miriam was not strong +enough to hold in the black team, once the horses got the upper hand; +but he hoped one of the boys would take the reins if they showed any +symptoms of running away. + +The early twilight was just falling when the Gray house party came to a +narrow, rickety old bridge spanning the bed of a creek. Here they +stopped the horses for a time, while Grace and Hippy gathered some +branches of evergreen growing on the edge of a wood, just over the +bridge. + +Suddenly the stillness was broken by the sound of bells ringing so +violently that it seemed as if all Bedlam had broken loose. Around a +curve and down the road in front of them loomed Miriam's blacks, making +straight for the other group. They were going like the wind, and the +empty sleigh, lying on its side, was clattering behind them. + +"Jump, girls!" cried Tom, while with the other boys he started to cross +the bridge to intercept the horses. + +If Grace had paused to reflect she might never have attempted +accomplishing the daring deed that suggested itself to her. Quickly +snatching off her scarlet cape, she dashed into the middle of the road, +waving it before her. Perhaps the horses also thought Bedlam had been +let loose. At sight of the terrifying apparition, they slackened up, +snorted and reared backward. + +"She is a brave girl," thought Tom Gray, as he leaped at the nearest +rearing, plunging animal, while David seized the other. Far down the +road came the sound of a faint halloo. + +"I'll pick up the others. I suppose they are in a drift," said Reddy, as +he drove off and in a few minutes returned carrying Miriam and her +party. Miriam herself looked white and frightened, although she +pretended to treat the affair lightly. + +"A rabbit scared the horses," was all she said. "I'll let one of the +boys drive us home." + +"Indeed, I shan't go back in that sleigh," cried Julia Crosby. + +"Perhaps you'll accept a ride in the freshman sleigh, Miss Crosby," +suggested Nora; and the other girl, somewhat ashamed, was obliged to +place herself at the mercy of her enemies. + +"All of you girls get into Mrs. Gray's sleigh," commanded David, "and +Tom and I will drive the other sleigh back." No one ever cared to +disobey David when he spoke in this tone. Even his wilful sister took +her seat between Grace and Anne without a word and never spoke during +the entire drive back, except to say good night at her own front gate. + +But Grace could not refrain from one sharp little thrust. + +"You seem to be unlucky with sleighs and sleds both, Miriam," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE MARIONETTE SHOW + + +Do you remember your first party dress? How it gave a glimpse of the +throat and neck, and seemed to sweep the ground all around, although it +merely reached your shoe tops? + +Did you feel a thrill of pleasure when the last hook and eye was +fastened and you surveyed yourself in the longest mirror in the house? + +So it was with Anne in her pink crepe de Chine. Or was it really Anne, +this little vision in rose color with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes? +She stood spellbound before the glass on that memorable Christmas night, +and no one disturbed her for awhile. Mrs. Gray and the girls had stolen +out so as not to embarrass the young girl who, for the first time, saw +herself in a beautiful new silk dress exactly the color of pink rose +petals, which hung in soft folds to the tips of her small pink satin +slippers. + +"Give her a chance, girls," whispered Mrs. Gray. "We mustn't be too +enthusiastic about the difference. It might hurt her tender little +feelings. But she _does_ look sweet, doesn't she?" + +"As pretty as a picture, Mrs. Gray," answered Grace, kissing the old +lady's peach blossom cheek. "But they are coming. I hear them on the +walk. We must get behind the scenes and see that everything is all +ready." + +The big drawing room of the Gray house was soon full of young people +watching the folding doors leading into the library with expectant +faces. In the hall a string orchestra was discoursing soft music and the +place was filled with the hum of conversation and low laughter. Mrs. +Gray, seated on the front row, in the place of honor, occasionally +looked about her and smiled happily. + +"Why didn't I do this long ago?" she said to herself. "But then, were +there ever before such nice girls as my four adopted daughters?" + +Miriam sat near, with the other members of her house party. It had been +a source of much discussion whether or not to admit Julia Crosby to the +freshman party. But, since she was Miriam's guest, what else was there +to do? + +"We shall be only heaping coals of fire on her head at any rate," hinted +Jessica, "and that certainly ought to make her feel worse than if she +had been left out." + +After everyone was comfortably seated three loud raps were heard from +behind the folding doors. Some one began to play "The Funeral March of a +Marionette" on the piano, and the doors slid slowly back. + +There was a murmur of surprise and wonder. + +Two curtains had been stretched across the door opening above and below +and two hung down at each side, leaving an oblong space in the middle in +which stood a little doll theater nearly a yard and a half long and a +yard high. A row of footlights across the miniature stage presently +blossomed into light, and the freshman girls smiled as they recognized +some of those same little bulbs that had served to illuminate the +pumpkin face of Miss Leece's effigy. The music ceased and the curtains +rolled back. There sat Cinderella by the kitchen fire, very stiff and +straight, but weeping audibly with her little fists in her eyes. She was +ten inches high and, on careful examination, it could be seen that two +threads attached to her arms, and another to the back of her neck, made +it possible for her to move about and use her hands in a remarkably +life-like manner. + +Wild applause from the audience. Well there might be, for the scene was +perfect, from the old brick fireplace with an iron pot steaming on the +coals to the rows of shining pans and blue dishes on a shelf at the +side, all of which came from a toy shop, along with a little kitchen +bench and chairs. + +The cruel sisters swept in, dressed for the ball. When they spoke there +were convulsive titters among the guests for the voices of the cruel +step-sisters were those of Nora and Hippy. Anne read the lines of +Cinderella so plaintively that Mrs. Gray shed a secret tear or two when +Cinderella was left alone in the gloomy old kitchen. When the fairy +godmother appeared, in a peaked red hat and a long red cape, it was +Jessica who spoke the lines in a sweet, musical voice. How Cinderella +rolled out the pumpkin and displayed six white mice in a trap, and how, +after a brief interval of total darkness, could be seen through the open +door a coach of gold in which sat Cinderella in a silken gown, need not +be related here. It all took place without a single slip and the dolls +went through their parts with such funny life-like motions that the boys +and girls forgot they were not watching real actors. + +It was the scene of the ballroom, however, which was the real triumph of +the evening. + +"How did those clever children ever do it?" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, aloud, +when the curtain rolled back and disclosed the ballroom of the palace, +with a drop curtain at the back showing a vista of marble columns and +pillars. A gilt chandelier was suspended in the middle, from which +stretched garlands of real smilax. There were rows of little gilt chairs +against the walls filled with dolls in stiff satins and brocades. And +one large throne chair with a red velvet cushion in it, on which sat the +prince, who spoke with the voice of David Nesbit, and entertained his +guests in royal state. After the exciting arrival of Cinderella, Nora +played a minuet on the mandolin, the tinkling music of which seemed best +suited to the doll drama, and the prince and Cinderella executed a dance +of such intricate steps and low bows that the audience was convulsed +with laughter. There were even suppressed titters from behind the +scenes. This dance, which had been devised by Tom Gray and Grace, +necessitated two extra threads to manipulate the feet. It was most +difficult and had required long and tedious practice, but the results +were quite worth all the time and trouble. + +Mrs. Gray laughed till the tears rolled down her cheeks and made a +personal appeal for an encore, which was given; but there was a mishap +this time; Cinderella's threads became entangled and she came near to +breaking her china nose. Audiences are invariably most pitiless when +they are most pleased, and have no mercy on exhausted actors. At the cry +of "Speech! Speech!" the Prince stepped forward and made a low bow. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "we thank you for your approval and if +strength and breath permitted us, and the lady had not injured her nose, +we would gladly dance again for you." + +Then came the last scene. The step-sisters made desperate efforts to +wear the slipper; Cinderella finally retired triumphantly on the +prince's arm, and the curtains closed only to open again a few moments +later upon a scene which bore a strong resemblance to Oakdale High +School. The fairy godmother occupied the center of the stage while the +entire company of dolls were lined up on either side. Cinderella and the +prince, each held the end of an open scroll, which bore a printed +inscription that could be seen by the audience. It read: + +"A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE FAIRY GODMOTHER OF THE FRESHMAN CLASS." + +A scene of wild enthusiasm followed. The young people gave three cheers +for Mrs. Gray and ended with the High School yell. The actors came out +and were cheered each in turn. + +Grace, Tom Gray and Reddy had worked the marionettes, it seemed, +standing on the back of the table where the theater was placed, while +the others, sitting on low stools at the sides where they could see and +not be seen, read their lines which had been composed by Anne. + +"It wasn't so hard as you might think," said Grace, explaining the +marionettes to a group of friends. "Dressing the dolls was easy; we +glued on most of their clothes, and we made the step-sisters ugly by +giving them putty noses. Hippy painted the scenery and David supplied +the electric lights. The threads that moved the arms and bodies were +tied to little cross sticks something like a gallows, so that they could +be held from above without being seen." + +But the marionette show was only the beginning of the party. There was +to be feasting and dancing, and, lastly, a big Christmas tree loaded +with presents. + +The floors were cleared. The notes of a waltz rang out, and away whirled +the happy boys and girls. Anne and David, who did not dance, retired to +a sofa in the library to look on. + +"Are you happy, Anne, in your beautiful pink dress?" asked David, +regarding her with open admiration. + +"How can I help being happy?" she replied. "This is the first pretty +dress that I have ever had and I never went to a party before, either." + +"I never enjoyed a party before," said David, "but I'm enjoying this +one. I hope, for Mrs. Gray's sake, it goes off without a hitch." + +Just then Tom Gray waltzed by with Grace. They stopped when they saw +their friends, and came back. + +"Our efforts are certainly crowned with success," exclaimed Grace. "It's +the most beautiful ball ever given in Oakdale. Everyone says so. By the +way," she added, "get your partners and fall in line for the grand march +to supper." + +"I already have mine, all right," declared Tom Gray. + +"And I think I have mine," observed David. "She's wearing a pink dress +and is just about as tall as a marionette." + +Anne laughed and stood on tiptoe to make herself look taller. Suddenly +she caught the eye of Miriam Nesbit, who was lingering in the doorway, +watching the scene with an expression that the circumstances and holiday +surroundings hardly seemed to justify. + +"I wonder if the party will go off without a hitch," thought Anne, as +they joined the grand march into the dining room. + +When the beautiful, illuminated tree had been disburdened of all its +presents and the guests were well advanced on their supper, Mrs. Gray +approached Anne, carrying an oblong box, neatly done up in white tissue +paper tied with red ribbons. Pinned to the ribbon with a piece of holly +was a Christmas card on which was printed in fancy lettering "A +Christmas Thought." + +"Why, what is this, Mrs. Gray?" demanded Anne, rather excited, while +many of the boys and girls gathered around her and some stood on chairs +in order to see what the mysterious box contained. + +"I know no more than you, dear," replied the old lady. "A man left it at +the door a moment ago, and one of the servants gave it to me. Why don't +you open it and see?" + +Anne hesitated. Something told her not to open the box, but how could +she help it with dozens of her friends waiting eagerly to see what was +in it? + +"Hurry up, Anne, aren't you curious to see what it is?" some one called. + +"It looks like flowers," said another. + +"Or candy," observed a third. + +And still Anne's fingers lingered on the bow of red ribbon. Was there +anyone in the world who could be sending her a box that night? Certainly +not her mother nor her sister, nor any of her friends who had exchanged +presents in the morning. Mrs. Gray evidently had not sent it and there +was no one else in her small list of friends who would have taken the +trouble. + +"Anne, you funny child, don't you see we are all waiting impatiently?" +said Grace at last. + +Anne slipped off the ribbons and opened the package. In the box was some +object, carefully done up in more tissue paper. + +"It looks like a mummy," exclaimed Hippy. + +Untying the wrappers, Anne held up to the curious view of the others a +large doll. + +At first she hardly comprehended what it was and held it out at arms' +length looking at it wonderingly. It was dressed as a man in a black +suit with a long Prince Albert coat, very crudely made on close +inspection, but still cut and fitted to give the right effect. The face +had been cleverly changed with paint and putty, and pinned on the head +was a black felt hat, constructed out of the crown of an old one +evidently, in which had been sewn some lank black hair. + +A card was tied around the doll's neck, and some one looking over Anne's +shoulder read aloud the following inscription written upon it: + +"Why have imitation actors when you can get real ones?" + +Anne gave a gasp. + +Who could have played this cruel trick upon her? She knew her four +friends had never spoken of the happenings of Thanksgiving night, but +such secrets would leak out in spite of everything, and there may have +been others in the audience who had recognized her. Moreover, her father +himself would not have hesitated to tell who she was, so that it was not +difficult to understand how the story had spread. + +But who would have the heart to hold her father up to ridicule in this +way, and to cause her such secret pain and unhappiness? While her +thoughts were busy, David had seized the doll and wrapped it up again. +He was very angry, but it was wiser to keep silent. + +"What was it, dear?" demanded Mrs. Gray, who had not been able to hear +the message written on the card. + +"Just a silly trick on Anne, Mrs. Gray," replied David, for Anne was too +near to tears to trust the sound of her own voice. + +"Something about actors, wasn't it?" asked Julia Crosby, who was +hovering near, and before she could be stopped, she had snatched the +doll from Anne's lap. The covers fluttered to the floor and the others +pressed eagerly around to get a glimpse of it. + +David leaped to his feet so vigorously that he upset a chair. + +"Give that back!" he commanded. "It is not yours." + +[Illustration: "Give That Back! It Is Not Yours."] + +"I will not," answered Julia Crosby. "Neither is it yours." + +"I say you will," cried David, furiously, losing his temper completely. + +"Get it if you can!" challenged the girl, darting through the crowd with +David at her heels. + +Suddenly there was a crash, a startled cry and the great fir tree with +all its ornaments and lighted candles fell to the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AFTER THE BALL + + +Yes, here was the hitch that Anne had secretly dreaded and which the +other girls had anxiously hoped to avoid. + +She had not dreamed what it would be, but she had felt it coming all +evening, ever since she had seen Miriam hovering near the library door. +And, in a way, Miriam was connected with the disaster. Had not Miriam's +guest and chum exceeded all bounds of politeness by prying into other +people's affairs? No doubt, as she fled from David, her dress had caught +in one of the branches of the tree and so pulled it over. + +All this darted through Anne's head as she stood leaning against the +wall while the room was fast filling with smoke and the pungent odor of +burning pine. + +Suddenly, some one at her elbow deliberately called "Fire! Fire!" These +were the same ominous words she had heard Thanksgiving night, only they +seemed now more alarming, more threatening. Who could be so foolish, so +ill-advised as to scream those agitating words in a roomful of girls and +boys already keyed up to a high pitch of excitement? Anne turned quickly +and confronted Miriam. + +"Don't do that!" exclaimed Anne. "You will only make matters worse." + +Miriam looked at her scornfully, although it was evident she had not +noticed her before. + +"Be quiet, spy," she hissed, "and don't make trouble." + +"I suspect you of making a great deal," returned Anne, calmly. + +She was not afraid of this passionate, spoiled girl, and only the fact +that Miriam was the sister of David, her devoted friend, kept Anne from +saying more. + +In another moment, the entire Christmas tree was in a bright blaze. Anne +had climbed up to a chair, and thence to the table that the crowd had +pushed against her as it ran. Anne was about to leap to the floor when +Grace and Tom Gray dashed in with an armful apiece of wet blankets. With +the help of the others they spread the blankets over the burning tree +and the blaze was extinguished almost as soon as it was born. + +"No harm has been done," said Tom. "The canvas covering saved the floor +and fortunately all the furniture has been taken out anyhow. It's all +right, Aunt Rose. Nobody hurt; nothing damaged. I never heard of a more +accommodating fire in my life." + +"Open the windows now and let out the smoke," ordered Mrs. Gray, "and, +if you have all finished eating, I think you had better come into the +drawing room while the servants clear out this debris. Tom, please tell +the musicians to play a waltz. I do not want my guests to carry away any +unpleasant impressions of this house." + +The music struck up and the dance began again. + +"Well," said Grace, "no one need feel badly about the fire, because a +Christmas tree generally has to be burned, anyway, and nothing of value +but the ornaments was destroyed. So everything is all right." + +"It was all my fault," exclaimed David, in a contrite voice. "Mrs. Gray, +you will have to forgive me before I can enjoy a clear conscience again. +If it hadn't been for that lumbering sophomore, Julia Crosby, I should +never have lost my temper the way I did." + +"My dear David," cried Mrs. Gray, patting him affectionately on the arm, +"you couldn't do anything I would disapprove of. If you wanted to rescue +Anne's doll I am sure you had some excellent reason for it." + +Mrs. Gray had not heard the history of Anne's father, for Grace and her +friends had kept the secret well, and Anne, herself, had never cared to +tell the story. She was a quiet, reserved girl who talked little of her +own affairs. + +"He _did_ have a good reason, Mrs. Gray," put in Grace, "and it was +enough to make him lose his temper. Julia Crosby is everlastingly +playing practical jokes and getting people into trouble. However, I +don't suppose she upset the tree on purpose," she added, thoughtfully. + +"Well, well," exclaimed Mrs. Gray, "let us forget all about it and wind +up the party with a Virginia reel. Tom and Grace must lead it off, and +Anne, you and David watch the others so that when it comes your turn you +will be able to dance it yourselves." + +So it was that Mrs. Gray's freshman Christmas ball ended as gayly as it +had started, with a romping, joyous Virginia reel. There was not a soul, +except the little old lady herself, who did not join the two long lines +stretching from one end of the rooms to the other and when it came +Anne's turn, she was not afraid to bow and curtsey as the others had +done, for she had quickly mastered the various figures of the dance. +Moreover, was she not wearing a beautiful dress of pink crepe de Chine? +After all a pretty dress does make a great difference. Anne felt she +could never have danced so well in the old black silk. + +When the reel was over the boys and girls joined hands and formed an +immense circle about their charming hostess, whirling madly around her +as they cried: + +"Three cheers for Mrs. Gray!" + +The old lady was very happy. She waved her small, wrinkled hands at them +and called out over the din: + +"Three cheers for my dear freshmen boys and girls!" + +At length, when the hands of the clock pointed to two, and the last of +the dancers had departed, Mrs. Gray sank into a chair exhausted. + +"I am tired," she said, "but I never in my life had such a good time!" + +Was there ever a girl in the world who did not want to exchange +confidences with her best friends after a party? + +Grace and Anne, therefore, were not surprised when two figures in +dressing gowns and slippers stole into their room, crouching on the rug +before the fire. + +"We've all sorts of things to say," exclaimed Nora, "else we wouldn't +think of keeping you up so late. In the first place, wasn't it perfectly +delightful?" + +"Grand!" sighed the others. + +"Everything except that one accident, and the thing that caused it," +answered Grace. + +"By the way, Anne, where is the doll?" asked Jessica. + +Anne produced it from its box. + +"Here it is," she said sadly. "But it was a cruel joke. Can you imagine +who could have done it?" + +"I have several suspicions," answered Grace, "but I make no accusations +without grounds." + +The four girls examined the doll carefully. + +"My poor father!" exclaimed Anne, her eyes filling with tears. + +"I'll tell you what, girls," cried Nora suddenly, "there's more to this +than just Anne's secret. How did anyone know we were going to have a +marionette show? Didn't we keep it dark?" + +"Yes," they answered. + +"Perhaps it got out through the servants," suggested Jessica. + +"It certainly is rather an underhanded business," cried Grace, "for +whoever did this not only must have bribed one of Mrs. Gray's servants, +but also must have some way or other raked up Anne's secret. It was +evidently some one who had a grudge against you, poor dear," she added, +patting Anne on the cheek. + +"Girls!" exclaimed Jessica, who all this time had been looking the doll +over carefully, "where have you seen this material before?" She pointed +at the fancy red waistcoat the doll was wearing. + +"It has a familiar look," answered Nora. + +"It looks to me very much like a red velveteen suit I saw somewhere once +upon a time," observed Grace. + +"You did see it, Grace. But it was--how long ago? Two or more years, +wasn't it?" + +"I know," cried Nora. "Miriam Nesbit's!" + +"Sh-h-h!" warned Grace. "Remember David. He's just across the hall." + +"And he must never know," added Anne, "not if she sent me a dozen +dolls." + +"But I haven't finished," continued Jessica. "I feel exactly like a +detective on the scent. This doll is wearing something else that is +familiar to us all. Anne, you have seen it, I am sure." + +They scanned the doll eagerly. The shabby black suit was made of some +indescribable material that might have come from anywhere. The red +velveteen waistcoat they had already identified. Then came a little +white cotton dickey, with a high standing collar and then---- + +"The tie!" cried Nora. "The green tie! Is that it, Jessica?" + +"You are right," answered Jessica. "Have you never seen that green silk +before?" + +Grace was in a brown study. + +Anne could not recall it and Nora was groping in the dark. + +"I'll tell you this much," said Jessica, who loved a mystery; "It just +matches a certain veil----" + +"Miss Leece!" exclaimed Grace. "It's a piece of the trimming on an old +dress she sometimes wears." + +"Exactly," said Jessica. "Who, having once seen it could ever forget +it?" + +And so Miss Leece and Miriam had combined forces against poor little +Anne! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A WINTER PICNIC + + +"Aunt Rose," exclaimed Tom Gray, several mornings after the Christmas +dance, "I have a scheme; but, before I ask your permission to carry it +out, I want you to grant it." + +"Why do you ask it at all, then, Tom, dear?" answered his aunt. + +"Because we want your seal and sanction upon the undertaking," replied +Tom, giving the old lady an affectionate squeeze. "Is it granted, little +Lady Gray?" he asked. + +"I am merely groping about in the dark, my boy, but I trust to your good +sense not to ask me anything too outrageous. Tell me what it is quickly, +so that I may know exactly how deeply I am implicated." + +"Well," said Tom, "here's the scheme in a nutshell. I want to give a +picnic." + +Mrs. Gray groaned. + +"A picnic, boy? Whoever heard of a picnic in mid-winter. What mad notion +is this?" + +"But you have given your consent, aunty, and no honorable woman can go +back on her word." + +"So I have, child, but explain to me quickly what a winter picnic is so +that I may know the worst at once." + +"A winter picnic is a glorious tramp in the woods, with a big camp-fire +at noon, for food, warmth and rest, and then a tramp back again." + +"And can I trust to you to take good care of my four girls? Anne and +Jessica are not giants for strength. You must not walk them too far, or +let them get chilled; and, if you find they are growing tired, you must +bring them straight back." + +"On my word of honor, as a gentleman and a Gray, I promise," said Tom, +solemnly. + +"And you will all be in before dark?" continued Mrs. Gray. + +"We promise," continued the young people. + +"Wear your stoutest shoes and warmest clothing," she went on. + +"We promise," they cried. + +"And we want a lot of lunch, aunt," said Tom coaxingly, "and some nice +raw bacon for cooking and eating purposes." + +"You shall have everything you want," said Mrs. Gray, "but who will +carry the lunch?" + +"We will distribute it on the backs of our four pack mules," replied +Grace. "But Hippy must carry the coffee-pot. He's not to be trusted with +food." + +"Now, wouldn't it be a remarkable sight to see a pack mule eating off +his own back!" observed Hippy. "There are several animals that can turn +their heads all the way around, I believe, but not the human animal." + +"We had better start as soon as possible," broke in Tom. "Hurry up, +girls, and get ready, while the servants fix the lunch." + +In half an hour eight young people, well muffled and mittened, started +off toward the open country. It was a clear, cold day and the +snow-covered fields and meadows sparkled in the sunshine. + +"If I were a gypsy by birth, as well as by inclination," declared Tom, +as they trudged gayly along, "I should take to the road in the early +spring, and never see a roof again until cold weather." + +"But being a member of a respectable family and about to enter college, +you have to sleep in a bed under cover?" added David. + +"It's partly that," said Tom, "and partly the cold weather that is +responsible for my good behavior two thirds of the year. If I lived in a +warm climate all the year around, every respectable notion I had would +melt away in a week and I'd take to the open forever." + +"I have never been in the woods in the winter time," said Anne. "Are +they very beautiful?" + +"One of the finest sights in the world," cried Tom enthusiastically, his +wholesome face glowing from his exercise. + +Just then they climbed an old stone wall and entered a forest known as +"Upton Wood," which covered an area of ten miles or more in length and +several miles across. + +"It is beautiful," said Anne as she gazed up and down the wooded aisles +carpeted in white. "It is like a great cathedral. I could almost kneel +and pray at one of these snow covered stumps. They are like altars." + +"The fault I find with the woods in winter," observed Grace, "is that +there is nothing to do in them, no birds and beasts to make things +lively, no flowers to pick, no brooks to wade in. Just an everlasting +stillness." + +"I admit there's not much social life," replied Tom. "The inhabitants +either go to sleep or fly south, most of them. But don't forget the +rabbits and squirrels and----" + +"And an occasional bear," interrupted Reddy. "They have been seen in +these parts." + +"Worse than bears," said Hippy. "Wolves!" + +"Goodness!" ejaculated Tom. "You are doing pretty well. I didn't know +this country was so wild. But that's going some." + +"Oh, well, as to that," said David, "nobody has ever really seen +anything worse than wildcats, and we have to take old Jean's word for it +about the wolves. He claimed to have seen wolves in these woods three +years ago. As a matter of fact they chased him out, and he was obliged +to turn civilized for three months." + +"Who is old Jean?" asked Tom, much interested. + +"He is a French-Canadian hunter who has lived somewhere in this forest +for years. He comes into town occasionally, looking like Daniel Boone, +dressed in skins with a squirrel cap, and carrying a bunch of rabbits +that he sells to the butchers." + +"He's a great sight," said Grace. "I saw him on his snowshoes one day. +He was coming down Upton Hill, where we coasted, you know, Anne, and he +sped along the fields faster than David's motor cycle." + +They had been walking for some time over the hard-packed snow and were +now well into the forest, which hemmed them in on every side and seemed +to stretch out in all directions into infinite space. + +"Reddy, are you perfectly sure we won't get lost in this place?" +demanded Jessica at last. + +They had been walking along silently intent on their own thoughts. +Perhaps it was the grandeur of the great snow-laden trees that oppressed +them; perhaps the vast loneliness of the place, where nothing was +stirring, not even a rabbit. + +"We're all right," returned Reddy. "My compass tells me. We go due north +till we want to start home and then we can either turn around and go +back due south or turn west and go home by the road." + +"I have neither compass nor watch," said Hippy, "but nature's timepiece +tells me that it's lunch time. This cold air gives me an appetite." + +"Gives you one?" cried David. "You old anaconda, you were born with an +appetite. You started eating boiled dumplings when you were two years +old." + +"Who told you so?" demanded Hippy. + +"Never mind," said David. "It's an old story in Oakdale." + +"Let's feed the poor soul," interposed Grace. "It would be wanton +cruelty to keep him waiting any longer." + +"He'll have to make the fire, then," said Reddy. "Make him pay for his +dumplings if he wants 'em so early." + +"All right, Carrots," cried Hippy. "I'll gather fagots and make a fire, +just to keep you from talking so much." + +"I'll help you, Hippy," said Nora. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I am +very hungry too. It's the people who are never able to eat at the table, +and then go off and feed up in the pantry, who always manage to shirk +their work." + +The others all laughed. + +"Let's make a fair division of labor," put in Grace, "so as to prevent +future talk." + +While some of them gathered sticks and dried branches, the others began +clearing away the snow in an open space, where the fire could be built. + +Anne and Jessica unpacked the luncheon and poured some coffee from a +glass jar into a tin pot to be heated, while Tom peeled several long +switches and impaled pieces of bacon on the ends to be cooked over the +fire, which was soon blazing comfortably. + +"How do you like this, girls?" he asked presently, when the broiling +bacon began to give out an appetizing smell and the hot coffee added its +fragrance to the air. "How's this for a winter picnic?" + +"I like it better than a summer picnic," interposed Hippy. "The food is +better and there are no gnats." + +"Gnats are very fond of fat people," said Reddy. "They drink down their +blood like--circus lemonade." + +"Get busy and give me some coffee, Red-head," said Hippy, who sat on a +stump and ate energetically, while the others were broiling their slices +of bacon. + +"Here, Hippy," said Nora, pouring out a steaming cupful, "if it wasn't +interesting to watch you store it away, perhaps I wouldn't wait on you +hand and foot like this." + +"This is the best way in the world to cook bacon," said Tom, holding his +wand over the fire with several pieces of bacon stuck on the forked +ends. + +"A very good method, if your stick doesn't burn up," replied Anne. +"There! Mine fell into the fire. I knew it would." + +Meantime, Jessica and Grace were frying the rest of the slices in a pan. + +"That's good enough, but this is better and quicker," said Grace. +"There's no reason for dispensing with all the comforts of a home just +because you choose to be a woodsman, Tom." + +They never forget how they enjoyed that luncheon, devouring everything +to the ultimate crumb and the final drop of hot coffee. + +Although it was bitterly cold, they did not feel the chill. The brisk +walk, the warm fire and their hearty meal had quickened their blood, and +even Anne, the smallest and most delicate of them all, felt something of +Tom's enthusiasm for the deep woods. + +At last it was time to start again. + +The boys were trampling down the fire while the girls began stowing the +cups and coffee-pot into a basket. The woods seemed suddenly to have +grown very quiet. + +"How still it is," whispered Anne. "I feel as if everything in the world +had stopped. There is not a breath stirring." + +"Perhaps it has," answered Grace. "But we mustn't stop, even if +everything else has, now that the fire is out, or we'll freeze to +death." + +She was just about to call the others briskly, for the air was beginning +to nip her cheeks, when something in the faces of the four boys made her +pause. + +They were standing together near the remains of the fire, and seemed to +be listening intently. + +Not a sound, not even the crackling of a branch disturbed the stillness +for a moment and then, from what appeared to be a great distance, came a +long, howling wail, so forlorn, so weird, it might have been the cry of +a spirit. + +"What is it?" whispered the other girls, creeping about Grace. + +"I think we'd better be hurrying along, now, girls," said David in a +natural voice. "It's getting late." + +"You can't deceive us, David," replied Grace calmly. "We know it's +wolves." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +WOLVES! + + +Wolves! The name was terrifying enough. But their cry, that +long-drawn-out, hungry call, gave the picnickers a chill of +apprehension. + +"We must take the nearest way out of the wood, Reddy," exclaimed Tom. +"They are still several miles off, and, if we hurry, we may reach the +open before they do." + +All started on a run, David helping Anne to keep up with the others +while Reddy looked after Jessica. Nora and Grace were well enough +trained in outdoor exercise to run without any assistance from the boys. +Indeed, Grace Harlowe could out-run most boys of her own age. + +"Go straight to your left," called Reddy, consulting his compass as he +hurried Jessica over the snow. + +Again they heard the angry howl of the wolves, and the last time it +seemed much nearer. + +"It's a terrible business, this running after a heavy meal," muttered +Hippy, gasping for breath as he stumbled along in the track of his +friends. "I'll make a nice meal for 'em if they catch me," he added, +"and it looks as if I'd be the first to go." + +"Reddy, are you sure you're right?" called Tom. "The woods don't seem to +be thinning out as they are likely to do toward the edge." + +"Keep going," called Reddy, confident of the direction. "You see, we had +gone pretty far in, but I believe the open country is about a mile this +way." + +A mile? Good heavens! Jessica and Anne were already stumbling from +exhaustion, while Hippy was quite winded. Another five minutes of this +and at least three of the party would be food for wolves, unless +something could be done. So thought David, who, breathless and light +headed, was now almost carrying Anne. + +"Hurrah!" cried Grace, who had been running ahead of the others. "Here's +Jean's hut!" + +There, sure enough, right in front of them, was a little house built of +logs and mud. + +Had it been put in that particular spot years ago just to save their +eight lives now? Anne wondered vaguely as she blindly stumbled on. + +As Grace lifted the wooden latch of the door, she looked over her +shoulder. Not three hundred yards away loped five gaunt, gray animals. +Their tongues hung limply from the sides of their mouths and their eyes +glowered with a fierce hunger. + +"Hurry!" she cried, in an agony of fear. "Oh, hurry!" + +Tom and David were carrying Anne now, while Jessica was half staggering, +assisted by Nora and Reddy. Hippy, the perspiration pouring from his +face, brought up the rear, and they had scarcely pulled him in and +barred the door before the wolves had reached the hut and were leaping +against the walls howling and snarling. + +Nobody spoke for some time. Those who were not too tired were busy +thinking. + +What was to be done? Eight young people, on a bitter cold winter +afternoon, shut up in a hut in the middle of a forest while five +half-starved wolves besieged the door. + +Presently Tom Gray began to look about him. + +There was a fireplace in the hut, which, by great good luck, contained +the remains of a large backlog. More fuel was stacked in the corner, +chiefly brushwood and sticks. He made a fire at once and the others +gathered around the blaze, for they felt the penetrating chill now, +after their rapid and exhausting flight through the forest. + +"Here's a rifle," exclaimed Grace, who was also exploring, while Tom +kindled the fire. + +"Good!" cried Tom. "Let's see it. It may be our salvation." + +He seized the gun and examined the barrel, but, alas, there was only one +shot left in it. They searched the hut for more cartridges, but not one +could they find. + +In the meantime the wolves, which might have been taken for large collie +dogs at a little distance, were trotting around the house, leaping +against the door and windows and occasionally giving a blood-curdling +howl. + +"Suppose you feed me to them?" groaned Hippy. "You could get almost to +Oakdale before they finished me." + +The suggestion seemed to break the apprehensive silence that had settled +down upon them, and they burst out laughing, one and all; even Anne, who +was lying on a bearskin in front of the fire. + +"I suppose the beasts were driven down from the hills by hunger, and +when they smelled the fat bacon frying, the woods couldn't hold them," +observed David. "I have always heard that a hungry wolf could smell +something to eat on another planet." + +"Well, what are we going to do?" demanded Nora. "If we leave this +charming abode of Jean's, we shall be eaten alive, and if we stay in it +we shall starve." + +"You won't starve for a while yet, child. You have only just eaten. You +remind me of the story of the people who were locked up in a vault in a +cemetery. They divided the candle into notches and decided to eat a +notch apiece every day. They had just finished the last notch, and were +expecting to die at any moment of starvation, when somebody unlocked the +door, and how long do you suppose they had been shut up!" + +"Several days, I suppose," answered Nora, "since they appeared to have +eaten several notches." + +"Not at all," replied David. "Only three hours." + +"I'd rather be in a vault, with the dead, than out here," observed +Hippy. + +"Are we such poor company as all that, Fatty!" laughed Reddy. + +"I've made a great find," announced Tom Gray in the midst of their +chatter. He was standing on a bench examining something on a shelf +suspended from the ceiling. + +"What?" demanded the others in great excitement. + +"A pair of snowshoes," he answered. + +There was a disappointed silence. + +"Well, don't all speak at once," said Tom at last. "Don't you agree with +me that it's a great find?" + +"We are sorry we can't enthuse," answered David, "but we fail to see how +snow shoes can help us out of our present predicament." + +"Nobody here knows how to use them," continued Reddy, "and even if he +did, he couldn't out-run a pack of wolves." + +"I know how to use them," exclaimed Tom. "I learned it in Canada a few +winters ago, but I will admit I couldn't beat the wolves in a race. +However, the shoes may come in handy yet." + +Just then one of the wolves threw his body against the door and the +small cabin shook with the force of the blow. + +"By Jove!" exclaimed David, "I thought they had us then. Another blow +like that and the old latch might give way." + +They looked about them for something to place against the door, but +there was not a stick of furniture in the room. Even the bed, in one +corner, was made of pine boughs and skins. + +"I wonder how there happens to be only five wolves," said Anne. "I +thought they went about in large packs." + +"They are probably mama and papa and the whole family," replied Hippy. +"The smallest, friskiest ones, I think, are young ladies, by the way +they switched along behind the others and hung back kind of shy-like." + +"Now, Hippy Wingate, don't tell us such a romance as that," warned +Grace, "when you were so winded you could hardly look in front of you, +much less behind you." + +At that moment there was another crash against the door while two gray +paws and the tip of a pointed muzzle could be seen on one of the window +sills. + +"It's almost three o'clock," said Tom Gray, looking at his watch. "I +think we'll have to do something, or we shall be penned here all night. +Now, what shall it be? Suppose we have a friendly council and consider." + +"All right," said David; "the meeting is open for suggestions. What do +you advise, Anne?" + +Anne smiled thoughtfully. + +"I have no advice to offer," she said, "unless you shoot one of the +wolves and let the others eat him up. Perhaps that would take the edge +off their appetites." + +"No, that would only serve as an appetizer," answered David. "After they +had eaten one member of the family they would be still hungrier for +another." + +"And yet that isn't a half bad idea," said Tom, "and for two reasons. +Did you notice a path which began at the hut and which was evidently +Jean's trail? I saw it from the corner of my eye as I ran." + +No, the others had not noticed anything of the sort. But who would stop +to think of trails with a pack of hungry wolves at his heels? + +Tom's training in the woods had taught him to take in such details, and +consequently he had noticed it particularly. Moreover, the trail led +straight to the left, presumably toward the west. + +"Now, this is what I propose to do," he continued, taking down the +snowshoes and looking over their straps and fastenings carefully. +"Reddy, who, I hear, is a good shot, must climb up at one of the windows +and shoot the first wolf he sees. Eating the dead wolf would probably +occupy the attention of his brothers for some ten minutes or so--perhaps +longer. While they are busy I shall make off on the snowshoes. With that +much of a start, and with plenty of tasty human beings close at hand, I +doubt if they even follow me. If they do, why I'll just shin up a tree. +But I believe I can beat them. I'm pretty good on snowshoes." + +"Tom Gray, you shan't do it!" cried Grace. "It may mean sure death. How +do you know the wolves won't seize you the moment you open the door? +Besides, you don't know the way. Suppose you should get lost?" + +"No, no," insisted Tom. "None of these things will happen. I know +positively that a hungry wolf will stop chasing a human being and eat up +a dead wolf, or a shoe, or a rug, or anything that happens to be thrown +to him. I never was surer of anything in my life than that I can get +away from here before the beasts know it." + +There was a storm of protestation from the others, but Tom Gray finally +overruled every objection and they reluctantly consented to let him go. + +It was arranged that Reddy should stand on a bench by one of the small +windows and attract the attention of the wolves by throwing out a rabbit +skin that was nailed to one of the walls. While the beasts were tearing +this to pieces he was to shoot one of them. Furthermore, the instant the +live wolves had finished devouring the dead one, Reddy was to pitch out +another skin, of which there were many about the hut, of foxes, rabbits +and other small animals, which the trapper had collected. + +This, they agreed, would probably keep the wolves occupied for awhile, +until Tom had got a good start down the trail. + +Tom slipped his feet in the snowshoes and stood by the door waiting. +While the wolves howled and fought over the rabbit skin, bang went the +rifle. + +"I got him!" cried Reddy. + +In an instant Tom Gray had flung open the door and was off down the +trail. + +As he had expected, the live wolves were hungrily eating the dead one +and had not apparently even noticed his departure. + +The boys and girls in the hut sat breathlessly waiting, while Reddy +watched the famished animals gorge themselves with the blood and fresh +meat of their comrade. + +Reddy had rolled up a fox skin into a small bundle, and was prepared to +pitch it out to them the moment they had finished. + +Just as they had lapped the last drop of blood, he cast out the skin. +They sniffed at it a moment, gave a long, disapproving howl, that sent +the cold chills down the spines of the prisoners, and then made off down +the trail after Tom Gray. + +Reddy gave a loud exclamation and jumped down from the bench. + +"_They have followed Tom!_" he cried, in a high state of excitement. + +There was a long pause. + +"We'll have to go, then," said David finally. "Girls, you are safe as +long as you stay inside the hut, and some of us at least will be able to +bring help before long." + +With that, all three of the boys, for Hippy was no coward, in spite of +his size and appetite, rushed out of the hut and disappeared in the +wood. + +The afternoon shadows were beginning to lengthen when Grace fastened the +latch and returned to the fire where her three friends sat silent, +afraid to speak for fear of giving way to tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE GRAY BROTHERS + + +The four girls never knew how long they waited that afternoon in the +hunter's cabin. It might have been only minutes, but the minutes seemed +to drag themselves into hours. The uncertain fate of the boys, the +tragedy that surely awaited perhaps all of them made the situation +almost unbearable. + +Grace piled the fireplace high with the remaining wood, but the blaze +could not keep away the chill that crept over them as the sun sank +behind the trees. They shivered and drew nearer together for comfort. + +Should they ever see their four brave friends again? + +And David? + +Anne could endure it no longer. She rose and began to move about the +hut. There lay her coat and hat. Almost without knowing what she did she +put them on, pulled on her mittens and tied a broad, knitted muffler +around her ears. + +"Girls," she said suddenly. She had gone about her preparations so +quietly the other three had not even turned to see what she was doing. +"I'm going. I don't want any of you to go with me, but I would rather +die than stay here all night without knowing what has happened to David +and the others." + +"Wait a moment," cried Grace, "and I'll go, too. It would be unbearable +not to know--and if we meet the wolves, why, then, as Tom said, we can +climb a tree. Poor Tom!" she added sadly. "I wonder where he is now." + +Nora and Jessica rose hastily. + +"Do you think I'd stay?" cried Nora. "Not in a thousand years!" + +"Anything is better than this," exclaimed Jessica, as she drew on her +wraps and prepared to follow her friends into the woods. + +Grace opened the door, peering out into the gathering darkness. + +"There is not a living thing in sight," she said. "We'd better hurry, +girls; it will soon be dark." Then the four young girls started down the +trail and were soon out of sight. + +When Tom Gray left old Jean's hut, with nothing between him and the +ravenous wolves, except the angle of a wall, he took a long, gliding +step, his body swinging gracefully with the motion, and was off like the +wind, under a broad avenue of trees. But he had not gone far before one +of the straps loosened and his foot slipped. He fell headlong, but was +up instantly. + +It took a few moments to tighten the strap, and it must have been then +that the wolves caught the scent, and after hurriedly finishing the meal +in hand, galloped off for another without taking the slightest notice of +the fox skin that Reddy had tossed to them. Tom made a fresh start, +feeling more confident on his feet than he had at first, and he was well +under way when he heard the howl of the wolves behind him. Gathering all +his energies together he managed to keep ahead of them until the woods +became less dense, and he saw through the interlacing branches the open +meadows and fields. + +"They are too hungry to leave off now," he said to himself as he +hurriedly searched the valley below for the nearest farmhouse. In front +of him was a very high, steep hill, that same hill, in fact, where +Nora's coasting party had taken place. Glancing behind him, he caught a +glimpse of the gray brothers trotting through the forest. + +"I'll take the hill," he thought. "It's quickest and there must be some +kind of a refuge below." With long, swift glides he reached the knob +which had hidden Miriam's sled from view as she bore down on Anne the +night of the coasting party. + +The wolves were right behind him now, and unless something turned up he +hardly dared think what would happen. + +But Tom Gray had always possessed an indomitable belief that things +would turn out all right. It seemed absurd to him that he was to be food +for wolves when he had still a long and delightful life before him. +Certainly he would not give up without a struggle. + +Perhaps it was this fine confidence that his destiny was not yet +completed that gave him the strength which now promised to save him. As +he fled down the hill he saw below an old oak tree whose first branches +had been lopped off. Exerting every atom of strength in him, just as he +reached the bottom Tom gave a leap. He caught the lowest limb with one +hand, pulled himself up and calmly took his seat in the crotch of the +tree. + +He was just in time. The wolves were at his heels, snarling and snapping +like angry dogs. The boy regarded them from his safe perch and burst out +laughing. + +[Illustration: Tom Gray Escapes from the Wolves.] + +"So I fooled you, did I, you gray rascals?" he said aloud. "You think +you'll keep me here all night, do you, old hounds? Well, we'll see who +wins out in the long run." + +Meanwhile, the wolves ran about howling disconsolately while Tom sat in +the branches of the tree, rubbing his hands and arms to keep warm. He +had removed the snowshoes and was just contemplating climbing to the top +of the tree to keep his blood circulating, when three figures appeared +on the brow of the hill. + +"As I live, it's the boys," he said to himself. "Go back!" he yelled, +waving a red silk muffler. "Climb a tree quickly!" + +They had seen and heard him, and making for the nearest tree, each +shinned up as fast as he could. + +"Here's a howdy-do," said Tom to himself. "Four boys treed by wolves and +night coming on." + +Yet he swung his legs and whistled thoughtfully, while the others +shouted to him, but he could not hear what they said, for the wind was +blowing away from him. In the meantime the wolves did not all desert him +and he could only wait patiently, with the others, for something to turn +up. + +What did turn up was a good deal of a shock to all of them. + +Grace, Jessica, Nora and Anne suddenly emerged from the forest, standing +out in bold relief on the brow of the hill. + +The three boys at the top of the hill all jumped to the ground at once. + +"Run for the trees," cried David, for the wolves had caught the new +scent and had started toward them on a dead run. + +"Crack, crack," went a rifle. Instantly the first wolf staggered and +fell backward. + +How was it that the boys had not noticed before that the girls were not +alone? + +Another shot and a second wolf ran almost into their midst, gave a leap +and fell dead. One more dropped; and the sole surviving wolf beat a +frenzied retreat. + +"We found old Jean!" cried Grace. "Wasn't it the most fortunate thing in +the world? And now nobody is killed and we are all safe and I'm so +happy!" She gave the old hunter's arm a squeeze. + +Old Jean, enveloped in skins from top to toe, smiled good-naturedly. + +"It was the Bon Dieu, mademoiselle, who have preserve you. Do not t'ank +ole Jean. It was the Bon Dieu who put it in ole Jean's haid to set +rabbit trap to-night." + +He would accept neither money nor thanks for shooting the wolves. + +"I will skin them. It is sufficient." + +It was not long before eight very tired and very happy young people were +seated around Mrs. Gray's dinner table. Grace was a little choky and +homesick for her mother, now that all the danger was over, but the week +of the house party was almost up, so she concealed her impatience to be +home again. + +The softly shaded candles shed a warm glow over their faces, and the +logs crackled on the brass andirons. They looked into each others' eyes +and smiled sleepily. + +Had it all been a dream, their winter picnic, or was old Jean at that +very moment really nailing wolf skins to his wall? + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE LOST LETTER + + +Spring was well advanced, full of soft airs and the sweet scents of +orchards in full bloom. + +Through the open windows of the schoolroom Grace could hear the pleasant +sounds of the out of doors. The tinkle of a cow bell in a distant meadow +and the songs of the birds brought to her the nearness of the glorious +summer time. + +She chewed the end of her pencil impatiently, endeavoring to withdraw +her attention from the things she liked so much better than Latin +grammar and algebra. Examinations were coming, those bugbears of the +young freshman, and then vacation. A vision of picnics crossed her mind, +of long days spent out of doors, with luncheon under the trees and +tramps through the woods. Yet, before all these joys, must come the +inevitable final test, the race for the freshman prize. Although, after +all, only two would really enter the race, Miriam and Anne. Nobody else +would think of competing with these two brilliant students. + +How tired Anne looked! She had done nothing but study of late. No party +had been alluring enough to beguile her from her books. She had even +discontinued her work with Mrs. Gray, and early and late toiled at her +studies. + +"She will tire herself out," Grace thought, and made a resolution to +take Anne with her on a visit to her grandmother's in the country just +as soon as the High School doors were closed for the summer. + +Miriam was not studying so hard. But then she never did anything hard. +She simply seemed to absorb, without taking the trouble to plod. She had +been very defiant of late, Grace thought, and more insolent than ever +before. She and Miss Leece were "thicker" than was good for Miriam, +considering that teacher's peculiar disposition to flatter and spoil +her. However, that was none of Grace's business, and certainly Miss +Leece had been careful since the sound rating Miss Thompson had given +her. + +Just then the gong broke in upon Grace's reflections. With a sigh of +relief she closed her book and strolled with her friends down to their +usual meeting place in the locker room. + +There was but one topic of conversation now, the freshman prize. + +"Anne," predicted Nora, "you just can't help winning it! I don't believe +it's in you to make a mistake. Miss Leece always gives you the hardest +problems, too, but she can't stump little Anne." + +Anne smiled wearily. It was well examinations were to begin in two days. +In her secret soul she felt she could not hold out much longer. +Moreover, Anne was worried about family affairs. She had received a +letter, that morning, which had troubled her so much that she had been +on the point, a dozen times, of bursting into tears. However, if she won +the prize--not the small one, but the _big_ one--the difficulty would be +surmounted. + +Another worry had crept into her mind. She had lost the letter. A +little, wayward breeze had seized it suddenly from her limp fingers and +blown it away. She knew the letter was lurking somewhere in a corner of +the schoolroom, and she had hoped to find it when the class was +dismissed. But the missing paper was nowhere in sight when she had +searched for it during recess. Perhaps it had blown out the window, in +which case it would be brushed up by the janitress and never thought of +again. Not for worlds would Anne have had anyone read that letter. + +It was during the afternoon session, in the middle of one of the +schoolroom recitations, that she caught sight of her letter again. But +after the class was dismissed and she had made haste to the corner of +the room, where she thought she had seen it under a desk, it was not +there. Disappointed and uneasy Anne put on her hat and started home. + +All afternoon she worried about it. Perhaps it was because she was so +tired that she was especially sensitive about the letter being found by +some one else. If that some one else should read the contents, she felt +it would mean nothing lees than disgrace. + +"You look exhausted, child," said Anne's sister Mary, who was weary +herself, having worked hard all day on a pile of spring sewing Mrs. Gray +had ordered. "Why don't you take a walk and not try to do any studying +this afternoon?" + +"I think I will, sister," replied Anne; and, pinning on her hat, she +left her small cottage and started toward High School Street. + +Turning mechanically into the broad avenue shaded by elm trees, she +strolled along, half-dreaming and half-waking. She was so weary she felt +she might lie down and sleep for twenty years, and like Rip Van Winkle +awaken old and gray. It was foolish of her to be so uneasy about that +letter. + +Was it a premonition that compelled her to return to the schoolroom and +search again for it? Perhaps the old janitress might have found it. The +young girl quickened her pace. She must hurry if she wanted to catch the +old woman before the latter closed up for the night. + +Anne had not thought of looking behind. Her mind, so trained to +concentration, was now bent only upon one object. But would it have +swerved her from her present purpose, even if she had noticed Miss Leece +following her? + +The High School was still open, although Anne could not find the +janitress. Perhaps the old woman was asleep somewhere. On several +occasions she had been found sleeping soundly when she should have been +brushing out schoolrooms and mopping floors. Anne was determined, +however, to give one good, thorough search for her letter and she +accordingly mounted to the floor where the freshmen class room was +situated and entered the large, empty recitation room. + +She looked long and carefully under the desks and benches, even going +through the scrap baskets, but there was no sign of the letter. Then she +went into some of the other class rooms, but her search was unrewarded. + +"What's the use?" she asked herself at last. "It's sure to have been +destroyed. I think I'll just have to give it up, and try to rest a +little before to-morrow, or I'll never be fit to try for that prize." + +As she started down the broad staircase she heard the rasping voice of +Miss Leece mingling with the principal's cool, well-modulated tones. +Anne paused a moment, watching the two figures below. Miss Leece looked +up and caught her eye, but Miss Thompson was engaged in unlocking the +door, and did not see the little figure lingering on the steps. + +Just as the door opened, another door slammed violently, and the next +moment Anne heard footsteps running along a small passage that crossed +the corridor. Leaning far over the rail she caught a glimpse of a +figure. It was--no, Anne could not be certain of the identity. But it +looked like--well, never mind whom. Anne meant to keep the secret, for +it was evident that the person had been bent on mischief, else why slam +a door and run at the approach of Miss Thompson! And now Anne heard the +door open again and Miss Thompson's voice calling: "Who is there?" But +there was no answer. Deep down in Anne's heart there crept a vague +suspicion. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DANGER AHEAD + + + MY DEAR GRACE: + + Will you come and see me at my office after school to-day? I have + something very important to discuss. + + Sincerely yours, + + EMMA THOMPSON. + +Grace read the letter over twice. What in the world could Miss Thompson +want to discuss with her? Perhaps she had not been doing well enough in +her classes. But Grace rejected the idea. She always kept up to the +average, and it was only those who fell below who ever received warnings +from the principal. + +Perhaps it was--well, never mind, she would wait and see. As soon as +school was over she hurried to the principal's office and tapped on the +door. + +"Well, Grace, my dear," said Miss Thompson, as the young girl entered, +"did my note frighten you?" + +"No, indeed," replied Grace; "I had a clear conscience and I don't +expect to fail in exams to-morrow, although I am not so studious as Anne +Pierson or Miriam." + +"Of course you don't expect to fail, my dear," said the principal, +kindly, for, of all the girls in the school, Grace was her favorite. "I +didn't bring you here to scold you. But I have something very serious to +talk about. While I have threshed out the matter with myself, I believe +I might do better by talking things over with one of my safest and +sanest freshman." + +"Why, what has happened, Miss Thompson?" asked Grace curiously. + +"First, let me ask you a few questions," answered the principal. "Tell +me something about the competition for the freshman prize. Which girl do +you think has the best chance of winning it?" + +"I know whom I want to win," replied Grace innocently. "Anne, of course, +and I believe she will, too. While Miriam is more showy in her +recitations, Anne is much more thorough, and she studies a great deal +harder. The fact is, I am afraid she is making herself ill with +studying. But she is determined to win not the little prize, but the big +one, which is more than even Anne can do, I believe. Whoever heard of +having every examination paper perfect?" + +"It has not been done so far," admitted Miss Thompson, "but why is Anne +so bent on winning the prize? Is it all for glory, do you think?" + +"Anne is very poor, you know, Miss Thompson," said Grace simply. + +"So she is," replied the principal, "and the child needs the money." +Miss Thompson paused a moment, looking thoughtfully out over the smooth +green lawn. "Grace," she resumed, finally, "I have something very +serious to tell you. Two days ago I made a discovery that may change the +fate of the freshman prize this year considerably. You know I keep the +examination questions here in my desk. That is, the originals. A copy is +now at the printers. So, you see, I have only one set of originals. I +had occasion to come back to my office quite late the day of the +discovery, and, as I let myself in at that door," she pointed to the +door leading into the corridor, "what I thought was a gust of wind +slammed the door leading into the next room which I usually keep shut +and bolted on this side. My desk was open and the freshman examination +papers undoubtedly had been tampered with. I could tell because they are +usually the last in the pile and they were all on top and quite +disarranged. Whoever had been here, had heard my key in the lock, and +without waiting to close the desk had fled by the other door. I feel +deeply grieved over this matter. I should never think of suspecting any +of my fine girls of such trickery; and, yet, who else could it have been +except one of the freshmen?" + +"Oh, Miss Thompson, this is dreadful," exclaimed Grace, distressed and +shocked over the story. "I don't believe there's a girl in the class who +would have done it. There must be some mistake." + +"That is why I sent for you, Grace," said the principal. "I want your +advice. Now Anne----" + +"_Anne?_" interrupted Grace horrified. "You don't suppose, for a minute, +Anne would be dishonest? Never! I won't stay and listen any longer," and +she rushed to the door. + +Miss Thompson followed, placing a detaining hand on her arm. + +"You are right, Grace, to be loyal to your friend," said the principal, +always just and kind under the most trying circumstances; "but Anne, I +must tell you, is under suspicion." + +"Why?" demanded Grace, almost sobbing in her anger and unhappiness. + +"The afternoon of the discovery Anne was here long after school hours. +She was seen by two people wandering about the building." + +"Who were the people?" demanded Grace incredulously. + +"The janitress, who saw her from the window of another room, and--Miss +Leece." + +"I thought so," exclaimed Grace, with a note of triumph in her voice. +"It is Miss Leece, is it, who is trumping up all this business? I tell +you, I don't believe a word of it, Miss Thompson. Anne would no more do +such a thing than I would, and I am going to fight to save her if it +takes my last breath. Do you know how hard she has worked to win this +prize? Simply all the time. I believe, if she knew what you suspected, +it would kill her. I believe it's some tale Miss Leece has made up. And +besides, why shouldn't she have come back to the building? Perhaps she +forgot a book or something. I'd just like to know what Miss Leece was +doing here at that time of day." + +"She came here to meet me on business," answered Miss Thompson. "That is +why she knows something of the unfortunate affair. She was with me when +I found my desk had been broken open and the papers disturbed. She also +heard the other door slam and it was then she told me of having seen +Anne wandering about the building for which, as you say, there might +have been a dozen reasons; I believe, as firmly as you do, that the +child is incapable of cheating, and I intend to leave no stone unturned +to get at the truth. But there is still another fact against Anne that +is very black." The speaker took from a drawer a slip of folded paper. +"This was found in the building," she continued, "and since it was an +open letter, without address and under the circumstances, so important, +it was read and the contents reported to me. I have since read it myself +and I now ask you to read it." + + DEAR ANNE: + + I must have one hundred dollars at once, or go somewhere for a long + time. I foolishly signed a friend's name to a slip of paper. I + didn't know he would be so hard, but he threatens to prosecute + unless I pay up before the end of next week. I know you have rich + friends. I have been hearing of your successes. Perhaps the old + lady, Mrs. G., will oblige you. I trust to your good sense to see + that the hundred must be forthcoming, or it will mean disgrace for + us all. + + Your father, + + J. P. + +Grace limply held the letter in one hand. + +"Oh, poor, poor Anne!" she groaned, wiping away the tears that had +welled up into her eyes and were running down her cheeks. + +"I feel just as you do, my child," went on Miss Thompson. "I am deeply, +bitterly sorry for this unfortunate child. But you will agree with me +that she has had a very strong motive for winning the prize." + +Grace nodded mutely. + +"By the way," she asked presently, when she had calmed herself, "who was +it that found the letter?" + +"Miss Leece again," replied Miss Thompson, hesitatingly. + +"There, you see," exclaimed Grace excitedly, "that woman is determined +to ruin Anne before the close of school. I tell you, I won't believe +Anne is guilty. It has taken just this much to make me certain that she +is entirely innocent. Is there no clue whatever to the person who copied +the papers?" + +"Yes," answered Miss Thompson, "there is. This had been shoved back in +the desk under the papers. It does not belong to me, and it could not +have gotten into my desk by any other means. I suppose, in her hurry to +copy the freshmen sheets, whoever she was, laid it down and forgot it." + +Miss Thompson produced a crumpled pocket handkerchief. Grace took it and +held it to the light. There were no marks or initials upon it whatever; +it was simply a cambric handkerchief with a narrow hemstitched border, a +handkerchief such as anyone might use. It was neither large nor small, +neither of thin nor thick material. + +"There's nothing on it," said Grace. "I suppose the stores sell hundreds +of these." + +"That's very true," answered the principal, "but I hoped you would be +familiar enough with your friends' handkerchiefs to recognize this one." + +"No," replied Grace, "I haven't the least idea whose it is. Wait a +moment," she added quickly, smelling the handkerchief; "there is a +perfume on it of some sort. Did you notice that?" + +"I did," replied Miss Thompson. "It was one of the first things I did +notice. I am very sensitive to perfumes; perhaps because I dislike them +on clothing. But I waited for you to find it out for yourself. In fact, +my dear, this will be the only means of trapping the person. Now, what +perfume is it, and who in the class uses it? I am not familiar with +perfumes, but I thought perhaps you were. And now, I will tell you that +this is the reason I sent for you. The reason I showed you this letter, +which has only been seen by one other person besides myself--Miss Leece, +of course. I do not wish to tell anyone else about this matter. I do not +care to put the subject before the School Board for discussion. I do not +believe, any more than you, that Anne is guilty and I have taken you +into my confidence because I believe you are the one person in the world +who can help me in this predicament. Miss Leece, of course, intends to +do everything in her power to bring the child 'to justice.' But, until I +give her permission, she will hardly dare to speak of it. So far, we +three are the only people who know what has happened. In the meantime, I +shall turn over this handkerchief to you. Keep it carefully and be very +guarded about what you do and say. You are a young girl," she continued, +taking Grace's hand and gazing full into her honest eyes, "but I have a +great respect for your judgment and discretion, and that is the reason I +am asking for your help in this very delicate matter. You may rest +assured that I shall do nothing whatever; at least, not until after +examinations. I have an idea that we may get a clue through them. We +must save Anne, whose life would be utterly ruined by such a false +accusation as this. And I feel convinced that it is false." + +"Well, I can tell you one thing, Miss Thompson," returned Grace as she +opened the door, "and that is Anne Pierson never used any perfume in her +life. She hasn't any to use." + +Miss Thompson nodded and smiled. + +"I was sure of that," she called. + +Grace had little time to lose. The examinations, which took place the +next day and the day after, would undoubtedly bring matters to a crisis. + +She took the handkerchief from her pocket and sniffed at it. Neither was +she familiar with perfumes, and this odor was new to her. Suddenly an +idea occurred to her and she made straight for the nearest drugstore. + +"Mr. Gleason," she demanded of the clerk in charge, "could you tell me +what perfume this is?" + +The druggist sniffed thoughtfully at the handkerchief for some seconds. + +"It's sandalwood," he said at last. "We received some in stock a week +ago." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT + + +How examinations loom up on the fatal day, like monstrous obstacles that +must be overcome! How the hours slip past, with nothing to break the +stillness save the scratching of pens on foolscap paper, while each +student draws upon the supply of knowledge stored up during the winter +months! + +A fly buzzes on the window pane; a teacher rises, tiptoes slowly about +the room and sits down again. She can do nothing, now, but keep watch on +the pairs of drooping shoulders and the tired, flushed faces. + +Anne was so absorbed in her work that she was oblivious to everything +about her. Her pen moved with precision over her paper and her copy was +neat and clear. + +It was the second day of the examinations and she felt that her fate +would soon be decided; but she was too tired now to worry. She worked on +quietly and steadily. She had almost finished, and, as she answered one +question after another, she was more and more buoyed up by the +conviction that she would win the prize. + +Miriam had finished her work. Her impatient nature would not permit her +to do anything slowly. As she gave a last flourishing stroke with her +pen, she leaned back, looking about her. She smiled contemptuously as +her eyes rested on Anne. + +"What a shabby, slow little creature she is!" Miriam murmured. "It would +be a disgrace for a girl like me to be beaten by her. I'll never endure +it in the world." + +It was not long before the girls had all finished and turned in their +papers to the teacher in charge. + +"Oh, glorious happy day!" cried Nora, as she sped joyously down the +corridor. "Examinations are over, and now for a good time!" + +A dozen or more of the freshman class had been invited to Miriam's to a +tea to celebrate the close of school. Anne, of course, was not invited; +but Grace and her friends had received invitations and promptly accepted +them. + +Grace had taken Nora and Jessica into her confidence to some extent. She +needed their help, but she had not mentioned the letter from Anne's +father. The three girls met early by appointment, at the Harlowe house, +to discuss matters before going to Miriam Nesbit's. + +"Here's a list of the people in Oakdale," said Nora, "who have bought +sandalwood perfume. I have been to four drug stores and all the dry +goods stores." + +Grace took the list and read: + +"'Mrs. I. Rosenfield, Miss Alice Gwendolyn Jones, Mr. Percival Butz, +etc.' Good heavens!" she cried, "there's not a single person on this +list who has anything to do with Oakdale High School. Mr. Percival +Butz," she laughed. "The idea of a man buying perfume. Really, girls," +she added in despair, "we've been wasting our time. I can't see that any +of us has made the least headway. I have called on almost every freshman +in the class and inquired what her favorite perfume is, and I know some +of them thought I was silly. Anyway, not one of them claimed to use +sandalwood." + +"The stupidest girls would be the ones who would be most likely to want +to copy the papers," observed Jessica, "but those girls are much too +nice to believe such horrid things about. I went to see Ellen Wiggins +and Sallie Moore yesterday afternoon. Neither of them use perfume. +Sallie Moore told me she had an orris root sachet that had almost lost +its scent. Which reminds me," she continued, "why couldn't this +handkerchief have been scented by some other means than just perfume. +Perhaps it was put into a mouchoir case with sandalwood powder." + +"Why, of course," exclaimed Grace. "Jessica, I never thought of asking +who had been buying sachet powders. You have a great head." + +"Must I go back and ask all those storekeepers for more lists?" demanded +Nora. + +"No, child," replied Grace. "Just give us time to think first." + +"It's time to go to Miriam's anyhow," observed Jessica. "Perhaps some +sort of inspiration will come on the way," and the three girls set out +for the tea party. + +As they paused to admire the beautiful flower beds on the Nesbit lawn +Jessica said: + +"Have you inquired Miriam's favorite perfume?" + +"Oh, yes," answered Grace. "She said she liked them all and had no +favorites." + +"Why are all these strange young women breaking into my premises?" +demanded a voice behind them. + +"David Nesbit," cried Grace, "where have you been all this time? You +never seem to find the time to come near your old friends any more." + +"I have been busy, girls," replied David. "Never busier in my life. But +I believe I've struck it at last. It will not be long, now, before I +turn into a bird." + +"Oh, _do_ show it to us!" cried Grace. "Where is the model?" + +"In my workroom," he replied. "If you are very good, and will promise to +say nothing to the others, I'll give you a peep this afternoon. When I +signal to you from the music room, by sounding three bass notes on the +piano, start upstairs and I'll meet you on the landing. You may ask why +this mystery? But I know girls, and if all those chattering freshmen are +allowed to come into my room they are sure to knock over some of the +models, or break something, and I couldn't stand it." + +The three girls entered the large and imposing drawing room where +Miriam, in a beautiful pink mulle, trimmed with filmy lace insertions, +received them with unusual cordiality; and presently they all repaired +to the dining room where ice cream and strawberries were served with +little cakes with pink icing. It was, as a matter of fact, a pink tea, +and Miriam's cheeks were as pink as her decorations. She looked +particularly excited and happy. Each of the three chums had just +swallowed her last and largest strawberry, saved as a final relish, when +three low notes sounded softly on the piano in the adjoining room. + +In the hum of conversation nobody had noticed David's signal except +Grace and her friends, who strolled into the music room where he was +waiting. + +"Come along," he said, leading the way up the back stairs, "and please +consider this as a special mark of attention from the great inventor who +has never yet made anything go. Where's Anne?" + +"I suppose she is resting," answered Grace. "She had just about reached +the end of her strength to-day." + +"But she'll win the prize, I hope," continued David. + +"We are all sure of it," answered Grace, in emphatic tones. + +David opened the door into his own private quarters, which consisted of +a large workroom with a laboratory attached, where he had once worked on +chemical experiments until he had become interested in flying machines. + +"Here they are," he exclaimed, walking over to a large table in the +workroom. "I have three models, you see, and each one works a little +better than the other. This last one, I believe, will do the business." +He pointed to a graceful little aeroplane made of bamboo sticks and rice +paper. + +"Isn't it sweet?" exclaimed the girls in unison. + +"And it has a name, too," continued David unabashed. "I've called her +'Anne,' because, while she's such a small, unpretentious-looking little +craft, she can soar to such heights. There is not room here to show you +how good she is, but we'll have another gymnasium seance some day soon, +Anne must come and see her namesake." + +"There!" cried Grace in a tone of annoyance. "I have jagged a big place +in my dress, David Nesbit, on a nail in your table. Why do you have such +things about to destroy people's clothes?" + +"But nobody who wears dresses ever comes in here," protested David, +"except mother and the maid, and they know better than to come near this +table. Can't I do something? Glue it together or mend it with a piece of +sticking plaster?" + +"No, indeed," answered the girl. "Just get me a needle and thread, +please. I don't want to go downstairs with such a hideous rent in my +dress." + +"Why, of course," assented David. "Why didn't I think of it sooner? +Mother will fix you up," and he opened the door into the hall and called +"mother!" + +Mrs. Nesbit came hurrying in. She never waited to be called twice by her +son, who was the apple of her eye. + +"My dear Grace," she exclaimed when she saw the tear, "this is too bad. +Come right into my room and I'll mend it for you." + +So it happened that Grace was presently seated in an armchair in Mrs. +Nesbit's bedroom, while the good-natured woman whipped together the +jagged edges of the rent. + +"What a beautiful box you have, Mrs. Nesbit," said Grace, pointing to a +large carved box on the dressing table. + +"Do you like it?" replied the other. "I'm fond of it, probably because I +was so happy when I bought it years ago while traveling abroad with my +husband. It smells as sweet as it did when it was new," she added, +placing the box in Grace's lap. + +Nora and Jessica, who had been hovering about the room, now came over to +see the sweet-scented box. How strangely familiar was that pungent +perfume which floated up to them. Where had they smelled it before? + +"It is made of carved sandalwood," continued Mrs. Nesbit, opening the +lid, "and I have always kept my handkerchiefs in it, you see----" + +"Mother!" called David's voice from the hall, and Mrs. Nesbit left the +room for a moment. + +"Sandalwood!" gasped Grace. + +Yes, it was the same perfume that now faintly scented the famous +handkerchief. + +There was a pile of handkerchiefs in the box. Grace lifted the top one +and sniffed at it. She examined the border carefully and the texture. + +"It looks like stealing," she whispered, "but I must have this +handkerchief. I'll return it afterwards," and she slipped the +handkerchief into her belt. + +Nora and Jessica had exchanged significant glances, while Nora's lips +had formed the words, "exactly like the other one." + +In the meantime Miss Thompson had been closeted with Anne Pierson for +half an hour in the principal's office. By special request she had +arranged to have Anne's examination papers looked over immediately and +sent to her. The papers were therefore the first to receive attention +from each teacher, and were then turned over to Miss Thompson, who +hurried with them into her office and locked the door behind her. + +"It would be a pity if they were too perfect," she said to herself. +"That would tell very much against Anne, I fear." + +But, as her eyes ran over them, she shook her head dubiously. They were +marvels of neatness and not one cross or written comment marred their +perfection. At the foot of each sheet the word "perfect" had been +written. Some of the teachers had even added notes stating that no +errors of any sort had been found, while one professor had paid Anne the +very high compliment of stating that the perfection of her examination +papers had not been a surprise. Never in that teacher's experience had +he taught a more brilliant pupil. Miss Thompson looked with interest at +the algebra papers. If this had not come up, she thought, Miss Leece +would certainly have managed to find a flaw somewhere, even if she had +had to invent one. But under the circumstances, it was more to that wily +woman's purpose to give Anne her due. For Miss Leece knew that a perfect +examination paper would tell more against the young girl than for her. + +It was after this that Miss Thompson had her talk with Anne, a very +kindly, interested talk, in which the young girl's prospects, her work +and health had all come under consideration. And then in the gentlest +possible way Miss Thompson had produced the letter. + +"Is this yours, Anne?" she asked. + +Anne started violently. + +"O Miss Thompson," she cried, making a great effort to keep back her +tears, "where did you find it? I spent one entire afternoon here looking +for it. It was the very day you and Miss Leece were here." + +"Oh, you saw us then," replied the principal. "And where were you?" + +"I was outside on the steps," replied Anne. "Didn't Miss Leece mention +it? She looked up and saw me just as you unlocked the door. Then the +other door slammed and some one hurried down the passage. I saw her, +too, but----" + +"But what, Anne?" asked the principal slowly. + +"But I am not sure who it was." + +"Have you an idea?" + +"I could only guess from the outline of her figure," replied Anne. "And +it wouldn't be fair to tell her name unless I had seen her plainly. It +might have been some one else." + +Anne had a suspicion that something had happened, and that Miss Thompson +had brought her here to find out what she knew. But she never dreamed +that she herself was under suspicion. + +One thing had struck Miss Thompson very forcibly. Miss Leece had known +all along that Anne was on the staircase at the very moment the other +person was slamming the door in their faces. And yet Miss Leece was +determined to condemn Anne to the faculty that very night. She had said +so in as many words, in defiance of the principal's arguments against +such a course. + +"Well, good night, my child," she said at last, giving Anne a motherly +kiss. "You have done a good winter's work and I am proud of you." + +Anne hurried away, clutching the letter in her hand. She wondered if +Miss Thompson had read it, and somehow she didn't mind so much after +all. The principal seemed to her the very embodiment of all that was +good and kind. + +Miss Thompson was destined to have several callers that afternoon. In a +few moments Grace hurried in, breathless and excited. + +"Look at that, Miss Thompson," cried the girl, thrusting a handkerchief +into her hand. "Look at it and smell it." + +"Well," replied the principal, "I've seen it before and smelled it +before, too. Only you've had it washed and ironed, haven't you!" + +Grace took a crumpled handkerchief from her pocket. + +"Here's the real one," she cried triumphantly. + +The two handkerchiefs were certainly identical in shape and material and +both were perfumed with sandalwood. + +"Where did you get this one?" demanded the principal. + +"From Mrs. Nesbit's sandalwood handkerchief box," whispered Grace +slowly. + +"You think it was then----?" + +"Yes," replied Grace. "I'm certain of it. It's as plain as daylight. She +borrowed her mother's handkerchief." + +"Dear, dear!" exclaimed the principal. "How very foolish! How very +unnecessary! And all because she couldn't endure to be beaten! Do you +know," she continued presently, "that Miss Leece intends to denounce +Anne before the faculty to-night? My authority can't stop her, and I +don't believe the similarity of these two handkerchiefs will either." + +"Miss Thompson," exclaimed Grace, "I tell you I know perfectly well that +woman is going to try to ruin Anne for the sake of Miriam. I have known +it for months. Why, at Mrs. Gray's Christmas party she did a thing that +is too outrageous to believe," and here Grace opened a bundle she had +brought with her and produced the marionette of James Pierson. + +Miss Thompson was shocked at the recital of the story. She, too, +recognized the green silk tie, although she had no recollection of +Miriam's red velveteen suit, a piece of which formed the waistcoat. But +there was something about that green silk which stuck in the memory. +Probably because it was so ugly, having a semi-invisible yellow line +running through it. + +"Yes," she said, "I remember it very well. It was the trimming on a +blouse Miss Leece wore last autumn. I do not believe anyone could forget +such a hideous piece of material." + +Miss Thompson paused a moment and considered. + +"My dear," she continued presently, "I believe this is all I shall need +to confront Miss Leece with. Your bringing it to me at this moment shows +most excellent judgment. It may prevent a painful scandal in the school, +as well as saving Anne from disgrace. As for the two handkerchiefs, the +evidence is too slight to make any open accusations; but at any rate you +may leave both with me. I may need them in my interview with Miss Leece. +I may as well tell you I am anticipating a pretty stiff battle with her. +I don't believe I should have won with only the handkerchiefs." + +"Oh, I hope we can save Anne, Miss Thompson," cried Grace. + +"I earnestly hope so, too," replied the principal. "It would be too +heart breaking to have the child go down under this false accusation; +and aside from that, such scandals are bad for the school and I would +rather deal with them privately than have them made public. But run +along now, dear. You have done nobly and deserve a prize yourself." + +A knock was heard, and as Grace departed through one door Miss Leece +opened the other. + +"If Miss Thompson only wins this battle!" the young girl exclaimed to +herself. "I want to believe she will, but I know that terrible Miss +Leece will make a tremendous fight." + +She joined her friends, who were waiting for her outside. + +"Girls," she cried, "pray for Anne to-night!" + +Nora, good little Catholic that she was, went straight to her church and +burned two candles before the altar of the Holy Virgin, while she +offered up a humble petition for Anne's deliverance; while Grace and +Jessica, in their own bedrooms, that night prayed reverently and +earnestly that Anne might be saved from her enemies. Thus were Anne's +three devoted friends working and praying for her while she slept the +sleep of exhaustion. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE FRESHMAN PRIZE + + +Graduation night in Oakdale High School was one of the great social +events of the year. The floor and galleries of Assembly Hall were +invariably packed with an enthusiastic audience; for the two schools +united at the ceremony of graduation and the senior class formed a mixed +company on the stage. + +Most of the pupils attended commencement and the freshman class of the +Girls' High School was always there in full to witness the triumph of +one of its members, who was called forth from the audience to receive +the usual freshman prize of twenty-five dollars. + +The identity of the winner was always kept a secret until the great +night, when she was summoned from the audience to the stage and +presented with the money before the entire assembly. + +The readers can imagine, therefore, the uncertainty and trepidation that +fluttered in the hearts of our four girls as they sat together in the +center of the great hall. Anne had passed through a dozen stages of +emotions, both hopeful and otherwise, and had finally steeled herself to +give up all thought of winning either of the prizes. + +Miriam, confident and handsome, sat near them. She wore a beautiful +white dress trimmed with lace, and her thick, black plaits were twisted +around her head like a coronet. + +"She's all dressed up to step up on the stage and get her twenty-five," +whispered Nora to Jessica. + +"Perhaps she already knows she's going to get it," answered Jessica +doubtfully. "Perhaps Miss Leece has told her." + +"If Miss Leece knew it, she would certainly have told her," answered +Grace, leaning over so that Anne could not hear her; "but I feel sure +Miss Thompson has managed it somehow, although I kept hoping all day she +would send me a note or something. It may be she hated to tell me the +bad news." + +Hippy Wingate and Reddy Brooks came down the aisle in immaculate attire. +David followed behind, pale and silent. + +Did David suspect anything about his sister? Grace wondered. Certainly +he had directly or indirectly been the means of balking every one of +Miriam's schemes for injuring Anne. Perhaps Miriam had told him she was +to win the prize, and he was thinking of Anne's disappointment. All +three boys paused when they saw their friends of the Christmas house +party. Hippy leaned over to say: + +"Hello, girls! Can you guess what has brought us here to-night, all +dressed up in our best?" + +"Not unless it was to show off your clothes," replied Nora. + +"To see Miss Anne Pierson win the freshman prize. Simply that, and +nothing more." + +"But I don't expect to win it, Hippy," protested Anne. + +"If you don't, you aren't the girl we took you for, then," replied +Hippy. "I heard from a young person in your class that you hadn't made a +mistake in six months." + +"But just as many people think Miriam will win," said Anne. "Look at all +the people congratulating her already." + +Surely enough Miriam's friends had rallied around her at the final test, +and numbers of girls and boys and grown people, too, were already +prophesying victory. + +Just then the audience composed itself, for the exercises were about to +begin. Soft music was heard and the graduates filed out and took their +seats. + +Immediately they were seated, Mrs. Gray, in a beautiful lavender silk +gown and a white lace bonnet trimmed with violets, swept down the aisle, +bowing and smiling right and left. + +"Girls!" cried Grace delightedly, looking over her shoulder, "guess who +is with our precious little Mrs. Gray?" + +"Tom Gray!" cried the others in unison, just as Tom Gray himself +appeared opposite them and waved his hat, regardless of the many eyes +fastened upon him, for Mrs. Gray was an important personage not only at +these annual assemblages, but in Oakdale itself, of which she had always +been a most generous and loyal citizen. + +Mrs. Gray nodded cordially when she saw the girls, but shook her head +over Anne's pale, drawn little face. + +As the ceremonies proceeded after the opening prayer, Anne felt herself +drifting further and further away. She was a little boat on a troubled, +restless sea, with the noise of the waves in her head, and only +occasionally did she hear some one's voice reading a graduating essay or +making a speech--she couldn't tell which. She remembered there was a +piano solo, very loud and crashing, it seemed to her, and there was a +tremendous humming sound. The sea was growing very rough, she thought. A +storm was brewing somewhere. Then the wind died down again, there was a +complete and utter silence and she seemed to be entirely alone. + +"I have great pleasure in announcing," she dimly heard a voice say, +"that the annual freshman prize, so generously donated always by Mrs. +Gray, is awarded this year to one of the most brilliant and remarkable +pupils who has ever studied in Oakdale High School. My language, in this +instance, may appear to be rather extravagant, but the pupil, who has +been under the eye of the faculty for many months because of her most +excellent standing, has achieved a unique success in the history of the +school. I may say that she has turned in a set of examination papers +absolutely perfect in every detail, and it is with real delight I +announce that she has won not only the usual smaller prize of +twenty-five dollars, but the premium always offered at the same time, +but never before won by any pupil of this school, of one hundred +dollars, for a flawless examination. I would, therefore, ask Miss Anne +Pierson to come to the platform, that I may have the honor of delivering +both prizes to her." + +Such a shout as arose after this remarkable speech had never before been +heard at a high school graduation. The freshman class was fairly mad +with joy, while Hippy and Reddy yelled themselves hoarse. + +"Anne!" cried Grace. "Wake up, Anne! Are you asleep, child? Go up to the +platform. Miss Thompson is waiting for you." + +Tears of joy and relief were rolling down Grace's cheeks as she urged +Anne to rise from her seat. + +Anne stood up, half dazed, still wondering what it was all about, and +made her way through a sea of faces to the platform. + +"Hurrah!" roared the pupils of the High School in one voice. + +"Hi-hi-hi! Hi-hi-hi! Oakdale, Oakdale, HIGH SCHOOL!" + +This was an honor usually accorded only to football and baseball heroes. + +When Anne reached the platform she appeared so small and plain, in her +simple white muslin frock, that people looked at her wonderingly. It was +not everyone in Oakdale who was familiar with the little, dark-haired +girl. + +"My dear," said Miss Thompson, very handsome and imposing in a gray silk +dress, "I am happy to be the one to hand you these two prizes. You have +worked hard and richly deserve them both. I am sure everyone in this +house to-night is glad that your winter's unceasing labors are crowned +with success, and I now recommend you to take a good rest, for such +prizes are only earned by earnest and hard application, and hard work +carries with it, sometimes, its own penalty." (She placed special +emphasis on these last words.) "You have indeed earned the right to a +happy vacation." + +Two bouquets were handed over the footlights at this point, one a +beautiful bunch of pink roses and the other of lilies of the valley. + +Mrs. Gray had sent the roses Grace felt sure. It was her custom always +to send such a bouquet to the one who carried off the prize. But who had +sent the lilies of the valley? + +"Very likely David," Grace said to herself, watching the boy's face as +Anne took the flowers from the usher. + +Had he known then that his sister had lost the prize, or was his faith +in Anne so great? + +But something had happened. + +Suddenly the waves, which for the last half hour had been roaring and +tossing about Anne, seemed to submerge her completely. She felt a horrid +sensation of sickness for a moment; and then down, down she sank to the +bottom of nothing, carrying her flowers and prizes with her. + +"She's fainted!" cried some one. "The poor, little, tired girl has +fainted!" + +A tall young graduate picked up the small, limp figure and carried her +off the stage as easily as if she had been a child. The closing +exercises were then resumed, the benediction pronounced and the audience +filed out somewhat silently. + +Grace and her friends hurried around behind the scenes, where they found +Mrs. Gray in the act of placing a smelling-salts bottle to Anne's +nostrils, while Tom Gray and David Nesbit were cooling her temples with +lumps of ice. "She is conscious at last!" exclaimed the old lady, as +Anne opened her eyes. "It was entirely too much excitement for this +delicate, worn-out child. Tom, order the carriage. I mean to take her +straight to my own house and nurse her myself. I am the only person in +this town who has time to give her all the care and attention she needs. +I feel like such a lazy, good-for-nothing old woman when I see all these +bright young people winning prizes and doing so many clever things." + +"How you do go on, Mrs. Gray," said David. "You know very well you are +the brightest, youngest and prettiest girl in Oakdale." + +Anne sat up at this moment, and looked into the faces of her best +friends leaning over her anxiously. + +"I thought the boat capsized just as I was about to win the race," she +said faintly. + +"The little boat did capsize, dear," answered Mrs. Gray gently, "but not +until after you had won the race. And now, if you are well enough to let +this strong nephew of mine carry you, we are going to take you right +home. Are all my Christmas children here?" she continued, looking about +her. Hippy and Reddy had joined the group just then. "Yes, here you are. +Tom and I can't take you all up in the carriage, but I want you to +follow us, if your parents and guardians have no objections. I have +arranged a little supper to celebrate Anne's victory. I am sorry she +can't come to her own party, but she may hear all about it afterwards +and the rest of you shall make merry for her." + +Not long after, six young people strolled up Chapel Hill in the +moonlight, talking gayly of the happy days they had spent together with +Mrs. Gray; for Richards, the burglar, seemed now a sort of joke to them, +and even the terrible recollection of the wolves was softened by time, +and they could only laugh at poor Hippy's plight when his breath gave +out and his legs refused their office. + +"Oh, well," exclaimed Hippy, pretending to be much offended, "it is a +very good idea to remember only the funny things and forget the +dangerous ones, when all's said and done. But if I'd have had a stroke +of apoplexy just as that young lady wolf began to lick my heels, you +wouldn't have been so merry over the recollection." + +"Well," retorted Nora, "we would have been just about going into half +mourning, by now, and that's always a cheerful thought." + +"Grace," whispered Jessica, taking advantage of the talk of the others +not to be overheard, "did you notice Miriam when Miss Thompson began her +speech?" + +"No," answered Grace, "I was too intent upon Anne to look at Miriam. +Why?" + +"Well," continued Jessica, "you remember that Miss Thompson mentioned no +names until almost the very end of the speech!" + +"Yes," answered the other; "I remember it particularly, because I kept +wishing she would hurry and get to the point." + +"Exactly," went on Jessica, "and Miriam thought she had won the prize." + +"How do you know, Jessica! How could you tell?" + +"Oh, in a hundred different ways. I could tell by the smile on her face +that she took every compliment to herself. Lots of people were watching +her, too, and I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her, because +she is one of those people who just can't stand losing. When Miss +Thompson reached the place where she was about to ask Anne to step up +and get the prize, Miriam half rose in her seat. Mrs. Nesbit pulled her +back in the nick of time. I honestly believe she would have reached the +stage before Anne did, if her mother hadn't stopped her. Hippy told me +they left before the benediction. I suppose Miriam was not equal to the +mortification." + +"I thought perhaps Miss Thompson would have mentioned her name as coming +second in the contest," said Grace. "She usually does, you know. But +there were good reasons, and plenty, why she shouldn't this time, I +suppose. And to think, Jessica, that Miriam need never have done that +dreadful thing. She would probably have passed second in the class +anyway, and copying the papers didn't help her one little bit." + +Mrs. Gray reported Anne to be much better. She had taken some nourishing +broth and gone to bed, and she was at that moment sleeping soundly. + +So there was no cause for anything but good cheer at the supper party. + +And here let us leave them around Mrs. Gray's hospitable table. For, is +it not better to say farewell rejoicing so that no shadows may darken +the memory we shall carry with us during the long months of separation? + +Before Oakdale High School welcomes her children back again, David will +sail abroad with his mother and sister; Grace and Anne will set off for +the country to visit Grace's grandmother; the others and their families +will scatter to various summer resorts, while Mrs. Gray will seek a cool +spot in the mountains. + +However, in the next volume, which will be entitled, "Grace +Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School; Or, the Record of the Girl +Chums in Work and Athletics," we shall again meet the four girls and +their friends. This book, the record of the girl chums in athletics, +tells of the exciting rivalries of the sophomore and junior basketball +teams, culminating in a final hard-fought battle. Again Grace Harlowe +distinguishes herself by her bravery and good judgment, and again Miriam +Nesbit will do her best to thwart her at every point. And we may learn +what Anne Pierson did with the prize money. + + +THE END. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S + +CATALOGUE OF + +The Best and Least Expensive Books for Real Boys and Girls + +Really good and new stories for boys and girls are not plentiful. Many +stories, too, are so highly improbable as to bring a grin of derision to +the young reader's face before he has gone far. The name of ALTEMUS is a +distinctive brand on the cover of a book, always ensuring the buyer of +having a book that is up-to-date and fine throughout. No buyer of an +ALTEMUS book is ever disappointed. + +Many are the claims made as to the inexpensiveness of books. Go into any +bookstore and ask for an Altemus book. Compare the price charged you for +Altemus books with the price demanded for other juvenile books. You will +at once discover that a given outlay of money will buy more of the +ALTEMUS books than of those published by other houses. + +Every dealer in books carries the ALTEMUS books. + +Sold by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price + +Henry Altemus Company + +1326-1336 Vine Street, Philadelphia + + + + +The Motor Boat Club Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The keynote of these books is manliness. The stories are wonderfully +entertaining, and they are at the same time sound and wholesome. No boy +will willingly lay down an unfinished book in this series. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OF THE KENNEBEC; + Or, The Secret of Smugglers' Island. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT NANTUCKET; + Or, The Mystery of the Dunstan Heir. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OFF LONG ISLAND; + Or, A Daring Marine Game at Racing Speed. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AND THE WIRELESS; + Or, The Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB IN FLORIDA; + Or, Laying the Ghost of Alligator Swamp. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT THE GOLDEN GATE; + Or, A Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB ON THE GREAT LAKES; + Or, The Flying Dutchman of the Big Fresh Water. + + + + +The Range and Grange Hustlers + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +Have you any idea of the excitements, the glories of life on great +ranches in the West? Any bright boy will "devour" the books of this +series, once he has made a start with the first volume. + + THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE RANCH; + Or, The Boy Shepherds of the Great Divide. + + THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS' GREATEST ROUND-UP; + Or, Pitting Their Wits Against a Packers' Combine. + + THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE PLAINS; + Or, Following the Steam Plows Across the Prairie. + + THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS AT CHICAGO; + Or, The Conspiracy of the Wheat Pit. + + + + +Submarine Boys Series + +By VICTOR G. DURHAM + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS ON DUTY; + Or, Life on a Diving Torpedo Boat. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS' TRIAL TRIP; + Or, "Making Good" as Young Experts. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE MIDDIES; + Or, The Prize Detail at Annapolis. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SPIES; + Or, Dodging the Sharks of the Deep. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS' LIGHTNING CRUISE; + Or, The Young Kings of the Deep. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG; + Or, Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SMUGGLERS; + Or, Breaking Up the New Jersey Customs Frauds. + + + + +The Square Dollar Boys Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + + THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS WAKE UP; + Or, Fighting the Trolley Franchise Steal. + + THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS SMASH THE RING; + Or, In the Lists Against the Crooked Land Deal. + + + + +The College Girls Series + +By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A.M. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S FIRST YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S SECOND YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S THIRD YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S FOURTH YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S RETURN TO OVERTON CAMPUS. + + + + +Dave Darrin Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + + DAVE DARRIN AT VERA CRUZ; + Or, Fighting With the U. S. Navy in Mexico. + + + + +Pony Rider Boys Series + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +These tales may be aptly described the best books for boys and girls. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ROCKIES; + Or, The Secret of the Lost Claim. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN TEXAS; + Or, The Veiled Riddle of the Plains. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA; + Or, The Mystery of the Old Custer Trail. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE OZARKS; + Or, The Secret of Ruby Mountain. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ALKALI; + Or, Finding a Key to the Desert Maze. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN NEW MEXICO; + Or, The End of the Silver Trail. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE GRAND CANYON; + Or, The Mystery of Bright Angel Gulch. + + + + +The Boys of Steel Series + +By JAMES R. MEARS + +Each book presents vivid picture of this great industry. Each story is +full of adventure and fascination. + + THE IRON BOYS IN THE MINES; + Or, Starting at the Bottom of the Shaft. + + THE IRON BOYS AS FOREMEN; + Or, Heading the Diamond Drill Shift + + THE IRON BOYS ON THE ORE BOATS; + Or, Roughing It on the Great Lakes. + + THE IRON BOYS IN THE STEEL MILLS; + Or, Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits. + + + + +The Madge Morton Books + +By AMY D. V. CHALMERS + + MADGE MORTON--CAPTAIN OF THE MERRY MAID. + + MADGE MORTON'S SECRET. + + MADGE MORTON'S TRUST. + + MADGE MORTON'S VICTORY. + + + + +West Point Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The principal characters in these narratives are manly, young Americans +whose doings will inspire all boy readers. + + DICK PRESCOTT'S FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT; + Or, Two Chums in the Cadet Gray. + + DICK PRESCOTT'S SECOND YEAR AT WEST POINT; + Or, Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life. + + DICK PRESCOTT'S THIRD YEAR AT WEST POINT; + Or, Standing Firm for Flag and Honor. + + DICK PRESCOTT'S FOURTH YEAR AT WEST POINT; + Or, Ready to Drop the Gray for Shoulder Straps. + + + + +Annapolis Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The Spirit of the new Navy is delightfully and truthfully depicted in +these volumes. + + DAVE DARRIN'S FIRST YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; + Or, Two Plebe Midshipmen at the U. S. Naval Academy. + + DAVE DARRIN'S SECOND YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; + Or, Two Midshipmen as Naval Academy "Youngsters." + + DAVE DARRIN'S THIRD YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; + Or, Leaders of the Second Class Midshipmen. + + DAVE DARRIN'S FOURTH YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; + Or, Headed for Graduation and the Big Cruise. + + + + +The Young Engineers Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The heroes of these stories are known to readers of the High School Boys +Series. In this new series Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton prove worthy of +all the traditions of Dick & Co. + + THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN COLORADO; + Or, At Railroad Building in Earnest. + + THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN ARIZONA; + Or, Laying Tracks on the "Man-Killer" Quicksand. + + THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN NEVADA; + Or, Seeking Fortune on the Turn of a Pick. + + THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN MEXICO; + Or, Fighting the Mine Swindlers. + + + + +Boys of the Army Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +These books breathe the life and spirit of the United States Army of +to-day, and the life, just as it is, is described by a master pen. + + UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS; + Or, Two Recruits in the United States Army. + + UNCLE SAM'S BOYS ON FIELD DUTY; + Or, Winning Corporal's Chevrons. + + UNCLE SAM'S BOYS AS SERGEANTS; + Or, Handling Their First Real Commands. + + UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE PHILIPPINES; + Or, Following the Flag Against the Moros. + + + + +Battleship Boys Series + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +These stories throb with the life of young Americans on to-day's huge +drab Dreadnaughts. + + THE BATTLESHIP BOYS AT SEA; + Or, Two Apprentices in Uncle Sam's Navy. + + THE BATTLESHIP BOYS FIRST STEP UPWARD; + Or, Winning Their Grades as Petty Officers. + + THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN FOREIGN SERVICE; + Or, Earning New Ratings in European Seas. + + THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN THE TROPICS; + Or, Upholding the American Flag in a Honduras Revolution. + + + + +The Meadow-Brook Girls Series + +By JANET ALDRIDGE + +Real live stories pulsing with the vibrant atmosphere of outdoor life. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS AFLOAT. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS IN THE HILLS. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS BY THE SEA. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ON THE TENNIS COURTS. + + + + +High School Boys Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +In this series of bright, crisp books a new note has been struck. Boys +of every age under sixty will be interested in these fascinating +volumes. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN; + Or, Dick & Co.'s First Year Pranks and Sports. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL PITCHER; + Or, Dick & Co. on the Gridley Diamond. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL LEFT END; + Or, Dick & Co. Grilling on the Football Gridiron. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM; + Or, Dick & Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard. + + + + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +This series of stories, based on the actual doings of grammar school +boys, comes near to the heart of the average American boy. + + THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS OF GRIDLEY; + Or, Dick & Co. Start Things Moving. + + THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS SNOWBOUND; + Or, Dick & Co. at Winter Sports. + + THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN THE WOODS; + Or, Dick & Co. Trail Fun and Knowledge. + + THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER ATHLETICS; + Or, Dick & Co. Make Their Fame Secure. + + + + +High School Boys' Vacation Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +"Give us more Dick Prescott books!" + +This has been the burden of the cry from young readers of the country +over. Almost numberless letters have been received by the publishers, +making this eager demand; for Dick Prescott, Dave Darrin, Tom Reade, and +the other members of Dick & Co. are the most popular high school boys in +the land. Boys will alternately thrill and chuckle when reading these +splendid narratives. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' CANOE CLUB; + Or, Dick & Co.'s Rivals on Lake Pleasant. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER CAMP; + Or, The Dick Prescott Six Training for the Gridley Eleven. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' FISHING TRIP; + Or, Dick & Co. in the Wilderness. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' TRAINING HIKE; + Or, Dick & Co. Making Themselves "Hard as Nails." + + + + +The Circus Boys Series + +By EDGAR B. P. DARLINGTON + +Mr. Darlington's books breathe forth every phase of an intensely +interesting and exciting life. + + THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE FLYING RINGS; + Or, Making the Start in the Sawdust Life. + + THE CIRCUS BOYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT; + Or, Winning New Laurels on the Tanbark. + + THE CIRCUS BOYS IN DIXIE LAND; + Or, Winning the Plaudits of the Sunny South. + + THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI; + Or, Afloat with the Big Show on the Big River. + + + + +The High School Girls Series + +By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. + +These breezy stories of the American High School Girl take the reader +fairly by storm. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshman Girls. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S SOPHOMORE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, The Record of the Girl Chums in Work and Athletics. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S JUNIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, Fast Friends in the Sororities. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S SENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, The Parting of the Ways. + + + + +The Automobile Girls Series + +By LAURA DENT CRANE + +No girl's library--no family book-case can be considered at all complete +unless it contains these sparkling twentieth-century books. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT NEWPORT; + Or, Watching the Summer Parade. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS IN THE BERKSHIRES; + Or, The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS ALONG THE HUDSON; + Or, Fighting Fire in Sleepy Hollow. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT CHICAGO; + Or, Winning Out Against Heavy Odds. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT PALM BEACH; + Or, Proving Their Mettle Under Southern Skies. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT WASHINGTON; + Or, Checkmating the Plots of Foreign Spies. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High +School, by Jessie Graham Flower + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR *** + +***** This file should be named 20472-8.txt or 20472-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/7/20472/ + +Produced by David Newman, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School + The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls + +Author: Jessie Graham Flower + +Release Date: January 28, 2007 [EBook #20472] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR *** + + + + +Produced by David Newman, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/i000.jpg"><img src="images/i000.jpg" alt=""/></a> +</div> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<h1>Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School</h1> + +<h3>OR</h3> + +<h2>The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls</h2> + +<h3>By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M.</h3> + +<h4>Author of Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School, Grace Harlowe's +Junior Year at High School, Etc.</h4> + + +<h4>PHILADELPHIA<br /> +HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY<br /> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1910</span></h4> + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="i001" id="i001"></a> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>A Troop of Black-Robed Figures Were Stealthily Approaching.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + + + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">The Accident of Friendships</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">The Sponsor of the Freshman Class</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">Mrs. Gray Engages a Secretary</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">The Black Monks of Asia</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">Anne Has a Secret</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">The Sophomore Ball</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">All Hallowe'en</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">Miss Leece</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">Thanksgiving Day</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">Grace Keeps Her Secret</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">Mrs. Gray's Adopted Daughters</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">Miriam Plans a Revenge</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">Christmas Holidays</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">A Midnight Alarm</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">Tom Gray</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">The Marionette Show</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">After the Ball</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">A Winter Picnic</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">Wolves!</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">The Gray Brothers</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. <span class="smcap">The Lost Letter</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. <span class="smcap">Danger Ahead</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. <span class="smcap">In the Thick of the Night</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. <span class="smcap">The Freshman Prize</span></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#HENRY_ALTEMUS_COMPANYS">Other Books Published by HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p><a href="#i001">A Troop of Black-Robed Figures Were Stealthily Approaching.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#i002">"Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?"</a></p> + +<p><a href="#i003">"Give That Back! It Is Not Yours."</a></p> + +<p><a href="#i004">Tom Gray Escapes from the Wolves</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE ACCIDENT OF FRIENDSHIPS</h3> + + +<p>"Who is the new girl in the class?" asked Miriam Nesbit, flashing her +black eyes from one schoolmate to another, as the girls assembled in the +locker room of the Oakdale High School.</p> + +<p>"Her name is Pierson; that is all I know about her," replied Nora +O'Malley, gazing at her pretty Irish face in the looking glass with +secret satisfaction. "She's very quiet and shy and looks as if she would +weep aloud when her turn comes to recite, but I'm sure she's all right," +she added good naturedly. For Nora had a charming, sunny nature, and +always saw the best if there was any best to see.</p> + +<p>"She is very bright," broke in Grace Harlowe decisively. "She went +through her Latin lesson without a mistake, which is certainly more than +I could do."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't like her," pouted Miriam. "I never trust those quiet +little things. And, besides, she is the worst-dressed girl in——"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" interrupted Jessica Bright, touching a finger to her lips. "Here +she is."</p> + +<p>A little, brown figure entered the room just as Miriam finished +speaking. But Jessica was too late with her warning. The young girl had, +without doubt, heard the cruel speech and her face flushed painfully as +she pinned on a shabby old hat, slipped her arms into a thin black +jacket and stepped out again without looking at the crowd of schoolmates +who watched her silently.</p> + +<p>"Miriam, I should think you'd learn to be more careful," exclaimed +hot-tempered Nora, her soft heart touched by the appealing little +stranger.</p> + +<p>"Well, what difference does it make?" replied Miriam. "If Miss Pierson +doesn't know already that she's the shabbiest girl in school, it's high +time she found it out. I have a suspicion her mother takes in washing or +something, and I mean to find it out right now. We can't invite a girl +like that to our class parties and entertainments. She would disgrace +us."</p> + +<p>"Miriam," said Grace quietly, "I believe we are all privileged to invite +whom we please to our homes. I intend to give a class tea next Saturday, +and I mean to follow Miss Pierson right now and ask her to help me +receive."</p> + +<p>The two girls looked into each other's faces for a moment without +speaking. Grace was quiet and contained, Miriam flushed and furiously +angry. They had been rival leaders always at the Grammar School, but the +rivalry had never come to open battle until now.</p> + +<p>Miriam was the first to drop her eyes. She did not reply, but from that +moment she was the sworn enemy of Grace Harlowe and her two friends, +Nora and Jessica.</p> + +<p>"Well, we had better hurry," said Jessica, trying to calm the troubled +scene. "Nobody knows exactly where Miss Pierson lives and she will be +out of sight before we can catch her."</p> + +<p>The three girls ran lightly out of the basement of the fine old building +that was the pride of Oakdale. It was large and imposing, built of +smooth, gray stone, with four huge columns supporting the front portico. +A hundred yards away stood the companion building, the Boys' High +School, exactly like the first in every respect except that a wing had +been added for a gymnasium which the girls had the privilege of using on +certain days. A wide campus surrounded the two buildings, shaded by elm +and oak trees. Certainly no other town in the state could boast of twin +high schools as fine as these; and especially did the situation appeal +to the people of Oakdale, for the ten level acres surrounding the two +buildings gave ample space for the various athletic fields, and the +doings of the high schools formed the very life of the place.</p> + +<p>But we must return to our three girls who were hurrying down the shady +street, followed in a more leisurely and dignified fashion by Miriam and +her friends. The shabby figure of the little stranger had just turned +the corner as the girls left the High School grounds.</p> + +<p>"Come on," cried Grace breathlessly, leading the way. Having once made +up her mind, she always pursued her point with a fine obstinacy +regardless of opinion.</p> + +<p>When they had come to the cross street they saw their quarry again, now +making her way slowly toward the street next the river. This was the +shabbiest street in Oakdale, though no one knew exactly why, since the +river bank might have been the chosen site for all the handsomest +buildings; but towns are as incorrigible as people, sometimes, and +insist on growing one way when they should grow another, without the +slightest regard for future appearances.</p> + +<p>And so, when little Miss Pierson stopped in front of one of the smallest +and meanest cottages on River Street, the girls knew she must, indeed, +be very poor. The house, small and forlorn, presented a sad countenance +streaked with tear stains from a leaky gutter. An uneven pavement led to +the front door, which bore a painted sign: "Plain Sewing."</p> + +<p>They paused irresolutely at the gate, and were taking counsel together +when Miriam Nesbit passed with her friends. She pointed at the door and +laughed.</p> + +<p>"Really, that girl's conduct is contemptible!" exclaimed Grace, giving +the wooden gate a vigorous push. "I simply won't tolerate her rudeness. +She is an unmitigated snob!" Grace knocked on the door rather sharply to +emphasize her feelings. It was opened almost immediately by Miss Pierson +herself, still in her hat and coat; and in her surprise and +embarrassment she almost shut the door in their faces. But Jessica's +gentle smile reassured her, and Grace, who was a born leader, took her +hand kindly and plunged at once into the subject.</p> + +<p>"You left school so quickly this afternoon, Miss Pierson, that I didn't +have a chance to see you. I have something very particular I want to ask +you to-day."</p> + +<p>"Won't you come in?" said the other, opening the door into the parlor, +which had an air of refinement about it in spite of its utter poorness.</p> + +<p>"Anne!" called a querulous voice down the passage.</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother, I'm coming," answered the girl, hurrying out of the room +with a frightened look in her eyes. In a few moments she was back again.</p> + +<p>"Please excuse me for leaving you," she said. "My mother is an invalid +and needs my sister or me with her constantly."</p> + +<p>"Her name is Anne, then," thought Grace. "I shall call her so at once +and break the ice."</p> + +<p>"Anne," she said aloud, "I think you know my friends, don't you—Jessica +Bright and Nora O'Malley? And I am Grace Harlowe."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," replied Anne, brightening at the friendly advances of the +others. "I remember your names from the roll call."</p> + +<p>"Of course," replied Grace. "But I think we should all be more to each +other than roll-call acquaintances, we freshmen. I am very ambitious for +our class. I want it to be the best that ever graduated from Oakdale +High School, and for that reason, I think all the girls in it should try +to be friends and work together to advance the cause. I'm going to start +the ball rolling by giving a tea to our class next Saturday afternoon. +Will you come and receive with Jessica and Nora and me?"</p> + +<p>Anne clasped her hands delightedly for a moment. Then her eyes filled +with tears and her lips trembled so that the girls were afraid she might +be going to cry. Tender-hearted Jessica turned her face away for fear of +showing too much sympathy.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry," said Anne at last, rather unsteadily, "but I am afraid I +can't accept your delightful invitation. I——"</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," said a voice at the door, "I didn't mean to intrude +on your visitors, Anne, but I couldn't help overhearing Miss Harlowe's +invitation."</p> + +<p>A small woman, much older than Anne, but very like her in face and +figure, appeared at the door.</p> + +<p>"This is my sister," said Anne, taking the other's hand affectionately.</p> + +<p>"Anne imagines she can't go, but she certainly can," went on the older +Miss Pierson, calmly, not in the least embarrassed by the strange young +girls. "Of course, she must go. I can arrange it easily."</p> + +<p>"But, Mary——" protested Anne.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, little sister," interrupted Mary, "it will be all right. +Miss Harlowe, what time must she be there?"</p> + +<p>"At four o'clock," answered Grace, rising to go, "and I am delighted +that she can come. Remember, Anne, I'm counting on you to pour the +lemonade. The other girls are going to help with the sandwiches and ice +cream. By the way," she added, as they went down the steps, "be sure and +come to the basketball meeting at the gym this afternoon."</p> + +<p>And so it was arranged that Anne Pierson, the shabbiest and poorest girl +in Oakdale High School, was to help receive at one of the prettiest and +most charming houses in town. Miriam Nesbit's rudeness was to bring +about a friendship between Anne Pierson and her three schoolmates that +lasted a lifetime.</p> + +<p>After the half-past two o'clock dinner, which was the universal custom +in Oakdale, the chums met again at the gymnasium in the Boys' High +School. Wednesdays and Saturdays were nicknamed "ladies' days" by the +High School boys, for on these afternoons the girls were permitted free +use of the gymnasium.</p> + +<p>The meeting to-day was not for gymnastic exercises, however, but an +important subject was to be discussed—the Freshman Basketball Team. +Also the captain of the team was to be elected.</p> + +<p>Other club meetings were in full force when the girls arrived, and the +great room vibrated with the hum of voices. The three freshmen, who knew +better than to interrupt sophomores and juniors at their pow-wows, made +their way quietly across the hall to the appointed place of rendezvous. +Of course, the entire Freshman Class did not assemble to discuss this +subject. Many members were not interested in basketball, except to look +on. Girls who were overstudious, and not physically strong, could not at +any rate play on the team, and therefore they seldom attended such +meetings. Jessica Bright was one of these, nevertheless, she followed +her two friends, who had always been foremost in athletics at the +Central Grammar School.</p> + +<p>The election of a captain was the first business of the meeting. That +over, the captain, after due and serious consultation with a friendly +cabinet, chose the players and their substitutes.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly Grace Harlowe had the coolest head in the class, and was the +most to be relied upon at critical moments; yet Miriam Nesbit exerted a +strange influence over her followers, who were almost her slaves. She +was the richest of all the girls and wore the costliest clothes. The +parties she gave, from time to time, in her mother's large and handsome +home were the talk of the place. She was also the cleverest girl in the +class, and had taken undisputed first place since she was a child. She +was not a close student, but seemed to absorb her lessons in half the +time that it took her friends to master them. Popular she certainly was, +or rather she was feared by her schoolmates. Her masterful, overpowering +spirit seemed to sweep everything before it.</p> + +<p>Grace Harlowe was quite as powerful in her way, but she had a noble, +unselfish disposition and was much beloved by her friends. She stood +well in her studies, but had never taken first place. Perhaps this was +because she had interested herself so much in outdoor sports that she +had not given enough time to study.</p> + +<p>Both girls were handsome—Miriam tall, dark and oriental-looking, with +flashing eyes and an imperious curve to her lips; Grace was also tall, +with wavy, chestnut hair, fine gray eyes, regular features, a full, +generous chin and cheeks glowing with health.</p> + +<p>Miriam Nesbit had already done a good deal of lobbying when the three +girls arrived on the scene. She wished to be elected captain of the team +at any cost; but Grace's adherents were holding off, quietly waiting for +her arrival.</p> + +<p>"Well, here you are at last!" said Marian Barber, who had been preparing +the ballots for the coming election.</p> + +<p>Marian was the busy girl of the class, and always made herself useful.</p> + +<p>"Is everyone here?" demanded Nora, scanning the crowd of freshmen with a +view to ascertaining what her chum's chances were.</p> + +<p>"All that intend coming," replied Miriam. "The softies stayed away, as +usual."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we wait five minutes," said Grace, looking at her watch, "and +then, if no one comes, we will cast the votes."</p> + +<p>"No, no," exclaimed Miriam impatiently. "I have an engagement and can't +spare any more time. I vote that we have the election at once, without +waiting another moment."</p> + +<p>"Very well," assented Grace. "I only suggested waiting because Anne +Pierson promised to come, and, of course, every girl in the class has a +right to vote at the class elections."</p> + +<p>"Anne Pierson?" cried Miriam, turning crimson with suppressed rage.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Grace calmly; "but, if everybody is agreeable, suppose +we go ahead."</p> + +<p>"Agreed!" cried the others and the ballots were cast.</p> + +<p>There was not much parliamentary practice in these class elections. Each +girl wrote the name of her choice on a slip of paper and dropped it in a +hat. Four of the girls then counted the votes, and the one receiving the +most slips was declared elected.</p> + +<p>The slips were dropped into the hat, amid the silence of the company. +Some of the sophomores and juniors, perched on parallel bars, watched +the scene with superior amusement, but no notice was taken of their +half-whispered jeers.</p> + +<p>The four girls then retired to count the votes.</p> + +<p>"It's a tie," announced Marian Barber, returning presently; "a tie +between Grace and Miriam. I wish some of the others would come and +settle the matter."</p> + +<p>"Here's some one," cried Nora. "Here's Anne Pierson. Let her cast the +decisive vote."</p> + +<p>Miriam's eyes blazed, but she held her peace. There was nothing to do +but submit with an uneasy grace. But who could doubt what the outcome +would be? However, she felt somewhat relieved when Grace said:</p> + +<p>"I think we should cast the votes over again, and, according to the +rules we made last year, Miriam and I should not vote, since the +election rests between us."</p> + +<p>The votes were cast again, Anne timidly dropping her slip in the hat +with the others, and, as might have been expected, Grace was elected +captain of the Freshman Basketball Team of the Oakdale High School.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE SPONSOR OF THE FRESHMAN CLASS</h3> + + +<p>"Grace," asked Mrs. Harlowe, the day of the famous freshman tea, "have +you asked some of the girls to help this afternoon? Bridget can attend +to the sandwiches, but some one ought to pour the lemonade and generally +look after the wants of the others."</p> + +<p>Grace was arranging a bowl of China asters on the piano in her mother's +charming drawing room. The shining mahogany chairs and tables reflected +the glow of the wood fire, for the day was chilly, and bright chintz +curtains at the windows gave a cheerful note of color to the scene.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, mother," replied Grace. "Nora and Jessica, of course, and Anne +Pierson."</p> + +<p>"And who is Anne Pierson?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know who she is," answered Grace. "I never knew her until she +entered the High School. But she is terribly poor. Her mother is an +invalid and her sister takes in plain sewing. I really asked her at +first because Miriam Nesbit was rude to her one day. But I'm beginning +to like her so much, now, that I'm glad I did it. She's as quiet as a +little mouse, but she is fast taking first place in class. I believe she +will outstrip Miriam before the end of the year. Don't ask me who she +is, though. I haven't the least idea, but she's all right, I can promise +you that. I'm sorry for her because she is poor. They live in a little +broken-down cottage on River Street."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Harlowe looked dubious. Grace was always bringing home stray people +and animals, and the mother was accustomed to her daughter's whims. The +young girl was familiar to all the ragamuffins of the town slum, and +when she sometimes found one gazing wistfully through the fence palings +of her mother's old-fashioned garden, she promptly led him around to the +kitchen, gave him a plate of food on the back steps, picked him a small +bouquet and sent him off half-dazed with her gracious and impetuous +kindness.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear, I shall be prepared for anything," exclaimed Mrs. +Harlowe; "but remember that feeding people on the back steps and asking +them into the parlor to meet your friends and acquaintances are two +different matters altogether."</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid, mother," replied Grace. "You will like Anne as well as +I do, once you get to know her. You must be careful not to frighten her +at first. She is the most timid little soul I ever met."</p> + +<p>Just then the front gate clicked and two girls strolled up the red-brick +walk, their light organdie dresses peeping out from the folds of their +long capes.</p> + +<p>"Here come Nora and Jessica," cried Grace excitedly, running to the door +to meet her friends.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Harlowe smiled. In spite of Grace's sixteen years she was still her +little girl.</p> + +<p>There was another click at the gate and Mrs. Harlowe saw through the +parlor window a little, dark figure, pathetically plain in its shabby +coat and hat.</p> + +<p>"Poor little soul," thought the good woman. "How I wish I could put her +into one of Grace's muslins, but, of course, I couldn't think of +offering to do such a thing."</p> + +<p>"Mother," said Grace some minutes later, when the girls had laid aside +their wraps and descended into the drawing room, "this is Anne Pierson, +our new friend."</p> + +<p>Anne Pierson, small and shrinking, was dressed in a queer, old-fashioned +black silk that had evidently been taken up and made short for the +occasion. Mrs. Harlowe's heart was touched to the quick and she bent and +kissed the young girl gently.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, my dear?" she said kindly. "I am always glad to meet +Grace's friends, and you are most welcome."</p> + +<p>Anne was too frightened almost to speak. This was the first party she +had ever attended, and the beautiful room, the girls in their light, +pretty dresses, the bowls of flowers and the cheery firelight nearly +stupefied her.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Harlowe disappeared into the little conservatory off the dining +room, returning in a moment with two big red roses which she pinned to +Anne's dress.</p> + +<p>"These red roses have been waiting for you all morning," she said, "and +they're just in their prime now."</p> + +<p>More guests began to arrive, and soon the room was full of young girls +talking gayly together in groups or walking about, their arms around +each other's waists after the manner of fifteen and sixteen.</p> + +<p>Grace had seated Anne at the dining room table behind a large cut glass +bowl which almost hid her small figure. Grace knew from experience that +this would be the most popular spot in the room, and she cautioned many +of her friends to be kind to the timid little stranger. She knew also +that giving Anne something to keep her occupied would relieve her +embarrassment. Anne conscientiously filled and refilled the glasses, and +in the intervals answered the questions put to her; but never asked any +herself.</p> + +<p>Miriam Nesbit came in late with her two most intimate friends. She wore +a resplendent dress of old rose crepe and a big black hat. Anne forgot +her resentment when she caught sight of the vision and was lost in +admiration. But she was brought sharply to her senses by a rude, +sneering laugh from the ill-bred girl, who was staring insolently at the +old black silk gown.</p> + +<p>Anne flushed and hung her head.</p> + +<p>"I am glad Mrs. Harlowe gave me the flowers," she thought. "They hide it +a little, I think."</p> + +<p>Meantime there was the bustle of a new and important arrival. Grace and +her mother ushered in a charming little old lady and seated her in the +place of honor, a big leather chair between the windows. She wore a gray +silk dress and a lavender bonnet daintily trimmed in lace and white +ostrich tips.</p> + +<p>"Girls," said Grace, as a hush fell over the room, "there is no need for +me to introduce any of you to Mrs. Gray, who is the sponsor for the +freshman class."</p> + +<p>There was a buzz of laughter and conversation again, and through the +double doors Anne caught sight of the little old lady, talking gayly to +her subjects, seated, like a diminutive queen, on a large throne.</p> + +<p>"Why is she the sponsor of the class?" Anne asked of Jessica, who was +hovering near by.</p> + +<p>"Oh, have you never heard?" returned Jessica. "Mrs. Gray's daughter died +during her freshman year at High School, long ago, and ever since then, +Mrs. Gray has offered a prize of twenty-five dollars for the girl who +makes the highest average in her examinations at the end of the freshman +year. She was made sponsor of the freshman class about ten years ago, so +each year, soon after school opens, some one of the freshmen gives a tea +and invites her to meet the new girls. You must come in and be +introduced, too, as soon as you are through here."</p> + +<p>"A prize of twenty-five dollars," repeated Anne. "How I wish I might win +it!"</p> + +<p>"It's even more than that," said Jessica. "For a perfect examination she +offers one hundred dollars. But, needless to say, no one has ever won +the hundred. It is considered impossible to pass a perfect examination +in every subject."</p> + +<p>"One hundred dollars!" exclaimed Anne. "Oh, if I only could!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you may win the twenty-five dollars, anyway, Anne," said Jessica. +"I suppose the one hundred dollar prize is beyond the reach of human +beings."</p> + +<p>"And now, young ladies," Mrs. Gray was saying, smiling at the group of +girls who surrounded her, as she examined them through her lorgnette, +"most of you I have known since you were little tots, and your fathers +and mothers before you; but I don't know which of you excels in her +studies. Is it you, Grace, my dear?"</p> + +<p>Grace shook her head vigorously.</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, Mrs. Gray," she replied. "I could never be accused of +overstudy. I suppose I'm too fond of basketball."</p> + +<p>"It won't hurt you, my dear," said the old lady, tapping the girl +indulgently with her lorgnette; "the open air is much better than that +of the schoolroom, and so long as you keep up an average, I daresay you +won't disappoint your mother. But none of you have told me yet who leads +the freshman class in her studies."</p> + +<p>"Miriam Nesbit," said several voices in unison.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Mrs. Gray, looking intently at Miriam. "So you are the gold +medal girl, Miriam? Dear me, what a young lady you are growing to be! +But you must not study too hard. Don't overdo it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray had gone through this same conversation every year since any +of the girls could remember, and never failed to caution the head girl +not to overstudy.</p> + +<p>"There's no fear of that, Mrs. Gray," replied Miriam boastfully. "My +lessons give me very little trouble."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Gray," broke in Nora O'Malley mischievously, "Miriam Nesbit has a +close second in the class. The first girl who has ever been known to +come up to her."</p> + +<p>Miriam flushed, half-angry and half-pleased at the adroit compliment.</p> + +<p>"And who may that be, my dear?" queried Mrs. Gray, searching about the +room with her nearsighted blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"It's Anne Pierson" replied Nora.</p> + +<p>"Pierson, Pierson?" repeated the little old lady. "Why have I not met +her? I do not seem to remember the name in Oakdale. But where is this +wonderful young woman who is outstripping our brilliant Miriam? I feel a +great curiosity to see her."</p> + +<p>"Anne Pierson, Anne Pierson!" called several voices, while Grace began +to search through the rooms and hall.</p> + +<p>At the first mention of her name Anne had darted from her seat behind +the lemonade bowl, and rushed to the nearest shelter, which was the +conservatory.</p> + +<p>Grace found her, at last, in the conservatory crouched behind a palm.</p> + +<p>"Come here, you foolish child!" exclaimed Grace. "You are wanted at +once. Why did you run and hide? Mrs. Gray—the great Mrs. Gray—wishes +to meet you. Think of that!"</p> + +<p>Anne clasped the girl's strong hand with her two small ones.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Grace," she whispered, "won't you excuse me? I—I——"</p> + +<p>"You what? Silly, come right along!"</p> + +<p>Grace fairly dragged the trembling little figure into the drawing room, +where a silence had fallen over the group of young girls who watched the +scene.</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut, my dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray gently. "You mustn't be afraid +of me. I'm the most harmless old woman in the world."</p> + +<p>Then she tried to get a glimpse of Anne's downcast, crimson face.</p> + +<p>"I wanted particularly to meet you, child," went on Mrs. Gray, "because +I hear you are a formidable rival of the best pupil in the freshman +class. That is a great boast for your friends to make for you, my dear. +Miriam Nesbit is a famously smart girl, I'm told. But I wanted to meet +you, too, because you bear the name I love best in the world."</p> + +<p>Here the old lady's voice became very soft, and the girls suddenly +remembered that the young daughter had been called Anne. Was there not a +memorial window, in the chapel of the High School, of an angel carrying +a lily and underneath an inscription familiar to them all: "In Memory of +Anne Gray, died in her freshman year, aged sixteen"?</p> + +<p>The girls moved off quietly, conversing in low voices, leaving Anne +alone with her new friend.</p> + +<p>"You are a very little girl to be so clever," said Mrs. Gray, patting +one of Anne's small wrists as she looked into the dark eyes. "Where do +you live, dear?"</p> + +<p>"On River Street," replied Anne undergoing the scrutiny calmly, now she +found herself alone.</p> + +<p>"River Street?" repeated Mrs. Gray, trying to recall whom she had ever +known living in that strange quarter of the town. "Have you been long in +Oakdale?" she went on.</p> + +<p>"A few years, ma'am," replied Anne.</p> + +<p>"And what is your father's business, my child?" continued the old lady +remorselessly.</p> + +<p>Anne blushed and hung her head, and for a moment there was no reply to +the question. Presently she drew a sharp breath as if it hurt her to +make the confession.</p> + +<p>"My father does not live here," was what she said. "My mother is an +invalid. My sister supports us with sewing. As soon as I finish in the +High School, I shall teach."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray put an arm around the girl's waist and drew her down beside +her.</p> + +<p>"I'm a stupid old woman, child. You must forgive me. Old people forget +their manners sometimes. Will you come and see me very soon? Perhaps +to-morrow after church you will take luncheon with me? I want to know +you better."</p> + +<p>She drew a card from the beaded reticule that hung at her side.</p> + +<p>"Remember, at half-past twelve," she said, giving the girl's hand an +extra squeeze as she rose to go.</p> + +<p>After Mrs. Gray had taken her departure a free and easy atmosphere was +restored and the girls began talking and laughing without the +restriction of an older person's presence. Mrs. Harlowe shortly after +this also left them to themselves.</p> + +<p>"Let's do some stunts," proposed Grace. "Nora, will you give us your +imitations?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," replied Nora, "if Miriam will promise to sing, and Jessica +will do her Greek dance, and Georgie will play for us."</p> + +<p>"All right!" came a chorus of voices.</p> + +<p>"We've done it oft before, but we'll do it o'er again if the company so +wishes," said Georgie Pine, one of the brightest and gayest girls in the +class.</p> + +<p>The others seated themselves in a semicircle, while each girl gave her +little performance, and, at the conclusion, was applauded +enthusiastically. Nora had a real talent for mimicry; she convulsed her +audience with imitations of some of the High School teachers. When it +came Miriam's turn she sat down at the piano with a queer look on her +face.</p> + +<p>"I believe she means mischief," thought Grace to herself, as she watched +the girl curiously.</p> + +<p>Miriam ran a brilliant scale up the piano, for music was another of her +many accomplishments. Then she paused and turned to the others.</p> + +<p>"I won't sing," she said, "unless Miss Pierson promises to recite us +something first, Poe's 'Raven,' for instance."</p> + +<p>Grace flushed angrily and was about to interfere when, to her surprise, +Anne herself replied:</p> + +<p>"I shall be glad to if that is the poem you like best. I always +preferred 'Annabel Lee.'"</p> + +<p>Miriam was too amazed to answer. She could never form an idea of what it +cost Anne in self-control to acquiesce; but the young girl had gained a +new strength that day. So many people had been kind to her, and what is +more, interested in her welfare. She rose quietly and walked to the +middle of the semicircle.</p> + +<p>Grace and her chums were in an agony of fear lest poor Anne should break +down, and so distress them all except the unkind Miriam. However, they +need not have troubled themselves. Anne fixed her eyes on the far wall +of the dining room and commenced to recite "The Raven" in a clear, +musical voice that deepened as she repeated the stanzas. The girls +forgot the shabby little figure in its ill-fitting black silk and saw +only Anne's small, white face and glowing eyes. Not Miss Tebbs, herself, +teacher of English and elocution at the High School, could have improved +upon the performance.</p> + +<p>"It was perfectly done," said Grace afterwards, telling the story to her +mother. "It was almost uncanny and quite creepy toward the last."</p> + +<p>When the performance was over the girls crowded around little Anne with +eager congratulations; but, strange to say, everyone forgot that Miriam +had given her promise to sing.</p> + +<p>What the crestfallen Miriam kept wondering was: "Wherever did she learn +to do it?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>MRS. GRAY ENGAGES A SECRETARY</h3> + + +<p>Grace and her two friends, Jessica and Nora, were also invited to Mrs. +Gray's luncheon the next day, after church. Grace had often taken meals +in the beautiful house on Chapel Hill, but the other girls had never +been privileged to do more than sit in the large, shady parlors while +their mothers paid an afternoon call.</p> + +<p>It was with some excitement, therefore, that the three girls met in +front of the Catholic Church, of which Nora was a member, and strolled +up the broad street together. As they passed the little Episcopal +Chapel, which had given the hill its name, Anne Pierson joined them. She +looked grave and excited, and there was a feverish glow in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Anne, my child," exclaimed Grace, who always seemed much older than the +others, "how late do you study at night? I believe you are working too +hard. You look tired out."</p> + +<p>"I'm not tired," replied Anne. "I don't mind studying. Only so much has +happened in the last few days! And now we're going to luncheon with Mrs. +Gray. I've seen her house. It's very beautiful from the outside, more +beautiful than the Nesbits', I think, because it is older and there is +such a pretty garden at the side."</p> + +<p>"Anne," said Jessica, "we're counting on you to win the prize. There is +no reason why a rich girl like Miriam Nesbit should get it. She doesn't +need the money, in the first place; and, in the second, she's already +had enough glory to turn her head. Being beaten won't hurt her at all."</p> + +<p>"I would rather win it," answered Anne, with passionate fervor, "than +almost anything in the world. And think of the big prize of $100! If I +could win that——" Words failed to express her enthusiasm and she +paused and clasped her hands.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, we won't expect that of you," replied Grace, "Nobody could be +expected to pass a perfect examination. That's an impossible +achievement."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> shall try, anyway," said Anne in a low voice.</p> + +<p>Just then they were joined by a young man of about eighteen, who lifted +his hat politely to them.</p> + +<p>"May I walk with you?" he asked of Grace. "You seem to be going my way +this morning."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, David, we are going your way. We are lunching with your next +door neighbor, Mrs. Gray. But you must let me introduce you to Miss +Pierson. Anne, this is Mr. Nesbit, Miriam's brother."</p> + +<p>Anne flushed at the mention of Miriam's name and bowed distantly to the +newcomer, who was a junior at the High School and quite grown-up to the +young freshmen.</p> + +<p>David Nesbit, like his sister, was tall, dark and handsome; but unlike +her, he was quiet and unassuming. He, too, stood at the head of his +classes, but he was not athletic, as Miriam was, and spent most of his +time in the school laboratory, experimenting, or working at home on +engines and machinery of his own contriving.</p> + +<p>However, there was nothing snobbish in David's attitude. He greeted Anne +as cordially as he had the others.</p> + +<p>"We never see you now, David," continued Grace. "You are always so busy +with your inventions and contrivances. What is the latest? A flying +machine?"</p> + +<p>"You guessed right the very first time," replied David. "It is just +that."</p> + +<p>"Really?" laughed the girls, incredulously, while Anne's eyes grew large +with interest.</p> + +<p>"Shall you fly around Oakdale in it?" asked Jessica.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we are not building big ones yet," answered David. "These are +little fellows. Models, you know. The big ones may come later. Six of +the junior and senior fellows have been working on them all summer. We +started it in the manual training course. After we had learned to hammer +things out of silver, and do wood carving and a few other little useful +accomplishments, I suggested a flying machine to Professor Blitz and he +fell to it like a ripe peach. It was too late to do anything last spring +except talk, however. But we are almost ready now, after our labors this +summer."</p> + +<p>"Ready for what?" demanded Grace. "If you are not going to fly +yourselves."</p> + +<p>"For our exhibition. Why don't you come and see it at the gym. next +Friday night?"</p> + +<p>"We can't. We aren't invited," answered Nora, tossing back her saucy +little curls.</p> + +<p>"I'll invite you," said David. "This will admit four young ladies to the +High School gym.," he continued, taking out a card and writing on it, +"At 7.30 Thursday evening."</p> + +<p>"Then everybody isn't invited?" demanded Jessica.</p> + +<p>"No, not everybody," replied David. "Just a chosen few. And you must be +sure to come, too, Miss Pierson," he added, turning to Anne, who, all +this time, had been silently listening to the conversation.</p> + +<p>"I should love to," she answered, giving him a grateful glance.</p> + +<p>"I'll leave you here," said David, turning in at a graveled driveway +that led to the Nesbit house, a very large and ornate building standing +far back from the street in the midst of a well-kept lawn.</p> + +<p>"I wish Miriam would take a few lessons in manners from her brother," +murmured Grace, when they were out of hearing distance.</p> + +<p>"He is certainly one of the nicest boys in High School," said Jessica.</p> + +<p>"If he only played football!" said Grace, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"And danced," added Nora.</p> + +<p>"I don't know how to dance, nor did I ever see a game of football," said +Anne.</p> + +<p>"Meaning that Mr. David suits you, Miss Anne," said Grace teasingly.</p> + +<p>"It was nice of him to ask me, too," was all Anne said in reply.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, my dears?" said Mrs. Gray, a few moments later, when +John, the aged butler, ushered the girls into the long, old-fashioned +parlor. "You are most kind to come and cheer up a lonely old woman. I +shall expect you to be very gay and tell me all the gossip of the +Oakdale High School, the four of you."</p> + +<p>"Luncheon is served, ma'am," announced John, whereat the sprightly old +lady led the way to the dining room.</p> + +<p>Over the delicious broiled chicken and other good things they discussed +the affairs of the school, the new teacher in mathematics, Miss Leece, +who was so unpopular; the girls' principal, Miss Thompson, beloved by +all the pupils; the merits of the Freshman Basketball Team and a dozen +other schoolgirl topics that seemed to delight the ears of Mrs. Gray.</p> + +<p>"The truth is," she said, "I believe this freshman class is going to be +one of the finest Oakdale High School has ever turned out. I have a +feeling that I shall be very proud of my new girls, and at Christmas +time I mean to do something I have never done before, if all goes well."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do tell us what it is, Mrs. Gray," cried the girls in great +excitement.</p> + +<p>"I mean to celebrate with the largest Christmas party that's been given +in Oakdale for many a long year. Grace, you shall manage it for me, and +all of you shall help me decorate the tree and the house. We'll invite +the freshmen boys and have a real dance with Ohlson's band for the +music."</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh!" cried the girls ecstatically, even quiet Anne joining in the +chorus.</p> + +<p>"By the way," went on Mrs. Gray, "do you know any girl who would like to +come up and read to me twice a week, and write my notes for me? I'm +getting to be an old woman. My eyesight is growing dim. Is there any +girl who would like to earn a little pocket money? But she must have a +sweet, soft voice, like Anne's here."</p> + +<p>"Anne would be the very girl herself, Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace. "She +reads and recites beautifully."</p> + +<p>"You are not sure it would trespass on your time too much, Anne?" +observed the wily old lady. "I don't want to impose on you."</p> + +<p>Anne's face fairly radiated with happiness. Could those girls possibly +guess how much it meant to her to earn a little money! Five dollars was +to her an enormous sum, and perhaps she might earn as much as that in +time.</p> + +<p>"Might I do it?" she exclaimed, beside herself with joy.</p> + +<p>Grace turned her face away a moment. She felt almost ashamed of her own +comfortable prosperity. And how like Mrs. Gray it was to do a kind thing +in that way, as if Anne would be conferring a favor by accepting the +position.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, you might, my dear. And I feel myself lucky to get the +brightest girl in her class, and maybe in Oakdale High School, to come +and entertain me twice a week."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE BLACK MONKS OF ASIA</h3> + + +<p>"Who wants to go nutting?" demanded Grace Harlowe in the basement +cloakroom a few afternoons later.</p> + +<p>"We do," came a chorus of voices.</p> + +<p>"I don't," answered one.</p> + +<p>"Don't you like nutting parties, Miriam?" asked Grace.</p> + +<p>"She's too old," put in a sophomore. "This is a young people's party, I +presume?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's not a sophomore party, at any rate," retorted Nora.</p> + +<p>"Ma-ma, ma-ma," cried a number of other sophomores, imitating the cries +of a baby.</p> + +<p>The freshmen were nettled by the superior attitude of the older class, +but they knew better than to say anything more just then.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, girls," said Grace in a low voice, after the sophomores had +strolled away, "we'll be sophomores ourselves next year. Now, all who +want to join the party, meet Nora and Jessica and me at the old Omnibus +House at three-thirty. And, above all, don't give the meeting place +away."</p> + +<p>"Not in a thousand years," said Marian Barber.</p> + +<p>It was evident that Miriam Nesbit had hoped to break up the party by +declining to go herself. But she was not quite strong enough in the +class to divide it utterly, and she went off in a huff, with the secret +wish to take revenge on somebody. As she started up Chapel Hill to her +home she was joined by one of the sophomore girls, who lived across the +street.</p> + +<p>"Your plebes are getting away from you, Miriam," exclaimed the older +girl in a bantering tone. "You haven't got them well in hand yet. +Nutting parties should be left behind for the Grammar School pupils."</p> + +<p>"They certainly should," replied Miriam in a disgusted tone. "It's Grace +Harlowe who gets up all these foolish children's games. She's nothing +but a tomboy, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"She's the captain of the basketball team, isn't she?" asked the other +dryly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," admitted Miriam reluctantly, "but she never would have been if +she hadn't brought along all her friends to vote for her."</p> + +<p>"Whew-w-w!" whistled the sophomore. "You don't mean to say it wasn't a +fair election?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, fair enough," said Miriam, "except that I didn't bother to bring +any of my special friends, and she did. I don't call that exactly fair."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," consoled the other, "you have a few things coming to you +anyway, Miriam. You're at the head of your class, as usual, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>Miriam nodded her head without answering. She was thinking of little +Anne Pierson and what a close race they were running together. Even +studying harder than she had ever had to do before, Miriam found it +difficult to keep up with Anne.</p> + +<p>"Where are they going?" asked the other girl suddenly, after they had +walked along a few minutes in silence.</p> + +<p>"Where are who going?" asked Miriam.</p> + +<p>"Why, the nutting party, of course."</p> + +<p>Here was Miriam's chance for revenge. The sophomores were a famously +mischievous class, and this girl was one of its ringleaders. Back in +Grammar School days they had played many pranks on their school fellows, +and even in their freshman year they had dared to turn off all lights, +one night at a dance of older schoolmates.</p> + +<p>"If I tell, you won't give me away, will you?" asked Miriam.</p> + +<p>"I promise," said the older girl.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then. They meet at three-thirty at the Omnibus House on the +River road."</p> + +<p>"Good," said the sophomore. "Don't you want to come along and see the +fun?"</p> + +<p>"Don't count on me," answered Miriam, turning in at her gate, with mixed +feelings of shame and triumph.</p> + +<p>The Omnibus House, which had been chosen by Grace as the class meeting +place, was an old stone building standing in the middle of an orchard. +It was now in ruins, but tradition set it down as a former inn and stage +coach station built before the days of railroads, and finally burned by +the Indians. There was a curious hieroglyphic sign cut in a stone slab +in the front wall which one of the High School professors interested in +archæology had deciphered as follows: "Peace and Justice Reign Over +Mount Asia Tavern."</p> + +<p>Here the crowd of High School "plebes," as the sophomores scornfully +dubbed them, met in conclave, partly to gather nuts in the woods near +by, partly to discuss class matters, but chiefly to enjoy the crisp +autumn weather. The woods were still gorgeous in russets and reds, in +spite of the recent heavy frosts, and there was a smell of burning +leaves and dry bracken in the air. The girls skipped about like young +ponies.</p> + +<p>"If this is childish," cried Grace, "then I'd like to be a child always, +for I shall play in the woods when the notion strikes me, even if I'm a +grandmother."</p> + +<p>There was a smothered snicker at this from the inside of the old stone +house, but the girls were too intent on their enjoyment to notice it.</p> + +<p>"Young ladies," exclaimed Nora O'Malley, trailing her cape after her to +make her skirts look longer, and twisting her mouth down to give her +face a severe expression, "you are not in your usual form to-day. I must +ask for better preparation hereafter."</p> + +<p>There was a peal of joyous laughter from the other girls.</p> + +<p>"Miss Leece to a dot," cried Jessica.</p> + +<p>"Miss Bright," went on Nora, "you will please pay attention to the +lesson. If you do not, young woman, I shall have to punish you in the +old-fashioned way."</p> + +<p>"You will, will you?" cried Jessica, rushing gayly upon her friend. +"Come on and try it then!"</p> + +<p>The other girls followed, and there was a tussle to pull Nora down from +the stone upon which she had clambered to protect herself.</p> + +<p>Shrieks, struggles and wild laughter followed, while Nora fought +desperately to hold her position. So absorbed were they in friendly +battle that they had not noticed a troop of black-robed figures leaving +the ruined Omnibus House and stealthily approaching.</p> + +<p>Nora was the first to see the ominous circle. She stopped short, and +pointed with unmistakable terror at the masked and hooded persons, who +were watching them silently. There was a moment of frozen horror when +the girls turned around. This was a lonely spot, too remote from any +dwelling to call for help. Besides, the freshmen were outnumbered by +these weird figures, who appeared not unlike monks in their somber +cowls, although their faces were absolutely hidden by black masks.</p> + +<p>The girls clustered together around the rock like a group of frightened +chickens. Jessica had turned pale. She was not very robust and often +overtaxed her strength to keep up with her two devoted friends.</p> + +<p>The tallest of the masked figures then spoke in a queer, deep voice.</p> + +<p>"Young women, are you not aware that this is a sacred spot, devoted for +generations past to the Black Monks of Asia, whose home this building +was before it became a roadhouse for stage coaches? Never invade this +spot again with your hilarity. And now we will permit you to go, +marching out single file, without looking back. But first, through your +leader you must give your word never to mention this meeting to anyone. +If you refuse this promise we shall punish you as only the Black Monks +of Asia know how to punish persons who have offended the order. The +leader will please step forward."</p> + +<p>There was a moment's whispered conversation among the freshmen. Then +Grace, urged by her friends, said:</p> + +<p>"We promise."</p> + +<p>"Now march out, single file, as agreed," resumed the Black Monk of Asia, +his voice trembling a little with suppressed emotion of some sort.</p> + +<p>The girls started to move out of the enclosure single file, Grace +leading the procession, when a gust of wind blew the robe of the leading +monk apart, disclosing a navy blue serge walking-skirt. Grace's quick +eye caught sight of the skirt at once, and breaking from the line, she +charged straight into the group of black monks, crying:</p> + +<p>"Sophomores! Sophomores!"</p> + +<p>The other girls ran after her, screaming at the tops of their voices; +and there might have been almost a free fight between the two classes +had not the Black Monks of Asia scattered in every direction, running at +utmost speed.</p> + +<p>"Come on back, girls," cried Grace in a disgusted tone.</p> + +<p>She had chased a monk half-way across the orchard; then stopped to +wonder what she would do if she caught the tall, black-robed individual +who had indecorously caught up her skirts and was flying well ahead over +the rough ground.</p> + +<p>One by one the plebes returned to their meeting place.</p> + +<p>"Well, that was a sell!" uttered Nora disgustedly. "How shall we ever +manage to get even with those mean sophomores!"</p> + +<p>"If we don't," exclaimed Grace, "we shall never hear the last of it in +Oakdale."</p> + +<p>"But who gave us away?" demanded Jessica. "Did anyone drop a hint to the +sophomores of our secret meeting place?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't," said one girl after another.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they followed us," suggested Marian Barber.</p> + +<p>"No one followed me," asserted Grace. "I was careful to look behind and +see."</p> + +<p>"Nor me."</p> + +<p>"Nor me," exclaimed several of her classmates.</p> + +<p>"No," said Nora. "Somebody must have overheard and given the secret +away."</p> + +<p>"Not Mi——" but Grace stopped before she had finished the name.</p> + +<p>The girls looked at each other.</p> + +<p>Could Miriam Nesbit have been so false to her class?</p> + +<p>No one replied, but each made a secret resolution to ferret out Miriam's +suspected treachery if it were the last act of her life.</p> + +<p>"Let's start home, now," said Grace. "It's too late to go nutting +anyhow, and these foolish sophomores have spoiled the afternoon, for me +at least. If we don't cook up something to pay them back, the name of +freshman will be disgraced forever more."</p> + +<p>However, the afternoon adventures were not at an end.</p> + +<p>As the group of girls started toward the road, some distance away, +trying not to look crestfallen, a gruff voice from the far side of the +Omnibus House called:</p> + +<p>"Hold up there!"</p> + +<p>The girls took no notice, thinking it was more upper-class tricks.</p> + +<p>Five rough-looking men emerged from a grove of alders which grew about +the building.</p> + +<p>The young girls were really frightened this time. No sophomore could +disguise herself like this. These were undoubtedly genuine ruffians of +the worst type, hungry, blear-eyed and ragged.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do?" whispered Jessica, clinging to Grace desperately.</p> + +<p>"Everybody run," answered her friend, trying to be calm as the five men +advanced on them. But when they broke away to run toward the distant +road they found their retreat cut off by the tramps, who were active +enough as soon as the girls showed signs of flight. Back of them lay the +dense woods into which the sophomores must have plunged and departed for +town by another road. Seeing that escape was impossible, since, if some +got away, others would be caught—and no girl was willing to desert her +friends—the frightened plebes paused again and clustered about their +leader.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" asked Grace of one of the men.</p> + +<p>"First your money, then your jewelry," answered the tramp, insolently +leering at her.</p> + +<p>"But suppose we haven't any money or jewelry," replied Grace.</p> + +<p>"So much the worse for you, then," answered the tramp in a threatening +tone.</p> + +<p>"He can have this gold bracelet," exclaimed Jessica, slipping the band +from her arm.</p> + +<p>But Grace was not listening. Her attention was absorbed by a group of +people passing in a straggling line on the road. Lifting up her voice +she gave the High School yell, which had been familiar to every High +School boy and girl for the last twenty years:</p> + +<p>"Hi-hi-hi; hi-hi-hi; Oakdale, Oakdale, HIGH SCHOOL!"</p> + +<p>As she expected, the call was answered immediately, and some of the +loiterers along the highway vaulted the fence at one bound.</p> + +<p>"Help!" cried all the girls in chorus. "Help! Help!"</p> + +<p>"It's some of the High School boys!" exclaimed Nora, in a relieved voice +as the rescuers came bounding through the orchard.</p> + +<p>The tramps looked irresolute for a moment, but when they saw that the +newcomers were five boys they held their ground.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" said the tallest boy, with a flaming head of red +hair, as he confronted one of the tramps.</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven it's Reddy Brooks, pitcher on the sophomore baseball +team!" whispered Grace, unable to conceal her joy.</p> + +<p>"Is that any of your business, young man?" demanded the tramp, showing +his teeth like an angry dog.</p> + +<p>"It's my business to protect these young ladies," answered Reddy Brooks, +"and I'll do it if I have to shed somebody's blood in the attempt."</p> + +<p>"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the big tramp, clapping his hands to his sides and +almost dancing a jig in his amusement.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Reddy had cast his eyes about for some kind of a weapon. +There was not a stick nor stone in sight. The only thing he could find +was a pile of winter apples that had evidently been collected by the +owner of the orchard to be barreled next day.</p> + +<p>Reddy made a rush for the pile, to the amazement of his fellow-students, +who imagined for a moment that he was running away. They soon found out +his purpose, however, when the apples came whizzing through the air with +well-aimed precision.</p> + +<p>The first one hit the biggest tramp squarely on the chin and almost +stunned him. Each boy then chose his man and the five ruffians were soon +running across the orchard to the wood, the boys after them, their +pockets bulging with apples. Laughing and yelling like wild Indians, +they pelted their victims until the men disappeared in the forest.</p> + +<p>The girls, who had forgotten their fright in the excitement of the +chase, were laughing, too, and urging on the attacks exactly as they +would have done at one of the college football games. Perhaps they had +had a narrow escape, but it was great fun, now, especially when Reddy +Brooks threw one of his famous curved balls and hit a tramp plump on the +back of the head.</p> + +<p>"Oh," cried Nora, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, "I never had +such a good time in all my life! Wasn't it great?"</p> + +<p>"Wasn't it though?" grinned Reddy, as the boys returned from the field +of victory. "Lots more fun than throwing balls at dummies at the county +fair, wasn't it, fellows?"</p> + +<p>"You girls ought to be careful how you walk out here alone at this time +of the year," said Jimmie Burke. "There are a great many tramps around +now, going south in bunches to spend the winter in Palm Beach, no +doubt."</p> + +<p>"We'll never do it again," answered Grace.</p> + +<p>"Never again!" exclaimed Nora, raising her right hand to heaven.</p> + +<p>"I suppose Farmer Smithson will wonder what became of his apples," +observed Reddy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, he has so many acres of orchards, I don't suppose he'll miss +this one little pile."</p> + +<p>And the crowd started gayly off to town.</p> + +<p>But the girls of the freshman class had not forgotten—or forgiven—the +Black Monks of Asia.</p> + +<p>All along the walk Grace was turning over and over in her mind some +scheme of revenge. Nothing seemed feasible, however. The sophomores were +so well up in tricks that it would be difficult to deceive them.</p> + +<p>"Suppose," Grace proposed suddenly, aloud, "we ask David Nesbit's advice +to-morrow night, when we go to the flying machine exhibition."</p> + +<p>After that she dismissed the subject from her mind for the time being.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>ANNE HAS A SECRET</h3> + + +<p>On the night of the flying machine exhibition, the four chums, for Anne +had now been formally adopted by Grace and her friends, arrived somewhat +early at the great arched doorway leading into the gymnasium.</p> + +<p>They were all somewhat excited over this new experience. There had been +many balloon ascensions at the State Fair, and once a dirigible airship +had sailed over the town of Oakdale. But to see a real flying machine +with all its grace and elegance and lightness was like stepping onto +another planet where progress had advanced much faster than it had on +this.</p> + +<p>At least, so thought Anne as she followed her friends into the building. +There was a sound of puffing and churning, during which David arrived in +a cloud of smoke on his motor cycle.</p> + +<p>"I mean to learn to ride one of those queer machines," exclaimed Grace +from the doorway, never dreaming what an important part that very +machine was one day to play in the history of Oakdale.</p> + +<p>"All right, you're welcome to," replied David, jumping off as he stopped +the motor. "Come over to the campus to-morrow afternoon, and I'll give +you your first lesson."</p> + +<p>"Is that really an invitation?" asked Grace. "For I shall accept it, if +it is."</p> + +<p>"It certainly is," answered the young man, "and I shall expect you to +make a very excellent prize pupil, not like Reddy Brooks, who tumbled +off and smashed his nose because he suddenly forgot how to manage the +brakes."</p> + +<p>A few other people gathered in the roomy gymnasium to see the +exhibition, but the girls could see that it was a very exclusive company +they had been invited to join. There were, in fact, no other girls, +except Miriam Nesbit, who came late with her mother, a handsome, quiet +woman to whom her son David bore a marked resemblance.</p> + +<p>Grace and her friends spoke to Mrs. Nesbit cordially, while Miriam bowed +coldly and confined all her attentions to Miss Leece, the unpopular +teacher of mathematics. Miriam ignored Anne entirely.</p> + +<p>"And now, ladies, if you will all be seated, the show will begin," +announced David, leading them to the spectators' benches ranged against +the wall. "Don't expect anything wonderful of mine," he added. "It's +only in the first stages so far. I'm afraid she'll break down, but she's +a great little machine, just the same. Isn't she, mother?"</p> + +<p>"She is wonderful, I think, David," replied Mrs. Nesbit, who was a very +shy, quiet woman, almost entirely wrapped up in her only son. Miriam had +always been too much for her, and she had long since given up attempting +to rule or direct her brilliant, willful daughter.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Nesbit," said Grace, "this is Anne Pierson, one of the brightest +girls in the freshman class."</p> + +<p>"How do you do?" said Mrs. Nesbit cordially, giving the girl her hand. +"You are a newcomer, are you not? I haven't heard Miriam speak of you."</p> + +<p>"She is a newcomer, mother, but I hear she's giving your daughter Miriam +a stiff pull for first place," said David teasingly.</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd keep quiet, David," exclaimed his sister angrily. "You +always talk too much."</p> + +<p>"Miriam!" remonstrated her mother.</p> + +<p>"Miss Nesbit," said Miss Leece in a disagreeable, harsh voice, "will +have no trouble, I think, in holding her own."</p> + +<p>The teacher gave Anne such a glare from her pale blue eyes that the poor +child shrank behind Grace in embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear," murmured Mrs. Nesbit helplessly. She disliked exceedingly +the scenes to which her daughter often subjected the family.</p> + +<p>David only laughed good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"The exhibition is about to begin," he said, and disappeared into the +room where the ships were to be put through their performances.</p> + +<p>In a few moments six young airship builders appeared, each carrying in +his arms the result of his summer's labors. There was vigorous applause +from everybody except Miriam, who was too angry with her brother to +enjoy the spectacle.</p> + +<p>The aeroplanes were all copies of well-known models, except David's, +which was of an entirely new and original design of his own invention. +It looked something like a flying fish, the girls thought, with its +slender, oblong body, gauzy fins at the sides and a funny little forked +tail at the stern.</p> + +<p>The models were too light for machinery, so rubber bands, secured +cris-cross in the bows, when suddenly released with a snap gave the +little ships the impetus they needed to fly the length of the gymnasium.</p> + +<p>Only four of the six, however, were destined to fly that evening. They +soared straight down the big room, as easily and gracefully as great +white birds, and dropped gently when they hit the curtain at the other +end, their builders running after them as eagerly as boys sailing kites. +One of the models fluttered and settled down before it reached the other +side, and David's machine, which had commanded most attention because it +was different, started out bravely enough, its little propeller making a +busy humming as it skimmed along. But it had gone hardly ten yards +before it collapsed and ignominiously crashed to the floor.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad of it," said Miriam above the din, for everyone had gathered +about the young man to offer sympathy and congratulations at the same +time.</p> + +<p>"It's very, very clever, my boy," said Professor Blitz, "and you'll +succeed yet, if you keep at it."</p> + +<p>"She wouldn't go far, David," said Grace, stroking the little model, as +if it had been a pet dog, "but she's the prettiest of all, just the +same."</p> + +<p>"Did it hurt it when it fell?" Anne asked him.</p> + +<p>"I think it broke one of its little fins," laughed David. "It hurt me +much more than itself, because it wouldn't be good and fly all the way."</p> + +<p>"Anne," called Grace, "here is some one looking for you. It's a boy with +a note."</p> + +<p>Anne looked frightened as she opened a soiled looking envelope the boy +handed her.</p> + +<p>"Is anything the matter?" asked Jessica, seeing the expression of fear +on her face.</p> + +<p>"No—yes——," answered poor little Anne, undecidedly. "I must go home, +or rather I mustn't go the way I came. Don't you think I could leave at +a side entrance? I don't want to see the person who is waiting for me in +front."</p> + +<p>"Of course, child," spoke up Grace. "We'll see you home ourselves. Won't +we, girls!"</p> + +<p>"Wait until I lock up my motor cycle and I'll go along," called David. +"We'll all protect Miss Anne."</p> + +<p>"Tell him," said Anne to the boy, putting the note back in the envelope +and giving it to him, "that what he asks is impossible."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you squeeze us into the carriage, mother?" asked David, +returning presently with his hat.</p> + +<p>"I have invited Miss Leece to drive home with us, mother," interrupted +Miriam, giving her brother a blighting glance. "There is room for only +one more person. Perhaps Jessica will take it."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," said Jessica coldly, "but I prefer to walk with the +girls."</p> + +<p>"<i>You'd</i> better walk, too, cross-patch, and learn a few manners from +your friends," was David's parting advice to his sister.</p> + +<p>"Children, children!" exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit, "don't, I beg of you, +quarrel in public."</p> + +<p>Presently the five young people had slipped out of a side door of the +gymnasium and started down a back street in the direction of Anne's +house. They had not gone far, however, before they became aware that +they were being followed. Grace was the first to call the attention of +Nora and Jessica to a long, slim figure stealing after them in the +shadows.</p> + +<p>"Here he comes," whispered Jessica. "What in the world do you suppose he +wants with our poor little Anne?"</p> + +<p>"I believe he's going to stop us," returned Grace. "He is coming nearer +and nearer."</p> + +<p>"Anne, I command you to wait!" called a voice from behind them.</p> + +<p>They all stopped suddenly and Anne jumped as though she had received a +shock.</p> + +<p>A tall, theatrical-looking individual had come up to them. He wore a +shabby frock coat and a black slouch hat, which he raised with an +elaborate flourish when he saw the young girls.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, ladies," he said, "but I wish to speak with my daughter."</p> + +<p>Anne controlled herself with an effort.</p> + +<p>"I cannot see you now, father," she said. "It is quite late and I must +get back."</p> + +<p>"You shall not only speak to me but you shall come with me," exclaimed +the man, with a sudden flare of anger. "I will not submit to +disobedience again. Come at once!"</p> + +<p>"Father, I cannot go with you," cried Anne, clinging to her friends. "I +would rather be with mother and Mary. They need me more than you do and +I want to go to school and study to be a teacher."</p> + +<p>The man was now beside himself with theatrical rage.</p> + +<p>"Miserable child!" he cried, waving his arms wildly. "I shall take you +if I must by force." Breaking through the group, he seized the hand of +his daughter and dragged her after him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, save me!" cried the poor girl, struggling to release herself.</p> + +<p>"I can't stand this! If she doesn't want to go with him, she shan't, +father or no father," growled David, dashing after the pair.</p> + +<p>"Stop, sir!" he cried, seizing Anne's other hand. "I must ask you to +release this young lady at once."</p> + +<p>"Insolent boy!" cried the other, giving each word an oratorical +flourish, "are you not aware that this young lady, as you call her, is +merely a child, and that she happens to be my daughter? I cannot see +that you have a right to interfere in a family matter."</p> + +<p>"But I have no proof that Miss Pierson is your daughter," retorted +David. "It is enough that she doesn't want to go with you. I undertook +to see her safely to her own home, this evening, and I mean to do it. +After that you may settle your difficulties as you please."</p> + +<p>"Miserable upstart!" cried the man, now so thoroughly angry that he let +go Anne's hand, "I have a good mind to give you what you deserve. As for +you, undutiful, wretched girl," he added, his voice rising to an +emotional tremolo, "you shall be well punished for this!"</p> + +<p>"Don't wait," whispered Anne. "If we run, we can get away, now, while he +is so angry." At that they all took to their heels, David following +after them, much relieved to have given Anne's father the slip without +further disagreeable argument.</p> + +<p>No one spoke until they had reached the Pierson cottage and had seen +Anne safely to the front door.</p> + +<p>"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed at last, trying not to cry. "I wouldn't +for anything have had it happen, and just when you were all beginning to +like me a little. Will you forgive me?"</p> + +<p>"Forgive you, Anne!" cried Grace. "It wasn't your fault. We are only +awfully sorry for you."</p> + +<p>"We will just forget all about it, and never speak of it to anyone," +promised Jessica, taking the girl's hand kindly.</p> + +<p>"But I want you to understand that I was right in not going," protested +Anne. "Some day I will explain."</p> + +<p>"Of course you were right," said David, "and I hope you will never be +persuaded to go."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, all, a thousand times!" came gratefully from Anne; "and good +night." Then she disappeared into the cottage.</p> + +<p>"Well, this was a night's adventure," observed Grace, as they started +homeward.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid Anne's father is a night's adventurer," muttered David. "He +looks mightily like one of those strolling actors who go barnstorming +through country towns."</p> + +<p>"Poor Anne! Do you suppose he wants her to barnstorm?" asked Nora.</p> + +<p>"I haven't a doubt of it," replied the young man. "I think you girls had +better adopt that poor child and look after her."</p> + +<p>"We have already," answered Grace. "Didn't Miriam tell you about it?"</p> + +<p>"Miriam? No; she never tells me anything. Besides, what has she to do +with it?"</p> + +<p>The girls were silent.</p> + +<p>"By the way," continued Grace, "speaking of barnstorming, we want to ask +your advice, David. The sophomores played a mean trick on us the other +day at the old Omnibus House."</p> + +<p>"I heard something about the Black Monks of Asia," answered David, +laughing.</p> + +<p>"Can't your inventive brain devise a scheme of revenge?" went on Grace. +"If we don't get even with them soon, the story will be all over town."</p> + +<p>"Well," replied David, "I can tell you a secret I happened to have +overheard when one of the sophomores was calling on Miriam. I was an +eavesdropper entirely by accident, but what I heard might help some. The +sophomores are going to give an initiation mask ball a week from +Saturday night. Only the class and a few outsiders, among them Miriam, +are to be present. Everybody is to be in fancy dress, and disguised out +of all recognition. Can't you work up a scheme with that to go upon, +girls?"</p> + +<p>"We certainly can," cried Nora. "It's the chance of a lifetime."</p> + +<p>"Just wait and see!" exclaimed Grace.</p> + +<p>"By the way, David, you didn't happen to overhear the password, did +you?" asked Jessica.</p> + +<p>"I did," he replied. "Nothing escaped me, for I was caught in a trap. +You know I don't care for that large, husky young damsel who leads the +sophomores, and if I had made my presence behind the screen known, I +should have had to speak to her. So I just sat still and said nothing. +The password is 'Asia.'"</p> + +<p>"They are trying to rub it in, I suppose," cried Grace. "But I think +they won't be so ready to use that word after their old ball is over."</p> + +<p>"If you want any help," offered David as he left Grace at her front +door, "you know where to come for it, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"You're a true brick, David!" said Grace. "Good night."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE SOPHOMORE BALL</h3> + + +<p>There was an undercurrent of excitement in the air on the day of the +sophomore ball.</p> + +<p>The sophomores themselves were full of secrets, whispering around in +groups, their faces grave with self-important expressions. This was to +be their annual Initiation Ball, and many new members, after receiving +initiation into the various sophomore societies, were to be invited to +the gymnasium, which had been turned over to the class for the evening.</p> + +<p>There was no end to the fun of these balls, according to feminine +gossip, for no male was ever admitted and only three invitations were +issued to girls of other classes. It was, in fact, to be nothing but fun +and frolic, and every costume had been planned weeks ahead.</p> + +<p>One teacher was asked to be present to keep order in case of intrusion, +for the gymnasium door, on that famous night, was always besieged by +youths from the Boys' High School, who roared and jeered as each cloaked +and masked figure rushed under the archway and disappeared.</p> + +<p>The freshmen, all through the day, were unusually quiet. They kept to +themselves and had little to say. Miriam and her three particular +friends were carefully avoided by their classmates. Miriam, herself, +felt the snub at once. Had she, after all, made a mistake, and was she +losing ground in the class? But her vanity was like a life buoy to her +sinking hopes. She refused to see that the other girls regarded her with +growing dislike.</p> + +<p>When school was over, that afternoon, six girls strolled down the High +School walk arm in arm. They were Grace and her three chums and two +other girls who were popular in the freshman class.</p> + +<p>Anne's small figure seemed almost dwarfed next to Grace, who towered +half a foot above her. Ever since Anne's trying scene with her father, +Grace had been doubly tender and kind to her, until the young girl +seemed to expand under the happy influence.</p> + +<p>"Well, girlies, dear, we are the chosen six. I hope we shall be a credit +to the class."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk so loudly, Nora. I feel as if we were surrounded by spies +to-day. Everybody has been so mysterious and queer."</p> + +<p>"One thing is practically certain," whispered Grace: "I believe it was +Miriam who told the sophomores about the Omnibus House. Why else did +they invite her to their ball?"</p> + +<p>"We can never prove it, though," said one of the others, "unless we get +her up a tree some day and make her admit it."</p> + +<p>"Remember, Anne," cautioned Grace, when they came to the cross street +leading to the Pierson cottage, "eight o'clock sharp at my house! And +don't bother about things. We shall have more than enough among us."</p> + +<p>At half-past eight that night the sound of a stringed orchestra floated +out on the breeze as the door of the gymnasium swung back and forth to +admit disguised sophomores, who each whispered the countersign to the +doorkeeper, after running the gauntlet of the waiting crowd, and slipped +in.</p> + +<p>The music was furnished by a troupe of women players especially engaged +to play in this Adamless Eden. What would not the crowd of waiting boys +have given for one glimpse of the ball room, where ballet girls, clowns +and courtiers, Egyptian snake charmers, Mephistopholeses and +Marguerites, priests and priestesses of the Orient, all whirled madly +together?</p> + +<p>Every door had been locked and bolted and every downstairs window +securely closed. Ventilation was obtained through the half-open windows +opening on the upper gallery, which ran around the four sides of the +gymnasium. The doors to this gallery had also been locked and the only +way to reach it was by steps leading up from the gymnasium.</p> + +<p>Six masked and hooded figures swung down High School Street together, +talking and laughing in low voices. The smallest of the six appeared to +stumble over her feet, and once tumbled in the road. Her friends gayly +helped her up, when it was disclosed that she wore a pair of boy's shoes +much too large for her.</p> + +<p>"If we don't break our necks stumbling over these brogans," whispered +the tallest girl, "we'll be lucky."</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, each one of the six maskers was wearing a pair of +men's shoes.</p> + +<p>"I stuffed my toes with cotton," laughed another, "but even now they are +hard to manage."</p> + +<p>Just then a motor cycle shot past them, slowed down and stopped +altogether.</p> + +<p>The rider rested it against a tree and came back.</p> + +<p>"I recognized you by your big feet," he said in a whisper. "Grace, +here's the duplicate key to the laboratory. I had some trouble getting +it, but no one knows, and you'll be safe enough. I'll let myself in with +the other duplicate key and lock the door. They will be sure to try it +at intervals. If you get into any trouble, early in the evening, make a +dash for the steps and blow your horn loud. Now, that's all, I think. +I'll be hidden in the laboratory until my turn comes. Good-bye and good +luck!"</p> + +<p>In another instant he was off on his motor cycle.</p> + +<p>Six figures, well disguised in dominoes of as many hues, presently +appeared on the ball room floor, just in time for the grand march. It +was a pity no one, except the lone teacher, was permitted to look at the +brilliant picture. But such was the tradition of the class. After the +march, ten ballet girls in tarlatan skirts, their faces concealed by +little black satin masks, gave a performance. Following this, a Spanish +dancer, whom the six dominoes recognized at once as the treacherous +Miriam Nesbit, gave an exhibition of her skill.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to have some fun with her," whispered the blue domino to the +red one. "Just follow me and see."</p> + +<p>The last speaker joined the dancer as the music struck up a waltz.</p> + +<p>"That was a good day's work you did for our class, not long ago," she +whispered as they danced off together.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" asked the Spanish dancer.</p> + +<p>"I mean the Black Monks of Asia. Now, do you understand?"</p> + +<p>"But I thought it was not to be told," exclaimed the dancer, flushing +under her mask.</p> + +<p>"Only to the committee so that you might be rewarded with an +invitation," whispered the domino, as she slipped away.</p> + +<p>"<i>She</i> did confess it, and every freshman in the class shall know it +to-morrow!" the emissary exclaimed privately to her friend, the red +domino.</p> + +<p>"In spite of what her brother is doing for us to-night?" returned the +red domino.</p> + +<p>"You are quite right, child. I never thought of that. Perhaps that is +the very reason he is helping us get even to-night."</p> + +<p>"I think it is," added the other, quietly.</p> + +<p>"Girls, we must hurry up and begin," whispered another of the six +dominoes. "They are all going to unmask at half-past ten."</p> + +<p>So the unrecognized intruders slipped away, stationing themselves about +the room.</p> + +<p>Pretty soon a rumor began to spread among the dancers that there were +young men present. No one knew exactly how it started, but it grew and +spread with such persistency that it finally reached the ears of the +chaperon.</p> + +<p>"Some of the girls saw their feet," said her informant, "and not only +their feet but their trousers, too."</p> + +<p>The teacher rose and rapped sharply for order.</p> + +<p>"Young ladies," she called in a loud voice, "I am sorry to disturb the +dancers, but we have every reason to believe there are some men in the +room. Since it is not yet time for you to unmask, it will be simple to +find out who does not belong here by having you file past me. I will +lift each mask myself."</p> + +<p>The dancers accordingly arranged themselves in a long line and walked +single file past the teacher. She saw only girl's faces, however, as she +peeped under the masks, and the dance proceeded.</p> + +<p>The next disturbance came when the maskers had all taken their stand at +one end of the room at the request of the six dominoes, who managed to +whisper to each sophomore that there was presently to be a surprise.</p> + +<p>An expectant hush fell over the company as the six dominoes filed out of +a side room and stood, for a moment, in full view of the sophomores. +Then the six deliberately lifted their dominoes, disclosing trouser legs +and men's shoes. Instantly the place was in pandemonium; yet before the +sophomores could rush upon the intruders six long horns were blown in +unison, and immediately the lights went out. In the darkness the six +dominoes made for the stairs, rushed along the gallery, and were +admitted to the laboratory by the duplicate key. But, just before the +blue domino disappeared, she called out in a loud voice from the +gallery:</p> + +<p>"The freshmen are avenged!"</p> + +<p>When the doors were safely closed the lights were turned on again, +disclosing the sophomores blinking foolishly at each other after the +sudden startling change from darkness to light.</p> + +<p>"They are in the laboratory!" cried one. "Let's cut off their escape!"</p> + +<p>The angry sophomores made a rush for the door.</p> + +<p>"Hurry girls!" urged David, who had just returned to the laboratory +after manipulating the lights. "They'll catch us before we know it."</p> + +<p>But the young fugitives were too late. Just then there was the sound of +many feet running up the stairs from the other door.</p> + +<p>"How about one of the gallery doors?" asked Grace.</p> + +<p>"They are all locked," answered David. "There only remain the skylight +trap-door and the roof. Do you think you could manage it if I helped +you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course; we could manage anything," protested the freshmen girls.</p> + +<p>It was an easy matter to climb up the ladder, and clamber through the +trap-door on to the roof.</p> + +<p>"We're just in time," whispered David. "They have found the right key to +the gallery door, and they'll be coming in both ways. Crawl carefully +now, girls, for heaven's sake, and don't slip!"</p> + +<p>The seven young people began slowly to draw themselves along the +gymnasium roof on their hands and knees. Fortunately, it was not a very +sloping roof, and their only danger lay in their movements being heard +from below. Meanwhile the gymnasium had emptied itself, and parties of +enraged sophomores were engaged in searching the adjoining class rooms +and passages.</p> + +<p>"Let's surround the building on the outside," cried one of the class +leaders. "They can't escape, then, by any of the fire escapes, and we +are sure to catch them!"</p> + +<p>In a few moments, David peeping over the edge of the roof, saw figures +stationed at every possible exit, waiting patiently.</p> + +<p>"Lie low," he whispered, "and crawl on your stomachs, or you're surely +caught."</p> + +<p>Soon after the seven had reached the end of the hundred feet of +gymnasium, where their flight was stopped short by a blank wall where +the gymnasium joined the High School building.</p> + +<p>"Here's a pretty pass," whispered David. "I forgot about this old school +wall. The only thing to do, now, is to hide behind this chimney and wait +for the row to quiet down."</p> + +<p>There they lay, as flat as possible, listening with bated breath to the +sophomores below. Presently there was a sound of footsteps on the +gymnasium roof and they heard Miriam's voice saying:</p> + +<p>"They must have escaped through the trap-door in the laboratory and come +along here. Wait a minute, girls, and I'll see."</p> + +<p>"O Grace, we're caught!" groaned Jessica. "What shall we do?"</p> + +<p>"No we aren't yet," answered Grace. "Especially if she is coming alone, +and that is what I am praying for."</p> + +<p>"I'll come with you, Miriam," called the voice of the sophomore leader.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you take the other side?" proposed Miriam. "And I'll go +around and meet you."</p> + +<p>"Very well," came the answer.</p> + +<p>The freshmen clutched each other and waited.</p> + +<p>Miriam ran lightly along the roof, and came upon the seven prostrate +figures so suddenly that she almost lost her balance.</p> + +<p>"Don't speak," said Grace, in a distinct whisper, "and don't give us +away. If you do, you will regret it. Remember the blue domino who +waltzed with you!"</p> + +<p>She hoped Miriam would understand what she meant and so save her from +further explanation. In this Grace was right. Miriam was trapped at +last. She deliberately turned and walked away without a word.</p> + +<p>"Come on, girls," they heard her call to the others, "let's waste no +more time on them." When all was quiet the seven intriguers slipped down +the fire escape and disappeared in the darkness—safely escaping +discovery.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>ALL HALLOWE'EN</h3> + + +<p>"Anne," called a chorus of boys' and girls' voices, "come out and have +some fun. Have you forgotten it's Hallowe'en?"</p> + +<p>The door of the Pierson cottage opened and Anne appeared on the +threshhold.</p> + +<p>"I can't," she answered; "I must study to-night."</p> + +<p>"Oh, bother lessons!" exclaimed Grace Harlowe. "Skip them, for once, and +join the crowd. We are going Hallowe'ening. Mother allowed it because +David Nesbit and Reddy Brooks are along to look after us."</p> + +<p>Anne looked longingly at the little company.</p> + +<p>"I'll come," she sighed, "although it was my algebra I was working on. +You know Miss Leece hates me, and, if I slip up, she'll be much harder +than any of the other teachers."</p> + +<p>"Hang Miss Leece!" said David promptly.</p> + +<p>"Well, let's hang her, then," exclaimed Nora. "Let's dress her up and +hang her on a limb of a tree."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by 'hang' her?" asked Grace, while Anne went in to put +on her hat and coat.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know?" replied Nora. "You stuff an old dress full of hay and +paper, make a head out of any old thing, put a hat on it, and there you +have her mighty fine."</p> + +<p>"That's an old stunt, Nora," observed David. "Let's have something more +improved and up-to-date. Suppose, for instance, we use Marian's +Jack-o'-lantern for the head. I'll put some little electric bulbs in the +eye holes and attach them to a battery so that we can turn her eyes off +and on. And we'll ride her on a broomstick in good style."</p> + +<p>"Only, nobody must know it's Miss Leece whose being effigied," urged +Grace. "This must be merely for our own private satisfaction. Everybody +promise not to tell."</p> + +<p>Everybody promised; so, with Anne safely in tow, they started for +Jessica's house to make the figure. Here they were not likely to be +interrupted. Jessica's mother was dead and her father spent most of his +evenings in his library.</p> + +<p>Half a broomstick, with a small pumpkin attached to one end, formed the +framework of Miss Leece's effigy. A cross beam gave a human touch to the +shoulders and with the skeleton ready, the business of stuffing an old +ulster and hanging it over the figure was simple. Tiny electric bulbs +were placed in the eyes and a bonnet tied on the head with a green veil +floating behind. Miss Leece, Nora insisted, always wore one growing out +of her left ear. There was nothing left to do now, but to place the +figure in a legless chair that had been nailed to two poles, and the +procession was ready.</p> + +<p>"She's a very fine lady," cried Grace, running ahead to get the effect +of the absurd lopsided figure whose eyes glared and went out +alternately. "I wish the real Miss L. could see herself now. She would +know exactly what she looks like when she glares at poor little Anne in +class."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Anne," said David, "this shall be your party. We are going to give +you satisfaction for your wrongs in the only way that lies in our +power."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't really mind her," replied Anne, "only I'm afraid she'll +catch me unprepared, some day, and then I <i>will</i> get it in earnest."</p> + +<p>"It's a perfect outrage," exclaimed Grace. "Miss Leece is so cruel to +little Anne, David, that it makes my blood boil. I sometimes think she +is trying to make Anne lose the freshman prize."</p> + +<p>"The old Hessian!" cried David, who was on a sort of rampage that +evening. "What shall I do to her, Anne? Give her an electric shock?" and +he pressed the electric button rapidly up and down, which made the eyes +glare hideously and go out several times in succession.</p> + +<p>In a town the size of Oakdale strolling parties of boys and girls, on +Hallowe'en night, made a not unusual sight, so when our young people +paraded boldly down the main street, singing and blowing horns, nothing +was thought of it. What they were doing might be considered exceedingly +out of place by a few straightlaced persons, but boys and girls will +have their fun, even if it must sometimes be at the expense of other +people.</p> + +<p>Certainly Miss Leece was the most unpopular teacher ever employed in the +High School as far back as memory could reach. She was cruel, strict and +sharp-tongued. Often her violent, unrestrained temper got the better of +her in the class room; then she gave an exhibition that was not good for +young girls to see. Anne, especially, was the victim of her rages—poor +little Anne who never missed a lesson and studied twice as hard as the +other girls. Miss Leece had but one weakness, apparently, and that was +Miriam Nesbit.</p> + +<p>Twice had the faculty convened in secret session to consider Miss +Leece's case, but it had been decided to keep her through the year at +least, since she was engaged by contract and was moreover an excellent +instructor in mathematics.</p> + +<p>So, it was no wonder that even this early in the school year, she was +the object of dislike to the High School girls. But could our girls have +foreseen what the evening's fun would bring forth, they would never have +been so reckless in carrying the effigy about town.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we take her across the square," cried Reddy; "then over the +bridge to the old graveyard and hang her on the limb of the apple tree +just outside the wall?"</p> + +<p>Off they started, singing at the tops of their voices:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hang a mean teacher on a sour apple tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hang a mean teacher on a sour apple tree.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>When they reached the center of the public square, where a big electric +light shed its rays, who should spring out of the shadows, from nowhere +apparently, but Miss Leece herself? Nothing escaped her sharp ears and +her cold blue eyes; neither words of the song nor the figure in detail, +green veil and all; nor Anne Pierson, who happened to be standing quite +near the effigy at the moment.</p> + +<p>And what was worse, and still more incriminating to the guilty +merrymakers, the moment they caught sight of her they stopped singing. +The eyes in the pumpkin suddenly lost their glare, and a silent +procession wound its way hurriedly from the square.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" cried Grace. "Why did we stop the song? If we had only +gone right ahead, it wouldn't have looked half as bad."</p> + +<p>"It was a mistake," admitted David, gravely, "especially as she seemed +to have seen Anne first of all. Anne, if she walks into you to-morrow +morning, you can just lay the blame on me, do you hear? I got up the +whole party and I'm willing to stand for it."</p> + +<p>"No, no," cried Anne. "That wouldn't be fair, David. I couldn't think of +doing that."</p> + +<p>"Well, you are not to get the blame, at any rate," said David, "if I +have to go up and make a confession to the principal herself."</p> + +<p>"Let's go and hang her now, anyhow," cried Reddy. "We'll take no +half-way measures with old Queen Bess."</p> + +<p>But somehow the spice of the adventure seemed to have gone out of it.</p> + +<p>"It really would be dangerous now," said Grace. "She would be certain to +hear of it and make it worse for all of us."</p> + +<p>"Why not burn her," put in Nora, who was afraid of nothing and had often +looked at the scolding teacher with such cold, laughing eyes, that even +Miss Leece was disconcerted.</p> + +<p>"Good!" cried several of the others. "We will take her down below the +bridge and burn her as a witch."</p> + +<p>No one objected to this, since the ashes of the effigy would tell no +tales. Once more they started singing: "Merrily we roll along!" as they +marched out of the village, crossed the bridge over the little river and +finally paused on the bank below.</p> + +<p>"Plant the pole in deep," said David, "so she won't topple, and fix her +up to suit yourselves, girls, while we get the fagots."</p> + +<p>The boys began to search about for dried sticks and twigs, while the +girls were arranging the figure for her funeral pyre.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, there was a wild war whoop. A crowd of boys dashed out of a +thicket near by, each one carrying a lighted Jack-o'-lantern on top of a +pole, and surrounded the effigy of the teacher.</p> + +<p>"Help!" cried the girls, trying to defend the absurd thing from the +attack, but they were too late. One of the boys seized the pole and +rushed off in the darkness.</p> + +<p>Miss Leece, in effigy, had been kidnapped in an instant, before David +and his friends had had time to realize what had happened.</p> + +<p>"Which way did they go?" he asked breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Through the thicket," cried Grace.</p> + +<p>And the whole crowd dashed after the kidnappers. It was great fun for +everybody except Anne, who was too tired to keep up the chase for long, +and was soon lagging behind the others. David saw her and turned back.</p> + +<p>"You are too little for all this junketing, Anne," he said kindly. +"Suppose I take you home? Shall I?"</p> + +<p>"I wish you would, David," answered the girl. "I'm just about ready to +drop, I'm so tired."</p> + +<p>Taking her arm, he helped her over the ruts and rough places, until they +finally emerged from the wood and started on the road to town.</p> + +<p>There were many other Hallowe'en parties out that night; singing and +laughing was heard in every direction.</p> + +<p>"It's like a play," said Anne, "only everything is behind the scenes. +Don't think I haven't enjoyed it, David, just because I got tired. I +never played with boys and girls of my own age before. What fun it is!"</p> + +<p>"Isn't it?" replied the young man, "I love to get out, once in a while, +and have a good time like this. I find I can work all the better after +it's over."</p> + +<p>Presently the others caught up with them, breathless and laughing.</p> + +<p>"Miss Leece is stolen," cried Grace, "before ever she was hanged or +burned. I do wonder what they'll do with her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, leave her in the woods," responded Reddy, "to scare the birds +away."</p> + +<p>"Good night, Anne," continued Grace. "David will take you home. We go +this way. Don't be frightened about to-morrow. I doubt if she says +anything; and if she does, we are all implicated."</p> + +<p>The young people separated, still singing and laughing; never dreaming +of the storm brewing from their evening's prank.</p> + +<p>"Anne," pursued David, as they strolled down River Street together, +"when I make my flying machine will you be afraid to take a sail with +me?"</p> + +<p>"Never," replied Anne, "but I wish it had been made in time to carry me +away from Miss Leece to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>And Anne's words had more meaning than either of them realized at the +time.</p> + +<p>Imagine the surprise and horror of the Hallowe'en party when, next +morning, they discovered the effigy of Miss Leece planted right in front +of the Girls' High School!</p> + +<p>And the teacher herself was the first to see the impious outrage.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>MISS LEECE</h3> + + +<p>Yes, there stood the hideous, grotesque effigy just where her abductors +had left her the night before, her green veil floating in the breezes. +As a figure of fun and an object of ridicule, she might not have created +more than a ripple with the faculty. But it was evident that Miss +Leece's function, even in effigy, was to make trouble.</p> + +<p>And trouble was certainly brewing that memorable morning. The figure +itself might never have been recognized, but a placard which had been +pinned on the front of the old ulster left no room for doubt. Across it +had been inscribed in large printed letters:</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">The Most Unpopular Teacher in School</span>."</p> + +<p>No one dared take the effigy away for fear of being implicated. +Everybody had seen it, both men and women professors and the boys and +girls of the two schools. But it was not until Miss Thompson, the +principal of the Girls' High School, had arrived that the figure was +removed.</p> + +<p>"How could those boys have been so mean!" exclaimed Grace to her three +friends just before the gong sounded. "They might have known what would +happen."</p> + +<p>There was an ominous quiet in the various class rooms all morning; but +nothing was said or done to indicate just when the storm would burst. +When the first class in algebra met, Anne trembled with fear, but Miss +Leece, in a robin's egg-blue dress, which offset the angry hue of her +complexion, was apparently too angry to trust herself to look in the +direction of the young girl and the lesson progressed without incident.</p> + +<p>However, she was only biding her time.</p> + +<p>"Miss Pierson," she said, toward the end of the lesson, in a voice so +rasping as to make the girls fairly shiver, "go to the blackboard and +demonstrate this problem."</p> + +<p>Then she read aloud in the same disagreeable voice, the following +difficult problem:</p> + +<p>"'Train A starts from Chicago going thirty miles an hour. An hour later +Train B starts from Chicago going thirty-five miles an hour. How far +from Chicago will they be when Train B passes Train A?'"</p> + +<p>The girls looked up surprised. The problem was well in advance of what +they had been studying and Miss Leece was really asking Anne to recite +something she had not yet learned.</p> + +<p>Anne hardly knew how to reply to the terrible woman who stood glowering +at her as if she would like to crush her to bits.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry," said the girl. "I cannot."</p> + +<p>"Miss Nesbit," said the teacher, "will you demonstrate this problem?"</p> + +<p>Miriam rose with a little smile of triumph on her face and went to the +blackboard, where she worked out the problem.</p> + +<p>"Why, what on earth does the woman mean?" whispered Grace. "Are we +expected to learn lessons we have never been taught and has that horrid +Miriam been studying ahead?"</p> + +<p>"I think I must be dreaming," replied Anne, looking sorrowfully at Miss +Leece.</p> + +<p>"Miss Pierson," thundered the teacher, "you are aware, I believe, that I +permit no conversation in this class. Stupidity and inattention are not +to be supported in any student, and I must ask you to leave the room."</p> + +<p>Anne rose in a dazed sort of way, looking very small and shabby as she +left the room.</p> + +<p>But Miss Leece was not to come off so easily in the fight, and Anne had +a splendid champion in Grace Harlowe, who could not endure injustice and +was fearless where her rights or her friends' rights were concerned.</p> + +<p>She rose quietly and faced the angry teacher, who already regretted +having gone so far.</p> + +<p>"If Miss Pierson is to be ordered from the room, Miss Leece, I shall +follow her. I spoke to her first. I was naturally surprised that you +gave out a problem so far in advance of our regular work. It is doubtful +if any girl in the class could do it except Miriam, and she must have +been prepared."</p> + +<p>"Miss Harlowe," said Miss Leece, stamping her foot, and again giving way +to rage, "I must ask you to take your seat at once and never interfere +again with the way I conduct this class."</p> + +<p>"You conduct this class with injustice and violence, Miss Leece," said +Grace, turning very white, but holding herself in admirable control +considering the conduct of the older woman.</p> + +<p>"I am in no humor to be answered back this morning, Miss Harlowe, and I +would advise you to be careful," continued the enraged woman. "I have +had enough to try me since last night and this morning. Miss Pierson +must answer to the principal for those insults, and her insubordination +just now has only made matters worse."</p> + +<p>"Miss Pierson has nothing to answer for which I have not, and I shall +join her," replied Grace, and she left the room.</p> + +<p>Miss Leece was about to continue the lesson when Jessica, pale and +trembling, rose and followed her friend. Nora was next to go and in +another moment there was not a girl left in the algebra class except +Miriam and her four particular friends. The gong sounded as the last +pupil closed the door behind her, but there was little doubt that the +first class in algebra had gone on a strike.</p> + +<p>The noon recess gong had sounded before the girls were able to meet and +talk about the incident, and, during the time that intervened, Anne had +received a summons in the form of a small note to meet the principal in +her office at three that afternoon. She said nothing to her friends, +however, and hid the envelope in her pocket.</p> + +<p>The girls in IV. algebra gathered around their friends to hear the +story. They were indignant and expressed their readiness to join the +strike out of sympathy in case there was any more trouble.</p> + +<p>"They have no right to put such a violent woman over us," said Grace, as +she nibbled at a pickle and a cracker in the locker room. "I wish they +would give me the opportunity. I should be more than willing to testify +to her behavior before the entire faculty and the school board +combined."</p> + +<p>Anne, herself, the center of the whole affair was very quiet. This +remarkable young girl seemed to possess some secret force that she was +able to draw upon when she most needed it.</p> + +<p>"Anne, you precious child," exclaimed the impetuous Nora, "you must not +get scared. Whatever happens, the whole class means to stand by you. +Don't we, girls?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," came from all sides.</p> + +<p>"I don't think anything in particular will happen," replied Anne. "I +believe Miss Leece really wants to prevent my winning the prize. That's +all."</p> + +<p>"She has certainly adopted a pet," cried Marian Barber.</p> + +<p>"What did Miriam Nesbit mean by studying ahead like that?" exclaimed +another. "It was disloyal to the whole class."</p> + +<p>"It looks very much as if they had fixed it up between them," continued +Grace. "I'm sorry about the effigy, but I won't stand that kind of +favoritism. It's mean and underhanded."</p> + +<p>After school Anne lingered in the corridor until the other girls had +gone. Then she made her way slowly to the office of the principal. "Come +in," came the answer to her timid knock.</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson, the principal, was a fine woman, much beloved by the +people of Oakdale where she had served as principal of the Girls' High +School for many years. She had adjusted numerous difficulties in her +time, but never such a knotty problem as the present one. It was +incredible that Anne Pierson, who stood so well in her classes that she +had already been mentioned by the faculty, should have engaged in such +an escapade as Miss Leece had accused her of.</p> + +<p>"Sit down," she said kindly to the young girl, whose small, tired face +appealed to her sympathies. "What is this trouble between you and Miss +Leece, Miss Pierson?" she continued, plunging into the subject.</p> + +<p>"I do not know myself, Miss Thompson," answered Anne quietly.</p> + +<p>"But she accuses you of rather terrible things, Miss Pierson," went on +the principal, picking up a slip of paper and reading aloud, +"'inattention, insubordination, impertinence and a tendency to make +trouble.' Have you any answer to make to these charges?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Anne.</p> + +<p>"Have you nothing to say?"</p> + +<p>"Only that they are untrue."</p> + +<p>"Miss Pierson," continued the principal, opening a closet door, "do you +recognize this figure."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="i002" id="i002"></a> +<img src="images/i002.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?"</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<p>There, hanging by its neck on a coat hook and still wearing its +fantastic bonnet and green veil, was the famous effigy.</p> + +<p>Anne looked at the absurd thing for a moment in silence. Then her eyes +met Miss Thompson's, and both teacher and pupil burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>The young girl never knew how far that laugh went to soften her present +predicament. As a matter of fact, Miss Thompson had never liked the +teacher in mathematics, while the small, shabby pupil appealed strongly +to her sympathy.</p> + +<p>"Were you not the originator of this outrageous plot, Miss Pierson?"</p> + +<p>Anne was silent. She could hardly say she was the originator and still +she had participated.</p> + +<p>"I will put the question in another form," said the principal. "If you +were not the originator, who was?"</p> + +<p>Still Anne made no reply.</p> + +<p>"Miss Leece," continued the principal, "alleges that she distinctly saw +you standing by the figure. She did not recognize the other faces. Do +you think, Miss Pierson, that such an escapade as you engaged in last +night was entirely respectful or worthy of a pupil of Oakdale High +School?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Anne at last.</p> + +<p>"Do you know that suspension or expulsion are the punishments for such +behavior?"</p> + +<p>Anne clasped her hands nervously. She saw the freshman prize floating +away, and her eyes filled with tears, but she said nothing.</p> + +<p>Instead of being angry, however, Miss Thompson was pleased with the +girl's pluck and loyalty. But she was puzzled to know how to proceed. +Her judgment and her sympathies revolted against punishing this prize +pupil, and still it looked as if Miss Leece had everything on her side. +A tap at the door interrupted her reflections, and Anne opened it, +admitting Mrs. Gray escorted by David and Grace.</p> + +<p>"My dear Miss Thompson," said the old lady, "I know you will consider me +an interfering old woman, but when I heard that my particular child, +Anne Pierson, was in trouble, I came straight to you. I want to talk the +whole matter over comfortably; since it's my own freshman class that's +on the rampage, I feel as if I had a right to put in a word."</p> + +<p>"You are most welcome, Mrs. Gray," replied Miss Thompson, cordially.</p> + +<p>She was exceedingly fond of the lonely old lady who had been a +benefactor to the school in so many ways. "But what's this you say about +the freshman class? I have heard nothing about it."</p> + +<p>"Grace," said Mrs. Gray, "suppose you tell Miss Thompson what you have +just finished telling me."</p> + +<p>Then Grace related the incident in the algebra class and the long +succession of insults Anne had endured from the terrible Miss Leece.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear," murmured Miss Thompson, "this looks like persecution and +very strong favoritism on the part of Miss Leece. A thing we wish to +keep out of the school as much as possible. But what about this!" and +she opened the door of the closet where the pumpkin face of the effigy +grinned at them grotesquely from the shadows.</p> + +<p>"I have something to say about that, Miss Thompson," declared David. "I +am the author of this 'crime' and I intend to take the blame for it. +Miss Pierson had so little to do with it that we had fairly to drag her +out of her own house to make her join the crowd."</p> + +<p>"I think, Miss Thompson," put in Mrs. Gray, "that a teacher must have +been exceedingly sharp and disagreeable to have inspired such nice +children to this," and she pointed to the figure.</p> + +<p>"I believe you are right," admitted the principal after a moment's +thought, "and I trust, under the circumstances, that the whole affair +can be settled without the interference of the School Board. Suppose you +leave Miss Leece to me. And young people," she added, "if you will +promise to say nothing more about the subject, I think Miss Leece may be +persuaded to let the matter drop."</p> + +<p>And so ended the Hallowe'en escapade. Miss Thompson paid a visit to Miss +Leece that evening, at the teacher's rooms in Oakdale, and was closeted +with her for more than an hour. No one ever knew what happened. Miss +Thompson was a woman to keep her own counsel; but the affair never came +up before the School Board and Miss Leece, after that, though somewhat +stiff in her manner, had no more outbursts of rage for some time. +Undoubtedly her display of favoritism in the algebra class had lost her +the day.</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson was a woman of fine judgment and broad and just views. She +was proud of the Oakdale High Schools and the splendid classes they +turned out year after year. She realized perfectly what a disturbance a +woman like Miss Leece could cause and she determined to check her at +every point, especially when the most prominent and finest pupils of the +two schools were implicated.</p> + +<p>Therefore the offenders went scot-free and Anne was once more safe to +pursue the freshman prize.</p> + +<p>Miss Leece, however, was only biding her time. While Anne had won this +battle she might lose the next.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THANKSGIVING DAY</h3> + + +<p>"Oh, how I love Thanksgiving!" cried Grace.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how you love turkey, you mean," exclaimed her bosom friend, Nora +O'Malley.</p> + +<p>"Yes," admitted Grace, "the turkey is a grand old bird, bless him, but +football is what I really love, delightful, thrilling football. I wish I +could play center on the home team. I know I could make a touchdown as +well as the best of them."</p> + +<p>The crowd of young people were seated on straw in the bottom of a large +road wagon that was slowly making its way from Grace's house out to the +football grounds. It was decorated with the colors of the Oakdale High +School, sea-blue and white, and the girls wore blue and white rosettes +and carried long horns from which dangled ribbon streamers. Numbers of +Oakdale people were hurrying down the road toward the field, and the +crisp autumn air vibrated with the sounds of talk and laughter. In the +distance could be heard the music of the town band, which always gave a +concert before the Thanksgiving game.</p> + +<p>"And to think that little Anne has never in her life seen a football +game!" exclaimed Jessica.</p> + +<p>Anne blushed.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied reluctantly, "I'll have to admit this is my very +first game, but I understand the rules. Grace has explained them to me. +I hope our boys will win."</p> + +<p>"If the Dunsmore boys are in good trim, I'm afraid they'll give us a +stiff pull," observed David, "but the stiffer the pull the more +interesting it is to watch, so long as they don't lick us."</p> + +<p>Just then the wagon drew up at the grounds and the boys and girls jumped +out and made their way through the crowd to their seats.</p> + +<p>Everybody in Oakdale turned out for the annual Thanksgiving football +game. The professors and their wives, the teachers from the Girls' High +School and all the pupils were there in full force, besides the citizens +of Oakdale and their families. There was really a very large assemblage +in the semicircular ampitheater which was hung with bunting and flags in +honor of the great occasion, and probably not one in the whole cheerful +company but had enjoyed a good Thanksgiving dinner that afternoon, so +good humor beamed from every face.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think this is a thrilling sight, Anne?" demanded Grace, for +there was not a soul in Oakdale who was not vain of the High School +football team, which had won for itself honors all over the state.</p> + +<p>"Wonderful!" exclaimed Anne, clasping her hands and waiting impatiently +for the performance to commence.</p> + +<p>Just then the band struck up again, and under cover of the music David +whispered to Jessica:</p> + +<p>"Do you see that man over there to the right on the back seat, with +long, dark hair and a slouch hat?"</p> + +<p>Jessica found the individual presently, starting slightly when she saw +his face.</p> + +<p>"I do believe it's Anne's father," she whispered.</p> + +<p>"It just is," said David, "and he's looking hard at Anne, too. I wonder +if he means to make another scene."</p> + +<p>"Poor Anne!" sighed Jessica. "She seems to have more than her fair share +of troubles."</p> + +<p>The two teams then filed out for warming-up practice; the excitement of +the ensuing game drove all thought of the sinister looking Mr. Pierson +out of their heads, for the time being. The first half ended in a +brilliant touchdown for the High School boys, though the kick for goal +failed. Immediately the place rang with the cheers of the spectators. +Crowds of boys rushed up and down giving the High School yell and when +the noise died down somewhat the girls started the High School song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Here's three cheers for dear old Oakdale,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God bless her, everyone!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Anne was thrilled. Never had she enjoyed herself so much. She stood upon +the seat beside Grace and waved a blue and white banner as frantically +as anybody else.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I quite understand what it's all about," she confided to +David, who sat next to her, "but I am very happy all the same."</p> + +<p>David smiled down into the radiant face. What a new dress and hat can do +for one small, insignificant little person is quite wonderful sometimes. +And Anne, with the money she had earned from Mrs. Gray, had replenished +her wardrobe. In her neat brown suit and broad-brimmed hat she was +really pretty, in a queer, quiet sort of way, David thought. He wondered +if the father, hidden by rows of people, in the back, would be able to +see how prosperous and well his daughter was looking. But his attention +was recalled to the football field, for the next half was going against +the High School, and there was apprehension among the sons and daughters +of Oakdale.</p> + +<p>"Dunsmore! Dunsmore!" cried a delegation from Dunsmore College.</p> + +<p>But Dunsmore was not to be the victor that Thanksgiving Day. It was +ordained that, just as hope had almost expired, a slender, fleet-footed +young junior of the High School team should seize the ball and fly like +the wind across the line. Score 10 to 1—Oakdale's score!</p> + +<p>Immediately a terrific hubbub began. Surely the place had gone mad, Anne +thought. The hundreds of spectators, including Grace and her party, had +rushed from the ampitheater, clambered over the railing and dashed into +the field of glory. Such yelling and roaring, such blowing of horns +while the hero of the afternoon was carried about on the shoulders of +his fellows, made her heart palpitate wildly. Her friends had forgotten +all about her, evidently, or perhaps they thought she had followed.</p> + +<p>"Anne," said a voice in her ear, "don't make any disturbance. I want you +to come with me."</p> + +<p>Anne turned around quickly and faced her father.</p> + +<p>"Come at once!" he said. "I want to get out of this howling mob as soon +as possible. We can talk later."</p> + +<p>He took her hand, not ungently, and presently they found themselves on +the other side of the fence surrounding the field. Anne had not meant to +go, but she knew her father was quite capable of making a scene and she +felt she couldn't endure it just then. Once outside, she thought she +might escape. Never once, however, did he release her hand until he had +her safe in one of the town hacks and they had started down the road.</p> + +<p>When Grace and her friends finally recovered from their wild joy and +excitement there was no Anne to be found.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she stayed in her seat," exclaimed Grace, but the place was +quite empty.</p> + +<p>David and Jessica looked about them uneasily.</p> + +<p>"What chumps we were!" said the young man presently. "We never bothered +to look after her, and now probably that old parent of hers has actually +gone and kidnapped the poor child."</p> + +<p>They searched through the crowds everywhere, but Anne was nowhere about.</p> + +<p>At last David and Jessica confessed their suspicions to Grace.</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh!" cried Grace, "I feel as if we were personally responsible for +her! What shall we do?"</p> + +<p>David thought a minute.</p> + +<p>"Is there a play at the Opera House to-night?" he asked presently.</p> + +<p>"I believe there is," replied Grace. "Why?"</p> + +<p>"Ten to one Anne's father is acting in it," said David, "and that is the +reason he happens to be in Oakdale to-day."</p> + +<p>"That's a very brilliant idea if it happens to be true," said Jessica. +"But don't you think we had better see Miss Mary Pierson before we do +anything?"</p> + +<p>"No," exclaimed Grace decisively. She was in the habit of thinking +quickly and her friends usually let her have her way; but it was +generally the best way. "It would be a pity to alarm her unnecessarily +if we can avoid it. Anne isn't expected home until late, anyway. She is +invited as are all of you to eat supper at my house. Suppose we go right +to town, while David makes some inquiries at the Opera House. Then, if +Anne's father is really acting in town to-night, we shall know what to +do."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, they tumbled into the road wagon, whipped up the horse and +drove back to Oakdale as fast as they could go. On the way in, they saw +a new bill posted on a wall, advertising a play entitled "Forsaken." It +showed, in vivid colors, a young girl very ragged and tired looking, +asleep on the steps of a large church.</p> + +<p>"Let's go to the show," cried Nora, who always managed to combine +amusement with duty; "that is," she added, "if Anne's father is in it. +Of course, Anne will probably be somewhere about, in that case, and we +could spirit her away while he is acting."</p> + +<p>"That isn't a bad idea," answered David. "But I'd better find out a few +things first. I'll come over to your house, Grace, and report," he +called as he jumped out of the back of the cart.</p> + +<p>The girls waited impatiently for his return, feeling that every moment +Anne might be speeding away in some outgoing train, and they were losing +valuable time. Grace had thought of consulting her mother, her best and +wisest counsellor at all times, but Mr. and Mrs. Harlowe had gone on a +long drive to the home of Mrs. Harlowe's mother and would not return +until late that night. In half an hour their patience was rewarded; the +gate clicked and David ran breathlessly up the walk, joining them +presently in the parlor.</p> + +<p>"It's true," he cried excitedly. "Anne is at the Spencer Arms, probably +locked up in a room. Her father is acting to-night in 'Forsaken,' and +the whole company leaves town on the 11.30 train. I suppose Anne must go +to the theater, for there will be no time to go back to the hotel after +the play. I got the whole thing out of the clerk."</p> + +<p>"Then we can all go to the theater," cried Nora triumphantly.</p> + +<p>"What good will that do Anne?" demanded practical Grace.</p> + +<p>"It may do her no good whatever," said David, "but it would be well not +to lose sight of the father, even, if we must follow him to the train. +And if Anne knows we are near, she will be able to get back her nerve."</p> + +<p>"Children," cried Grace suddenly, "I have a scheme. I won't put it into +action unless it's absolutely necessary, but it's bound to work."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" demanded the others.</p> + +<p>"I won't tell," replied Grace mysteriously, "because I may not have to +use it, and I'll warn you that it's rather dangerous. But it will save +Anne, and we just mustn't get caught."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>GRACE KEEPS HER SECRET</h3> + + +<p>The "best" Oakdale people did not often see the melodramas that appeared +from time to time at the small opera house. Occasionally, if something +really good came along, Oakdale society turned out in force and filled +the boxes and the orchestra seats; but, generally speaking, the little +theater was only half filled.</p> + +<p>And such was the case on this Thanksgiving night. Most of the audience +was made up of farmers out holiday-making with their families, factory +girls from the silk mills and a few storekeepers and clerks.</p> + +<p>"I am glad there are so few people here," observed Grace, looking around +the scanty audience; "because, if we have to resort to my scheme, it +will make it much easier and less dangerous."</p> + +<p>"What in the world is it?" pleaded Jessica.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," answered her friend. "I'm afraid you'll object, so I won't +tell until the last minute."</p> + +<p>Just then a wheezy orchestra struck up a march and the High School party +settled down in their seats, each with a secret feeling that it was +rather good fun, in spite of the peculiar reason that had taken them +there.</p> + +<p>"Here he is," said Nora, pointing to the name on the programme. "He +takes the part of Amos Lord, owner of the woolen mills."</p> + +<p>At that moment the lights went down and the music stopped short. The +curtain rolled up slowly disclosing the front of a church. It was night +and lights gleamed through the stained glass windows. Snow was falling +and from the church came the sound of organ music playing the wedding +march. The picture was really very impressive, although the music was +somewhat throaty and the flakes of snow were larger than life-size.</p> + +<p>But who was it half lying, half sitting on the church steps, shivering +with cold?</p> + +<p>The girls had not been so often to the theater that they could afford to +be disdainful over almost any passable play, and from the very moment +the curtain went up their interest was aroused. Certainly, there was +something extremely romantic and interesting about the lonely little +figure on the church steps.</p> + +<p>"That's the heroine," whispered Jessica. "Her name is Evelyn Chase."</p> + +<p>Then people began to go into the church. It was a wedding evidently, +although the groom was a tall, lean, middle-aged individual with gray +hair.</p> + +<p>"It's Mr. Pierson himself," exclaimed Nora in a loud whisper.</p> + +<p>The bride-to-be was young and quite pretty. She was not dressed in +white, but it was plain she was the bride because she carried a bouquet +and hung on the arm of Anne's incorrigible parent. As they started up +the steps, what should they stumble over but the half-frozen form of the +young girl!</p> + +<p>Then, there was a great deal of acting, not badly done at all, thought +David, who had had more experience in these matters than his friends. +The bride refused to go on with the ceremony until the poor little thing +was taken care of. The groom would brook no delay, for, oh, perfidy, he +had recognized in the still figure his own child by a former wife +deserted years before.</p> + +<p>Slowly the forsaken girl regained consciousness, lifted her head from +the steps, threw back her shawl, and——</p> + +<p>"Heavens and earth, it's Anne herself!" exclaimed Grace.</p> + +<p>It was Anne. They were so startled and amazed they nearly tumbled off +their seats.</p> + +<p>"As I live, it is Anne, and acting beautifully!" whispered David.</p> + +<p>"Where did she learn how?" demanded Jessica. "Strange she never told +it."</p> + +<p>But they were too interested to reply, for the action of the play was +excellent and the interest held until the curtain rang down on the first +act.</p> + +<p>"No wonder he wants to keep her with him," ejaculated David when the +lights went up. "She is the star performer in the show."</p> + +<p>"She is wonderful," declared Grace. "To think that little, brown, quiet +thing could be so talented! I always imagined acting was the hardest +thing in the world to do, but it seems as though she had always been on +the stage."</p> + +<p>"Are we still going to try to save her?" asked Nora.</p> + +<p>"Of course," replied David. "She doesn't want to act. Didn't you hear +her say so that night? She wants to go to school."</p> + +<p>"But it seems a pity, somehow, when she is so talented."</p> + +<p>"She's just as talented in her studies," said Grace, "and I've often +heard that stage life is very hard. No, no! I intend to do my best to +get Anne away this very night, if it upsets the entire town of Oakdale."</p> + +<p>When the second act was over, and Anne had actually so moved her +audience that one old farmer was audibly sobbing into a red cotton +handkerchief, and the girls themselves were secretly wiping their eyes, +Grace whispered to David:</p> + +<p>"I'm going to write a note, if you'll lend me a pencil and a slip of +paper, and wrap it around the stem of this chrysanthemum. When Anne +appears in the next act, you go up in the box, and if she's alone an +instant pitch it to her. Then she will know what she's to do."</p> + +<p>"But what is she to do?" demanded the others.</p> + +<p>"I won't tell," persisted Grace. "You'll object, if I do."</p> + +<p>"All right," said David. "I'll obey you Mistress Grace, although I wish +you would confide in me."</p> + +<p>But Grace was obdurate. She would tell no one.</p> + +<p>The last act disclosed an attic at the top of an old tenement, with +dormer windows looking out on a wintry scene. Anne appeared, more ragged +than ever, carrying a little basket of matches. It was evident that she +was a match girl by trade, and that this was her wretched domicile. As +she crept down the center of the stage, ill and wretched, for she was +supposed to be about to die—David saw his opportunity. From behind the +curtain of the box he tossed the chrysanthemum, which fell right at her +feet.</p> + +<p>"If she only sees it," he thought.</p> + +<p>But apparently she didn't. Going wearily to an old cupboard, she took +out a crust of bread. Then she drew the ragged curtains at the windows +and lit a candle. Simultaneously the entire attic was illuminated, for +stage candles have remarkable powers of diffusing light.</p> + +<p>"Why doesn't she pick up the flower?" exclaimed Grace. "If she doesn't +the scheme won't work at all."</p> + +<p>"I believe she's going to die," whispered Nora in a broken voice.</p> + +<p>Just then the Irish comedian appeared, puffing and blowing from the long +climb he had had to the top of the house. He had come to bring help to +the dying girl, but he was funny in spite of the dreary tragedy, and +Nora changed her tears to laughter and began to giggle violently, +burying her face in her handkerchief in her effort to control her mirth. +Her laughter was always contagious, and presently her two friends were +giggling in chorus.</p> + +<p>"Do hush, Nora O'Malley!" whispered Jessica nervously. "You know that if +you once get us started we'll never stop."</p> + +<p>A countryman, sitting back of Nora, touched her on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Be you laughing or crying, miss?" he asked. "It ain't a time for +laughing nor yet for crying, since the young lady ain't dead yet and I +don't believe she's goin' to die, either."</p> + +<p>"She just is," exclaimed Nora, wiping the tears from her eyes. "She'll +die before she gets off that bed to-night, I'll wager anything."</p> + +<p>All this while, the chrysanthemum with the note twisted and pinned to +its stem lay in the middle of the stage. In the meantime, Anne had +fallen into a stupor from cold and hunger. The kind little comedian +rushed about the stage, making a fire, putting on the tea kettle and +stumbling over his own feet in an effort to be useful.</p> + +<p>"Now, all the others will enter in a minute," whispered Grace +disgustedly, "and she'll never get it at all."</p> + +<p>Just then Anne turned on her pillow and opened her eyes. They looked +straight at David, who was sitting in the front of the box. He pointed +deliberately at the chrysanthemum.</p> + +<p>"She sees it," said Jessica, for Anne's eyes were now fixed on the +flower.</p> + +<p>When the kind Irishman departed to spend his last cent on medicine and +food for the dying girl, she rose, staggered across the stage, seized +the chrysanthemum and rushed back again, just in time to be lying prone +when her father entered, now a repentant and sorrowful sinner.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," whispered Grace in a relieved tone. "I feel sure that +the plan will work to perfection."</p> + +<p>Anne <i>did</i> die a stage death, and there was not a dry eye in the house +when she forgave her father, bade farewell to the entire company, who +had now gathered in the attic, and her soul passed out to soft music +while the lights were turned very low.</p> + +<p>"Fire! Fire!" rang out a voice from the darkened house.</p> + +<p>Where did the voice come from? Nora and Jessica were so startled they +could only clutch each other and wonder, while Grace whispered:</p> + +<p>"Don't move from your seats."</p> + +<p>"Grace, was that your voice?" whispered David, who had joined the girls +during the death-bed scene.</p> + +<p>But Grace made no reply. She only put her finger to her lips as she held +his arm with a detaining hand.</p> + +<p>There was a panic in the house. The audience rushed for the doors while +the actors leaped over the footlights in their mad scramble to escape. +Several women's voices took up the cry of fire and the place was in wild +confusion. Evidently the man who managed the lights had been too +frightened to turn them on again, for the theater still remained in +semi-darkness.</p> + +<p>The four young people did not move while the audience was crowding out +of the aisles.</p> + +<p>"We might as well be suffocated as crushed," observed David. "It's a +much more comfortable death, and besides I can't smell any smoke."</p> + +<p>Grace smiled but was silent.</p> + +<p>"I'm here at last," announced Anne's well-known voice behind them.</p> + +<p>And there she was, still in her ragged stage dress, carrying her hat and +coat on her arm.</p> + +<p>"Why, Anne Pierson!" cried Nora, "I thought you were dead and gone."</p> + +<p>Anne laughed.</p> + +<p>"Not dead," she said. "But I would certainly have been gone in another +half hour. We needn't hurry," she continued. "I don't believe he would +ever think of looking for me inside the theater, and, for the time +being, this is the safest place."</p> + +<p>"Anne, why did you never tell us you were an actress!" demanded David.</p> + +<p>"I was afraid to," faltered the girl. "I was afraid you would all hate +me if you knew the truth. Besides, I never acted but six months in all +my life. We toured in this play a year ago, and I knew the part +perfectly. It would have been cruel of me not to have played to-night. +The girl who usually does it was sick and there was no one to take her +part. When father told me that, I knew I should have to do it this once, +but if the fire panic hadn't started I couldn't have gotten away from +him very easily. He would have made a terrible scene. And even then, it +might have been difficult. No stranger would have helped me run away +from my own father, who is determined that I shall go on the stage. He +thinks I have the making of an actress. But I don't like the stage life. +It is hard and ugly. I want to study, and be with girls like you." A +charming smile radiated her small, intelligent face.</p> + +<p>"Where do I come in?" asked David, looking at her.</p> + +<p>"I think you are the best friend I have in the world, David," declared +Anne. "I can never forget your kindness."</p> + +<p>"And now, Mademoiselle Annette Piersonelli," asked David, secretly much +pleased at the girl's earnestness, "can't you divest yourself of your +ragged dress before we go?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," she replied. "I am fully clothed underneath." She slipped +off the stage dress and put on her hat and coat.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, not a soul was left in the theater except two of the ushers, +who were sniffing around trying to find out where the fire scare had +originated.</p> + +<p>"There comes father," whispered Anne. "Can't we hide behind the seats?"</p> + +<p>"Quick," cautioned David. "He's coming down the center aisle."</p> + +<p>The five young people crouched low while the actor stalked down the +aisle. But it was plain he was not looking for his daughter in the +theater, for he called out to one of the ushers moving about at a +distance:</p> + +<p>"Have you seen anything of the young girl who was with the company? I +lost her during the panic and I haven't been able to locate her since. I +must be leaving town in a few minutes," he added, consulting his watch. +"It's almost time for the train now."</p> + +<p>"The company all left with the audience," said the usher. "I guess she +went along with 'em."</p> + +<p>"Now is our time," said Anne, when the actor had disappeared. "Suppose +we go out the stage entrance and down that side street!"</p> + +<p>Whereupon she led the way back of the boxes and into the wings, followed +by her friends, who looked curiously about them at the unusual sight.</p> + +<p>"What a queer place," said Grace, "and how smudgy the scenery looks! Are +these little places dressing rooms, Anne?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Anne. "You see, it's all horrid when you are close. And +the life is worse—riding almost every day on smoky trains and spending +each night in a different place. The people are so different, too. I +would rather go to Oakdale High School," she exclaimed, "than be the +greatest actress in the world."</p> + +<p>They were standing in one of the larger dressing rooms while Anne +endeavored to wipe the powder and rouge from her face with a pocket +handkerchief.</p> + +<p>A tall figure darkened the doorway, and in the glass Anne saw the +reflection of her father's face. Without a word, she ran to the open +window and jumped out on the fire escape. The others followed nimbly +after her. Mr. Pierson turned and rushed down the passage to the side +entrance.</p> + +<p>"Hurry, Anne!" called David. "He will meet you at the bottom if you +don't."</p> + +<p>They climbed quickly down the ladder, almost treading on each other's +fingers in their haste, and in another moment they were running down an +alleyway.</p> + +<p>"Another narrow escape," cried Anne, when they were out of danger. "How +shall I ever thank you, dear friends?"</p> + +<p>"You have already discharged the debt, Anne, by letting us see you act," +answered Grace.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Grace," commanded David, "own up now. It was you, wasn't +it, who started the fire panic?"</p> + +<p>"I told you I wouldn't tell," answered Grace, "and I never shall."</p> + +<p>"Anne, did she say anything about it in her note?" asked Nora.</p> + +<p>"No," said Anne mysteriously, "she never mentioned the word 'fire' at +all."</p> + +<p>"I feel certain it was you who called 'fire,' Grace," said Jessica.</p> + +<p>"I'll never, never tell," cried Grace teasingly; "so you'll never, never +know."</p> + +<p>She turned in at her own gate and to this day the mystery is still +unsolved.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>MRS. GRAY'S ADOPTED DAUGHTERS</h3> + + +<p>After Mrs. Gray's luncheon party in honor of Grace and her three friends +a tiny little idea had implanted itself in her mind. As the weeks rolled +on, and Christmas holidays approached, it grew and spread into a real +plan which occupied her thoughts a considerable part of every day.</p> + +<p>As a secretary Anne had turned out admirably. The only drawback was that +Mrs. Gray could not see enough of her. The lonesome old lady almost +lived on Anne's semi-weekly visits, but the girl was too busy to give +any more of her time to reading aloud or driving with her benefactor.</p> + +<p>Finally Mrs. Gray took a bold step. She invited the four girls to meet +at another Sunday luncheon, and announced her intentions from the head +of the table.</p> + +<p>"My dear children," she said, "you are aware that I am a very old +woman."</p> + +<p>"We are not aware of anything of the sort, Mrs. Gray," interrupted +Grace.</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless I am," pursued Mrs. Gray. "A very old, lonesome person +with few pleasures. I have decided, therefore, to do an exceedingly +selfish thing, and give myself a real treat."</p> + +<p>"You deserve it if anyone in the world does, Mrs. Gray," put in Jessica. +"You who are always giving other people treats."</p> + +<p>"Wait until you hear the plan, child, before you pass judgment," +answered Mrs. Gray. "It's been too many years to count since I have had +a really, jolly Christmas," she continued. "I have just sat here in this +quiet old house, and let the holidays roll over me without even noticing +them."</p> + +<p>"Now, Mrs. Gray," exclaimed Grace, "the poor people in Oakdale would not +agree with you on that point. Only last Christmas I saw your carriage +stopping in front of the Flower Mission, and it was simply bursting with +presents."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, my dear. It is the easiest thing in the world to give +presents and not so much pleasure after all. What I want is some actual +fun, good Christmas cheer and plenty of young people. But I shall have +to be selfish if I'm to get it all, because it will mean that I'm to rob +mothers and fathers for a whole week of their children. Mr. and Mrs. +Harlowe will have to learn to do without you, Grace, for seven days and +nights. Your father, Jessica, must keep his own house. Nora, your +brothers and sister must not expect to see you at all while you belong +to me. As for my precious Anne, here, I should just like to steal her +away altogether from her mother. In fact, my dears, I am going to adopt +you for a whole week during the holidays and then—such larks!"</p> + +<p>And the charming old lady looked so gay and pretty that the girls all +laughed joyously.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you really want us to make you a visit, Mrs. Gray?"</p> + +<p>"I do indeed. That is the exceedingly selfish wish I have been +entertaining for the last six weeks. I not only want it, but I have +arranged for it already. I have made secret calls, my dears, and mothers +and fathers, brothers and sisters are all most agreeable. You are to +come to me a week before Christmas and must settle yourselves exactly as +if you were my own children. I mean to punish any homesick girl severely +by giving her an overdose of chocolate drops. Families may be visited +once a day, if necessary, though I shall frown down upon too frequent +absences. But, young ladies, before we get any further, tell me what you +think of the plan?"</p> + +<p>The girls were almost speechless with amazement and pleasure. To visit +Mrs. Gray's beautiful home and live in a whirl of parties and funmaking +such as would be sure to follow was more than any of them had ever +dreamed of.</p> + +<p>"It's perfectly delightful, Mrs. Gray!" they cried almost in one breath.</p> + +<p>"And we shall give the Christmas party together, my four daughters and +I, and we'll do exactly as we choose and invite whom we please."</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh!" exclaimed the four young girls. "Won't it be fun?"</p> + +<p>"It will for me," said the little old lady. "And I need to have a good +time. I am getting old before my time for lack of amusement. And now, my +lady-birds, who else shall we invite to the house party?"</p> + +<p>"Who else?" said Grace, somewhat crestfallen; for four intimate girl +chums are invariably jealous of admitting other girls to the charmed +circle.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean what other girls, Mrs. Gray?" asked Jessica.</p> + +<p>"No, no, child; I mean what other boys, of course. Do you think I want +any more than my four nice freshmen to amuse me? But I don't think this +party would be complete without four fine fellows to look after us. Who +are the four nicest boys you know?"</p> + +<p>"David," exclaimed all four voices in unison.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray laughed.</p> + +<p>"There seems to be no difference of opinion on that score," she replied; +"but is David the only boy in Oakdale?"</p> + +<p>"He's the nicest one," said Anne, who could never forget how kind David +had been to her when his sister was her bitter enemy.</p> + +<p>"Reddy Brooks is nice, too," said Nora. "He threw apples at some tramps +once, and saved us from being robbed."</p> + +<p>"Very good," said Mrs. Gray. "Reddy Brooks shall certainly be invited to +the house party. I admire courage above all things."</p> + +<p>"Then there's 'Hippopotamus' Wingate," said Jessica.</p> + +<p>"Who?" demanded Mrs. Gray.</p> + +<p>"His name is really 'Theophilus', but the boys have always called him +'Hippopotamus,' and now the name sticks to him and everybody forgets he +has any other."</p> + +<p>"Are you agreed on Hippopotamus, my adopted daughters?" demanded Mrs. +Gray.</p> + +<p>It was voted by acclamation, that Hippopotamus was agreeable to the +company.</p> + +<p>"And now, I have a fourth to propose," announced Mrs. Gray. "I think I +should like to import my great-nephew, Tom Gray, from New York. He is a +little older than these boys, perhaps. Nineteen is his age, I think, and +I haven't seen him since he was a child; but he's obliged to be nice +because he bears the name of one beloved by all who knew him."</p> + +<p>"Whose name, Mrs. Gray?" asked Nora.</p> + +<p>"That of my husband," said the old lady, softly. "The nicest Tom Gray +this world has ever known." And she looked at a portrait over the +sideboard of a very handsome young man dressed in the uniform of an Army +officer.</p> + +<p>"He loved his country, my dears, and fought for it nobly. He was a +soldier and a gentleman," went on the old lady proudly, "and I am sorry +he left no son to follow in his footsteps. He was a great hunter and +traveler, too. I used to tell him if he had not loved his family so +dearly, he would certainly have been a gypsy. He liked camping and +tramping, and used to wander off in Upton Woods for hours at a time. He +knew the names of all the trees and birds and animals that exist, I +believe. But he loved his home, too, and no woods had the power to draw +him away from it for long. I used to tell him he had brought a piece of +the forest and put it in our front yard, for he planted all those +beautiful trees you now see growing on my lawn, which my old gardener, +who has been with me since I was first married, cherishes as he would +his own children."</p> + +<p>"And is young Tom Gray like him, Mrs. Gray?" interposed Grace.</p> + +<p>"I hope so, my dear," sighed the old lady. "If he has inherited the +beautiful traits of his uncle, his wholesome tastes for the outdoors and +nature, he can't help being a fine fellow. But I have not seen my nephew +since he was a child. He has been living here and there all these years, +sometimes in America and sometimes in England. His mother and father are +both dead, and he has been brought up by his mother's unmarried sisters, +who are half English themselves. But he must be a nice boy, even if he +has only one drop of his uncle's blood in his veins."</p> + +<p>The girls sighed and said nothing. It was touching and beautiful to see +the old lady's loyalty and devotion after all these years of loneliness; +for her husband had been dead since she was a young woman. Still Mrs. +Gray never brooded. She was always cheerful and happy in doing +kindnesses for other people.</p> + +<p>"If ever I marry," sentimental Jessica was thinking, "I hope it will be +somebody like Mrs. Gray's husband."</p> + +<p>"I should like to have a brother like Tom Gray," observed Grace aloud.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mrs. Gray, "we shall have to wait and see what the new Tom +Gray is like. He may be utterly unlike <i>my</i> Tom Gray."</p> + +<p>And the old lady sighed.</p> + +<p>"We shall all have to get new party dresses," exclaimed Nora to change +the subject. "I have been wanting one for an age and now I have a good +excuse."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," cried Grace enthusiastically. "Now, at last, I shall be able +to get the blue silk mother promised I could have if at any time there +was an occasion worthy of it."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to ask papa to give me a lavender crepe for a Christmas +present," said Jessica.</p> + +<p>"O Mrs. Gray," continued Nora, "we are going to have such fun Oakdale +can't hold us."</p> + +<p>"I think we should have a surprise for Mrs. Gray," announced Grace. "She +is doing so much for us. O girls! I have an idea."</p> + +<p>"What!" demanded the others breathlessly, including Mrs. Gray herself, +who was as full of curiosity as a young girl.</p> + +<p>"No, no," cried Grace, "it wouldn't be a surprise if I gave it away. But +it's going to require a lot of work and planning to carry it out."</p> + +<p>"Is it big or little?" asked the dainty old lady as eager as a child to +find out the secret.</p> + +<p>"It's rather small," answered Grace.</p> + +<p>"Fine or superfine?"</p> + +<p>"Both," laughed Grace. "But you'll not know till Christmas night; so +stifle your curiosity."</p> + +<p>"I suppose I must wait, but it's going to be very hard," replied Mrs. +Gray plaintively.</p> + +<p>And so the party was arranged. Notes, written by Anne, were dispatched +to the four boys; plans were discussed for the week's amusements, and +the four girls finally started home in a state of great excitement to +look over their wardrobes and furbish up their party dresses.</p> + +<p>Only Anne had looked somewhat dubious during the conversation. How could +she spend a week in a beautiful house, with parties every night and +company all the time, and nothing to wear but that hideous black silk?</p> + +<p>"Anne," called Mrs. Gray, as the young girl was about to close the front +door and follow the others down the steps. "Wait a moment. I want to see +you." She led Anne into the big drawing room. "Do you know that I am +greatly in your debt, my child?" continued the old lady, as she drew +Anne down beside her on the sofa. "I don't think I could ever possibly +repay you for the good you have done me this autumn. But I am going to +try, nevertheless, by making you a Christmas present before Christmas +arrives. Now, when I was your age, I preferred clothes to other things. +I think all young girls do; or, if they don't they are most unnatural. +Therefore, child, I have decided to pay off some of my indebtedness to +you by getting my dressmaker to make you some dresses, if it is +agreeable to you. Why, what is this! My little girl crying?"</p> + +<p>The tears were streaming down Anne's cheeks.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't cry, my own child," sobbed Mrs. Gray. "For I always cry +when I see other people doing it, and it's very bad for my old eyes, you +know."</p> + +<p>"You are so good to me!" said Anne. "It makes me cry because I'm so +happy."</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, drying her eyes and beginning to +laugh. "What a couple of sillies we are, to be sure. Now go, Anne, to my +dressmaker, Mrs. Harvey, who has orders to make you four dresses, two +for evening and two for afternoon. Mrs. Harvey has good taste and will +help you select them. But perhaps you will like the ones she and I +looked at the other day. One of them I am sure you will admire. I chose +it specially because it will give color to your pale cheeks."</p> + +<p>"What is it, Mrs. Gray?" asked Anne eagerly.</p> + +<p>"It's pink crepe de Chine, my dear."</p> + +<p>And Anne held her breath to keep from crying again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>MIRIAM PLANS A REVENGE</h3> + + +<p>For weeks Miriam Nesbit had felt a sullen resentment toward her brother, +David, because he persisted in being friends with at least two of the +girls in Oakdale High School whom she disliked most.</p> + +<p>When he announced, one morning at breakfast, that he had been included +in Mrs. Gray's house party, his sister suddenly burst into tears of +passionate rage.</p> + +<p>"Please don't cry, Miriam, old girl," said David, who was not of a +quarrelsome disposition. "I'm awfully sorry if I hurt you, but, you +know, Mrs. Gray was one of my earliest sweethearts."</p> + +<p>Which was perfectly true. When David was a little boy he used to crawl +through the garden hedge and call on the charming old lady nearly every +day.</p> + +<p>David had hoped that Miriam would laugh at this, but she stormed all the +more, while poor Mrs. Nesbit looked wretched.</p> + +<p>"It isn't Mrs. Gray," sobbed Miriam. "But to think that my own brother +would associate with Grace Harlowe, who is always working against me, +and that common little Pierson girl whose sister takes in sewing!"</p> + +<p>"Miriam, Miriam!" exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit, "I am shocked to hear you say +such things. Because the girl is poor she is not necessarily common. +Your grandfather was a poor man, too. He started his career as a +machinist. You would never have had the money and position you have now +if he had not become an inventor. Is it possible you would try to keep +some one else from rising in life, when your own family struggled with +poverty years ago?"</p> + +<p>Miriam was silenced for a moment. She had seldom heard her mother speak +so forcibly; but Mrs. Nesbit had seen, with growing misgivings, the +innate snobbishness in her daughter's character, and for a long time she +had been looking for an opportunity like the one that now presented +itself.</p> + +<p>David had risen during Miriam's contemptuous speech, and had turned very +white; which was always a signal that his slow wrath had been kindled at +last; but since he was a child he had had such admirable control of his +feelings that it had often been remarked by older people. Miriam, +however, knew the sign and resorted again to tears to draw attention to +her own sufferings.</p> + +<p>"You and mother have turned against me," she cried. "Mother, you have +always loved David best, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" replied David. "You are a willful, selfish girl, jealous +because a poor girl is getting ahead of you in your classes and because +you are not included in the house party. Do you think Mrs. Gray would +ask you to join those four nice girls in her house after that Miss Leece +business? If you had learned to be polite and agreeable you would never +have gotten into this state now." Having delivered himself of his +opinion, and spent his rage, David walked out of the room and quietly +closed the door after him.</p> + +<p>"You see what you have done, Miriam," exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit. "You have +made your brother angry. I have seldom seen him like that before, not +since the stable man beat his dog. But don't cry, my child. It's all +over now," and Mrs. Nesbit drew her daughter to her and stroked her hot +forehead. "Why don't you give a house party, too?" she added after a +moment's thought. "Would it give you any pleasure or help to heal your +hurt feelings?"</p> + +<p>"O mother!" exclaimed Miriam, looking up quickly. "I believe I <i>will</i> +invite four girls and boys to spend Christmas week with me. Wouldn't it +be fun?"</p> + +<p>And it was in this manner that a plan for an opposition house party +sprang into existence; although the son of the house had joined the +other side.</p> + +<p>All through her preparations Miriam carefully guarded the secret that +she was bitterly hurt at having been left out of Mrs. Gray's party, and +she meditated a revenge that was still only a half-formed idea. In the +first place, she chose Julia Crosby as one of the guests of the +Christmas house party; Julia Crosby the tall, mischievous sophomore who +had originated the "Black Monks of Asia." Surely the two together could +work out some scheme which would bring her enemies to her feet and +humble little Mrs. Gray, who had dared to slight her.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the holidays were approaching. The crisp, cold air resounded +with the jingle of sleigh bells, for snow had fallen the first week in +December and all the sleighs in Oakdale were taken from their summer +quarters.</p> + +<p>The four chums were full of secret preparations. Grace had devised a +scheme of entertainment which, in the town of Oakdale, would be unique, +but it required much work and practice to perfect it. In the meantime +Nora O'Malley had decided to entertain her friends at a bobbing party to +start the Christmas holidays. And it was at this party that Miriam +seized her first opportunity to make trouble.</p> + +<p>"Anne, you are learned in many things, but not in outdoor fun," said +Grace as the young people in mufflers and sweaters started to climb the +long hill where the coasting was best.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you have never been coasting, Anne?" demanded David.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I'll have to admit it," replied Anne. "To tell the truth, I +never did have any fun, except reading, until I started in the High +School and met all of you. You see, little city children are denied all +these nice things unless they go to the parks, but it's no fun going +alone."</p> + +<p>"Well, you won't be alone now," said Hippy Wingate. "There are four to a +sled, and we'll put you in the middle to keep you from getting lost in +the snow."</p> + +<p>"Look out, here comes some one!" called Grace, just as a small sled shot +past them like a flash, with a laugh and a cheer from its occupants, +Miriam and Reddy Brooks.</p> + +<p>"They ought not to have done that," exclaimed David. "We couldn't see +them over the knob of the hill and they might have run us down."</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached the top of the hill, and Anne's heart +bounded at the sight of the long, white track made by the sled which had +just passed them and disappeared far below across a flat meadow now +smooth and hard as a table top.</p> + +<p>"Don't be frightened, Anne," said David, who sat behind her on the sled.</p> + +<p>He pinioned her arms with his own and with a wild whoop the four young +people skimmed down the hill.</p> + +<p>There was no time to be frightened, no time even to think, as they shot +through the fine bracing air like a ball from a cannon. Before they knew +it, they were landed at the bottom.</p> + +<p>"O Hippy," cried Grace, her cheeks glowing like winter berries, "I feel +as if I were riding the comet. But look out for the others," for the +remaining sleds followed in quick succession and the air resounded with +the whoops of the boys and girls as they shot past. "Is there any sport +in the world that can touch it?" she demanded of the world in general.</p> + +<p>Three or four more such rides, and Anne felt an exhilaration she had +never before known. She was climbing the hill for a final trip before +the party returned to Nora's for hot chocolate and sandwiches, when she +heard some one cry out just behind her. She had lingered a little to +watch the sleds pass, and had failed to notice a small sled with a +single occupant come over the brow of the hill well out of the beaten +path and make straight for her. It was Miriam Nesbit, riding flat on her +stomach and going like the wind.</p> + +<p>"Jump to the left, Anne," cried Grace's voice, "or you'll be hurt!"</p> + +<p>Anne looked up and saw the sled. It all happened in a flash, and how +David managed to get there first she never knew; but the next instant +the two were rolling over and over in the snow with Miriam on top of +them and a broken sled skidding on its back down the hillside.</p> + +<p>"It was Miss Pierson's fault," exclaimed Miriam as she pulled herself +out of the snow, and the others came running to the scene of the +accident. "Why didn't she get out of the way? Inexperienced people ought +not to come to bobbing parties. They always get hurt."</p> + +<p>David was binding up a cut in his wrist, which was sprinkling the snow +with blood. He was too angry to trust himself to answer his sister +before the others just then. They had pulled Anne out of a snowdrift and +she was leaning limply against Jessica, trying to collect her senses. It +seemed to her that she had been walking well out of the sled track, out +of everybody's way; but it didn't make any difference since nobody was +killed.</p> + +<p>"All I can say now, Miriam," said Grace, "is that you are entirely +mistaken. If you hadn't hit Anne you'd have knocked me over. I was +walking just ahead of her and nobody can say I am inexperienced."</p> + +<p>"Grace Harlowe, do you think I did it on purpose?" demanded Miriam +furiously.</p> + +<p>"I haven't insinuated anything, Miriam," replied Grace. "I simply wanted +to disabuse your mind of a mistake. That was all." And she turned away +from the angry girl.</p> + +<p>All this time the other young people had said nothing. It was really an +embarrassing situation, considering that David had not said a word +either for or against his sister.</p> + +<p>"I think we had better not coast any more to-night," said Nora, after a +pause. "David has hurt his hand and Anne is so shaken that it would be +well to give her something hot to drink. Come on, everybody."</p> + +<p>"David, are you much hurt?" asked Grace uneasily.</p> + +<p>"Nothing but a little cut," he said shortly, so shortly that Grace +flushed. Perhaps he was angry with her for having spoken out to Miriam.</p> + +<p>"I hope you aren't hurt much, David," said Miriam.</p> + +<p>David made no reply.</p> + +<p>"David," she repeated in a louder voice.</p> + +<p>But her brother had started down the hill, his hands in his pockets. +Nobody took much notice of Miriam as the young people followed after +him. Reddy Brooks was secretly congratulating himself that he hadn't +been riding behind her on the sled as she had wished, insisting that she +wanted to do the guiding herself. It was curious, he thought, and might +have resulted in a serious accident, at least to Anne if David hadn't +pulled her away. If Miriam had only thought to throw herself to the +right when she saw Anne in the way. Girls had no heads, anyway, that is, +most girls. Grace, he decided, was almost equal to a man for coolness +and good judgment. But there were few girls who could touch Grace +Harlowe; and he did a series of cartwheels in the snow to emphasize his +feelings, to the relief of everybody present, for the silence was +becoming uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>"Nora," said Anne when they had reached town, "if you'll excuse me I +think I'll go home. I'm a little tired."</p> + +<p>"I'll take you home, Anne," said David, who had heard her remark. "I +don't feel much like partifying either after this jolt. Come along, +little girl," and he tucked Anne's arm in his and marched her off +without another word.</p> + +<p>"All my party is leaving before the party," cried Nora in despair.</p> + +<p>"No, not all," replied Hippy Wingate. "There are still a few of us left, +and I promise to drink any extra chocolate you may happen to have."</p> + +<p>"Don't give the animals sweets, Nora," exclaimed Reddy. "Especially the +hippopotamus. He has a delicate stomach. You see, his keeper used to +feed him chocolate drops three times a day."</p> + +<p>Hippy grinned good-naturedly. He was a round roly-poly boy, famous for +his appetite.</p> + +<p>"Get away from here, Red Curls," he cried, hitting Reddy in the back +with a snowball.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you coward," cried Reddy, talking in a high falsetto voice, "to hit +a man when his back is turned. I'll slap you for that," and he landed a +snowball on Hippy's chest.</p> + +<p>Hippy crouched behind the girls.</p> + +<p>"I was a fool to throw at a pitcher," he cried; "he'll be sending me one +of his curves in a minute."</p> + +<p>"Hiding behind the ladies, hey?" returned Reddy, beginning to pitch +snowballs at the girls.</p> + +<p>"Let's wash his face," cried Nora to the other boys and girls coming up +just then. They chased Reddy all the way to Nora's house and rolled him +in the snow until he cried "enough."</p> + +<p>Once inside Nora's cozy home, the coasters were soon doing ample justice +to the good things to eat, which Nora's sister had prepared for them. +Although all three of Anne's chums regretted deeply the unpleasant +affair on the hill it was not mentioned again during the evening. Still, +each girl felt in her heart that poor little Anne had, in Miriam Nesbit, +a dangerous enemy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS</h3> + + +<p>"Here's the tack-hammer, Hippy, and don't fall off the ladder, please," +cautioned Grace, as she assisted Hippy Wingate to tack up an evergreen +garland in Mrs. Gray's drawing room.</p> + +<p>Not in twenty years had the old house taken on such holiday attire. +Great bunches of holly and cedar filled the vases and bowls and +decorated the chandeliers. Fires blazed on every hearth and the warm +glow from many candles and shaded lamps brightened the fine old rooms.</p> + +<p>"My dear young people," exclaimed Mrs. Gray, coming in just then, "how +happy you make me feel! I do wish you were all really my children and +could forever stay just the ages you are now."</p> + +<p>"This house would be like the palace of everlasting youth, then, +wouldn't it, Mrs. Gray?" suggested Anne.</p> + +<p>"Until some meddlesome little Pandora came along, opened the box and let +all the troubles out," interposed David, who was still feeling very +bitter toward his sister Miriam, and glad to leave home for a time until +his anger had cooled.</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, we have no Pandoras here," answered Mrs. Gray, smiling on the +young guests. "You are all girls and boys after my own heart, and I +trust we shall have a beautiful time together. But here comes that +nephew of mine, Tom Gray. I wonder if he's grown out of all +recollection."</p> + +<p>While she was speaking one of the town hacks had driven up to the steps, +and there was a violent ring at the bell.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Thomas Gray," announced the old butler at the door and Tom Gray, +who had been the subject of endless speculation and conjecture, entered +the room.</p> + +<p>"If he turns out to be disagreeable or stupid or anything," the girls +had been whispering, "it would be such a pity because everybody else is +so nice."</p> + +<p>Neither had the boys felt inclined to be prepossessed in Tom Gray's +favor. He was a stranger, from New York, older than themselves and in +college.</p> + +<p>"I wish he wasn't going to butt in with his city manners," Reddy Brooks +was thinking regretfully. "He is sure to have a swelled head and try to +boss the crowd."</p> + +<p>They had pictured him as a sort of dandy, with needle-toed patent +leather shoes and a coat cut in at the waist and padded over the +shoulders.</p> + +<p>Even David had voiced a few thoughts on the subject of Tom Gray.</p> + +<p>"I'll bet he's an English dude," he said. For Mrs. Gray's nephew had +spent most of his life in England. "He'll probably carry a cane and wear +a monocle."</p> + +<p>They were not surprised, therefore, when a young man entered the room +who bore out somewhat the picture they had conjured. He was tall and +slender, very dapper and rather ladylike in his bearing. His alert, dark +eyes were set too close together, and his face had a narrow, sinister +look that made them all feel uncomfortable. He spoke with a decided +English accent, in a light, flippant voice which sent a quiver of +dislike up and down David's spine, and made Reddy Brooks give his right +arm a vigorous twirl as if he would have liked to pitch something at the +young man's head.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray was the most surprised person in the room. It must be +remembered that she had not seen her nephew since he was a child, and +she had hoped for better things than this. However, always the most +courteous and loyal of souls, she now made the best of the situation and +greeted the newcomer cordially, though she did not bestow upon him the +motherly kiss she had been saving.</p> + +<p>Tom Gray bowed low over his aunt's hand.</p> + +<p>"You are so much changed, Tom; I should hardly have known you," +exclaimed the old lady, trying to conceal her disappointment and dismay. +"England has weaned you away from your own country. You look as if you +had just stepped out of Piccadilly."</p> + +<p>"And so I have, aunt," replied the young man, using a very broad "a." "I +have been in this country only a few months. England is the only place +in the world for me, you know. I can't bear America."</p> + +<p>Hippy Wingate gave himself an angry shake, which made all the ornaments +on the mantelpiece rattle ominously.</p> + +<p>"You must let me introduce you to my young friends, Tom," said Mrs. +Gray, changing the subject quickly.</p> + +<p>The introductions having been accomplished, she took his arm and led the +way back to dinner.</p> + +<p>"Do you think we can stand him for a week?" whispered David to Grace, as +they followed down the hall.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to," replied Grace, "or hurt Mrs. Gray's feelings. But isn't +he the limit?"</p> + +<p>"Asinine dandy!" hissed Hippy.</p> + +<p>"I knew he'd be a Miss Nancy," exclaimed Reddy.</p> + +<p>The girls did not express their disappointment, but as the meal +progressed the conversation was strained and stupid.</p> + +<p>"How did you leave your cousins in England, Tom?" asked Mrs. Gray, +trying to keep the ball rolling and inwardly wishing she had never asked +her nephew down.</p> + +<p>"Quite well, thank you, aunt," replied Thomas Gray. "I expect to leave +this beastly country and join them very soon."</p> + +<p>"Indeed?" answered Mrs. Gray, flushing and with difficulty keeping back +the tears of disappointment. To think a nephew of hers could have turned +out like this!</p> + +<p>"Do you play football?" demanded Hippy abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Really, I don't care for the game," answered Thomas. "It's awfully +rough, don't you know."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you prefer baseball?" suggested Grace.</p> + +<p>"No," continued the young man, "I can't say I do. The truth is, I don't +like outdoor games at all."</p> + +<p>"What do you like, then?" demanded Nora, giving him a glance of +ineffable scorn.</p> + +<p>"I like afternoon tea," he answered, "and bridge."</p> + +<p>Reddy almost groaned aloud, but he remembered his manners and choked his +outburst of disgust.</p> + +<p>"It is a pity," said Tom's aunt, turning her nearsighted blue eyes on +him in amazement and displeasure. "Our Oakdale boys are all athletes. +Even David here, the scholar and inventor, I'll venture to say, knows +football and baseball as well as his friends."</p> + +<p>"I'm not much of an inventor, Mrs. Gray," protested David. "You know my +airship tumbled down before it got half way across the gym. But I shall +never lose hope."</p> + +<p>"Ah, airships?" exclaimed Thomas Gray, and deliberately taking a monocle +from his pocket, he stuck it in his eye and stared at David, who choked +and sputtered in his glass of water, while Hippy dropped a fork that +fell on his plate with a great clatter.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray raised her lorgnette and looked at her nephew.</p> + +<p>"Thomas," she said sternly, "don't wear that thing here. It's not the +custom in this town or in this country, for that matter. If you are +nearsighted, buy yourself a pair of spectacles."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, aunt, certainly; it shall be as you wish," replied Thomas, +without a tinge of embarrassment. "I am so unused to America, you know."</p> + +<p>Then Nora relieved the painful situation by laughing. She was taken with +the giggles and she laughed till the tears rolled down her cheeks. The +others laughed, too, even Mrs. Gray, who felt that she might give way to +hysterics at any moment.</p> + +<p>After dinner Thomas Gray detained his aunt in another room, while the +girls and boys returned to the parlor. The two were closeted together +for some time, and when they finally appeared, Mrs. Gray looked +strangely flushed and nervous. But there was a smile on her nephew's +thin lips and a dangerous flicker in his crafty eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'll stake my last cent he's been getting money out of his poor little +aunty," said David to Grace. "He's just the kind to do it."</p> + +<p>"Poor Mrs. Gray!" exclaimed Grace. "I am so sorry for her. You can't +think how she's been planning this party for months. Why did she ever +ask down that wretch of a nephew? David, do try and make friends with +him. Maybe there's something good in him after all, and it will help +things along if Mrs. Gray feels that we want to like him."</p> + +<p>"All right," promised David. "It goes against my grain to talk with a +Miss Nancy dandy like that. It gives me a feeling in my chest like +indigestion and bronchitis combined—but I'll make the effort."</p> + +<p>So he went over and joined the Anglo-American, and began to talk with +him in an easy, friendly sort of way.</p> + +<p>"Won't you come over by the fire," he said. "I think we are going to +play some games the girls have planned."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, no," said the other, stifling a yawn. "I think I'll retire. +I've had a long journey and I'm awfully knocked out. By the way, old +chap," he continued, coming closer to David and whispering in his ear, +which made that sensitive young man draw back with a quiver of dislike, +"you couldn't favor me with a few dollars, could you? I left my check +book in my portmanteau, which is still on the way and I find I haven't a +cent. I'll return it to-morrow."</p> + +<p>David regarded him with amazement. Here was a man whom he had met only +an hour before, already trying to borrow money from him. Schoolboys are +not likely to have money about them, but David did happen to have five +dollars in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," was all he said, as he handed over the money.</p> + +<p>The transaction had only taken a moment and when David drew out the five +dollar bill, he was careful not to let anyone see him do it. However, +Mrs. Gray, who had been out of the room, returned at the very moment the +money was changing hands. In a flash she saw what her nephew had done. +Without stopping to think she made straight for the two young men.</p> + +<p>"Tom Gray," she said, speaking too low for anyone except her nephew and +David to hear, "how dare you ask me for money and then borrow from one +of my guests? You are a disgrace to your father, and to the name of +Gray! I am ashamed of you and I command you to give that money back to +David instantly."</p> + +<p>Tom Gray was as angry as his aunt. His face went from red to white, and +he looked as if he would like to break a vase or tear something to +pieces.</p> + +<p>"'Eavens, awnt, don't make a scene. I wouldn't a' awsked 'im, h'if I +'adn't needed more money. I'll pay him to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray and David were too surprised to speak. It was plain that, when +Tom Gray was angry, he dropped his h's.</p> + +<p>David looked at him curiously, then he drew the old lady's arm through +his.</p> + +<p>"Don't bother, Mrs. Gray," he said. "It was only a small loan, and I was +glad to be of service. I believe Mr. Gray wants to go to bed now. He +just said he was very tired. Shall I take him up?"</p> + +<p>"If you will," replied Mrs. Gray, quieting down. "His room is next +yours, David. Will you show him the way?"</p> + +<p>"Young people," she said, going across to the boys and girls, who had +gathered around the fire and were laughing and talking in low voices, +"would you mind if we all went up early to-night? I feel a little out of +sorts—bewildered—I don't know what. Children change so as they grow +up," she added, sighing.</p> + +<p>The poor old lady's eyes filled with tears. She slipped her arm around +Anne's waist.</p> + +<p>"You will never change, my dear boys and girls. You will all grow into +fine men and women, I feel certain, and be devoted citizens of this +splendid country of ours, which has always been good enough for our +mothers and fathers, and ought to be quite good enough for us."</p> + +<p>"Three cheers for America!" cried Hippy Wingate, giving his plump figure +a twist like a whirling dervish.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray laughed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, my dears, America is a splendid country and every American +should be proud to say so."</p> + +<p>"And Oakdale is one of the nicest places in America," piped up Anne.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for Oakdale!" cried Hippy again.</p> + +<p>"And Oakdale High School!" added Anne.</p> + +<p>"And hurrah for the sponsor of the freshman class!" exclaimed Grace.</p> + +<p>Whereupon they formed a circle, with Mrs. Gray in the middle, and danced +about her laughing and singing:</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for Mrs. Gray!"</p> + +<p>The pretty, little old lady beamed happily upon her adopted family, as +she called them.</p> + +<p>"My darling children!" she cried. "Kiss me good night, every one of you, +and we'll all go up to our beds."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>A MIDNIGHT ALARM</h3> + + +<p>The dry, cold air of the outdoors, and the warm fires inside the old +house, certainly had the effect of making a very sleepy crowd of boys +and girls who were not sorry, after all, to turn in early.</p> + +<p>Grace and Anne occupied a room together so large that it could easily +have been turned into two apartments and each have been the size of +ordinary bedrooms.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad our beds are close together, anyway," said Grace. "The rest of +the furniture in this room seems to be miles apart."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray's room was just in front; Nora and Jessica were in a smaller +one back of theirs, and across the hall were the boys' rooms.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it a wonderful old house?" replied Anne. "I never slept in such a +big room in all my life. And how kind Mrs. Gray is! There is nothing she +hasn't remembered."</p> + +<p>Each girl had found on her bed a pretty dressing gown of silk and wool +and beside it a pair of bedroom slippers. There was a bowl of fruit on a +table, and just before they dropped off to sleep a maid brought in a +tray of glasses with a pitcher of hot milk.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Gray says this will warm you up before you go to bed," explained +the maid.</p> + +<p>"Dear, sweet Mrs. Gray," continued Anne, as she curled up on a rug +before the fire to sip the warm drink, "she has planned so many things +for this party. I am so sorry she has been disappointed."</p> + +<p>"He's not a bit like her, Anne," replied her friend, not caring to +mention names. "I do wish she had never asked him."</p> + +<p>"My only hope," said Anne, "is that we will all seem so young and +childish to him that he will get bored and leave."</p> + +<p>"Well, just strictly between us and as man to man, as David is always +saying, don't you think he is horrid? He has no manners at all, and it's +hard to believe he's a product of the Gray family."</p> + +<p>"He has such shifty eyes," said Anne, "and I had a feeling that his +dislike for America was all put on to shock us. I feel so warm and +sleepy," she continued drowsily when the lights were put out and they +had snuggled down in the soft, comfortable beds.</p> + +<p>"I heard him drop an 'h' once," whispered Grace, in a sleepy voice.</p> + +<p>But there was no reply. Anne was already dreaming of her four beautiful +new dresses.</p> + +<p>It might have been midnight, perhaps a little later when Grace awoke +with a start. Not a sound disturbed the peace of the old house except +the ticking of the clock on the mantel and the occasional crackling of +dying embers in the fireplace. Yes; there was one sound and it aroused +her. A loose board creaked in the floor, or was it a door which opened +and closed softly? Perhaps it was nothing after all. And she closed her +eyes and drew the eiderdown quilt close about her shoulders.</p> + +<p>No; there it was again. A distinct footfall. She raised herself on her +elbow and peered into the shadows. Far over at the other side of the +chamber—it seemed an infinite distance just then—stood a figure. Grace +looked at it calmly. She had never been a coward and she was not +frightened now, only she wondered who could be invading their room at +this hour. Perhaps Mrs. Gray; perhaps one of the servants. No, it was +neither; of course it couldn't be because it was the figure of a man. +She saw him now plainly enough hovering over the dressing table.</p> + +<p>A small, cold hand slipped into hers. Anne was awake too. She had seen +the figure and lay quite still watching it. Grace silently returned the +pressure; then the two lay watching the man's stealthy motions for a +moment, while Grace's mind was busy devising a plan by which the robber +might be caught.</p> + +<p>Oakdale was a quiet, prosperous place, and burglars were unusual. +Occasionally the hands in the silk mills made a disturbance, and there +had been a few highway robberies, but an actual house-breaker seldom +troubled the law-abiding town. The two girls, as they lay watching him +from under the covers, guessed that this man was a real burglar. He wore +a black soft hat and carried a small electric lantern, while, with a +practised hand, he picked the lock of a small drawer in the dressing +table where the girls had put their purses. Once he turned the light +toward the beds. Instantly the girls' eyelids dropped and they lay as +still as mice. Having satisfied himself that all was well, the prowler +went on with his work, finally tiptoeing into the front room where Mrs. +Gray was sleeping. Evidently he had made a circuit of the three bedrooms +on that side of the house. As he slipped out Grace leaped from the bed. +Now was the time for action. Putting on her dressing gown and slippers +she dashed to the door leading into the hall, only to come upon the +burglar again who had probably been frightened in his last venture and +had retired to the hall for safety.</p> + +<p>Fortunately he was standing with his back to her while he closed the +door, and feeling that she was safe for the moment, she crouched in the +shadow of the doorway. The thief evidently thought he also was safe, for +he seized a large, heavy-looking valise from the floor and made straight +for the steps without looking to right or left.</p> + +<p>Now a door across the hall opened and another figure appeared. Grace +trembled for a moment, fearing it might be another thief. She had always +heard they traveled in pairs. But it was David, wrapped in a long gray +dressing gown, looking for all the world like a monk.</p> + +<p>He glanced up and down the hall for a moment, then tapped on the door of +the next room and without waiting for an answer walked in. In an instant +he was out again and had started swiftly down the stairs, Grace +following him. She had intended to speak to him, but it had all taken +place so quickly there was no time. David made straight for the dining +room, opening the heavy door. The room was brightly lighted. In a flash, +Grace saw on the table a pile of the beautiful Gray silver, brought over +from England by past generations of Grays. Grace never knew what +instinct prompted her to enter the dining room by the butler's pantry at +the very end of the long hall. As she pushed the swinging door, she +heard David say:</p> + +<p>"You low blackguard, what do you mean by stealing your aunt's silver?"</p> + +<p>Grace started at the mention of the word "aunt." It was, then, the +wretched Tom Gray who was robbing his own relative!</p> + +<p>"Get out!" returned the other coldly, "and attend to your own business. +You are only a kid."</p> + +<p>"Give up those things you have stolen, or I'll pound you to a jelly!" +cried David, making a rush at the burglar, who dodged nimbly.</p> + +<p>Then Grace had an inspiration, which assuredly saved David from very +disagreeable consequences. Real burglars, like rattlesnakes, are not +likely to be dangerous except when they are disturbed. It is then that +they become dangerous characters. Grace slipped back into the pantry, +swiftly opened one of the linen drawers and drew forth what turned out +later to be a breakfast cloth, which was lucky because it was small and +easy to manage.</p> + +<p>When, in the next instant, she had pushed the door open, what she saw +made her blood run cold. Tom Gray had whipped out a small pistol and +pointed it straight at David's head.</p> + +<p>"Get out of here, quick!" he said just as Grace opened the table cloth +with a jerk and flung it over his head. A pistol shot rang out, but +David had dodged in time and the bullet was buried in the mahogany +wainscot back of him. The astonished burglar dropped the weapon, and +began to struggle violently to release himself.</p> + +<p>Instantly David pinioned his arms from the back. But the fellow might +even then have struggled free, if Reddy Brooks and Hippy Wingate had not +burst into the room, followed by Anne, who had roused them after Grace +had gone. The three boys swiftly overpowered Tom Gray and tied him to a +chair with cord Grace had found in the pantry.</p> + +<p>But now, what was to be done? Undoubtedly the noise would awaken Mrs. +Gray and she would have to be told that her nephew was a burglar about +to make off with the family silver.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the loss of the silver would hurt less than family disgrace.</p> + +<p>In the midst of their council Mrs. Gray herself appeared.</p> + +<p>"What in the world is the matter?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>No one replied for a moment. It was a very uncomfortable situation for +the young guests of the house party. If only the burglar had not been a +member of the Gray family!</p> + +<p>Then Tom Gray himself spoke.</p> + +<p>"I must say this is a nice 'ospitable way to treat a guest and a +relation. 'Ere I am taken by a lot of silly children for a burglar. I, +your own nephew, awnt, who 'ad come down stairs on the h'innocent +h'errand of finding some h'ice water."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray looked from one to another of the silent group. Her eyes took +in the silver piled on the table, the pistol on the floor and the +burglar's tools and lantern.</p> + +<p>"You are a burglar," she said, "a wretched, common thief. I knew it as +soon as you entered my house last night. I could not then explain the +feeling of repugnance I had, but I know now what it meant. I shall not +offer hospitality to a coward, for all thieves are cowards. Boys, take +what he has stolen from his pockets."</p> + +<p>Reddy and Hippy searched the bulging pockets of the thief's coat and +waistcoat, and brought forth a quantity of jewelry, watches and purses.</p> + +<p>"Now, David," continued Mrs. Gray, firmly, "be kind enough to give me +that pistol."</p> + +<p>David obeyed her, wondering if she meant to shoot her own nephew.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray pointed the pistol at the thief with as steady a hand as if +she had been shooting at targets all her life.</p> + +<p>"Untie the cords," she commanded.</p> + +<p>They cut the cords with a carving knife.</p> + +<p>"Now, go!" said the old lady, still pointing the pistol at his head. +"Leave my house quickly. I shall not punish you, because a thief is +always punished sooner or later."</p> + +<p>Tom Gray looked immensely relieved, Grace thought, in spite of his +crestfallen, hangdog air. They followed him down the hall, Mrs. Gray in +the lead, until he slammed the front door after him and disappeared in +the night.</p> + +<p>Then, turning with her old, sweet manner, she continued:</p> + +<p>"My dear children, I want to thank you for helping me rid my house of +this man. I know I can depend on all of you never to mention it to +anyone. It would have been a great blow to me if I had not been so +angry; but now let us all go to our beds and forget this horrid episode. +To-morrow we shall be as happy as ever. I am determined it shall not +interfere with our good time."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>TOM GRAY</h3> + + +<p>The company which met around the breakfast table, next morning, was +entirely restored to its old gayety. There was not one member of the +house party, including Mrs. Gray herself, who did not feel unbounded +relief that the place was so well rid of Tom Gray.</p> + +<p>David was glad there had been no arrest, and that the mistress of the +house had with so much dignity and spirit turned out the culprit. It +would have been a bad business, testifying in court against Mrs. Gray's +nephew when he had been visiting in her house.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace, "if you haven't made any plans this +morning for us, I think we had better spend an hour or so rehearsing our +surprise."</p> + +<p>"Very well, my dear, you may spend as much time as you like at it; but +if I peep over the transom, or listen through a crack in the door, you +mustn't scold. I don't know that I can wait much longer to find out what +it is."</p> + +<p>"No, no! You're not to come near the third story," protested Grace. "We +shall nail down the transom and stuff the keyhole with soap if you do."</p> + +<p>"I never could stand suspense," exclaimed the old lady, shaking her head +until her lace breakfast cap, with its little bows of lavender ribbon, +quivered all over. "I fear I shall be tempted to break into the room +before Christmas night and unearth the whole business. But tell me this +much. Who is in the surprise?"</p> + +<p>"All of us," declared Nora. "But now we'll have to get somebody to take +the place of——"</p> + +<p>She paused and blushed scarlet.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Thomas Gray," announced the old butler at the door, with a peculiar +expression on his countenance.</p> + +<p>There was a dead silence. Mrs. Gray sat as if turned to stone, while +David half rose from his seat and Hippy seized a bread and butter knife +to plunge into the heart of his enemy, if necessary.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Rose," cried a voice outside, "aren't you glad to see me?"</p> + +<p>A broad-shouldered, well-built young man walked into the room and kissed +the old lady right in the mouth, before she could say a word. He had a +sunburned, wholesome face, kindly gray eyes, light-brown hair, and wore +a heavy suit of rough, blue cloth. He carried no cane; neither were his +shoes pointed at the toes, and there wasn't a tinge of English in his +accent except that his enunciation was unusually good.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray rose from her chair and examined the young man long and +carefully.</p> + +<p>"The very image of your uncle," she cried at last, and gave him a good +hug. "The very image, my dear Tom. Your old aunty has been a most +egregious fool. Why didn't you come last night?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you get my telegram? I sent it in good time. I was delayed and +had to take the night train up. I am awfully sorry if it inconvenienced +you."</p> + +<p>"You haven't inconvenienced me, my boy, except for a slight loss of +sleep, and a fright and a narrow of escape from losing the family +silver, which David and Grace, here, prevented."</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Gray sat down and burst out laughing. The others joined in and +for a few minutes the breakfast table was in an uproar.</p> + +<p>The real Tom Gray, who was the image of his uncle's portrait over the +sideboard, looked from one to another of the strange faces and then +began to laugh too, since it seemed to be the proper thing to do. He had +one of those delightful, hearty laughs that ring out in a whole roomful +of voices. When Mrs. Gray heard it she stopped short, patting her nephew +on the cheek; for he was sitting beside her now in a place hastily +arranged by the butler.</p> + +<p>"Exactly your uncle's laugh. It's good to hear it again. You're a Gray, +every inch of you; and, thank God, you're a fine fellow! If you had come +down here with an English accent and no 'h's' and a monocle, I should +have shut the door in your face. I should, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Who, me?" demanded her nephew, forgetting his grammar in his surprise +at such a state of affairs. "Not me, dear aunt. America's good enough +for me. I've had lots of good times with my English cousins, but +America's my home and country."</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" cried Hippy, dashing around the table and seizing the young +man's hand. "We're glad to know you. We're proud and happy to make your +acquaintance."</p> + +<p>There was such an uproar of fun and laughter at this that Tom Gray began +at last to see that something had really happened, and that his sudden +and unheralded appearance had brought immense relief to the assembled +company.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it's time somebody put me on?" he asked finally when +the noise had quieted down a little.</p> + +<p>"Tom," replied his aunt, "did you tell anyone you were coming to Oakdale +for Christmas to visit me!"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," answered Tom after a moment's thought. "I believe I did. In +fact I know I did. I was staying for a week in New York, with an English +friend, Arthur Butler. I told him all about it. It was on his account +that I stayed over one night. I sent the telegram by his servant, +Richards."</p> + +<p>"Ah, ha!" cried Mrs. Gray. "And pray tell us what that wretch of a +servant looked like."</p> + +<p>Tom laughed.</p> + +<p>"Richards is quite an unusual fellow, a good servant I believe, but +rather effeminate and a kind of a dandy——"</p> + +<p>"That's the man!"</p> + +<p>"He's the one!"</p> + +<p>"The very fellow!"</p> + +<p>Half a dozen voices interrupted at once.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Gray explained the rather serious adventure of the night +before. She ended by saying:</p> + +<p>"I never, in my heart of hearts, really believed he was you, Tom, dear."</p> + +<p>"The scoundrel!" exclaimed the young man. "Can't we set the police on +him?"</p> + +<p>"The police in Oakdale are slow, Tom," replied his aunt. "Slow from lack +of occupation. Robbers do not flock here in great numbers."</p> + +<p>"At least, I'll telegraph to Arthur Butler," said Tom, "and warn him. +They may catch him from that end."</p> + +<p>The telegram was accordingly sent. Likewise the police were notified, +but Richards, who turned out to be a well-known English crook, made good +his escape and was heard from no more.</p> + +<p>It did not take our young people long to make the acquaintance of the +real Tom Gray, nor to decide he was a fine fellow and one they could +admit to their circle without regret.</p> + +<p>"He's like a breath of fresh air," thought Grace, and indeed it was +disclosed later that he intended to study forestry because he loved the +country and the open air, and spent all his vacations camping out and +taking long walking trips. But there was nothing of the gypsy in him. He +was full of energy and ambition and infused such a wholesome vigor into +whatever he did that the young people felt a new enthusiasm in his +presence.</p> + +<p>"I propose to celebrate the return of the real Tom Gray," announced Mrs. +Gray, "by sending my boys and girls off on a sleighing party this +afternoon. The big old sleigh holds exactly eight. Reddy, you may drive, +since the roads are so familiar to you. You must all be back at six +o'clock, for, remember, to-night we decorate the Christmas tree and +every girl freshman in Oakdale High School must have a present on it."</p> + +<p>Just after lunch, therefore, after a hard morning's work over Mrs. +Gray's "surprise," the young people bundled into the big side-seated +sleigh, and tucked the buffalo robes tightly around them. The horses +snorted in the crisp, dry air; there was a jingle of merry sleigh bells +as off they started down the street toward the open country.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Jingle bells, jingle bells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jingle all the way.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, what fun 'tis to ride<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In a one-horse open sleigh.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>they sang as they bowled over the well-beaten track; and Tom Gray +breathed a sigh of pure delight.</p> + +<p>"Isn't this great!" he exclaimed. "Wouldn't you rather do this than +write an essay or study Latin prose composition?"</p> + +<p>"Next to riding in an airship and skating, it's the finest thing I know +of," answered David.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever ridden in an airship?" demanded Tom.</p> + +<p>"No, but I intend to," replied the other; for David had never for a +moment relinquished his pet scheme, but worked on his experiments +whenever he had a spare moment; little dreaming that one day he was to +become the talk of the town.</p> + +<p>As the sleigh passed the Nesbit house, Miriam and some of her friends +were just entering her front gate. She saw the party and a shadow of +black jealousy darkened her face.</p> + +<p>"Why don't we do the same thing?" she exclaimed aloud, and in another +twenty minutes she had bundled her own guests into the Nesbit sleigh, +while she herself took the reins and guided the pair of spirited black +horses.</p> + +<p>"Miriam, I do wish you would let one of the boys drive," said her +mother, who had come to the door to see her off.</p> + +<p>"I prefer to do the driving, mother," replied the spoiled girl, and with +a crack of the whip, the second sleighful was off after the first. It +was not long before the Nesbit sleigh had met and passed the other, +which was not going at a very great rate of speed. Mrs. Gray's carriage +horses were much older and more staid than Miriam's pair of young +blacks.</p> + +<p>"Who is the girl in front?" asked Tom, as the sleigh flashed past.</p> + +<p>"My sister," answered David shortly.</p> + +<p>"She must be a pretty good driver," observed Tom.</p> + +<p>David made no reply. He knew perfectly well that Miriam was not strong +enough to hold in the black team, once the horses got the upper hand; +but he hoped one of the boys would take the reins if they showed any +symptoms of running away.</p> + +<p>The early twilight was just falling when the Gray house party came to a +narrow, rickety old bridge spanning the bed of a creek. Here they +stopped the horses for a time, while Grace and Hippy gathered some +branches of evergreen growing on the edge of a wood, just over the +bridge.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the stillness was broken by the sound of bells ringing so +violently that it seemed as if all Bedlam had broken loose. Around a +curve and down the road in front of them loomed Miriam's blacks, making +straight for the other group. They were going like the wind, and the +empty sleigh, lying on its side, was clattering behind them.</p> + +<p>"Jump, girls!" cried Tom, while with the other boys he started to cross +the bridge to intercept the horses.</p> + +<p>If Grace had paused to reflect she might never have attempted +accomplishing the daring deed that suggested itself to her. Quickly +snatching off her scarlet cape, she dashed into the middle of the road, +waving it before her. Perhaps the horses also thought Bedlam had been +let loose. At sight of the terrifying apparition, they slackened up, +snorted and reared backward.</p> + +<p>"She is a brave girl," thought Tom Gray, as he leaped at the nearest +rearing, plunging animal, while David seized the other. Far down the +road came the sound of a faint halloo.</p> + +<p>"I'll pick up the others. I suppose they are in a drift," said Reddy, as +he drove off and in a few minutes returned carrying Miriam and her +party. Miriam herself looked white and frightened, although she +pretended to treat the affair lightly.</p> + +<p>"A rabbit scared the horses," was all she said. "I'll let one of the +boys drive us home."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I shan't go back in that sleigh," cried Julia Crosby.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you'll accept a ride in the freshman sleigh, Miss Crosby," +suggested Nora; and the other girl, somewhat ashamed, was obliged to +place herself at the mercy of her enemies.</p> + +<p>"All of you girls get into Mrs. Gray's sleigh," commanded David, "and +Tom and I will drive the other sleigh back." No one ever cared to +disobey David when he spoke in this tone. Even his wilful sister took +her seat between Grace and Anne without a word and never spoke during +the entire drive back, except to say good night at her own front gate.</p> + +<p>But Grace could not refrain from one sharp little thrust.</p> + +<p>"You seem to be unlucky with sleighs and sleds both, Miriam," she said.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE MARIONETTE SHOW</h3> + + +<p>Do you remember your first party dress? How it gave a glimpse of the +throat and neck, and seemed to sweep the ground all around, although it +merely reached your shoe tops?</p> + +<p>Did you feel a thrill of pleasure when the last hook and eye was +fastened and you surveyed yourself in the longest mirror in the house?</p> + +<p>So it was with Anne in her pink crepe de Chine. Or was it really Anne, +this little vision in rose color with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes? +She stood spellbound before the glass on that memorable Christmas night, +and no one disturbed her for awhile. Mrs. Gray and the girls had stolen +out so as not to embarrass the young girl who, for the first time, saw +herself in a beautiful new silk dress exactly the color of pink rose +petals, which hung in soft folds to the tips of her small pink satin +slippers.</p> + +<p>"Give her a chance, girls," whispered Mrs. Gray. "We mustn't be too +enthusiastic about the difference. It might hurt her tender little +feelings. But she <i>does</i> look sweet, doesn't she?"</p> + +<p>"As pretty as a picture, Mrs. Gray," answered Grace, kissing the old +lady's peach blossom cheek. "But they are coming. I hear them on the +walk. We must get behind the scenes and see that everything is all +ready."</p> + +<p>The big drawing room of the Gray house was soon full of young people +watching the folding doors leading into the library with expectant +faces. In the hall a string orchestra was discoursing soft music and the +place was filled with the hum of conversation and low laughter. Mrs. +Gray, seated on the front row, in the place of honor, occasionally +looked about her and smiled happily.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't I do this long ago?" she said to herself. "But then, were +there ever before such nice girls as my four adopted daughters?"</p> + +<p>Miriam sat near, with the other members of her house party. It had been +a source of much discussion whether or not to admit Julia Crosby to the +freshman party. But, since she was Miriam's guest, what else was there +to do?</p> + +<p>"We shall be only heaping coals of fire on her head at any rate," hinted +Jessica, "and that certainly ought to make her feel worse than if she +had been left out."</p> + +<p>After everyone was comfortably seated three loud raps were heard from +behind the folding doors. Some one began to play "The Funeral March of a +Marionette" on the piano, and the doors slid slowly back.</p> + +<p>There was a murmur of surprise and wonder.</p> + +<p>Two curtains had been stretched across the door opening above and below +and two hung down at each side, leaving an oblong space in the middle in +which stood a little doll theater nearly a yard and a half long and a +yard high. A row of footlights across the miniature stage presently +blossomed into light, and the freshman girls smiled as they recognized +some of those same little bulbs that had served to illuminate the +pumpkin face of Miss Leece's effigy. The music ceased and the curtains +rolled back. There sat Cinderella by the kitchen fire, very stiff and +straight, but weeping audibly with her little fists in her eyes. She was +ten inches high and, on careful examination, it could be seen that two +threads attached to her arms, and another to the back of her neck, made +it possible for her to move about and use her hands in a remarkably +life-like manner.</p> + +<p>Wild applause from the audience. Well there might be, for the scene was +perfect, from the old brick fireplace with an iron pot steaming on the +coals to the rows of shining pans and blue dishes on a shelf at the +side, all of which came from a toy shop, along with a little kitchen +bench and chairs.</p> + +<p>The cruel sisters swept in, dressed for the ball. When they spoke there +were convulsive titters among the guests for the voices of the cruel +step-sisters were those of Nora and Hippy. Anne read the lines of +Cinderella so plaintively that Mrs. Gray shed a secret tear or two when +Cinderella was left alone in the gloomy old kitchen. When the fairy +godmother appeared, in a peaked red hat and a long red cape, it was +Jessica who spoke the lines in a sweet, musical voice. How Cinderella +rolled out the pumpkin and displayed six white mice in a trap, and how, +after a brief interval of total darkness, could be seen through the open +door a coach of gold in which sat Cinderella in a silken gown, need not +be related here. It all took place without a single slip and the dolls +went through their parts with such funny life-like motions that the boys +and girls forgot they were not watching real actors.</p> + +<p>It was the scene of the ballroom, however, which was the real triumph of +the evening.</p> + +<p>"How did those clever children ever do it?" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, aloud, +when the curtain rolled back and disclosed the ballroom of the palace, +with a drop curtain at the back showing a vista of marble columns and +pillars. A gilt chandelier was suspended in the middle, from which +stretched garlands of real smilax. There were rows of little gilt chairs +against the walls filled with dolls in stiff satins and brocades. And +one large throne chair with a red velvet cushion in it, on which sat the +prince, who spoke with the voice of David Nesbit, and entertained his +guests in royal state. After the exciting arrival of Cinderella, Nora +played a minuet on the mandolin, the tinkling music of which seemed best +suited to the doll drama, and the prince and Cinderella executed a dance +of such intricate steps and low bows that the audience was convulsed +with laughter. There were even suppressed titters from behind the +scenes. This dance, which had been devised by Tom Gray and Grace, +necessitated two extra threads to manipulate the feet. It was most +difficult and had required long and tedious practice, but the results +were quite worth all the time and trouble.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray laughed till the tears rolled down her cheeks and made a +personal appeal for an encore, which was given; but there was a mishap +this time; Cinderella's threads became entangled and she came near to +breaking her china nose. Audiences are invariably most pitiless when +they are most pleased, and have no mercy on exhausted actors. At the cry +of "Speech! Speech!" the Prince stepped forward and made a low bow.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "we thank you for your approval and if +strength and breath permitted us, and the lady had not injured her nose, +we would gladly dance again for you."</p> + +<p>Then came the last scene. The step-sisters made desperate efforts to +wear the slipper; Cinderella finally retired triumphantly on the +prince's arm, and the curtains closed only to open again a few moments +later upon a scene which bore a strong resemblance to Oakdale High +School. The fairy godmother occupied the center of the stage while the +entire company of dolls were lined up on either side. Cinderella and the +prince, each held the end of an open scroll, which bore a printed +inscription that could be seen by the audience. It read:</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">A Merry Christmas to the Fairy Godmother of the Freshman +Class</span>."</p> + +<p>A scene of wild enthusiasm followed. The young people gave three cheers +for Mrs. Gray and ended with the High School yell. The actors came out +and were cheered each in turn.</p> + +<p>Grace, Tom Gray and Reddy had worked the marionettes, it seemed, +standing on the back of the table where the theater was placed, while +the others, sitting on low stools at the sides where they could see and +not be seen, read their lines which had been composed by Anne.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't so hard as you might think," said Grace, explaining the +marionettes to a group of friends. "Dressing the dolls was easy; we +glued on most of their clothes, and we made the step-sisters ugly by +giving them putty noses. Hippy painted the scenery and David supplied +the electric lights. The threads that moved the arms and bodies were +tied to little cross sticks something like a gallows, so that they could +be held from above without being seen."</p> + +<p>But the marionette show was only the beginning of the party. There was +to be feasting and dancing, and, lastly, a big Christmas tree loaded +with presents.</p> + +<p>The floors were cleared. The notes of a waltz rang out, and away whirled +the happy boys and girls. Anne and David, who did not dance, retired to +a sofa in the library to look on.</p> + +<p>"Are you happy, Anne, in your beautiful pink dress?" asked David, +regarding her with open admiration.</p> + +<p>"How can I help being happy?" she replied. "This is the first pretty +dress that I have ever had and I never went to a party before, either."</p> + +<p>"I never enjoyed a party before," said David, "but I'm enjoying this +one. I hope, for Mrs. Gray's sake, it goes off without a hitch."</p> + +<p>Just then Tom Gray waltzed by with Grace. They stopped when they saw +their friends, and came back.</p> + +<p>"Our efforts are certainly crowned with success," exclaimed Grace. "It's +the most beautiful ball ever given in Oakdale. Everyone says so. By the +way," she added, "get your partners and fall in line for the grand march +to supper."</p> + +<p>"I already have mine, all right," declared Tom Gray.</p> + +<p>"And I think I have mine," observed David. "She's wearing a pink dress +and is just about as tall as a marionette."</p> + +<p>Anne laughed and stood on tiptoe to make herself look taller. Suddenly +she caught the eye of Miriam Nesbit, who was lingering in the doorway, +watching the scene with an expression that the circumstances and holiday +surroundings hardly seemed to justify.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if the party will go off without a hitch," thought Anne, as +they joined the grand march into the dining room.</p> + +<p>When the beautiful, illuminated tree had been disburdened of all its +presents and the guests were well advanced on their supper, Mrs. Gray +approached Anne, carrying an oblong box, neatly done up in white tissue +paper tied with red ribbons. Pinned to the ribbon with a piece of holly +was a Christmas card on which was printed in fancy lettering "A +Christmas Thought."</p> + +<p>"Why, what is this, Mrs. Gray?" demanded Anne, rather excited, while +many of the boys and girls gathered around her and some stood on chairs +in order to see what the mysterious box contained.</p> + +<p>"I know no more than you, dear," replied the old lady. "A man left it at +the door a moment ago, and one of the servants gave it to me. Why don't +you open it and see?"</p> + +<p>Anne hesitated. Something told her not to open the box, but how could +she help it with dozens of her friends waiting eagerly to see what was +in it?</p> + +<p>"Hurry up, Anne, aren't you curious to see what it is?" some one called.</p> + +<p>"It looks like flowers," said another.</p> + +<p>"Or candy," observed a third.</p> + +<p>And still Anne's fingers lingered on the bow of red ribbon. Was there +anyone in the world who could be sending her a box that night? Certainly +not her mother nor her sister, nor any of her friends who had exchanged +presents in the morning. Mrs. Gray evidently had not sent it and there +was no one else in her small list of friends who would have taken the +trouble.</p> + +<p>"Anne, you funny child, don't you see we are all waiting impatiently?" +said Grace at last.</p> + +<p>Anne slipped off the ribbons and opened the package. In the box was some +object, carefully done up in more tissue paper.</p> + +<p>"It looks like a mummy," exclaimed Hippy.</p> + +<p>Untying the wrappers, Anne held up to the curious view of the others a +large doll.</p> + +<p>At first she hardly comprehended what it was and held it out at arms' +length looking at it wonderingly. It was dressed as a man in a black +suit with a long Prince Albert coat, very crudely made on close +inspection, but still cut and fitted to give the right effect. The face +had been cleverly changed with paint and putty, and pinned on the head +was a black felt hat, constructed out of the crown of an old one +evidently, in which had been sewn some lank black hair.</p> + +<p>A card was tied around the doll's neck, and some one looking over Anne's +shoulder read aloud the following inscription written upon it:</p> + +<p>"Why have imitation actors when you can get real ones?"</p> + +<p>Anne gave a gasp.</p> + +<p>Who could have played this cruel trick upon her? She knew her four +friends had never spoken of the happenings of Thanksgiving night, but +such secrets would leak out in spite of everything, and there may have +been others in the audience who had recognized her. Moreover, her father +himself would not have hesitated to tell who she was, so that it was not +difficult to understand how the story had spread.</p> + +<p>But who would have the heart to hold her father up to ridicule in this +way, and to cause her such secret pain and unhappiness? While her +thoughts were busy, David had seized the doll and wrapped it up again. +He was very angry, but it was wiser to keep silent.</p> + +<p>"What was it, dear?" demanded Mrs. Gray, who had not been able to hear +the message written on the card.</p> + +<p>"Just a silly trick on Anne, Mrs. Gray," replied David, for Anne was too +near to tears to trust the sound of her own voice.</p> + +<p>"Something about actors, wasn't it?" asked Julia Crosby, who was +hovering near, and before she could be stopped, she had snatched the +doll from Anne's lap. The covers fluttered to the floor and the others +pressed eagerly around to get a glimpse of it.</p> + +<p>David leaped to his feet so vigorously that he upset a chair.</p> + +<p>"Give that back!" he commanded. "It is not yours."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="i003" id="i003"></a> +<img src="images/i003.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>"Give That Back! It Is Not Yours."</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + +<p>"I will not," answered Julia Crosby. "Neither is it yours."</p> + +<p>"I say you will," cried David, furiously, losing his temper completely.</p> + +<p>"Get it if you can!" challenged the girl, darting through the crowd with +David at her heels.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a crash, a startled cry and the great fir tree with +all its ornaments and lighted candles fell to the floor.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>AFTER THE BALL</h3> + + +<p>Yes, here was the hitch that Anne had secretly dreaded and which the +other girls had anxiously hoped to avoid.</p> + +<p>She had not dreamed what it would be, but she had felt it coming all +evening, ever since she had seen Miriam hovering near the library door. +And, in a way, Miriam was connected with the disaster. Had not Miriam's +guest and chum exceeded all bounds of politeness by prying into other +people's affairs? No doubt, as she fled from David, her dress had caught +in one of the branches of the tree and so pulled it over.</p> + +<p>All this darted through Anne's head as she stood leaning against the +wall while the room was fast filling with smoke and the pungent odor of +burning pine.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, some one at her elbow deliberately called "Fire! Fire!" These +were the same ominous words she had heard Thanksgiving night, only they +seemed now more alarming, more threatening. Who could be so foolish, so +ill-advised as to scream those agitating words in a roomful of girls and +boys already keyed up to a high pitch of excitement? Anne turned quickly +and confronted Miriam.</p> + +<p>"Don't do that!" exclaimed Anne. "You will only make matters worse."</p> + +<p>Miriam looked at her scornfully, although it was evident she had not +noticed her before.</p> + +<p>"Be quiet, spy," she hissed, "and don't make trouble."</p> + +<p>"I suspect you of making a great deal," returned Anne, calmly.</p> + +<p>She was not afraid of this passionate, spoiled girl, and only the fact +that Miriam was the sister of David, her devoted friend, kept Anne from +saying more.</p> + +<p>In another moment, the entire Christmas tree was in a bright blaze. Anne +had climbed up to a chair, and thence to the table that the crowd had +pushed against her as it ran. Anne was about to leap to the floor when +Grace and Tom Gray dashed in with an armful apiece of wet blankets. With +the help of the others they spread the blankets over the burning tree +and the blaze was extinguished almost as soon as it was born.</p> + +<p>"No harm has been done," said Tom. "The canvas covering saved the floor +and fortunately all the furniture has been taken out anyhow. It's all +right, Aunt Rose. Nobody hurt; nothing damaged. I never heard of a more +accommodating fire in my life."</p> + +<p>"Open the windows now and let out the smoke," ordered Mrs. Gray, "and, +if you have all finished eating, I think you had better come into the +drawing room while the servants clear out this debris. Tom, please tell +the musicians to play a waltz. I do not want my guests to carry away any +unpleasant impressions of this house."</p> + +<p>The music struck up and the dance began again.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Grace, "no one need feel badly about the fire, because a +Christmas tree generally has to be burned, anyway, and nothing of value +but the ornaments was destroyed. So everything is all right."</p> + +<p>"It was all my fault," exclaimed David, in a contrite voice. "Mrs. Gray, +you will have to forgive me before I can enjoy a clear conscience again. +If it hadn't been for that lumbering sophomore, Julia Crosby, I should +never have lost my temper the way I did."</p> + +<p>"My dear David," cried Mrs. Gray, patting him affectionately on the arm, +"you couldn't do anything I would disapprove of. If you wanted to rescue +Anne's doll I am sure you had some excellent reason for it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray had not heard the history of Anne's father, for Grace and her +friends had kept the secret well, and Anne, herself, had never cared to +tell the story. She was a quiet, reserved girl who talked little of her +own affairs.</p> + +<p>"He <i>did</i> have a good reason, Mrs. Gray," put in Grace, "and it was +enough to make him lose his temper. Julia Crosby is everlastingly +playing practical jokes and getting people into trouble. However, I +don't suppose she upset the tree on purpose," she added, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," exclaimed Mrs. Gray, "let us forget all about it and wind +up the party with a Virginia reel. Tom and Grace must lead it off, and +Anne, you and David watch the others so that when it comes your turn you +will be able to dance it yourselves."</p> + +<p>So it was that Mrs. Gray's freshman Christmas ball ended as gayly as it +had started, with a romping, joyous Virginia reel. There was not a soul, +except the little old lady herself, who did not join the two long lines +stretching from one end of the rooms to the other and when it came +Anne's turn, she was not afraid to bow and curtsey as the others had +done, for she had quickly mastered the various figures of the dance. +Moreover, was she not wearing a beautiful dress of pink crepe de Chine? +After all a pretty dress does make a great difference. Anne felt she +could never have danced so well in the old black silk.</p> + +<p>When the reel was over the boys and girls joined hands and formed an +immense circle about their charming hostess, whirling madly around her +as they cried:</p> + +<p>"Three cheers for Mrs. Gray!"</p> + +<p>The old lady was very happy. She waved her small, wrinkled hands at them +and called out over the din:</p> + +<p>"Three cheers for my dear freshmen boys and girls!"</p> + +<p>At length, when the hands of the clock pointed to two, and the last of +the dancers had departed, Mrs. Gray sank into a chair exhausted.</p> + +<p>"I am tired," she said, "but I never in my life had such a good time!"</p> + +<p>Was there ever a girl in the world who did not want to exchange +confidences with her best friends after a party?</p> + +<p>Grace and Anne, therefore, were not surprised when two figures in +dressing gowns and slippers stole into their room, crouching on the rug +before the fire.</p> + +<p>"We've all sorts of things to say," exclaimed Nora, "else we wouldn't +think of keeping you up so late. In the first place, wasn't it perfectly +delightful?"</p> + +<p>"Grand!" sighed the others.</p> + +<p>"Everything except that one accident, and the thing that caused it," +answered Grace.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Anne, where is the doll?" asked Jessica.</p> + +<p>Anne produced it from its box.</p> + +<p>"Here it is," she said sadly. "But it was a cruel joke. Can you imagine +who could have done it?"</p> + +<p>"I have several suspicions," answered Grace, "but I make no accusations +without grounds."</p> + +<p>The four girls examined the doll carefully.</p> + +<p>"My poor father!" exclaimed Anne, her eyes filling with tears.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what, girls," cried Nora suddenly, "there's more to this +than just Anne's secret. How did anyone know we were going to have a +marionette show? Didn't we keep it dark?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," they answered.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it got out through the servants," suggested Jessica.</p> + +<p>"It certainly is rather an underhanded business," cried Grace, "for +whoever did this not only must have bribed one of Mrs. Gray's servants, +but also must have some way or other raked up Anne's secret. It was +evidently some one who had a grudge against you, poor dear," she added, +patting Anne on the cheek.</p> + +<p>"Girls!" exclaimed Jessica, who all this time had been looking the doll +over carefully, "where have you seen this material before?" She pointed +at the fancy red waistcoat the doll was wearing.</p> + +<p>"It has a familiar look," answered Nora.</p> + +<p>"It looks to me very much like a red velveteen suit I saw somewhere once +upon a time," observed Grace.</p> + +<p>"You did see it, Grace. But it was—how long ago? Two or more years, +wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I know," cried Nora. "Miriam Nesbit's!"</p> + +<p>"Sh-h-h!" warned Grace. "Remember David. He's just across the hall."</p> + +<p>"And he must never know," added Anne, "not if she sent me a dozen +dolls."</p> + +<p>"But I haven't finished," continued Jessica. "I feel exactly like a +detective on the scent. This doll is wearing something else that is +familiar to us all. Anne, you have seen it, I am sure."</p> + +<p>They scanned the doll eagerly. The shabby black suit was made of some +indescribable material that might have come from anywhere. The red +velveteen waistcoat they had already identified. Then came a little +white cotton dickey, with a high standing collar and then——</p> + +<p>"The tie!" cried Nora. "The green tie! Is that it, Jessica?"</p> + +<p>"You are right," answered Jessica. "Have you never seen that green silk +before?"</p> + +<p>Grace was in a brown study.</p> + +<p>Anne could not recall it and Nora was groping in the dark.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you this much," said Jessica, who loved a mystery; "It just +matches a certain veil——"</p> + +<p>"Miss Leece!" exclaimed Grace. "It's a piece of the trimming on an old +dress she sometimes wears."</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said Jessica. "Who, having once seen it could ever forget +it?"</p> + +<p>And so Miss Leece and Miriam had combined forces against poor little +Anne!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>A WINTER PICNIC</h3> + + +<p>"Aunt Rose," exclaimed Tom Gray, several mornings after the Christmas +dance, "I have a scheme; but, before I ask your permission to carry it +out, I want you to grant it."</p> + +<p>"Why do you ask it at all, then, Tom, dear?" answered his aunt.</p> + +<p>"Because we want your seal and sanction upon the undertaking," replied +Tom, giving the old lady an affectionate squeeze. "Is it granted, little +Lady Gray?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I am merely groping about in the dark, my boy, but I trust to your good +sense not to ask me anything too outrageous. Tell me what it is quickly, +so that I may know exactly how deeply I am implicated."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Tom, "here's the scheme in a nutshell. I want to give a +picnic."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray groaned.</p> + +<p>"A picnic, boy? Whoever heard of a picnic in mid-winter. What mad notion +is this?"</p> + +<p>"But you have given your consent, aunty, and no honorable woman can go +back on her word."</p> + +<p>"So I have, child, but explain to me quickly what a winter picnic is so +that I may know the worst at once."</p> + +<p>"A winter picnic is a glorious tramp in the woods, with a big camp-fire +at noon, for food, warmth and rest, and then a tramp back again."</p> + +<p>"And can I trust to you to take good care of my four girls? Anne and +Jessica are not giants for strength. You must not walk them too far, or +let them get chilled; and, if you find they are growing tired, you must +bring them straight back."</p> + +<p>"On my word of honor, as a gentleman and a Gray, I promise," said Tom, +solemnly.</p> + +<p>"And you will all be in before dark?" continued Mrs. Gray.</p> + +<p>"We promise," continued the young people.</p> + +<p>"Wear your stoutest shoes and warmest clothing," she went on.</p> + +<p>"We promise," they cried.</p> + +<p>"And we want a lot of lunch, aunt," said Tom coaxingly, "and some nice +raw bacon for cooking and eating purposes."</p> + +<p>"You shall have everything you want," said Mrs. Gray, "but who will +carry the lunch?"</p> + +<p>"We will distribute it on the backs of our four pack mules," replied +Grace. "But Hippy must carry the coffee-pot. He's not to be trusted with +food."</p> + +<p>"Now, wouldn't it be a remarkable sight to see a pack mule eating off +his own back!" observed Hippy. "There are several animals that can turn +their heads all the way around, I believe, but not the human animal."</p> + +<p>"We had better start as soon as possible," broke in Tom. "Hurry up, +girls, and get ready, while the servants fix the lunch."</p> + +<p>In half an hour eight young people, well muffled and mittened, started +off toward the open country. It was a clear, cold day and the +snow-covered fields and meadows sparkled in the sunshine.</p> + +<p>"If I were a gypsy by birth, as well as by inclination," declared Tom, +as they trudged gayly along, "I should take to the road in the early +spring, and never see a roof again until cold weather."</p> + +<p>"But being a member of a respectable family and about to enter college, +you have to sleep in a bed under cover?" added David.</p> + +<p>"It's partly that," said Tom, "and partly the cold weather that is +responsible for my good behavior two thirds of the year. If I lived in a +warm climate all the year around, every respectable notion I had would +melt away in a week and I'd take to the open forever."</p> + +<p>"I have never been in the woods in the winter time," said Anne. "Are +they very beautiful?"</p> + +<p>"One of the finest sights in the world," cried Tom enthusiastically, his +wholesome face glowing from his exercise.</p> + +<p>Just then they climbed an old stone wall and entered a forest known as +"Upton Wood," which covered an area of ten miles or more in length and +several miles across.</p> + +<p>"It is beautiful," said Anne as she gazed up and down the wooded aisles +carpeted in white. "It is like a great cathedral. I could almost kneel +and pray at one of these snow covered stumps. They are like altars."</p> + +<p>"The fault I find with the woods in winter," observed Grace, "is that +there is nothing to do in them, no birds and beasts to make things +lively, no flowers to pick, no brooks to wade in. Just an everlasting +stillness."</p> + +<p>"I admit there's not much social life," replied Tom. "The inhabitants +either go to sleep or fly south, most of them. But don't forget the +rabbits and squirrels and——"</p> + +<p>"And an occasional bear," interrupted Reddy. "They have been seen in +these parts."</p> + +<p>"Worse than bears," said Hippy. "Wolves!"</p> + +<p>"Goodness!" ejaculated Tom. "You are doing pretty well. I didn't know +this country was so wild. But that's going some."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, as to that," said David, "nobody has ever really seen +anything worse than wildcats, and we have to take old Jean's word for it +about the wolves. He claimed to have seen wolves in these woods three +years ago. As a matter of fact they chased him out, and he was obliged +to turn civilized for three months."</p> + +<p>"Who is old Jean?" asked Tom, much interested.</p> + +<p>"He is a French-Canadian hunter who has lived somewhere in this forest +for years. He comes into town occasionally, looking like Daniel Boone, +dressed in skins with a squirrel cap, and carrying a bunch of rabbits +that he sells to the butchers."</p> + +<p>"He's a great sight," said Grace. "I saw him on his snowshoes one day. +He was coming down Upton Hill, where we coasted, you know, Anne, and he +sped along the fields faster than David's motor cycle."</p> + +<p>They had been walking for some time over the hard-packed snow and were +now well into the forest, which hemmed them in on every side and seemed +to stretch out in all directions into infinite space.</p> + +<p>"Reddy, are you perfectly sure we won't get lost in this place?" +demanded Jessica at last.</p> + +<p>They had been walking along silently intent on their own thoughts. +Perhaps it was the grandeur of the great snow-laden trees that oppressed +them; perhaps the vast loneliness of the place, where nothing was +stirring, not even a rabbit.</p> + +<p>"We're all right," returned Reddy. "My compass tells me. We go due north +till we want to start home and then we can either turn around and go +back due south or turn west and go home by the road."</p> + +<p>"I have neither compass nor watch," said Hippy, "but nature's timepiece +tells me that it's lunch time. This cold air gives me an appetite."</p> + +<p>"Gives you one?" cried David. "You old anaconda, you were born with an +appetite. You started eating boiled dumplings when you were two years +old."</p> + +<p>"Who told you so?" demanded Hippy.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said David. "It's an old story in Oakdale."</p> + +<p>"Let's feed the poor soul," interposed Grace. "It would be wanton +cruelty to keep him waiting any longer."</p> + +<p>"He'll have to make the fire, then," said Reddy. "Make him pay for his +dumplings if he wants 'em so early."</p> + +<p>"All right, Carrots," cried Hippy. "I'll gather fagots and make a fire, +just to keep you from talking so much."</p> + +<p>"I'll help you, Hippy," said Nora. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I am +very hungry too. It's the people who are never able to eat at the table, +and then go off and feed up in the pantry, who always manage to shirk +their work."</p> + +<p>The others all laughed.</p> + +<p>"Let's make a fair division of labor," put in Grace, "so as to prevent +future talk."</p> + +<p>While some of them gathered sticks and dried branches, the others began +clearing away the snow in an open space, where the fire could be built.</p> + +<p>Anne and Jessica unpacked the luncheon and poured some coffee from a +glass jar into a tin pot to be heated, while Tom peeled several long +switches and impaled pieces of bacon on the ends to be cooked over the +fire, which was soon blazing comfortably.</p> + +<p>"How do you like this, girls?" he asked presently, when the broiling +bacon began to give out an appetizing smell and the hot coffee added its +fragrance to the air. "How's this for a winter picnic?"</p> + +<p>"I like it better than a summer picnic," interposed Hippy. "The food is +better and there are no gnats."</p> + +<p>"Gnats are very fond of fat people," said Reddy. "They drink down their +blood like—circus lemonade."</p> + +<p>"Get busy and give me some coffee, Red-head," said Hippy, who sat on a +stump and ate energetically, while the others were broiling their slices +of bacon.</p> + +<p>"Here, Hippy," said Nora, pouring out a steaming cupful, "if it wasn't +interesting to watch you store it away, perhaps I wouldn't wait on you +hand and foot like this."</p> + +<p>"This is the best way in the world to cook bacon," said Tom, holding his +wand over the fire with several pieces of bacon stuck on the forked +ends.</p> + +<p>"A very good method, if your stick doesn't burn up," replied Anne. +"There! Mine fell into the fire. I knew it would."</p> + +<p>Meantime, Jessica and Grace were frying the rest of the slices in a pan.</p> + +<p>"That's good enough, but this is better and quicker," said Grace. +"There's no reason for dispensing with all the comforts of a home just +because you choose to be a woodsman, Tom."</p> + +<p>They never forget how they enjoyed that luncheon, devouring everything +to the ultimate crumb and the final drop of hot coffee.</p> + +<p>Although it was bitterly cold, they did not feel the chill. The brisk +walk, the warm fire and their hearty meal had quickened their blood, and +even Anne, the smallest and most delicate of them all, felt something of +Tom's enthusiasm for the deep woods.</p> + +<p>At last it was time to start again.</p> + +<p>The boys were trampling down the fire while the girls began stowing the +cups and coffee-pot into a basket. The woods seemed suddenly to have +grown very quiet.</p> + +<p>"How still it is," whispered Anne. "I feel as if everything in the world +had stopped. There is not a breath stirring."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it has," answered Grace. "But we mustn't stop, even if +everything else has, now that the fire is out, or we'll freeze to +death."</p> + +<p>She was just about to call the others briskly, for the air was beginning +to nip her cheeks, when something in the faces of the four boys made her +pause.</p> + +<p>They were standing together near the remains of the fire, and seemed to +be listening intently.</p> + +<p>Not a sound, not even the crackling of a branch disturbed the stillness +for a moment and then, from what appeared to be a great distance, came a +long, howling wail, so forlorn, so weird, it might have been the cry of +a spirit.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" whispered the other girls, creeping about Grace.</p> + +<p>"I think we'd better be hurrying along, now, girls," said David in a +natural voice. "It's getting late."</p> + +<p>"You can't deceive us, David," replied Grace calmly. "We know it's +wolves."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>WOLVES!</h3> + + +<p>Wolves! The name was terrifying enough. But their cry, that +long-drawn-out, hungry call, gave the picnickers a chill of +apprehension.</p> + +<p>"We must take the nearest way out of the wood, Reddy," exclaimed Tom. +"They are still several miles off, and, if we hurry, we may reach the +open before they do."</p> + +<p>All started on a run, David helping Anne to keep up with the others +while Reddy looked after Jessica. Nora and Grace were well enough +trained in outdoor exercise to run without any assistance from the boys. +Indeed, Grace Harlowe could out-run most boys of her own age.</p> + +<p>"Go straight to your left," called Reddy, consulting his compass as he +hurried Jessica over the snow.</p> + +<p>Again they heard the angry howl of the wolves, and the last time it +seemed much nearer.</p> + +<p>"It's a terrible business, this running after a heavy meal," muttered +Hippy, gasping for breath as he stumbled along in the track of his +friends. "I'll make a nice meal for 'em if they catch me," he added, +"and it looks as if I'd be the first to go."</p> + +<p>"Reddy, are you sure you're right?" called Tom. "The woods don't seem to +be thinning out as they are likely to do toward the edge."</p> + +<p>"Keep going," called Reddy, confident of the direction. "You see, we had +gone pretty far in, but I believe the open country is about a mile this +way."</p> + +<p>A mile? Good heavens! Jessica and Anne were already stumbling from +exhaustion, while Hippy was quite winded. Another five minutes of this +and at least three of the party would be food for wolves, unless +something could be done. So thought David, who, breathless and light +headed, was now almost carrying Anne.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" cried Grace, who had been running ahead of the others. "Here's +Jean's hut!"</p> + +<p>There, sure enough, right in front of them, was a little house built of +logs and mud.</p> + +<p>Had it been put in that particular spot years ago just to save their +eight lives now? Anne wondered vaguely as she blindly stumbled on.</p> + +<p>As Grace lifted the wooden latch of the door, she looked over her +shoulder. Not three hundred yards away loped five gaunt, gray animals. +Their tongues hung limply from the sides of their mouths and their eyes +glowered with a fierce hunger.</p> + +<p>"Hurry!" she cried, in an agony of fear. "Oh, hurry!"</p> + +<p>Tom and David were carrying Anne now, while Jessica was half staggering, +assisted by Nora and Reddy. Hippy, the perspiration pouring from his +face, brought up the rear, and they had scarcely pulled him in and +barred the door before the wolves had reached the hut and were leaping +against the walls howling and snarling.</p> + +<p>Nobody spoke for some time. Those who were not too tired were busy +thinking.</p> + +<p>What was to be done? Eight young people, on a bitter cold winter +afternoon, shut up in a hut in the middle of a forest while five +half-starved wolves besieged the door.</p> + +<p>Presently Tom Gray began to look about him.</p> + +<p>There was a fireplace in the hut, which, by great good luck, contained +the remains of a large backlog. More fuel was stacked in the corner, +chiefly brushwood and sticks. He made a fire at once and the others +gathered around the blaze, for they felt the penetrating chill now, +after their rapid and exhausting flight through the forest.</p> + +<p>"Here's a rifle," exclaimed Grace, who was also exploring, while Tom +kindled the fire.</p> + +<p>"Good!" cried Tom. "Let's see it. It may be our salvation."</p> + +<p>He seized the gun and examined the barrel, but, alas, there was only one +shot left in it. They searched the hut for more cartridges, but not one +could they find.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the wolves, which might have been taken for large collie +dogs at a little distance, were trotting around the house, leaping +against the door and windows and occasionally giving a blood-curdling +howl.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you feed me to them?" groaned Hippy. "You could get almost to +Oakdale before they finished me."</p> + +<p>The suggestion seemed to break the apprehensive silence that had settled +down upon them, and they burst out laughing, one and all; even Anne, who +was lying on a bearskin in front of the fire.</p> + +<p>"I suppose the beasts were driven down from the hills by hunger, and +when they smelled the fat bacon frying, the woods couldn't hold them," +observed David. "I have always heard that a hungry wolf could smell +something to eat on another planet."</p> + +<p>"Well, what are we going to do?" demanded Nora. "If we leave this +charming abode of Jean's, we shall be eaten alive, and if we stay in it +we shall starve."</p> + +<p>"You won't starve for a while yet, child. You have only just eaten. You +remind me of the story of the people who were locked up in a vault in a +cemetery. They divided the candle into notches and decided to eat a +notch apiece every day. They had just finished the last notch, and were +expecting to die at any moment of starvation, when somebody unlocked the +door, and how long do you suppose they had been shut up!"</p> + +<p>"Several days, I suppose," answered Nora, "since they appeared to have +eaten several notches."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," replied David. "Only three hours."</p> + +<p>"I'd rather be in a vault, with the dead, than out here," observed +Hippy.</p> + +<p>"Are we such poor company as all that, Fatty!" laughed Reddy.</p> + +<p>"I've made a great find," announced Tom Gray in the midst of their +chatter. He was standing on a bench examining something on a shelf +suspended from the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"What?" demanded the others in great excitement.</p> + +<p>"A pair of snowshoes," he answered.</p> + +<p>There was a disappointed silence.</p> + +<p>"Well, don't all speak at once," said Tom at last. "Don't you agree with +me that it's a great find?"</p> + +<p>"We are sorry we can't enthuse," answered David, "but we fail to see how +snow shoes can help us out of our present predicament."</p> + +<p>"Nobody here knows how to use them," continued Reddy, "and even if he +did, he couldn't out-run a pack of wolves."</p> + +<p>"I know how to use them," exclaimed Tom. "I learned it in Canada a few +winters ago, but I will admit I couldn't beat the wolves in a race. +However, the shoes may come in handy yet."</p> + +<p>Just then one of the wolves threw his body against the door and the +small cabin shook with the force of the blow.</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" exclaimed David, "I thought they had us then. Another blow +like that and the old latch might give way."</p> + +<p>They looked about them for something to place against the door, but +there was not a stick of furniture in the room. Even the bed, in one +corner, was made of pine boughs and skins.</p> + +<p>"I wonder how there happens to be only five wolves," said Anne. "I +thought they went about in large packs."</p> + +<p>"They are probably mama and papa and the whole family," replied Hippy. +"The smallest, friskiest ones, I think, are young ladies, by the way +they switched along behind the others and hung back kind of shy-like."</p> + +<p>"Now, Hippy Wingate, don't tell us such a romance as that," warned +Grace, "when you were so winded you could hardly look in front of you, +much less behind you."</p> + +<p>At that moment there was another crash against the door while two gray +paws and the tip of a pointed muzzle could be seen on one of the window +sills.</p> + +<p>"It's almost three o'clock," said Tom Gray, looking at his watch. "I +think we'll have to do something, or we shall be penned here all night. +Now, what shall it be? Suppose we have a friendly council and consider."</p> + +<p>"All right," said David; "the meeting is open for suggestions. What do +you advise, Anne?"</p> + +<p>Anne smiled thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I have no advice to offer," she said, "unless you shoot one of the +wolves and let the others eat him up. Perhaps that would take the edge +off their appetites."</p> + +<p>"No, that would only serve as an appetizer," answered David. "After they +had eaten one member of the family they would be still hungrier for +another."</p> + +<p>"And yet that isn't a half bad idea," said Tom, "and for two reasons. +Did you notice a path which began at the hut and which was evidently +Jean's trail? I saw it from the corner of my eye as I ran."</p> + +<p>No, the others had not noticed anything of the sort. But who would stop +to think of trails with a pack of hungry wolves at his heels?</p> + +<p>Tom's training in the woods had taught him to take in such details, and +consequently he had noticed it particularly. Moreover, the trail led +straight to the left, presumably toward the west.</p> + +<p>"Now, this is what I propose to do," he continued, taking down the +snowshoes and looking over their straps and fastenings carefully. +"Reddy, who, I hear, is a good shot, must climb up at one of the windows +and shoot the first wolf he sees. Eating the dead wolf would probably +occupy the attention of his brothers for some ten minutes or so—perhaps +longer. While they are busy I shall make off on the snowshoes. With that +much of a start, and with plenty of tasty human beings close at hand, I +doubt if they even follow me. If they do, why I'll just shin up a tree. +But I believe I can beat them. I'm pretty good on snowshoes."</p> + +<p>"Tom Gray, you shan't do it!" cried Grace. "It may mean sure death. How +do you know the wolves won't seize you the moment you open the door? +Besides, you don't know the way. Suppose you should get lost?"</p> + +<p>"No, no," insisted Tom. "None of these things will happen. I know +positively that a hungry wolf will stop chasing a human being and eat up +a dead wolf, or a shoe, or a rug, or anything that happens to be thrown +to him. I never was surer of anything in my life than that I can get +away from here before the beasts know it."</p> + +<p>There was a storm of protestation from the others, but Tom Gray finally +overruled every objection and they reluctantly consented to let him go.</p> + +<p>It was arranged that Reddy should stand on a bench by one of the small +windows and attract the attention of the wolves by throwing out a rabbit +skin that was nailed to one of the walls. While the beasts were tearing +this to pieces he was to shoot one of them. Furthermore, the instant the +live wolves had finished devouring the dead one, Reddy was to pitch out +another skin, of which there were many about the hut, of foxes, rabbits +and other small animals, which the trapper had collected.</p> + +<p>This, they agreed, would probably keep the wolves occupied for awhile, +until Tom had got a good start down the trail.</p> + +<p>Tom slipped his feet in the snowshoes and stood by the door waiting. +While the wolves howled and fought over the rabbit skin, bang went the +rifle.</p> + +<p>"I got him!" cried Reddy.</p> + +<p>In an instant Tom Gray had flung open the door and was off down the +trail.</p> + +<p>As he had expected, the live wolves were hungrily eating the dead one +and had not apparently even noticed his departure.</p> + +<p>The boys and girls in the hut sat breathlessly waiting, while Reddy +watched the famished animals gorge themselves with the blood and fresh +meat of their comrade.</p> + +<p>Reddy had rolled up a fox skin into a small bundle, and was prepared to +pitch it out to them the moment they had finished.</p> + +<p>Just as they had lapped the last drop of blood, he cast out the skin. +They sniffed at it a moment, gave a long, disapproving howl, that sent +the cold chills down the spines of the prisoners, and then made off down +the trail after Tom Gray.</p> + +<p>Reddy gave a loud exclamation and jumped down from the bench.</p> + +<p>"<i>They have followed Tom!</i>" he cried, in a high state of excitement.</p> + +<p>There was a long pause.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to go, then," said David finally. "Girls, you are safe as +long as you stay inside the hut, and some of us at least will be able to +bring help before long."</p> + +<p>With that, all three of the boys, for Hippy was no coward, in spite of +his size and appetite, rushed out of the hut and disappeared in the +wood.</p> + +<p>The afternoon shadows were beginning to lengthen when Grace fastened the +latch and returned to the fire where her three friends sat silent, +afraid to speak for fear of giving way to tears.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>THE GRAY BROTHERS</h3> + + +<p>The four girls never knew how long they waited that afternoon in the +hunter's cabin. It might have been only minutes, but the minutes seemed +to drag themselves into hours. The uncertain fate of the boys, the +tragedy that surely awaited perhaps all of them made the situation +almost unbearable.</p> + +<p>Grace piled the fireplace high with the remaining wood, but the blaze +could not keep away the chill that crept over them as the sun sank +behind the trees. They shivered and drew nearer together for comfort.</p> + +<p>Should they ever see their four brave friends again?</p> + +<p>And David?</p> + +<p>Anne could endure it no longer. She rose and began to move about the +hut. There lay her coat and hat. Almost without knowing what she did she +put them on, pulled on her mittens and tied a broad, knitted muffler +around her ears.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said suddenly. She had gone about her preparations so +quietly the other three had not even turned to see what she was doing. +"I'm going. I don't want any of you to go with me, but I would rather +die than stay here all night without knowing what has happened to David +and the others."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," cried Grace, "and I'll go, too. It would be unbearable +not to know—and if we meet the wolves, why, then, as Tom said, we can +climb a tree. Poor Tom!" she added sadly. "I wonder where he is now."</p> + +<p>Nora and Jessica rose hastily.</p> + +<p>"Do you think I'd stay?" cried Nora. "Not in a thousand years!"</p> + +<p>"Anything is better than this," exclaimed Jessica, as she drew on her +wraps and prepared to follow her friends into the woods.</p> + +<p>Grace opened the door, peering out into the gathering darkness.</p> + +<p>"There is not a living thing in sight," she said. "We'd better hurry, +girls; it will soon be dark." Then the four young girls started down the +trail and were soon out of sight.</p> + +<p>When Tom Gray left old Jean's hut, with nothing between him and the +ravenous wolves, except the angle of a wall, he took a long, gliding +step, his body swinging gracefully with the motion, and was off like the +wind, under a broad avenue of trees. But he had not gone far before one +of the straps loosened and his foot slipped. He fell headlong, but was +up instantly.</p> + +<p>It took a few moments to tighten the strap, and it must have been then +that the wolves caught the scent, and after hurriedly finishing the meal +in hand, galloped off for another without taking the slightest notice of +the fox skin that Reddy had tossed to them. Tom made a fresh start, +feeling more confident on his feet than he had at first, and he was well +under way when he heard the howl of the wolves behind him. Gathering all +his energies together he managed to keep ahead of them until the woods +became less dense, and he saw through the interlacing branches the open +meadows and fields.</p> + +<p>"They are too hungry to leave off now," he said to himself as he +hurriedly searched the valley below for the nearest farmhouse. In front +of him was a very high, steep hill, that same hill, in fact, where +Nora's coasting party had taken place. Glancing behind him, he caught a +glimpse of the gray brothers trotting through the forest.</p> + +<p>"I'll take the hill," he thought. "It's quickest and there must be some +kind of a refuge below." With long, swift glides he reached the knob +which had hidden Miriam's sled from view as she bore down on Anne the +night of the coasting party.</p> + +<p>The wolves were right behind him now, and unless something turned up he +hardly dared think what would happen.</p> + +<p>But Tom Gray had always possessed an indomitable belief that things +would turn out all right. It seemed absurd to him that he was to be food +for wolves when he had still a long and delightful life before him. +Certainly he would not give up without a struggle.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was this fine confidence that his destiny was not yet +completed that gave him the strength which now promised to save him. As +he fled down the hill he saw below an old oak tree whose first branches +had been lopped off. Exerting every atom of strength in him, just as he +reached the bottom Tom gave a leap. He caught the lowest limb with one +hand, pulled himself up and calmly took his seat in the crotch of the +tree.</p> + +<p>He was just in time. The wolves were at his heels, snarling and snapping +like angry dogs. The boy regarded them from his safe perch and burst out +laughing.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="i004" id="i004"></a> +<img src="images/i004.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>Tom Gray Escapes from the Wolves.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + +<p>"So I fooled you, did I, you gray rascals?" he said aloud. "You think +you'll keep me here all night, do you, old hounds? Well, we'll see who +wins out in the long run."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the wolves ran about howling disconsolately while Tom sat in +the branches of the tree, rubbing his hands and arms to keep warm. He +had removed the snowshoes and was just contemplating climbing to the top +of the tree to keep his blood circulating, when three figures appeared +on the brow of the hill.</p> + +<p>"As I live, it's the boys," he said to himself. "Go back!" he yelled, +waving a red silk muffler. "Climb a tree quickly!"</p> + +<p>They had seen and heard him, and making for the nearest tree, each +shinned up as fast as he could.</p> + +<p>"Here's a howdy-do," said Tom to himself. "Four boys treed by wolves and +night coming on."</p> + +<p>Yet he swung his legs and whistled thoughtfully, while the others +shouted to him, but he could not hear what they said, for the wind was +blowing away from him. In the meantime the wolves did not all desert him +and he could only wait patiently, with the others, for something to turn +up.</p> + +<p>What did turn up was a good deal of a shock to all of them.</p> + +<p>Grace, Jessica, Nora and Anne suddenly emerged from the forest, standing +out in bold relief on the brow of the hill.</p> + +<p>The three boys at the top of the hill all jumped to the ground at once.</p> + +<p>"Run for the trees," cried David, for the wolves had caught the new +scent and had started toward them on a dead run.</p> + +<p>"Crack, crack," went a rifle. Instantly the first wolf staggered and +fell backward.</p> + +<p>How was it that the boys had not noticed before that the girls were not +alone?</p> + +<p>Another shot and a second wolf ran almost into their midst, gave a leap +and fell dead. One more dropped; and the sole surviving wolf beat a +frenzied retreat.</p> + +<p>"We found old Jean!" cried Grace. "Wasn't it the most fortunate thing in +the world? And now nobody is killed and we are all safe and I'm so +happy!" She gave the old hunter's arm a squeeze.</p> + +<p>Old Jean, enveloped in skins from top to toe, smiled good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"It was the Bon Dieu, mademoiselle, who have preserve you. Do not t'ank +ole Jean. It was the Bon Dieu who put it in ole Jean's haid to set +rabbit trap to-night."</p> + +<p>He would accept neither money nor thanks for shooting the wolves.</p> + +<p>"I will skin them. It is sufficient."</p> + +<p>It was not long before eight very tired and very happy young people were +seated around Mrs. Gray's dinner table. Grace was a little choky and +homesick for her mother, now that all the danger was over, but the week +of the house party was almost up, so she concealed her impatience to be +home again.</p> + +<p>The softly shaded candles shed a warm glow over their faces, and the +logs crackled on the brass andirons. They looked into each others' eyes +and smiled sleepily.</p> + +<p>Had it all been a dream, their winter picnic, or was old Jean at that +very moment really nailing wolf skins to his wall?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE LOST LETTER</h3> + + +<p>Spring was well advanced, full of soft airs and the sweet scents of +orchards in full bloom.</p> + +<p>Through the open windows of the schoolroom Grace could hear the pleasant +sounds of the out of doors. The tinkle of a cow bell in a distant meadow +and the songs of the birds brought to her the nearness of the glorious +summer time.</p> + +<p>She chewed the end of her pencil impatiently, endeavoring to withdraw +her attention from the things she liked so much better than Latin +grammar and algebra. Examinations were coming, those bugbears of the +young freshman, and then vacation. A vision of picnics crossed her mind, +of long days spent out of doors, with luncheon under the trees and +tramps through the woods. Yet, before all these joys, must come the +inevitable final test, the race for the freshman prize. Although, after +all, only two would really enter the race, Miriam and Anne. Nobody else +would think of competing with these two brilliant students.</p> + +<p>How tired Anne looked! She had done nothing but study of late. No party +had been alluring enough to beguile her from her books. She had even +discontinued her work with Mrs. Gray, and early and late toiled at her +studies.</p> + +<p>"She will tire herself out," Grace thought, and made a resolution to +take Anne with her on a visit to her grandmother's in the country just +as soon as the High School doors were closed for the summer.</p> + +<p>Miriam was not studying so hard. But then she never did anything hard. +She simply seemed to absorb, without taking the trouble to plod. She had +been very defiant of late, Grace thought, and more insolent than ever +before. She and Miss Leece were "thicker" than was good for Miriam, +considering that teacher's peculiar disposition to flatter and spoil +her. However, that was none of Grace's business, and certainly Miss +Leece had been careful since the sound rating Miss Thompson had given +her.</p> + +<p>Just then the gong broke in upon Grace's reflections. With a sigh of +relief she closed her book and strolled with her friends down to their +usual meeting place in the locker room.</p> + +<p>There was but one topic of conversation now, the freshman prize.</p> + +<p>"Anne," predicted Nora, "you just can't help winning it! I don't believe +it's in you to make a mistake. Miss Leece always gives you the hardest +problems, too, but she can't stump little Anne."</p> + +<p>Anne smiled wearily. It was well examinations were to begin in two days. +In her secret soul she felt she could not hold out much longer. +Moreover, Anne was worried about family affairs. She had received a +letter, that morning, which had troubled her so much that she had been +on the point, a dozen times, of bursting into tears. However, if she won +the prize—not the small one, but the <i>big</i> one—the difficulty would be +surmounted.</p> + +<p>Another worry had crept into her mind. She had lost the letter. A +little, wayward breeze had seized it suddenly from her limp fingers and +blown it away. She knew the letter was lurking somewhere in a corner of +the schoolroom, and she had hoped to find it when the class was +dismissed. But the missing paper was nowhere in sight when she had +searched for it during recess. Perhaps it had blown out the window, in +which case it would be brushed up by the janitress and never thought of +again. Not for worlds would Anne have had anyone read that letter.</p> + +<p>It was during the afternoon session, in the middle of one of the +schoolroom recitations, that she caught sight of her letter again. But +after the class was dismissed and she had made haste to the corner of +the room, where she thought she had seen it under a desk, it was not +there. Disappointed and uneasy Anne put on her hat and started home.</p> + +<p>All afternoon she worried about it. Perhaps it was because she was so +tired that she was especially sensitive about the letter being found by +some one else. If that some one else should read the contents, she felt +it would mean nothing lees than disgrace.</p> + +<p>"You look exhausted, child," said Anne's sister Mary, who was weary +herself, having worked hard all day on a pile of spring sewing Mrs. Gray +had ordered. "Why don't you take a walk and not try to do any studying +this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"I think I will, sister," replied Anne; and, pinning on her hat, she +left her small cottage and started toward High School Street.</p> + +<p>Turning mechanically into the broad avenue shaded by elm trees, she +strolled along, half-dreaming and half-waking. She was so weary she felt +she might lie down and sleep for twenty years, and like Rip Van Winkle +awaken old and gray. It was foolish of her to be so uneasy about that +letter.</p> + +<p>Was it a premonition that compelled her to return to the schoolroom and +search again for it? Perhaps the old janitress might have found it. The +young girl quickened her pace. She must hurry if she wanted to catch the +old woman before the latter closed up for the night.</p> + +<p>Anne had not thought of looking behind. Her mind, so trained to +concentration, was now bent only upon one object. But would it have +swerved her from her present purpose, even if she had noticed Miss Leece +following her?</p> + +<p>The High School was still open, although Anne could not find the +janitress. Perhaps the old woman was asleep somewhere. On several +occasions she had been found sleeping soundly when she should have been +brushing out schoolrooms and mopping floors. Anne was determined, +however, to give one good, thorough search for her letter and she +accordingly mounted to the floor where the freshmen class room was +situated and entered the large, empty recitation room.</p> + +<p>She looked long and carefully under the desks and benches, even going +through the scrap baskets, but there was no sign of the letter. Then she +went into some of the other class rooms, but her search was unrewarded.</p> + +<p>"What's the use?" she asked herself at last. "It's sure to have been +destroyed. I think I'll just have to give it up, and try to rest a +little before to-morrow, or I'll never be fit to try for that prize."</p> + +<p>As she started down the broad staircase she heard the rasping voice of +Miss Leece mingling with the principal's cool, well-modulated tones. +Anne paused a moment, watching the two figures below. Miss Leece looked +up and caught her eye, but Miss Thompson was engaged in unlocking the +door, and did not see the little figure lingering on the steps.</p> + +<p>Just as the door opened, another door slammed violently, and the next +moment Anne heard footsteps running along a small passage that crossed +the corridor. Leaning far over the rail she caught a glimpse of a +figure. It was—no, Anne could not be certain of the identity. But it +looked like—well, never mind whom. Anne meant to keep the secret, for +it was evident that the person had been bent on mischief, else why slam +a door and run at the approach of Miss Thompson! And now Anne heard the +door open again and Miss Thompson's voice calling: "Who is there?" But +there was no answer. Deep down in Anne's heart there crept a vague +suspicion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>DANGER AHEAD</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">My dear Grace</span>:</p> + +<p>Will you come and see me at my office after school to-day? I have +something very important to discuss.</p> + +<p>Sincerely yours,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Emma Thompson</span>.</p></div> + +<p>Grace read the letter over twice. What in the world could Miss Thompson +want to discuss with her? Perhaps she had not been doing well enough in +her classes. But Grace rejected the idea. She always kept up to the +average, and it was only those who fell below who ever received warnings +from the principal.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was—well, never mind, she would wait and see. As soon as +school was over she hurried to the principal's office and tapped on the +door.</p> + +<p>"Well, Grace, my dear," said Miss Thompson, as the young girl entered, +"did my note frighten you?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," replied Grace; "I had a clear conscience and I don't +expect to fail in exams to-morrow, although I am not so studious as Anne +Pierson or Miriam."</p> + +<p>"Of course you don't expect to fail, my dear," said the principal, +kindly, for, of all the girls in the school, Grace was her favorite. "I +didn't bring you here to scold you. But I have something very serious to +talk about. While I have threshed out the matter with myself, I believe +I might do better by talking things over with one of my safest and +sanest freshman."</p> + +<p>"Why, what has happened, Miss Thompson?" asked Grace curiously.</p> + +<p>"First, let me ask you a few questions," answered the principal. "Tell +me something about the competition for the freshman prize. Which girl do +you think has the best chance of winning it?"</p> + +<p>"I know whom I want to win," replied Grace innocently. "Anne, of course, +and I believe she will, too. While Miriam is more showy in her +recitations, Anne is much more thorough, and she studies a great deal +harder. The fact is, I am afraid she is making herself ill with +studying. But she is determined to win not the little prize, but the big +one, which is more than even Anne can do, I believe. Whoever heard of +having every examination paper perfect?"</p> + +<p>"It has not been done so far," admitted Miss Thompson, "but why is Anne +so bent on winning the prize? Is it all for glory, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"Anne is very poor, you know, Miss Thompson," said Grace simply.</p> + +<p>"So she is," replied the principal, "and the child needs the money." +Miss Thompson paused a moment, looking thoughtfully out over the smooth +green lawn. "Grace," she resumed, finally, "I have something very +serious to tell you. Two days ago I made a discovery that may change the +fate of the freshman prize this year considerably. You know I keep the +examination questions here in my desk. That is, the originals. A copy is +now at the printers. So, you see, I have only one set of originals. I +had occasion to come back to my office quite late the day of the +discovery, and, as I let myself in at that door," she pointed to the +door leading into the corridor, "what I thought was a gust of wind +slammed the door leading into the next room which I usually keep shut +and bolted on this side. My desk was open and the freshman examination +papers undoubtedly had been tampered with. I could tell because they are +usually the last in the pile and they were all on top and quite +disarranged. Whoever had been here, had heard my key in the lock, and +without waiting to close the desk had fled by the other door. I feel +deeply grieved over this matter. I should never think of suspecting any +of my fine girls of such trickery; and, yet, who else could it have been +except one of the freshmen?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Thompson, this is dreadful," exclaimed Grace, distressed and +shocked over the story. "I don't believe there's a girl in the class who +would have done it. There must be some mistake."</p> + +<p>"That is why I sent for you, Grace," said the principal. "I want your +advice. Now Anne——"</p> + +<p>"<i>Anne?</i>" interrupted Grace horrified. "You don't suppose, for a minute, +Anne would be dishonest? Never! I won't stay and listen any longer," and +she rushed to the door.</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson followed, placing a detaining hand on her arm.</p> + +<p>"You are right, Grace, to be loyal to your friend," said the principal, +always just and kind under the most trying circumstances; "but Anne, I +must tell you, is under suspicion."</p> + +<p>"Why?" demanded Grace, almost sobbing in her anger and unhappiness.</p> + +<p>"The afternoon of the discovery Anne was here long after school hours. +She was seen by two people wandering about the building."</p> + +<p>"Who were the people?" demanded Grace incredulously.</p> + +<p>"The janitress, who saw her from the window of another room, and—Miss +Leece."</p> + +<p>"I thought so," exclaimed Grace, with a note of triumph in her voice. +"It is Miss Leece, is it, who is trumping up all this business? I tell +you, I don't believe a word of it, Miss Thompson. Anne would no more do +such a thing than I would, and I am going to fight to save her if it +takes my last breath. Do you know how hard she has worked to win this +prize? Simply all the time. I believe, if she knew what you suspected, +it would kill her. I believe it's some tale Miss Leece has made up. And +besides, why shouldn't she have come back to the building? Perhaps she +forgot a book or something. I'd just like to know what Miss Leece was +doing here at that time of day."</p> + +<p>"She came here to meet me on business," answered Miss Thompson. "That is +why she knows something of the unfortunate affair. She was with me when +I found my desk had been broken open and the papers disturbed. She also +heard the other door slam and it was then she told me of having seen +Anne wandering about the building for which, as you say, there might +have been a dozen reasons; I believe, as firmly as you do, that the +child is incapable of cheating, and I intend to leave no stone unturned +to get at the truth. But there is still another fact against Anne that +is very black." The speaker took from a drawer a slip of folded paper. +"This was found in the building," she continued, "and since it was an +open letter, without address and under the circumstances, so important, +it was read and the contents reported to me. I have since read it myself +and I now ask you to read it."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Anne</span>:</p> + +<p>I must have one hundred dollars at once, or go somewhere for a long +time. I foolishly signed a friend's name to a slip of paper. I +didn't know he would be so hard, but he threatens to prosecute +unless I pay up before the end of next week. I know you have rich +friends. I have been hearing of your successes. Perhaps the old +lady, Mrs. G., will oblige you. I trust to your good sense to see +that the hundred must be forthcoming, or it will mean disgrace for +us all.</p> + +<p>Your father,</p> + +<p>J. P.</p></div> + +<p>Grace limply held the letter in one hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, poor, poor Anne!" she groaned, wiping away the tears that had +welled up into her eyes and were running down her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"I feel just as you do, my child," went on Miss Thompson. "I am deeply, +bitterly sorry for this unfortunate child. But you will agree with me +that she has had a very strong motive for winning the prize."</p> + +<p>Grace nodded mutely.</p> + +<p>"By the way," she asked presently, when she had calmed herself, "who was +it that found the letter?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Leece again," replied Miss Thompson, hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"There, you see," exclaimed Grace excitedly, "that woman is determined +to ruin Anne before the close of school. I tell you, I won't believe +Anne is guilty. It has taken just this much to make me certain that she +is entirely innocent. Is there no clue whatever to the person who copied +the papers?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Miss Thompson, "there is. This had been shoved back in +the desk under the papers. It does not belong to me, and it could not +have gotten into my desk by any other means. I suppose, in her hurry to +copy the freshmen sheets, whoever she was, laid it down and forgot it."</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson produced a crumpled pocket handkerchief. Grace took it and +held it to the light. There were no marks or initials upon it whatever; +it was simply a cambric handkerchief with a narrow hemstitched border, a +handkerchief such as anyone might use. It was neither large nor small, +neither of thin nor thick material.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing on it," said Grace. "I suppose the stores sell hundreds +of these."</p> + +<p>"That's very true," answered the principal, "but I hoped you would be +familiar enough with your friends' handkerchiefs to recognize this one."</p> + +<p>"No," replied Grace, "I haven't the least idea whose it is. Wait a +moment," she added quickly, smelling the handkerchief; "there is a +perfume on it of some sort. Did you notice that?"</p> + +<p>"I did," replied Miss Thompson. "It was one of the first things I did +notice. I am very sensitive to perfumes; perhaps because I dislike them +on clothing. But I waited for you to find it out for yourself. In fact, +my dear, this will be the only means of trapping the person. Now, what +perfume is it, and who in the class uses it? I am not familiar with +perfumes, but I thought perhaps you were. And now, I will tell you that +this is the reason I sent for you. The reason I showed you this letter, +which has only been seen by one other person besides myself—Miss Leece, +of course. I do not wish to tell anyone else about this matter. I do not +care to put the subject before the School Board for discussion. I do not +believe, any more than you, that Anne is guilty and I have taken you +into my confidence because I believe you are the one person in the world +who can help me in this predicament. Miss Leece, of course, intends to +do everything in her power to bring the child 'to justice.' But, until I +give her permission, she will hardly dare to speak of it. So far, we +three are the only people who know what has happened. In the meantime, I +shall turn over this handkerchief to you. Keep it carefully and be very +guarded about what you do and say. You are a young girl," she continued, +taking Grace's hand and gazing full into her honest eyes, "but I have a +great respect for your judgment and discretion, and that is the reason I +am asking for your help in this very delicate matter. You may rest +assured that I shall do nothing whatever; at least, not until after +examinations. I have an idea that we may get a clue through them. We +must save Anne, whose life would be utterly ruined by such a false +accusation as this. And I feel convinced that it is false."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can tell you one thing, Miss Thompson," returned Grace as she +opened the door, "and that is Anne Pierson never used any perfume in her +life. She hasn't any to use."</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson nodded and smiled.</p> + +<p>"I was sure of that," she called.</p> + +<p>Grace had little time to lose. The examinations, which took place the +next day and the day after, would undoubtedly bring matters to a crisis.</p> + +<p>She took the handkerchief from her pocket and sniffed at it. Neither was +she familiar with perfumes, and this odor was new to her. Suddenly an +idea occurred to her and she made straight for the nearest drugstore.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Gleason," she demanded of the clerk in charge, "could you tell me +what perfume this is?"</p> + +<p>The druggist sniffed thoughtfully at the handkerchief for some seconds.</p> + +<p>"It's sandalwood," he said at last. "We received some in stock a week +ago."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT</h3> + + +<p>How examinations loom up on the fatal day, like monstrous obstacles that +must be overcome! How the hours slip past, with nothing to break the +stillness save the scratching of pens on foolscap paper, while each +student draws upon the supply of knowledge stored up during the winter +months!</p> + +<p>A fly buzzes on the window pane; a teacher rises, tiptoes slowly about +the room and sits down again. She can do nothing, now, but keep watch on +the pairs of drooping shoulders and the tired, flushed faces.</p> + +<p>Anne was so absorbed in her work that she was oblivious to everything +about her. Her pen moved with precision over her paper and her copy was +neat and clear.</p> + +<p>It was the second day of the examinations and she felt that her fate +would soon be decided; but she was too tired now to worry. She worked on +quietly and steadily. She had almost finished, and, as she answered one +question after another, she was more and more buoyed up by the +conviction that she would win the prize.</p> + +<p>Miriam had finished her work. Her impatient nature would not permit her +to do anything slowly. As she gave a last flourishing stroke with her +pen, she leaned back, looking about her. She smiled contemptuously as +her eyes rested on Anne.</p> + +<p>"What a shabby, slow little creature she is!" Miriam murmured. "It would +be a disgrace for a girl like me to be beaten by her. I'll never endure +it in the world."</p> + +<p>It was not long before the girls had all finished and turned in their +papers to the teacher in charge.</p> + +<p>"Oh, glorious happy day!" cried Nora, as she sped joyously down the +corridor. "Examinations are over, and now for a good time!"</p> + +<p>A dozen or more of the freshman class had been invited to Miriam's to a +tea to celebrate the close of school. Anne, of course, was not invited; +but Grace and her friends had received invitations and promptly accepted +them.</p> + +<p>Grace had taken Nora and Jessica into her confidence to some extent. She +needed their help, but she had not mentioned the letter from Anne's +father. The three girls met early by appointment, at the Harlowe house, +to discuss matters before going to Miriam Nesbit's.</p> + +<p>"Here's a list of the people in Oakdale," said Nora, "who have bought +sandalwood perfume. I have been to four drug stores and all the dry +goods stores."</p> + +<p>Grace took the list and read:</p> + +<p>"'Mrs. I. Rosenfield, Miss Alice Gwendolyn Jones, Mr. Percival Butz, +etc.' Good heavens!" she cried, "there's not a single person on this +list who has anything to do with Oakdale High School. Mr. Percival +Butz," she laughed. "The idea of a man buying perfume. Really, girls," +she added in despair, "we've been wasting our time. I can't see that any +of us has made the least headway. I have called on almost every freshman +in the class and inquired what her favorite perfume is, and I know some +of them thought I was silly. Anyway, not one of them claimed to use +sandalwood."</p> + +<p>"The stupidest girls would be the ones who would be most likely to want +to copy the papers," observed Jessica, "but those girls are much too +nice to believe such horrid things about. I went to see Ellen Wiggins +and Sallie Moore yesterday afternoon. Neither of them use perfume. +Sallie Moore told me she had an orris root sachet that had almost lost +its scent. Which reminds me," she continued, "why couldn't this +handkerchief have been scented by some other means than just perfume. +Perhaps it was put into a mouchoir case with sandalwood powder."</p> + +<p>"Why, of course," exclaimed Grace. "Jessica, I never thought of asking +who had been buying sachet powders. You have a great head."</p> + +<p>"Must I go back and ask all those storekeepers for more lists?" demanded +Nora.</p> + +<p>"No, child," replied Grace. "Just give us time to think first."</p> + +<p>"It's time to go to Miriam's anyhow," observed Jessica. "Perhaps some +sort of inspiration will come on the way," and the three girls set out +for the tea party.</p> + +<p>As they paused to admire the beautiful flower beds on the Nesbit lawn +Jessica said:</p> + +<p>"Have you inquired Miriam's favorite perfume?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," answered Grace. "She said she liked them all and had no +favorites."</p> + +<p>"Why are all these strange young women breaking into my premises?" +demanded a voice behind them.</p> + +<p>"David Nesbit," cried Grace, "where have you been all this time? You +never seem to find the time to come near your old friends any more."</p> + +<p>"I have been busy, girls," replied David. "Never busier in my life. But +I believe I've struck it at last. It will not be long, now, before I +turn into a bird."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>do</i> show it to us!" cried Grace. "Where is the model?"</p> + +<p>"In my workroom," he replied. "If you are very good, and will promise to +say nothing to the others, I'll give you a peep this afternoon. When I +signal to you from the music room, by sounding three bass notes on the +piano, start upstairs and I'll meet you on the landing. You may ask why +this mystery? But I know girls, and if all those chattering freshmen are +allowed to come into my room they are sure to knock over some of the +models, or break something, and I couldn't stand it."</p> + +<p>The three girls entered the large and imposing drawing room where +Miriam, in a beautiful pink mulle, trimmed with filmy lace insertions, +received them with unusual cordiality; and presently they all repaired +to the dining room where ice cream and strawberries were served with +little cakes with pink icing. It was, as a matter of fact, a pink tea, +and Miriam's cheeks were as pink as her decorations. She looked +particularly excited and happy. Each of the three chums had just +swallowed her last and largest strawberry, saved as a final relish, when +three low notes sounded softly on the piano in the adjoining room.</p> + +<p>In the hum of conversation nobody had noticed David's signal except +Grace and her friends, who strolled into the music room where he was +waiting.</p> + +<p>"Come along," he said, leading the way up the back stairs, "and please +consider this as a special mark of attention from the great inventor who +has never yet made anything go. Where's Anne?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose she is resting," answered Grace. "She had just about reached +the end of her strength to-day."</p> + +<p>"But she'll win the prize, I hope," continued David.</p> + +<p>"We are all sure of it," answered Grace, in emphatic tones.</p> + +<p>David opened the door into his own private quarters, which consisted of +a large workroom with a laboratory attached, where he had once worked on +chemical experiments until he had become interested in flying machines.</p> + +<p>"Here they are," he exclaimed, walking over to a large table in the +workroom. "I have three models, you see, and each one works a little +better than the other. This last one, I believe, will do the business." +He pointed to a graceful little aeroplane made of bamboo sticks and rice +paper.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it sweet?" exclaimed the girls in unison.</p> + +<p>"And it has a name, too," continued David unabashed. "I've called her +'Anne,' because, while she's such a small, unpretentious-looking little +craft, she can soar to such heights. There is not room here to show you +how good she is, but we'll have another gymnasium seance some day soon, +Anne must come and see her namesake."</p> + +<p>"There!" cried Grace in a tone of annoyance. "I have jagged a big place +in my dress, David Nesbit, on a nail in your table. Why do you have such +things about to destroy people's clothes?"</p> + +<p>"But nobody who wears dresses ever comes in here," protested David, +"except mother and the maid, and they know better than to come near this +table. Can't I do something? Glue it together or mend it with a piece of +sticking plaster?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," answered the girl. "Just get me a needle and thread, +please. I don't want to go downstairs with such a hideous rent in my +dress."</p> + +<p>"Why, of course," assented David. "Why didn't I think of it sooner? +Mother will fix you up," and he opened the door into the hall and called +"mother!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Nesbit came hurrying in. She never waited to be called twice by her +son, who was the apple of her eye.</p> + +<p>"My dear Grace," she exclaimed when she saw the tear, "this is too bad. +Come right into my room and I'll mend it for you."</p> + +<p>So it happened that Grace was presently seated in an armchair in Mrs. +Nesbit's bedroom, while the good-natured woman whipped together the +jagged edges of the rent.</p> + +<p>"What a beautiful box you have, Mrs. Nesbit," said Grace, pointing to a +large carved box on the dressing table.</p> + +<p>"Do you like it?" replied the other. "I'm fond of it, probably because I +was so happy when I bought it years ago while traveling abroad with my +husband. It smells as sweet as it did when it was new," she added, +placing the box in Grace's lap.</p> + +<p>Nora and Jessica, who had been hovering about the room, now came over to +see the sweet-scented box. How strangely familiar was that pungent +perfume which floated up to them. Where had they smelled it before?</p> + +<p>"It is made of carved sandalwood," continued Mrs. Nesbit, opening the +lid, "and I have always kept my handkerchiefs in it, you see——"</p> + +<p>"Mother!" called David's voice from the hall, and Mrs. Nesbit left the +room for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Sandalwood!" gasped Grace.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was the same perfume that now faintly scented the famous +handkerchief.</p> + +<p>There was a pile of handkerchiefs in the box. Grace lifted the top one +and sniffed at it. She examined the border carefully and the texture.</p> + +<p>"It looks like stealing," she whispered, "but I must have this +handkerchief. I'll return it afterwards," and she slipped the +handkerchief into her belt.</p> + +<p>Nora and Jessica had exchanged significant glances, while Nora's lips +had formed the words, "exactly like the other one."</p> + +<p>In the meantime Miss Thompson had been closeted with Anne Pierson for +half an hour in the principal's office. By special request she had +arranged to have Anne's examination papers looked over immediately and +sent to her. The papers were therefore the first to receive attention +from each teacher, and were then turned over to Miss Thompson, who +hurried with them into her office and locked the door behind her.</p> + +<p>"It would be a pity if they were too perfect," she said to herself. +"That would tell very much against Anne, I fear."</p> + +<p>But, as her eyes ran over them, she shook her head dubiously. They were +marvels of neatness and not one cross or written comment marred their +perfection. At the foot of each sheet the word "perfect" had been +written. Some of the teachers had even added notes stating that no +errors of any sort had been found, while one professor had paid Anne the +very high compliment of stating that the perfection of her examination +papers had not been a surprise. Never in that teacher's experience had +he taught a more brilliant pupil. Miss Thompson looked with interest at +the algebra papers. If this had not come up, she thought, Miss Leece +would certainly have managed to find a flaw somewhere, even if she had +had to invent one. But under the circumstances, it was more to that wily +woman's purpose to give Anne her due. For Miss Leece knew that a perfect +examination paper would tell more against the young girl than for her.</p> + +<p>It was after this that Miss Thompson had her talk with Anne, a very +kindly, interested talk, in which the young girl's prospects, her work +and health had all come under consideration. And then in the gentlest +possible way Miss Thompson had produced the letter.</p> + +<p>"Is this yours, Anne?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Anne started violently.</p> + +<p>"O Miss Thompson," she cried, making a great effort to keep back her +tears, "where did you find it? I spent one entire afternoon here looking +for it. It was the very day you and Miss Leece were here."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you saw us then," replied the principal. "And where were you?"</p> + +<p>"I was outside on the steps," replied Anne. "Didn't Miss Leece mention +it? She looked up and saw me just as you unlocked the door. Then the +other door slammed and some one hurried down the passage. I saw her, +too, but——"</p> + +<p>"But what, Anne?" asked the principal slowly.</p> + +<p>"But I am not sure who it was."</p> + +<p>"Have you an idea?"</p> + +<p>"I could only guess from the outline of her figure," replied Anne. "And +it wouldn't be fair to tell her name unless I had seen her plainly. It +might have been some one else."</p> + +<p>Anne had a suspicion that something had happened, and that Miss Thompson +had brought her here to find out what she knew. But she never dreamed +that she herself was under suspicion.</p> + +<p>One thing had struck Miss Thompson very forcibly. Miss Leece had known +all along that Anne was on the staircase at the very moment the other +person was slamming the door in their faces. And yet Miss Leece was +determined to condemn Anne to the faculty that very night. She had said +so in as many words, in defiance of the principal's arguments against +such a course.</p> + +<p>"Well, good night, my child," she said at last, giving Anne a motherly +kiss. "You have done a good winter's work and I am proud of you."</p> + +<p>Anne hurried away, clutching the letter in her hand. She wondered if +Miss Thompson had read it, and somehow she didn't mind so much after +all. The principal seemed to her the very embodiment of all that was +good and kind.</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson was destined to have several callers that afternoon. In a +few moments Grace hurried in, breathless and excited.</p> + +<p>"Look at that, Miss Thompson," cried the girl, thrusting a handkerchief +into her hand. "Look at it and smell it."</p> + +<p>"Well," replied the principal, "I've seen it before and smelled it +before, too. Only you've had it washed and ironed, haven't you!"</p> + +<p>Grace took a crumpled handkerchief from her pocket.</p> + +<p>"Here's the real one," she cried triumphantly.</p> + +<p>The two handkerchiefs were certainly identical in shape and material and +both were perfumed with sandalwood.</p> + +<p>"Where did you get this one?" demanded the principal.</p> + +<p>"From Mrs. Nesbit's sandalwood handkerchief box," whispered Grace +slowly.</p> + +<p>"You think it was then——?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Grace. "I'm certain of it. It's as plain as daylight. She +borrowed her mother's handkerchief."</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear!" exclaimed the principal. "How very foolish! How very +unnecessary! And all because she couldn't endure to be beaten! Do you +know," she continued presently, "that Miss Leece intends to denounce +Anne before the faculty to-night? My authority can't stop her, and I +don't believe the similarity of these two handkerchiefs will either."</p> + +<p>"Miss Thompson," exclaimed Grace, "I tell you I know perfectly well that +woman is going to try to ruin Anne for the sake of Miriam. I have known +it for months. Why, at Mrs. Gray's Christmas party she did a thing that +is too outrageous to believe," and here Grace opened a bundle she had +brought with her and produced the marionette of James Pierson.</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson was shocked at the recital of the story. She, too, +recognized the green silk tie, although she had no recollection of +Miriam's red velveteen suit, a piece of which formed the waistcoat. But +there was something about that green silk which stuck in the memory. +Probably because it was so ugly, having a semi-invisible yellow line +running through it.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, "I remember it very well. It was the trimming on a +blouse Miss Leece wore last autumn. I do not believe anyone could forget +such a hideous piece of material."</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson paused a moment and considered.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she continued presently, "I believe this is all I shall need +to confront Miss Leece with. Your bringing it to me at this moment shows +most excellent judgment. It may prevent a painful scandal in the school, +as well as saving Anne from disgrace. As for the two handkerchiefs, the +evidence is too slight to make any open accusations; but at any rate you +may leave both with me. I may need them in my interview with Miss Leece. +I may as well tell you I am anticipating a pretty stiff battle with her. +I don't believe I should have won with only the handkerchiefs."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I hope we can save Anne, Miss Thompson," cried Grace.</p> + +<p>"I earnestly hope so, too," replied the principal. "It would be too +heart breaking to have the child go down under this false accusation; +and aside from that, such scandals are bad for the school and I would +rather deal with them privately than have them made public. But run +along now, dear. You have done nobly and deserve a prize yourself."</p> + +<p>A knock was heard, and as Grace departed through one door Miss Leece +opened the other.</p> + +<p>"If Miss Thompson only wins this battle!" the young girl exclaimed to +herself. "I want to believe she will, but I know that terrible Miss +Leece will make a tremendous fight."</p> + +<p>She joined her friends, who were waiting for her outside.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she cried, "pray for Anne to-night!"</p> + +<p>Nora, good little Catholic that she was, went straight to her church and +burned two candles before the altar of the Holy Virgin, while she +offered up a humble petition for Anne's deliverance; while Grace and +Jessica, in their own bedrooms, that night prayed reverently and +earnestly that Anne might be saved from her enemies. Thus were Anne's +three devoted friends working and praying for her while she slept the +sleep of exhaustion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>THE FRESHMAN PRIZE</h3> + + +<p>Graduation night in Oakdale High School was one of the great social +events of the year. The floor and galleries of Assembly Hall were +invariably packed with an enthusiastic audience; for the two schools +united at the ceremony of graduation and the senior class formed a mixed +company on the stage.</p> + +<p>Most of the pupils attended commencement and the freshman class of the +Girls' High School was always there in full to witness the triumph of +one of its members, who was called forth from the audience to receive +the usual freshman prize of twenty-five dollars.</p> + +<p>The identity of the winner was always kept a secret until the great +night, when she was summoned from the audience to the stage and +presented with the money before the entire assembly.</p> + +<p>The readers can imagine, therefore, the uncertainty and trepidation that +fluttered in the hearts of our four girls as they sat together in the +center of the great hall. Anne had passed through a dozen stages of +emotions, both hopeful and otherwise, and had finally steeled herself to +give up all thought of winning either of the prizes.</p> + +<p>Miriam, confident and handsome, sat near them. She wore a beautiful +white dress trimmed with lace, and her thick, black plaits were twisted +around her head like a coronet.</p> + +<p>"She's all dressed up to step up on the stage and get her twenty-five," +whispered Nora to Jessica.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she already knows she's going to get it," answered Jessica +doubtfully. "Perhaps Miss Leece has told her."</p> + +<p>"If Miss Leece knew it, she would certainly have told her," answered +Grace, leaning over so that Anne could not hear her; "but I feel sure +Miss Thompson has managed it somehow, although I kept hoping all day she +would send me a note or something. It may be she hated to tell me the +bad news."</p> + +<p>Hippy Wingate and Reddy Brooks came down the aisle in immaculate attire. +David followed behind, pale and silent.</p> + +<p>Did David suspect anything about his sister? Grace wondered. Certainly +he had directly or indirectly been the means of balking every one of +Miriam's schemes for injuring Anne. Perhaps Miriam had told him she was +to win the prize, and he was thinking of Anne's disappointment. All +three boys paused when they saw their friends of the Christmas house +party. Hippy leaned over to say:</p> + +<p>"Hello, girls! Can you guess what has brought us here to-night, all +dressed up in our best?"</p> + +<p>"Not unless it was to show off your clothes," replied Nora.</p> + +<p>"To see Miss Anne Pierson win the freshman prize. Simply that, and +nothing more."</p> + +<p>"But I don't expect to win it, Hippy," protested Anne.</p> + +<p>"If you don't, you aren't the girl we took you for, then," replied +Hippy. "I heard from a young person in your class that you hadn't made a +mistake in six months."</p> + +<p>"But just as many people think Miriam will win," said Anne. "Look at all +the people congratulating her already."</p> + +<p>Surely enough Miriam's friends had rallied around her at the final test, +and numbers of girls and boys and grown people, too, were already +prophesying victory.</p> + +<p>Just then the audience composed itself, for the exercises were about to +begin. Soft music was heard and the graduates filed out and took their +seats.</p> + +<p>Immediately they were seated, Mrs. Gray, in a beautiful lavender silk +gown and a white lace bonnet trimmed with violets, swept down the aisle, +bowing and smiling right and left.</p> + +<p>"Girls!" cried Grace delightedly, looking over her shoulder, "guess who +is with our precious little Mrs. Gray?"</p> + +<p>"Tom Gray!" cried the others in unison, just as Tom Gray himself +appeared opposite them and waved his hat, regardless of the many eyes +fastened upon him, for Mrs. Gray was an important personage not only at +these annual assemblages, but in Oakdale itself, of which she had always +been a most generous and loyal citizen.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray nodded cordially when she saw the girls, but shook her head +over Anne's pale, drawn little face.</p> + +<p>As the ceremonies proceeded after the opening prayer, Anne felt herself +drifting further and further away. She was a little boat on a troubled, +restless sea, with the noise of the waves in her head, and only +occasionally did she hear some one's voice reading a graduating essay or +making a speech—she couldn't tell which. She remembered there was a +piano solo, very loud and crashing, it seemed to her, and there was a +tremendous humming sound. The sea was growing very rough, she thought. A +storm was brewing somewhere. Then the wind died down again, there was a +complete and utter silence and she seemed to be entirely alone.</p> + +<p>"I have great pleasure in announcing," she dimly heard a voice say, +"that the annual freshman prize, so generously donated always by Mrs. +Gray, is awarded this year to one of the most brilliant and remarkable +pupils who has ever studied in Oakdale High School. My language, in this +instance, may appear to be rather extravagant, but the pupil, who has +been under the eye of the faculty for many months because of her most +excellent standing, has achieved a unique success in the history of the +school. I may say that she has turned in a set of examination papers +absolutely perfect in every detail, and it is with real delight I +announce that she has won not only the usual smaller prize of +twenty-five dollars, but the premium always offered at the same time, +but never before won by any pupil of this school, of one hundred +dollars, for a flawless examination. I would, therefore, ask Miss Anne +Pierson to come to the platform, that I may have the honor of delivering +both prizes to her."</p> + +<p>Such a shout as arose after this remarkable speech had never before been +heard at a high school graduation. The freshman class was fairly mad +with joy, while Hippy and Reddy yelled themselves hoarse.</p> + +<p>"Anne!" cried Grace. "Wake up, Anne! Are you asleep, child? Go up to the +platform. Miss Thompson is waiting for you."</p> + +<p>Tears of joy and relief were rolling down Grace's cheeks as she urged +Anne to rise from her seat.</p> + +<p>Anne stood up, half dazed, still wondering what it was all about, and +made her way through a sea of faces to the platform.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" roared the pupils of the High School in one voice.</p> + +<p>"Hi-hi-hi! Hi-hi-hi! Oakdale, Oakdale, HIGH SCHOOL!"</p> + +<p>This was an honor usually accorded only to football and baseball heroes.</p> + +<p>When Anne reached the platform she appeared so small and plain, in her +simple white muslin frock, that people looked at her wonderingly. It was +not everyone in Oakdale who was familiar with the little, dark-haired +girl.</p> + +<p>"My dear," said Miss Thompson, very handsome and imposing in a gray silk +dress, "I am happy to be the one to hand you these two prizes. You have +worked hard and richly deserve them both. I am sure everyone in this +house to-night is glad that your winter's unceasing labors are crowned +with success, and I now recommend you to take a good rest, for such +prizes are only earned by earnest and hard application, and hard work +carries with it, sometimes, its own penalty." (She placed special +emphasis on these last words.) "You have indeed earned the right to a +happy vacation."</p> + +<p>Two bouquets were handed over the footlights at this point, one a +beautiful bunch of pink roses and the other of lilies of the valley.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray had sent the roses Grace felt sure. It was her custom always +to send such a bouquet to the one who carried off the prize. But who had +sent the lilies of the valley?</p> + +<p>"Very likely David," Grace said to herself, watching the boy's face as +Anne took the flowers from the usher.</p> + +<p>Had he known then that his sister had lost the prize, or was his faith +in Anne so great?</p> + +<p>But something had happened.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the waves, which for the last half hour had been roaring and +tossing about Anne, seemed to submerge her completely. She felt a horrid +sensation of sickness for a moment; and then down, down she sank to the +bottom of nothing, carrying her flowers and prizes with her.</p> + +<p>"She's fainted!" cried some one. "The poor, little, tired girl has +fainted!"</p> + +<p>A tall young graduate picked up the small, limp figure and carried her +off the stage as easily as if she had been a child. The closing +exercises were then resumed, the benediction pronounced and the audience +filed out somewhat silently.</p> + +<p>Grace and her friends hurried around behind the scenes, where they found +Mrs. Gray in the act of placing a smelling-salts bottle to Anne's +nostrils, while Tom Gray and David Nesbit were cooling her temples with +lumps of ice. "She is conscious at last!" exclaimed the old lady, as +Anne opened her eyes. "It was entirely too much excitement for this +delicate, worn-out child. Tom, order the carriage. I mean to take her +straight to my own house and nurse her myself. I am the only person in +this town who has time to give her all the care and attention she needs. +I feel like such a lazy, good-for-nothing old woman when I see all these +bright young people winning prizes and doing so many clever things."</p> + +<p>"How you do go on, Mrs. Gray," said David. "You know very well you are +the brightest, youngest and prettiest girl in Oakdale."</p> + +<p>Anne sat up at this moment, and looked into the faces of her best +friends leaning over her anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I thought the boat capsized just as I was about to win the race," she +said faintly.</p> + +<p>"The little boat did capsize, dear," answered Mrs. Gray gently, "but not +until after you had won the race. And now, if you are well enough to let +this strong nephew of mine carry you, we are going to take you right +home. Are all my Christmas children here?" she continued, looking about +her. Hippy and Reddy had joined the group just then. "Yes, here you are. +Tom and I can't take you all up in the carriage, but I want you to +follow us, if your parents and guardians have no objections. I have +arranged a little supper to celebrate Anne's victory. I am sorry she +can't come to her own party, but she may hear all about it afterwards +and the rest of you shall make merry for her."</p> + +<p>Not long after, six young people strolled up Chapel Hill in the +moonlight, talking gayly of the happy days they had spent together with +Mrs. Gray; for Richards, the burglar, seemed now a sort of joke to them, +and even the terrible recollection of the wolves was softened by time, +and they could only laugh at poor Hippy's plight when his breath gave +out and his legs refused their office.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," exclaimed Hippy, pretending to be much offended, "it is a +very good idea to remember only the funny things and forget the +dangerous ones, when all's said and done. But if I'd have had a stroke +of apoplexy just as that young lady wolf began to lick my heels, you +wouldn't have been so merry over the recollection."</p> + +<p>"Well," retorted Nora, "we would have been just about going into half +mourning, by now, and that's always a cheerful thought."</p> + +<p>"Grace," whispered Jessica, taking advantage of the talk of the others +not to be overheard, "did you notice Miriam when Miss Thompson began her +speech?"</p> + +<p>"No," answered Grace, "I was too intent upon Anne to look at Miriam. +Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well," continued Jessica, "you remember that Miss Thompson mentioned no +names until almost the very end of the speech!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the other; "I remember it particularly, because I kept +wishing she would hurry and get to the point."</p> + +<p>"Exactly," went on Jessica, "and Miriam thought she had won the prize."</p> + +<p>"How do you know, Jessica! How could you tell?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, in a hundred different ways. I could tell by the smile on her face +that she took every compliment to herself. Lots of people were watching +her, too, and I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her, because +she is one of those people who just can't stand losing. When Miss +Thompson reached the place where she was about to ask Anne to step up +and get the prize, Miriam half rose in her seat. Mrs. Nesbit pulled her +back in the nick of time. I honestly believe she would have reached the +stage before Anne did, if her mother hadn't stopped her. Hippy told me +they left before the benediction. I suppose Miriam was not equal to the +mortification."</p> + +<p>"I thought perhaps Miss Thompson would have mentioned her name as coming +second in the contest," said Grace. "She usually does, you know. But +there were good reasons, and plenty, why she shouldn't this time, I +suppose. And to think, Jessica, that Miriam need never have done that +dreadful thing. She would probably have passed second in the class +anyway, and copying the papers didn't help her one little bit."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gray reported Anne to be much better. She had taken some nourishing +broth and gone to bed, and she was at that moment sleeping soundly.</p> + +<p>So there was no cause for anything but good cheer at the supper party.</p> + +<p>And here let us leave them around Mrs. Gray's hospitable table. For, is +it not better to say farewell rejoicing so that no shadows may darken +the memory we shall carry with us during the long months of separation?</p> + +<p>Before Oakdale High School welcomes her children back again, David will +sail abroad with his mother and sister; Grace and Anne will set off for +the country to visit Grace's grandmother; the others and their families +will scatter to various summer resorts, while Mrs. Gray will seek a cool +spot in the mountains.</p> + +<p>However, in the next volume, which will be entitled, "<span class="smcap">Grace +Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School</span>; Or, the Record of the Girl +Chums in Work and Athletics," we shall again meet the four girls and +their friends. This book, the record of the girl chums in athletics, +tells of the exciting rivalries of the sophomore and junior basketball +teams, culminating in a final hard-fought battle. Again Grace Harlowe +distinguishes herself by her bravery and good judgment, and again Miriam +Nesbit will do her best to thwart her at every point. And we may learn +what Anne Pierson did with the prize money.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The End</span>.</p> + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HENRY_ALTEMUS_COMPANYS" id="HENRY_ALTEMUS_COMPANYS"></a>HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S</h2> + + +<h3>Best and Least Expensive Books<br /> +for Boys and Girls</h3> + + +<p>Really good and new stories for boys and girls are not plentiful. Many +stories, too, are so highly improbable as to bring a grin of derision to +the young reader's face before he has gone far. The name of ALTEMUS is a +distinctive brand on the cover of a book, always ensuring the buyer of +having a book that is up-to-date and fine throughout. No buyer of an +ALTEMUS book is ever disappointed.</p> + +<p>Many are the claims made as to the inexpensiveness of books. Go into any +bookstore and ask for an Altemus book. Compare the price charged you for +Altemus books with the price demanded for other juvenile books. You will +at once discover that a given outlay of money will buy more of the +ALTEMUS books than of those published by other houses.</p> + +<p>Every dealer in books carries the ALTEMUS books.</p> + +<p>Sold by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price</p> + +<h4>Henry Altemus Company<br /> +1326-1336 Vine Street, Philadelphia</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h2>The Motor Boat Club Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<p>The keynote of these books is manliness. The stories are wonderfully +entertaining, and they are at the same time sound and wholesome. No boy +will willingly lay down an unfinished book in this series.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OF THE KENNEBEC;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Secret of Smugglers' Island.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT NANTUCKET;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Mystery of the Dunstan Heir.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OFF LONG ISLAND;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, A Daring Marine Game at Racing Speed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AND THE WIRELESS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB IN FLORIDA;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Laying the Ghost of Alligator Swamp.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT THE GOLDEN GATE;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, A Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB ON THE GREAT LAKES;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Flying Dutchman of the Big Fresh Water.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The Range and Grange Hustlers</h2> + +<h3>By FRANK GEE PATCHIN</h3> + +<p>Have you any idea of the excitements, the glories of life on great +ranches in the West? Any bright boy will "devour" the books of this +series, once he has made a start with the first volume.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE RANCH;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Boy Shepherds of the Great Divide.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS' GREATEST ROUND-UP;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Pitting Their Wits Against a Packers' Combine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE PLAINS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Following the Steam Plows Across the Prairie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS AT CHICAGO;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Conspiracy of the Wheat Pit.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>Submarine Boys Series</h2> + +<h3>By VICTOR G. DURHAM</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SUBMARINE BOYS ON DUTY;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Life on a Diving Torpedo Boat.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SUBMARINE BOYS' TRIAL TRIP;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, "Making Good" as Young Experts.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE MIDDIES;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Prize Detail at Annapolis.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SPIES;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dodging the Sharks of the Deep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SUBMARINE BOYS' LIGHTNING CRUISE;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Young Kings of the Deep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SMUGGLERS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Breaking Up the New Jersey Customs Frauds.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The Square Dollar Boys Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS WAKE UP;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Fighting the Trolley Franchise Steal.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS SMASH THE RING;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, In the Lists Against the Crooked Land Deal.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The College Girls Series</h2> + +<h3>By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A.M.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S FIRST YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S SECOND YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S THIRD YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S FOURTH YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S RETURN TO OVERTON CAMPUS.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>Dave Darrin Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DAVE DARRIN AT VERA CRUZ;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Fighting With the U. S. Navy in Mexico.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>Pony Rider Boys Series</h2> + +<h3>By FRANK GEE PATCHIN</h3> + +<p>These tales may be aptly described the best books for boys and girls.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ROCKIES;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Secret of the Lost Claim.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN TEXAS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Veiled Riddle of the Plains.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Mystery of the Old Custer Trail.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE OZARKS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Secret of Ruby Mountain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ALKALI;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Finding a Key to the Desert Maze.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN NEW MEXICO;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The End of the Silver Trail.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE GRAND CANYON;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Mystery of Bright Angel Gulch.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The Boys of Steel Series</h2> + +<h3>By JAMES R. MEARS</h3> + +<p>Each book presents vivid picture of this great industry. Each story is +full of adventure and fascination.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE IRON BOYS IN THE MINES;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Starting at the Bottom of the Shaft.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE IRON BOYS AS FOREMEN;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Heading the Diamond Drill Shift<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE IRON BOYS ON THE ORE BOATS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Roughing It on the Great Lakes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE IRON BOYS IN THE STEEL MILLS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The Madge Morton Books</h2> + +<h3>By AMY D. V. CHALMERS</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">MADGE MORTON—CAPTAIN OF THE MERRY MAID.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">MADGE MORTON'S SECRET.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">MADGE MORTON'S TRUST.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">MADGE MORTON'S VICTORY.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>West Point Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<p>The principal characters in these narratives are manly, young Americans +whose doings will inspire all boy readers.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DICK PRESCOTT'S FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Two Chums in the Cadet Gray.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DICK PRESCOTT'S SECOND YEAR AT WEST POINT;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DICK PRESCOTT'S THIRD YEAR AT WEST POINT;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Standing Firm for Flag and Honor.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DICK PRESCOTT'S FOURTH YEAR AT WEST POINT;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Ready to Drop the Gray for Shoulder Straps.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>Annapolis Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<p>The Spirit of the new Navy is delightfully and truthfully depicted in +these volumes.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DAVE DARRIN'S FIRST YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Two Plebe Midshipmen at the U. S. Naval Academy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DAVE DARRIN'S SECOND YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Two Midshipmen as Naval Academy "Youngsters."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DAVE DARRIN'S THIRD YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Leaders of the Second Class Midshipmen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">DAVE DARRIN'S FOURTH YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Headed for Graduation and the Big Cruise.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The Young Engineers Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<p>The heroes of these stories are known to readers of the High School Boys +Series. In this new series Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton prove worthy of +all the traditions of Dick & Co.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN COLORADO;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, At Railroad Building in Earnest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN ARIZONA;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Laying Tracks on the "Man-Killer" Quicksand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN NEVADA;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Seeking Fortune on the Turn of a Pick.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN MEXICO;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Fighting the Mine Swindlers.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>Boys of the Army Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<p>These books breathe the life and spirit of the United States Army of +to-day, and the life, just as it is, is described by a master pen.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Two Recruits in the United States Army.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">UNCLE SAM'S BOYS ON FIELD DUTY;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Winning Corporal's Chevrons.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">UNCLE SAM'S BOYS AS SERGEANTS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Handling Their First Real Commands.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE PHILIPPINES;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Following the Flag Against the Moros.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>Battleship Boys Series</h2> + +<h3>By FRANK GEE PATCHIN</h3> + +<p>These stories throb with the life of young Americans on to-day's huge +drab Dreadnaughts.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE BATTLESHIP BOYS AT SEA;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Two Apprentices in Uncle Sam's Navy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE BATTLESHIP BOYS FIRST STEP UPWARD;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Winning Their Grades as Petty Officers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN FOREIGN SERVICE;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Earning New Ratings in European Seas.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN THE TROPICS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Upholding the American Flag in a Honduras Revolution.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The Meadow-Brook Girls Series</h2> + +<h3>By JANET ALDRIDGE</h3> + +<p>Real live stories pulsing with the vibrant atmosphere of outdoor life.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS AFLOAT.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS IN THE HILLS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS BY THE SEA.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ON THE TENNIS COURTS.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>High School Boys Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<p>In this series of bright, crisp books a new note has been struck. Boys +of every age under sixty will be interested in these fascinating +volumes.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co.'s First Year Pranks and Sports.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE HIGH SCHOOL PITCHER;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. on the Gridley Diamond.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE HIGH SCHOOL LEFT END;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. Grilling on the Football Gridiron.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE HIGH SCHOOL CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h2>Grammer School Boys Series</h2> +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<p>This series of stories, based on the actual doings of grammar school +boys, comes near to the heart of the average American boy.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS OF GRIDLEY;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. Start Things Moving.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS SNOWBOUND;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. at Winter Sports.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN THE WOODS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. Trail Fun and Knowledge.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER ATHLETICS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. Make Their Fame Secure.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>High School Boys' Vacation Series</h2> + +<h3>By H. IRVING HANCOCK</h3> + +<p>"Give us more Dick Prescott books!"</p> + +<p>This has been the burden of the cry from young readers of the country +over. Almost numberless letters have been received by the publishers, +making this eager demand; for Dick Prescott, Dave Darrin, Tom Reade, and +the other members of Dick & Co. are the most popular high school boys in +the land. Boys will alternately thrill and chuckle when reading these +splendid narratives.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' CANOE CLUB;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co.'s Rivals on Lake Pleasant.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER CAMP;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Dick Prescott Six Training for the Gridley Eleven.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' FISHING TRIP;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. in the Wilderness.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' TRAINING HIKE;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Dick & Co. Making Themselves "Hard as Nails."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The Circus Boys Series</h2> + +<h3>By EDGAR B. P. DARLINGTON</h3> + +<p>Mr. Darlington's books breathe forth every phase of an intensely +interesting and exciting life.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE FLYING RINGS;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Making the Start in the Sawdust Life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE CIRCUS BOYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Winning New Laurels on the Tanbark.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE CIRCUS BOYS IN DIXIE LAND;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Winning the Plaudits of the Sunny South.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Afloat with the Big Show on the Big River.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The High School Girls Series</h2> + +<h3>By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M.</h3> + +<p>These breezy stories of the American High School Girl take the reader +fairly by storm.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshman Girls.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S SOPHOMORE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Record of the Girl Chums in Work and Athletics.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S JUNIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Fast Friends in the Sororities.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">GRACE HARLOWE'S SENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Parting of the Ways.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<h2>The Automobile Girls Series</h2> + +<h3>By LAURA DENT CRANE</h3> + +<p>No girl's library—no family book-case can be considered at all complete +unless it contains these sparkling twentieth-century books.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT NEWPORT;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Watching the Summer Parade.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS IN THE BERKSHIRES;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS ALONG THE HUDSON;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Fighting Fire in Sleepy Hollow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT CHICAGO;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Winning Out Against Heavy Odds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT PALM BEACH;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Proving Their Mettle Under Southern Skies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT WASHINGTON;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or, Checkmating the Plots of Foreign Spies.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High +School, by Jessie Graham Flower + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR *** + +***** This file should be named 20472-h.htm or 20472-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/7/20472/ + +Produced by David Newman, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School + The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls + +Author: Jessie Graham Flower + +Release Date: January 28, 2007 [EBook #20472] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR *** + + + + +Produced by David Newman, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School + + OR + + The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls + + By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. + +Author of Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School, Grace Harlowe's +Junior Year at High School, Etc. + + + + +PHILADELPHIA +HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY +Copyright, 1910 + + + + +[Illustration: A Troop of Black-Robed Figures Were Stealthily +Approaching.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. The Accident of Friendships + + II. The Sponsor of the Freshman Class + + III. Mrs. Gray Engages a Secretary + + IV. The Black Monks of Asia + + V. Anne Has a Secret + + VI. The Sophomore Ball + + VII. All Hallowe'en + + VIII. Miss Leece + + IX. Thanksgiving Day + + X. Grace Keeps Her Secret + + XI. Mrs. Gray's Adopted Daughters + + XII. Miriam Plans a Revenge + + XIII. Christmas Holidays + + XIV. A Midnight Alarm + + XV. Tom Gray + + XVI. The Marionette Show + + XVII. After the Ball + + XVIII. A Winter Picnic + + XIX. Wolves! + + XX. The Gray Brothers + + XXI. The Lost Letter + + XXII. Danger Ahead + + XXIII. In the Thick of the Night + + XXIV. The Freshman Prize + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A Troop of Black-Robed Figures Were Stealthily Approaching. + +"Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?" + +"Give That Back! It Is Not Yours." + +Tom Gray Escapes from the Wolves + + + + +Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ACCIDENT OF FRIENDSHIPS + + +"Who is the new girl in the class?" asked Miriam Nesbit, flashing her +black eyes from one schoolmate to another, as the girls assembled in the +locker room of the Oakdale High School. + +"Her name is Pierson; that is all I know about her," replied Nora +O'Malley, gazing at her pretty Irish face in the looking glass with +secret satisfaction. "She's very quiet and shy and looks as if she would +weep aloud when her turn comes to recite, but I'm sure she's all right," +she added good naturedly. For Nora had a charming, sunny nature, and +always saw the best if there was any best to see. + +"She is very bright," broke in Grace Harlowe decisively. "She went +through her Latin lesson without a mistake, which is certainly more than +I could do." + +"Well, I don't like her," pouted Miriam. "I never trust those quiet +little things. And, besides, she is the worst-dressed girl in----" + +"Hush!" interrupted Jessica Bright, touching a finger to her lips. "Here +she is." + +A little, brown figure entered the room just as Miriam finished +speaking. But Jessica was too late with her warning. The young girl had, +without doubt, heard the cruel speech and her face flushed painfully as +she pinned on a shabby old hat, slipped her arms into a thin black +jacket and stepped out again without looking at the crowd of schoolmates +who watched her silently. + +"Miriam, I should think you'd learn to be more careful," exclaimed +hot-tempered Nora, her soft heart touched by the appealing little +stranger. + +"Well, what difference does it make?" replied Miriam. "If Miss Pierson +doesn't know already that she's the shabbiest girl in school, it's high +time she found it out. I have a suspicion her mother takes in washing or +something, and I mean to find it out right now. We can't invite a girl +like that to our class parties and entertainments. She would disgrace +us." + +"Miriam," said Grace quietly, "I believe we are all privileged to invite +whom we please to our homes. I intend to give a class tea next Saturday, +and I mean to follow Miss Pierson right now and ask her to help me +receive." + +The two girls looked into each other's faces for a moment without +speaking. Grace was quiet and contained, Miriam flushed and furiously +angry. They had been rival leaders always at the Grammar School, but the +rivalry had never come to open battle until now. + +Miriam was the first to drop her eyes. She did not reply, but from that +moment she was the sworn enemy of Grace Harlowe and her two friends, +Nora and Jessica. + +"Well, we had better hurry," said Jessica, trying to calm the troubled +scene. "Nobody knows exactly where Miss Pierson lives and she will be +out of sight before we can catch her." + +The three girls ran lightly out of the basement of the fine old building +that was the pride of Oakdale. It was large and imposing, built of +smooth, gray stone, with four huge columns supporting the front portico. +A hundred yards away stood the companion building, the Boys' High +School, exactly like the first in every respect except that a wing had +been added for a gymnasium which the girls had the privilege of using on +certain days. A wide campus surrounded the two buildings, shaded by elm +and oak trees. Certainly no other town in the state could boast of twin +high schools as fine as these; and especially did the situation appeal +to the people of Oakdale, for the ten level acres surrounding the two +buildings gave ample space for the various athletic fields, and the +doings of the high schools formed the very life of the place. + +But we must return to our three girls who were hurrying down the shady +street, followed in a more leisurely and dignified fashion by Miriam and +her friends. The shabby figure of the little stranger had just turned +the corner as the girls left the High School grounds. + +"Come on," cried Grace breathlessly, leading the way. Having once made +up her mind, she always pursued her point with a fine obstinacy +regardless of opinion. + +When they had come to the cross street they saw their quarry again, now +making her way slowly toward the street next the river. This was the +shabbiest street in Oakdale, though no one knew exactly why, since the +river bank might have been the chosen site for all the handsomest +buildings; but towns are as incorrigible as people, sometimes, and +insist on growing one way when they should grow another, without the +slightest regard for future appearances. + +And so, when little Miss Pierson stopped in front of one of the smallest +and meanest cottages on River Street, the girls knew she must, indeed, +be very poor. The house, small and forlorn, presented a sad countenance +streaked with tear stains from a leaky gutter. An uneven pavement led to +the front door, which bore a painted sign: "Plain Sewing." + +They paused irresolutely at the gate, and were taking counsel together +when Miriam Nesbit passed with her friends. She pointed at the door and +laughed. + +"Really, that girl's conduct is contemptible!" exclaimed Grace, giving +the wooden gate a vigorous push. "I simply won't tolerate her rudeness. +She is an unmitigated snob!" Grace knocked on the door rather sharply to +emphasize her feelings. It was opened almost immediately by Miss Pierson +herself, still in her hat and coat; and in her surprise and +embarrassment she almost shut the door in their faces. But Jessica's +gentle smile reassured her, and Grace, who was a born leader, took her +hand kindly and plunged at once into the subject. + +"You left school so quickly this afternoon, Miss Pierson, that I didn't +have a chance to see you. I have something very particular I want to ask +you to-day." + +"Won't you come in?" said the other, opening the door into the parlor, +which had an air of refinement about it in spite of its utter poorness. + +"Anne!" called a querulous voice down the passage. + +"Yes, mother, I'm coming," answered the girl, hurrying out of the room +with a frightened look in her eyes. In a few moments she was back again. + +"Please excuse me for leaving you," she said. "My mother is an invalid +and needs my sister or me with her constantly." + +"Her name is Anne, then," thought Grace. "I shall call her so at once +and break the ice." + +"Anne," she said aloud, "I think you know my friends, don't you--Jessica +Bright and Nora O'Malley? And I am Grace Harlowe." + +"Oh, yes," replied Anne, brightening at the friendly advances of the +others. "I remember your names from the roll call." + +"Of course," replied Grace. "But I think we should all be more to each +other than roll-call acquaintances, we freshmen. I am very ambitious for +our class. I want it to be the best that ever graduated from Oakdale +High School, and for that reason, I think all the girls in it should try +to be friends and work together to advance the cause. I'm going to start +the ball rolling by giving a tea to our class next Saturday afternoon. +Will you come and receive with Jessica and Nora and me?" + +Anne clasped her hands delightedly for a moment. Then her eyes filled +with tears and her lips trembled so that the girls were afraid she might +be going to cry. Tender-hearted Jessica turned her face away for fear of +showing too much sympathy. + +"I'm sorry," said Anne at last, rather unsteadily, "but I am afraid I +can't accept your delightful invitation. I----" + +"I beg your pardon," said a voice at the door, "I didn't mean to intrude +on your visitors, Anne, but I couldn't help overhearing Miss Harlowe's +invitation." + +A small woman, much older than Anne, but very like her in face and +figure, appeared at the door. + +"This is my sister," said Anne, taking the other's hand affectionately. + +"Anne imagines she can't go, but she certainly can," went on the older +Miss Pierson, calmly, not in the least embarrassed by the strange young +girls. "Of course, she must go. I can arrange it easily." + +"But, Mary----" protested Anne. + +"Never mind, little sister," interrupted Mary, "it will be all right. +Miss Harlowe, what time must she be there?" + +"At four o'clock," answered Grace, rising to go, "and I am delighted +that she can come. Remember, Anne, I'm counting on you to pour the +lemonade. The other girls are going to help with the sandwiches and ice +cream. By the way," she added, as they went down the steps, "be sure and +come to the basketball meeting at the gym this afternoon." + +And so it was arranged that Anne Pierson, the shabbiest and poorest girl +in Oakdale High School, was to help receive at one of the prettiest and +most charming houses in town. Miriam Nesbit's rudeness was to bring +about a friendship between Anne Pierson and her three schoolmates that +lasted a lifetime. + +After the half-past two o'clock dinner, which was the universal custom +in Oakdale, the chums met again at the gymnasium in the Boys' High +School. Wednesdays and Saturdays were nicknamed "ladies' days" by the +High School boys, for on these afternoons the girls were permitted free +use of the gymnasium. + +The meeting to-day was not for gymnastic exercises, however, but an +important subject was to be discussed--the Freshman Basketball Team. +Also the captain of the team was to be elected. + +Other club meetings were in full force when the girls arrived, and the +great room vibrated with the hum of voices. The three freshmen, who knew +better than to interrupt sophomores and juniors at their pow-wows, made +their way quietly across the hall to the appointed place of rendezvous. +Of course, the entire Freshman Class did not assemble to discuss this +subject. Many members were not interested in basketball, except to look +on. Girls who were overstudious, and not physically strong, could not at +any rate play on the team, and therefore they seldom attended such +meetings. Jessica Bright was one of these, nevertheless, she followed +her two friends, who had always been foremost in athletics at the +Central Grammar School. + +The election of a captain was the first business of the meeting. That +over, the captain, after due and serious consultation with a friendly +cabinet, chose the players and their substitutes. + +Undoubtedly Grace Harlowe had the coolest head in the class, and was the +most to be relied upon at critical moments; yet Miriam Nesbit exerted a +strange influence over her followers, who were almost her slaves. She +was the richest of all the girls and wore the costliest clothes. The +parties she gave, from time to time, in her mother's large and handsome +home were the talk of the place. She was also the cleverest girl in the +class, and had taken undisputed first place since she was a child. She +was not a close student, but seemed to absorb her lessons in half the +time that it took her friends to master them. Popular she certainly was, +or rather she was feared by her schoolmates. Her masterful, overpowering +spirit seemed to sweep everything before it. + +Grace Harlowe was quite as powerful in her way, but she had a noble, +unselfish disposition and was much beloved by her friends. She stood +well in her studies, but had never taken first place. Perhaps this was +because she had interested herself so much in outdoor sports that she +had not given enough time to study. + +Both girls were handsome--Miriam tall, dark and oriental-looking, with +flashing eyes and an imperious curve to her lips; Grace was also tall, +with wavy, chestnut hair, fine gray eyes, regular features, a full, +generous chin and cheeks glowing with health. + +Miriam Nesbit had already done a good deal of lobbying when the three +girls arrived on the scene. She wished to be elected captain of the team +at any cost; but Grace's adherents were holding off, quietly waiting for +her arrival. + +"Well, here you are at last!" said Marian Barber, who had been preparing +the ballots for the coming election. + +Marian was the busy girl of the class, and always made herself useful. + +"Is everyone here?" demanded Nora, scanning the crowd of freshmen with a +view to ascertaining what her chum's chances were. + +"All that intend coming," replied Miriam. "The softies stayed away, as +usual." + +"Suppose we wait five minutes," said Grace, looking at her watch, "and +then, if no one comes, we will cast the votes." + +"No, no," exclaimed Miriam impatiently. "I have an engagement and can't +spare any more time. I vote that we have the election at once, without +waiting another moment." + +"Very well," assented Grace. "I only suggested waiting because Anne +Pierson promised to come, and, of course, every girl in the class has a +right to vote at the class elections." + +"Anne Pierson?" cried Miriam, turning crimson with suppressed rage. + +"Yes," answered Grace calmly; "but, if everybody is agreeable, suppose +we go ahead." + +"Agreed!" cried the others and the ballots were cast. + +There was not much parliamentary practice in these class elections. Each +girl wrote the name of her choice on a slip of paper and dropped it in a +hat. Four of the girls then counted the votes, and the one receiving the +most slips was declared elected. + +The slips were dropped into the hat, amid the silence of the company. +Some of the sophomores and juniors, perched on parallel bars, watched +the scene with superior amusement, but no notice was taken of their +half-whispered jeers. + +The four girls then retired to count the votes. + +"It's a tie," announced Marian Barber, returning presently; "a tie +between Grace and Miriam. I wish some of the others would come and +settle the matter." + +"Here's some one," cried Nora. "Here's Anne Pierson. Let her cast the +decisive vote." + +Miriam's eyes blazed, but she held her peace. There was nothing to do +but submit with an uneasy grace. But who could doubt what the outcome +would be? However, she felt somewhat relieved when Grace said: + +"I think we should cast the votes over again, and, according to the +rules we made last year, Miriam and I should not vote, since the +election rests between us." + +The votes were cast again, Anne timidly dropping her slip in the hat +with the others, and, as might have been expected, Grace was elected +captain of the Freshman Basketball Team of the Oakdale High School. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE SPONSOR OF THE FRESHMAN CLASS + + +"Grace," asked Mrs. Harlowe, the day of the famous freshman tea, "have +you asked some of the girls to help this afternoon? Bridget can attend +to the sandwiches, but some one ought to pour the lemonade and generally +look after the wants of the others." + +Grace was arranging a bowl of China asters on the piano in her mother's +charming drawing room. The shining mahogany chairs and tables reflected +the glow of the wood fire, for the day was chilly, and bright chintz +curtains at the windows gave a cheerful note of color to the scene. + +"Oh, yes, mother," replied Grace. "Nora and Jessica, of course, and Anne +Pierson." + +"And who is Anne Pierson?" + +"I don't know who she is," answered Grace. "I never knew her until she +entered the High School. But she is terribly poor. Her mother is an +invalid and her sister takes in plain sewing. I really asked her at +first because Miriam Nesbit was rude to her one day. But I'm beginning +to like her so much, now, that I'm glad I did it. She's as quiet as a +little mouse, but she is fast taking first place in class. I believe she +will outstrip Miriam before the end of the year. Don't ask me who she +is, though. I haven't the least idea, but she's all right, I can promise +you that. I'm sorry for her because she is poor. They live in a little +broken-down cottage on River Street." + +Mrs. Harlowe looked dubious. Grace was always bringing home stray people +and animals, and the mother was accustomed to her daughter's whims. The +young girl was familiar to all the ragamuffins of the town slum, and +when she sometimes found one gazing wistfully through the fence palings +of her mother's old-fashioned garden, she promptly led him around to the +kitchen, gave him a plate of food on the back steps, picked him a small +bouquet and sent him off half-dazed with her gracious and impetuous +kindness. + +"Well, my dear, I shall be prepared for anything," exclaimed Mrs. +Harlowe; "but remember that feeding people on the back steps and asking +them into the parlor to meet your friends and acquaintances are two +different matters altogether." + +"Don't be afraid, mother," replied Grace. "You will like Anne as well as +I do, once you get to know her. You must be careful not to frighten her +at first. She is the most timid little soul I ever met." + +Just then the front gate clicked and two girls strolled up the red-brick +walk, their light organdie dresses peeping out from the folds of their +long capes. + +"Here come Nora and Jessica," cried Grace excitedly, running to the door +to meet her friends. + +Mrs. Harlowe smiled. In spite of Grace's sixteen years she was still her +little girl. + +There was another click at the gate and Mrs. Harlowe saw through the +parlor window a little, dark figure, pathetically plain in its shabby +coat and hat. + +"Poor little soul," thought the good woman. "How I wish I could put her +into one of Grace's muslins, but, of course, I couldn't think of +offering to do such a thing." + +"Mother," said Grace some minutes later, when the girls had laid aside +their wraps and descended into the drawing room, "this is Anne Pierson, +our new friend." + +Anne Pierson, small and shrinking, was dressed in a queer, old-fashioned +black silk that had evidently been taken up and made short for the +occasion. Mrs. Harlowe's heart was touched to the quick and she bent and +kissed the young girl gently. + +"How do you do, my dear?" she said kindly. "I am always glad to meet +Grace's friends, and you are most welcome." + +Anne was too frightened almost to speak. This was the first party she +had ever attended, and the beautiful room, the girls in their light, +pretty dresses, the bowls of flowers and the cheery firelight nearly +stupefied her. + +Mrs. Harlowe disappeared into the little conservatory off the dining +room, returning in a moment with two big red roses which she pinned to +Anne's dress. + +"These red roses have been waiting for you all morning," she said, "and +they're just in their prime now." + +More guests began to arrive, and soon the room was full of young girls +talking gayly together in groups or walking about, their arms around +each other's waists after the manner of fifteen and sixteen. + +Grace had seated Anne at the dining room table behind a large cut glass +bowl which almost hid her small figure. Grace knew from experience that +this would be the most popular spot in the room, and she cautioned many +of her friends to be kind to the timid little stranger. She knew also +that giving Anne something to keep her occupied would relieve her +embarrassment. Anne conscientiously filled and refilled the glasses, and +in the intervals answered the questions put to her; but never asked any +herself. + +Miriam Nesbit came in late with her two most intimate friends. She wore +a resplendent dress of old rose crepe and a big black hat. Anne forgot +her resentment when she caught sight of the vision and was lost in +admiration. But she was brought sharply to her senses by a rude, +sneering laugh from the ill-bred girl, who was staring insolently at the +old black silk gown. + +Anne flushed and hung her head. + +"I am glad Mrs. Harlowe gave me the flowers," she thought. "They hide it +a little, I think." + +Meantime there was the bustle of a new and important arrival. Grace and +her mother ushered in a charming little old lady and seated her in the +place of honor, a big leather chair between the windows. She wore a gray +silk dress and a lavender bonnet daintily trimmed in lace and white +ostrich tips. + +"Girls," said Grace, as a hush fell over the room, "there is no need for +me to introduce any of you to Mrs. Gray, who is the sponsor for the +freshman class." + +There was a buzz of laughter and conversation again, and through the +double doors Anne caught sight of the little old lady, talking gayly to +her subjects, seated, like a diminutive queen, on a large throne. + +"Why is she the sponsor of the class?" Anne asked of Jessica, who was +hovering near by. + +"Oh, have you never heard?" returned Jessica. "Mrs. Gray's daughter died +during her freshman year at High School, long ago, and ever since then, +Mrs. Gray has offered a prize of twenty-five dollars for the girl who +makes the highest average in her examinations at the end of the freshman +year. She was made sponsor of the freshman class about ten years ago, so +each year, soon after school opens, some one of the freshmen gives a tea +and invites her to meet the new girls. You must come in and be +introduced, too, as soon as you are through here." + +"A prize of twenty-five dollars," repeated Anne. "How I wish I might win +it!" + +"It's even more than that," said Jessica. "For a perfect examination she +offers one hundred dollars. But, needless to say, no one has ever won +the hundred. It is considered impossible to pass a perfect examination +in every subject." + +"One hundred dollars!" exclaimed Anne. "Oh, if I only could!" + +"Well, you may win the twenty-five dollars, anyway, Anne," said Jessica. +"I suppose the one hundred dollar prize is beyond the reach of human +beings." + +"And now, young ladies," Mrs. Gray was saying, smiling at the group of +girls who surrounded her, as she examined them through her lorgnette, +"most of you I have known since you were little tots, and your fathers +and mothers before you; but I don't know which of you excels in her +studies. Is it you, Grace, my dear?" + +Grace shook her head vigorously. + +"No, indeed, Mrs. Gray," she replied. "I could never be accused of +overstudy. I suppose I'm too fond of basketball." + +"It won't hurt you, my dear," said the old lady, tapping the girl +indulgently with her lorgnette; "the open air is much better than that +of the schoolroom, and so long as you keep up an average, I daresay you +won't disappoint your mother. But none of you have told me yet who leads +the freshman class in her studies." + +"Miriam Nesbit," said several voices in unison. + +"Ah!" said Mrs. Gray, looking intently at Miriam. "So you are the gold +medal girl, Miriam? Dear me, what a young lady you are growing to be! +But you must not study too hard. Don't overdo it." + +Mrs. Gray had gone through this same conversation every year since any +of the girls could remember, and never failed to caution the head girl +not to overstudy. + +"There's no fear of that, Mrs. Gray," replied Miriam boastfully. "My +lessons give me very little trouble." + +"Mrs. Gray," broke in Nora O'Malley mischievously, "Miriam Nesbit has a +close second in the class. The first girl who has ever been known to +come up to her." + +Miriam flushed, half-angry and half-pleased at the adroit compliment. + +"And who may that be, my dear?" queried Mrs. Gray, searching about the +room with her nearsighted blue eyes. + +"It's Anne Pierson" replied Nora. + +"Pierson, Pierson?" repeated the little old lady. "Why have I not met +her? I do not seem to remember the name in Oakdale. But where is this +wonderful young woman who is outstripping our brilliant Miriam? I feel a +great curiosity to see her." + +"Anne Pierson, Anne Pierson!" called several voices, while Grace began +to search through the rooms and hall. + +At the first mention of her name Anne had darted from her seat behind +the lemonade bowl, and rushed to the nearest shelter, which was the +conservatory. + +Grace found her, at last, in the conservatory crouched behind a palm. + +"Come here, you foolish child!" exclaimed Grace. "You are wanted at +once. Why did you run and hide? Mrs. Gray--the great Mrs. Gray--wishes +to meet you. Think of that!" + +Anne clasped the girl's strong hand with her two small ones. + +"Oh, Grace," she whispered, "won't you excuse me? I--I----" + +"You what? Silly, come right along!" + +Grace fairly dragged the trembling little figure into the drawing room, +where a silence had fallen over the group of young girls who watched the +scene. + +"Tut, tut, my dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray gently. "You mustn't be afraid +of me. I'm the most harmless old woman in the world." + +Then she tried to get a glimpse of Anne's downcast, crimson face. + +"I wanted particularly to meet you, child," went on Mrs. Gray, "because +I hear you are a formidable rival of the best pupil in the freshman +class. That is a great boast for your friends to make for you, my dear. +Miriam Nesbit is a famously smart girl, I'm told. But I wanted to meet +you, too, because you bear the name I love best in the world." + +Here the old lady's voice became very soft, and the girls suddenly +remembered that the young daughter had been called Anne. Was there not a +memorial window, in the chapel of the High School, of an angel carrying +a lily and underneath an inscription familiar to them all: "In Memory of +Anne Gray, died in her freshman year, aged sixteen"? + +The girls moved off quietly, conversing in low voices, leaving Anne +alone with her new friend. + +"You are a very little girl to be so clever," said Mrs. Gray, patting +one of Anne's small wrists as she looked into the dark eyes. "Where do +you live, dear?" + +"On River Street," replied Anne undergoing the scrutiny calmly, now she +found herself alone. + +"River Street?" repeated Mrs. Gray, trying to recall whom she had ever +known living in that strange quarter of the town. "Have you been long in +Oakdale?" she went on. + +"A few years, ma'am," replied Anne. + +"And what is your father's business, my child?" continued the old lady +remorselessly. + +Anne blushed and hung her head, and for a moment there was no reply to +the question. Presently she drew a sharp breath as if it hurt her to +make the confession. + +"My father does not live here," was what she said. "My mother is an +invalid. My sister supports us with sewing. As soon as I finish in the +High School, I shall teach." + +Mrs. Gray put an arm around the girl's waist and drew her down beside +her. + +"I'm a stupid old woman, child. You must forgive me. Old people forget +their manners sometimes. Will you come and see me very soon? Perhaps +to-morrow after church you will take luncheon with me? I want to know +you better." + +She drew a card from the beaded reticule that hung at her side. + +"Remember, at half-past twelve," she said, giving the girl's hand an +extra squeeze as she rose to go. + +After Mrs. Gray had taken her departure a free and easy atmosphere was +restored and the girls began talking and laughing without the +restriction of an older person's presence. Mrs. Harlowe shortly after +this also left them to themselves. + +"Let's do some stunts," proposed Grace. "Nora, will you give us your +imitations?" + +"Certainly," replied Nora, "if Miriam will promise to sing, and Jessica +will do her Greek dance, and Georgie will play for us." + +"All right!" came a chorus of voices. + +"We've done it oft before, but we'll do it o'er again if the company so +wishes," said Georgie Pine, one of the brightest and gayest girls in the +class. + +The others seated themselves in a semicircle, while each girl gave her +little performance, and, at the conclusion, was applauded +enthusiastically. Nora had a real talent for mimicry; she convulsed her +audience with imitations of some of the High School teachers. When it +came Miriam's turn she sat down at the piano with a queer look on her +face. + +"I believe she means mischief," thought Grace to herself, as she watched +the girl curiously. + +Miriam ran a brilliant scale up the piano, for music was another of her +many accomplishments. Then she paused and turned to the others. + +"I won't sing," she said, "unless Miss Pierson promises to recite us +something first, Poe's 'Raven,' for instance." + +Grace flushed angrily and was about to interfere when, to her surprise, +Anne herself replied: + +"I shall be glad to if that is the poem you like best. I always +preferred 'Annabel Lee.'" + +Miriam was too amazed to answer. She could never form an idea of what it +cost Anne in self-control to acquiesce; but the young girl had gained a +new strength that day. So many people had been kind to her, and what is +more, interested in her welfare. She rose quietly and walked to the +middle of the semicircle. + +Grace and her chums were in an agony of fear lest poor Anne should break +down, and so distress them all except the unkind Miriam. However, they +need not have troubled themselves. Anne fixed her eyes on the far wall +of the dining room and commenced to recite "The Raven" in a clear, +musical voice that deepened as she repeated the stanzas. The girls +forgot the shabby little figure in its ill-fitting black silk and saw +only Anne's small, white face and glowing eyes. Not Miss Tebbs, herself, +teacher of English and elocution at the High School, could have improved +upon the performance. + +"It was perfectly done," said Grace afterwards, telling the story to her +mother. "It was almost uncanny and quite creepy toward the last." + +When the performance was over the girls crowded around little Anne with +eager congratulations; but, strange to say, everyone forgot that Miriam +had given her promise to sing. + +What the crestfallen Miriam kept wondering was: "Wherever did she learn +to do it?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MRS. GRAY ENGAGES A SECRETARY + + +Grace and her two friends, Jessica and Nora, were also invited to Mrs. +Gray's luncheon the next day, after church. Grace had often taken meals +in the beautiful house on Chapel Hill, but the other girls had never +been privileged to do more than sit in the large, shady parlors while +their mothers paid an afternoon call. + +It was with some excitement, therefore, that the three girls met in +front of the Catholic Church, of which Nora was a member, and strolled +up the broad street together. As they passed the little Episcopal +Chapel, which had given the hill its name, Anne Pierson joined them. She +looked grave and excited, and there was a feverish glow in her eyes. + +"Anne, my child," exclaimed Grace, who always seemed much older than the +others, "how late do you study at night? I believe you are working too +hard. You look tired out." + +"I'm not tired," replied Anne. "I don't mind studying. Only so much has +happened in the last few days! And now we're going to luncheon with Mrs. +Gray. I've seen her house. It's very beautiful from the outside, more +beautiful than the Nesbits', I think, because it is older and there is +such a pretty garden at the side." + +"Anne," said Jessica, "we're counting on you to win the prize. There is +no reason why a rich girl like Miriam Nesbit should get it. She doesn't +need the money, in the first place; and, in the second, she's already +had enough glory to turn her head. Being beaten won't hurt her at all." + +"I would rather win it," answered Anne, with passionate fervor, "than +almost anything in the world. And think of the big prize of $100! If I +could win that----" Words failed to express her enthusiasm and she +paused and clasped her hands. + +"Oh, well, we won't expect that of you," replied Grace, "Nobody could be +expected to pass a perfect examination. That's an impossible +achievement." + +"_I_ shall try, anyway," said Anne in a low voice. + +Just then they were joined by a young man of about eighteen, who lifted +his hat politely to them. + +"May I walk with you?" he asked of Grace. "You seem to be going my way +this morning." + +"Certainly, David, we are going your way. We are lunching with your next +door neighbor, Mrs. Gray. But you must let me introduce you to Miss +Pierson. Anne, this is Mr. Nesbit, Miriam's brother." + +Anne flushed at the mention of Miriam's name and bowed distantly to the +newcomer, who was a junior at the High School and quite grown-up to the +young freshmen. + +David Nesbit, like his sister, was tall, dark and handsome; but unlike +her, he was quiet and unassuming. He, too, stood at the head of his +classes, but he was not athletic, as Miriam was, and spent most of his +time in the school laboratory, experimenting, or working at home on +engines and machinery of his own contriving. + +However, there was nothing snobbish in David's attitude. He greeted Anne +as cordially as he had the others. + +"We never see you now, David," continued Grace. "You are always so busy +with your inventions and contrivances. What is the latest? A flying +machine?" + +"You guessed right the very first time," replied David. "It is just +that." + +"Really?" laughed the girls, incredulously, while Anne's eyes grew large +with interest. + +"Shall you fly around Oakdale in it?" asked Jessica. + +"Oh, we are not building big ones yet," answered David. "These are +little fellows. Models, you know. The big ones may come later. Six of +the junior and senior fellows have been working on them all summer. We +started it in the manual training course. After we had learned to hammer +things out of silver, and do wood carving and a few other little useful +accomplishments, I suggested a flying machine to Professor Blitz and he +fell to it like a ripe peach. It was too late to do anything last spring +except talk, however. But we are almost ready now, after our labors this +summer." + +"Ready for what?" demanded Grace. "If you are not going to fly +yourselves." + +"For our exhibition. Why don't you come and see it at the gym. next +Friday night?" + +"We can't. We aren't invited," answered Nora, tossing back her saucy +little curls. + +"I'll invite you," said David. "This will admit four young ladies to the +High School gym.," he continued, taking out a card and writing on it, +"At 7.30 Thursday evening." + +"Then everybody isn't invited?" demanded Jessica. + +"No, not everybody," replied David. "Just a chosen few. And you must be +sure to come, too, Miss Pierson," he added, turning to Anne, who, all +this time, had been silently listening to the conversation. + +"I should love to," she answered, giving him a grateful glance. + +"I'll leave you here," said David, turning in at a graveled driveway +that led to the Nesbit house, a very large and ornate building standing +far back from the street in the midst of a well-kept lawn. + +"I wish Miriam would take a few lessons in manners from her brother," +murmured Grace, when they were out of hearing distance. + +"He is certainly one of the nicest boys in High School," said Jessica. + +"If he only played football!" said Grace, with a sigh. + +"And danced," added Nora. + +"I don't know how to dance, nor did I ever see a game of football," said +Anne. + +"Meaning that Mr. David suits you, Miss Anne," said Grace teasingly. + +"It was nice of him to ask me, too," was all Anne said in reply. + +"How do you do, my dears?" said Mrs. Gray, a few moments later, when +John, the aged butler, ushered the girls into the long, old-fashioned +parlor. "You are most kind to come and cheer up a lonely old woman. I +shall expect you to be very gay and tell me all the gossip of the +Oakdale High School, the four of you." + +"Luncheon is served, ma'am," announced John, whereat the sprightly old +lady led the way to the dining room. + +Over the delicious broiled chicken and other good things they discussed +the affairs of the school, the new teacher in mathematics, Miss Leece, +who was so unpopular; the girls' principal, Miss Thompson, beloved by +all the pupils; the merits of the Freshman Basketball Team and a dozen +other schoolgirl topics that seemed to delight the ears of Mrs. Gray. + +"The truth is," she said, "I believe this freshman class is going to be +one of the finest Oakdale High School has ever turned out. I have a +feeling that I shall be very proud of my new girls, and at Christmas +time I mean to do something I have never done before, if all goes well." + +"Oh, do tell us what it is, Mrs. Gray," cried the girls in great +excitement. + +"I mean to celebrate with the largest Christmas party that's been given +in Oakdale for many a long year. Grace, you shall manage it for me, and +all of you shall help me decorate the tree and the house. We'll invite +the freshmen boys and have a real dance with Ohlson's band for the +music." + +"Oh, oh!" cried the girls ecstatically, even quiet Anne joining in the +chorus. + +"By the way," went on Mrs. Gray, "do you know any girl who would like to +come up and read to me twice a week, and write my notes for me? I'm +getting to be an old woman. My eyesight is growing dim. Is there any +girl who would like to earn a little pocket money? But she must have a +sweet, soft voice, like Anne's here." + +"Anne would be the very girl herself, Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace. "She +reads and recites beautifully." + +"You are not sure it would trespass on your time too much, Anne?" +observed the wily old lady. "I don't want to impose on you." + +Anne's face fairly radiated with happiness. Could those girls possibly +guess how much it meant to her to earn a little money! Five dollars was +to her an enormous sum, and perhaps she might earn as much as that in +time. + +"Might I do it?" she exclaimed, beside herself with joy. + +Grace turned her face away a moment. She felt almost ashamed of her own +comfortable prosperity. And how like Mrs. Gray it was to do a kind thing +in that way, as if Anne would be conferring a favor by accepting the +position. + +"Indeed, you might, my dear. And I feel myself lucky to get the +brightest girl in her class, and maybe in Oakdale High School, to come +and entertain me twice a week." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BLACK MONKS OF ASIA + + +"Who wants to go nutting?" demanded Grace Harlowe in the basement +cloakroom a few afternoons later. + +"We do," came a chorus of voices. + +"I don't," answered one. + +"Don't you like nutting parties, Miriam?" asked Grace. + +"She's too old," put in a sophomore. "This is a young people's party, I +presume?" + +"Well, it's not a sophomore party, at any rate," retorted Nora. + +"Ma-ma, ma-ma," cried a number of other sophomores, imitating the cries +of a baby. + +The freshmen were nettled by the superior attitude of the older class, +but they knew better than to say anything more just then. + +"Never mind, girls," said Grace in a low voice, after the sophomores had +strolled away, "we'll be sophomores ourselves next year. Now, all who +want to join the party, meet Nora and Jessica and me at the old Omnibus +House at three-thirty. And, above all, don't give the meeting place +away." + +"Not in a thousand years," said Marian Barber. + +It was evident that Miriam Nesbit had hoped to break up the party by +declining to go herself. But she was not quite strong enough in the +class to divide it utterly, and she went off in a huff, with the secret +wish to take revenge on somebody. As she started up Chapel Hill to her +home she was joined by one of the sophomore girls, who lived across the +street. + +"Your plebes are getting away from you, Miriam," exclaimed the older +girl in a bantering tone. "You haven't got them well in hand yet. +Nutting parties should be left behind for the Grammar School pupils." + +"They certainly should," replied Miriam in a disgusted tone. "It's Grace +Harlowe who gets up all these foolish children's games. She's nothing +but a tomboy, anyhow." + +"She's the captain of the basketball team, isn't she?" asked the other +dryly. + +"Yes," admitted Miriam reluctantly, "but she never would have been if +she hadn't brought along all her friends to vote for her." + +"Whew-w-w!" whistled the sophomore. "You don't mean to say it wasn't a +fair election?" + +"Oh, fair enough," said Miriam, "except that I didn't bother to bring +any of my special friends, and she did. I don't call that exactly fair." + +"Oh, well," consoled the other, "you have a few things coming to you +anyway, Miriam. You're at the head of your class, as usual, I suppose?" + +Miriam nodded her head without answering. She was thinking of little +Anne Pierson and what a close race they were running together. Even +studying harder than she had ever had to do before, Miriam found it +difficult to keep up with Anne. + +"Where are they going?" asked the other girl suddenly, after they had +walked along a few minutes in silence. + +"Where are who going?" asked Miriam. + +"Why, the nutting party, of course." + +Here was Miriam's chance for revenge. The sophomores were a famously +mischievous class, and this girl was one of its ringleaders. Back in +Grammar School days they had played many pranks on their school fellows, +and even in their freshman year they had dared to turn off all lights, +one night at a dance of older schoolmates. + +"If I tell, you won't give me away, will you?" asked Miriam. + +"I promise," said the older girl. + +"Very well, then. They meet at three-thirty at the Omnibus House on the +River road." + +"Good," said the sophomore. "Don't you want to come along and see the +fun?" + +"Don't count on me," answered Miriam, turning in at her gate, with mixed +feelings of shame and triumph. + +The Omnibus House, which had been chosen by Grace as the class meeting +place, was an old stone building standing in the middle of an orchard. +It was now in ruins, but tradition set it down as a former inn and stage +coach station built before the days of railroads, and finally burned by +the Indians. There was a curious hieroglyphic sign cut in a stone slab +in the front wall which one of the High School professors interested in +archaeology had deciphered as follows: "Peace and Justice Reign Over +Mount Asia Tavern." + +Here the crowd of High School "plebes," as the sophomores scornfully +dubbed them, met in conclave, partly to gather nuts in the woods near +by, partly to discuss class matters, but chiefly to enjoy the crisp +autumn weather. The woods were still gorgeous in russets and reds, in +spite of the recent heavy frosts, and there was a smell of burning +leaves and dry bracken in the air. The girls skipped about like young +ponies. + +"If this is childish," cried Grace, "then I'd like to be a child always, +for I shall play in the woods when the notion strikes me, even if I'm a +grandmother." + +There was a smothered snicker at this from the inside of the old stone +house, but the girls were too intent on their enjoyment to notice it. + +"Young ladies," exclaimed Nora O'Malley, trailing her cape after her to +make her skirts look longer, and twisting her mouth down to give her +face a severe expression, "you are not in your usual form to-day. I must +ask for better preparation hereafter." + +There was a peal of joyous laughter from the other girls. + +"Miss Leece to a dot," cried Jessica. + +"Miss Bright," went on Nora, "you will please pay attention to the +lesson. If you do not, young woman, I shall have to punish you in the +old-fashioned way." + +"You will, will you?" cried Jessica, rushing gayly upon her friend. +"Come on and try it then!" + +The other girls followed, and there was a tussle to pull Nora down from +the stone upon which she had clambered to protect herself. + +Shrieks, struggles and wild laughter followed, while Nora fought +desperately to hold her position. So absorbed were they in friendly +battle that they had not noticed a troop of black-robed figures leaving +the ruined Omnibus House and stealthily approaching. + +Nora was the first to see the ominous circle. She stopped short, and +pointed with unmistakable terror at the masked and hooded persons, who +were watching them silently. There was a moment of frozen horror when +the girls turned around. This was a lonely spot, too remote from any +dwelling to call for help. Besides, the freshmen were outnumbered by +these weird figures, who appeared not unlike monks in their somber +cowls, although their faces were absolutely hidden by black masks. + +The girls clustered together around the rock like a group of frightened +chickens. Jessica had turned pale. She was not very robust and often +overtaxed her strength to keep up with her two devoted friends. + +The tallest of the masked figures then spoke in a queer, deep voice. + +"Young women, are you not aware that this is a sacred spot, devoted for +generations past to the Black Monks of Asia, whose home this building +was before it became a roadhouse for stage coaches? Never invade this +spot again with your hilarity. And now we will permit you to go, +marching out single file, without looking back. But first, through your +leader you must give your word never to mention this meeting to anyone. +If you refuse this promise we shall punish you as only the Black Monks +of Asia know how to punish persons who have offended the order. The +leader will please step forward." + +There was a moment's whispered conversation among the freshmen. Then +Grace, urged by her friends, said: + +"We promise." + +"Now march out, single file, as agreed," resumed the Black Monk of Asia, +his voice trembling a little with suppressed emotion of some sort. + +The girls started to move out of the enclosure single file, Grace +leading the procession, when a gust of wind blew the robe of the leading +monk apart, disclosing a navy blue serge walking-skirt. Grace's quick +eye caught sight of the skirt at once, and breaking from the line, she +charged straight into the group of black monks, crying: + +"Sophomores! Sophomores!" + +The other girls ran after her, screaming at the tops of their voices; +and there might have been almost a free fight between the two classes +had not the Black Monks of Asia scattered in every direction, running at +utmost speed. + +"Come on back, girls," cried Grace in a disgusted tone. + +She had chased a monk half-way across the orchard; then stopped to +wonder what she would do if she caught the tall, black-robed individual +who had indecorously caught up her skirts and was flying well ahead over +the rough ground. + +One by one the plebes returned to their meeting place. + +"Well, that was a sell!" uttered Nora disgustedly. "How shall we ever +manage to get even with those mean sophomores!" + +"If we don't," exclaimed Grace, "we shall never hear the last of it in +Oakdale." + +"But who gave us away?" demanded Jessica. "Did anyone drop a hint to the +sophomores of our secret meeting place?" + +"I didn't," said one girl after another. + +"Perhaps they followed us," suggested Marian Barber. + +"No one followed me," asserted Grace. "I was careful to look behind and +see." + +"Nor me." + +"Nor me," exclaimed several of her classmates. + +"No," said Nora. "Somebody must have overheard and given the secret +away." + +"Not Mi----" but Grace stopped before she had finished the name. + +The girls looked at each other. + +Could Miriam Nesbit have been so false to her class? + +No one replied, but each made a secret resolution to ferret out Miriam's +suspected treachery if it were the last act of her life. + +"Let's start home, now," said Grace. "It's too late to go nutting +anyhow, and these foolish sophomores have spoiled the afternoon, for me +at least. If we don't cook up something to pay them back, the name of +freshman will be disgraced forever more." + +However, the afternoon adventures were not at an end. + +As the group of girls started toward the road, some distance away, +trying not to look crestfallen, a gruff voice from the far side of the +Omnibus House called: + +"Hold up there!" + +The girls took no notice, thinking it was more upper-class tricks. + +Five rough-looking men emerged from a grove of alders which grew about +the building. + +The young girls were really frightened this time. No sophomore could +disguise herself like this. These were undoubtedly genuine ruffians of +the worst type, hungry, blear-eyed and ragged. + +"What shall we do?" whispered Jessica, clinging to Grace desperately. + +"Everybody run," answered her friend, trying to be calm as the five men +advanced on them. But when they broke away to run toward the distant +road they found their retreat cut off by the tramps, who were active +enough as soon as the girls showed signs of flight. Back of them lay the +dense woods into which the sophomores must have plunged and departed for +town by another road. Seeing that escape was impossible, since, if some +got away, others would be caught--and no girl was willing to desert her +friends--the frightened plebes paused again and clustered about their +leader. + +"What do you want?" asked Grace of one of the men. + +"First your money, then your jewelry," answered the tramp, insolently +leering at her. + +"But suppose we haven't any money or jewelry," replied Grace. + +"So much the worse for you, then," answered the tramp in a threatening +tone. + +"He can have this gold bracelet," exclaimed Jessica, slipping the band +from her arm. + +But Grace was not listening. Her attention was absorbed by a group of +people passing in a straggling line on the road. Lifting up her voice +she gave the High School yell, which had been familiar to every High +School boy and girl for the last twenty years: + +"Hi-hi-hi; hi-hi-hi; Oakdale, Oakdale, HIGH SCHOOL!" + +As she expected, the call was answered immediately, and some of the +loiterers along the highway vaulted the fence at one bound. + +"Help!" cried all the girls in chorus. "Help! Help!" + +"It's some of the High School boys!" exclaimed Nora, in a relieved voice +as the rescuers came bounding through the orchard. + +The tramps looked irresolute for a moment, but when they saw that the +newcomers were five boys they held their ground. + +"What do you want?" said the tallest boy, with a flaming head of red +hair, as he confronted one of the tramps. + +"Thank heaven it's Reddy Brooks, pitcher on the sophomore baseball +team!" whispered Grace, unable to conceal her joy. + +"Is that any of your business, young man?" demanded the tramp, showing +his teeth like an angry dog. + +"It's my business to protect these young ladies," answered Reddy Brooks, +"and I'll do it if I have to shed somebody's blood in the attempt." + +"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the big tramp, clapping his hands to his sides and +almost dancing a jig in his amusement. + +In the meantime Reddy had cast his eyes about for some kind of a weapon. +There was not a stick nor stone in sight. The only thing he could find +was a pile of winter apples that had evidently been collected by the +owner of the orchard to be barreled next day. + +Reddy made a rush for the pile, to the amazement of his fellow-students, +who imagined for a moment that he was running away. They soon found out +his purpose, however, when the apples came whizzing through the air with +well-aimed precision. + +The first one hit the biggest tramp squarely on the chin and almost +stunned him. Each boy then chose his man and the five ruffians were soon +running across the orchard to the wood, the boys after them, their +pockets bulging with apples. Laughing and yelling like wild Indians, +they pelted their victims until the men disappeared in the forest. + +The girls, who had forgotten their fright in the excitement of the +chase, were laughing, too, and urging on the attacks exactly as they +would have done at one of the college football games. Perhaps they had +had a narrow escape, but it was great fun, now, especially when Reddy +Brooks threw one of his famous curved balls and hit a tramp plump on the +back of the head. + +"Oh," cried Nora, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, "I never had +such a good time in all my life! Wasn't it great?" + +"Wasn't it though?" grinned Reddy, as the boys returned from the field +of victory. "Lots more fun than throwing balls at dummies at the county +fair, wasn't it, fellows?" + +"You girls ought to be careful how you walk out here alone at this time +of the year," said Jimmie Burke. "There are a great many tramps around +now, going south in bunches to spend the winter in Palm Beach, no +doubt." + +"We'll never do it again," answered Grace. + +"Never again!" exclaimed Nora, raising her right hand to heaven. + +"I suppose Farmer Smithson will wonder what became of his apples," +observed Reddy. + +"Oh, well, he has so many acres of orchards, I don't suppose he'll miss +this one little pile." + +And the crowd started gayly off to town. + +But the girls of the freshman class had not forgotten--or forgiven--the +Black Monks of Asia. + +All along the walk Grace was turning over and over in her mind some +scheme of revenge. Nothing seemed feasible, however. The sophomores were +so well up in tricks that it would be difficult to deceive them. + +"Suppose," Grace proposed suddenly, aloud, "we ask David Nesbit's advice +to-morrow night, when we go to the flying machine exhibition." + +After that she dismissed the subject from her mind for the time being. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ANNE HAS A SECRET + + +On the night of the flying machine exhibition, the four chums, for Anne +had now been formally adopted by Grace and her friends, arrived somewhat +early at the great arched doorway leading into the gymnasium. + +They were all somewhat excited over this new experience. There had been +many balloon ascensions at the State Fair, and once a dirigible airship +had sailed over the town of Oakdale. But to see a real flying machine +with all its grace and elegance and lightness was like stepping onto +another planet where progress had advanced much faster than it had on +this. + +At least, so thought Anne as she followed her friends into the building. +There was a sound of puffing and churning, during which David arrived in +a cloud of smoke on his motor cycle. + +"I mean to learn to ride one of those queer machines," exclaimed Grace +from the doorway, never dreaming what an important part that very +machine was one day to play in the history of Oakdale. + +"All right, you're welcome to," replied David, jumping off as he stopped +the motor. "Come over to the campus to-morrow afternoon, and I'll give +you your first lesson." + +"Is that really an invitation?" asked Grace. "For I shall accept it, if +it is." + +"It certainly is," answered the young man, "and I shall expect you to +make a very excellent prize pupil, not like Reddy Brooks, who tumbled +off and smashed his nose because he suddenly forgot how to manage the +brakes." + +A few other people gathered in the roomy gymnasium to see the +exhibition, but the girls could see that it was a very exclusive company +they had been invited to join. There were, in fact, no other girls, +except Miriam Nesbit, who came late with her mother, a handsome, quiet +woman to whom her son David bore a marked resemblance. + +Grace and her friends spoke to Mrs. Nesbit cordially, while Miriam bowed +coldly and confined all her attentions to Miss Leece, the unpopular +teacher of mathematics. Miriam ignored Anne entirely. + +"And now, ladies, if you will all be seated, the show will begin," +announced David, leading them to the spectators' benches ranged against +the wall. "Don't expect anything wonderful of mine," he added. "It's +only in the first stages so far. I'm afraid she'll break down, but she's +a great little machine, just the same. Isn't she, mother?" + +"She is wonderful, I think, David," replied Mrs. Nesbit, who was a very +shy, quiet woman, almost entirely wrapped up in her only son. Miriam had +always been too much for her, and she had long since given up attempting +to rule or direct her brilliant, willful daughter. + +"Mrs. Nesbit," said Grace, "this is Anne Pierson, one of the brightest +girls in the freshman class." + +"How do you do?" said Mrs. Nesbit cordially, giving the girl her hand. +"You are a newcomer, are you not? I haven't heard Miriam speak of you." + +"She is a newcomer, mother, but I hear she's giving your daughter Miriam +a stiff pull for first place," said David teasingly. + +"I wish you'd keep quiet, David," exclaimed his sister angrily. "You +always talk too much." + +"Miriam!" remonstrated her mother. + +"Miss Nesbit," said Miss Leece in a disagreeable, harsh voice, "will +have no trouble, I think, in holding her own." + +The teacher gave Anne such a glare from her pale blue eyes that the poor +child shrank behind Grace in embarrassment. + +"Dear, dear," murmured Mrs. Nesbit helplessly. She disliked exceedingly +the scenes to which her daughter often subjected the family. + +David only laughed good-naturedly. + +"The exhibition is about to begin," he said, and disappeared into the +room where the ships were to be put through their performances. + +In a few moments six young airship builders appeared, each carrying in +his arms the result of his summer's labors. There was vigorous applause +from everybody except Miriam, who was too angry with her brother to +enjoy the spectacle. + +The aeroplanes were all copies of well-known models, except David's, +which was of an entirely new and original design of his own invention. +It looked something like a flying fish, the girls thought, with its +slender, oblong body, gauzy fins at the sides and a funny little forked +tail at the stern. + +The models were too light for machinery, so rubber bands, secured +cris-cross in the bows, when suddenly released with a snap gave the +little ships the impetus they needed to fly the length of the gymnasium. + +Only four of the six, however, were destined to fly that evening. They +soared straight down the big room, as easily and gracefully as great +white birds, and dropped gently when they hit the curtain at the other +end, their builders running after them as eagerly as boys sailing kites. +One of the models fluttered and settled down before it reached the other +side, and David's machine, which had commanded most attention because it +was different, started out bravely enough, its little propeller making a +busy humming as it skimmed along. But it had gone hardly ten yards +before it collapsed and ignominiously crashed to the floor. + +"I'm glad of it," said Miriam above the din, for everyone had gathered +about the young man to offer sympathy and congratulations at the same +time. + +"It's very, very clever, my boy," said Professor Blitz, "and you'll +succeed yet, if you keep at it." + +"She wouldn't go far, David," said Grace, stroking the little model, as +if it had been a pet dog, "but she's the prettiest of all, just the +same." + +"Did it hurt it when it fell?" Anne asked him. + +"I think it broke one of its little fins," laughed David. "It hurt me +much more than itself, because it wouldn't be good and fly all the way." + +"Anne," called Grace, "here is some one looking for you. It's a boy with +a note." + +Anne looked frightened as she opened a soiled looking envelope the boy +handed her. + +"Is anything the matter?" asked Jessica, seeing the expression of fear +on her face. + +"No--yes----," answered poor little Anne, undecidedly. "I must go home, +or rather I mustn't go the way I came. Don't you think I could leave at +a side entrance? I don't want to see the person who is waiting for me in +front." + +"Of course, child," spoke up Grace. "We'll see you home ourselves. Won't +we, girls!" + +"Wait until I lock up my motor cycle and I'll go along," called David. +"We'll all protect Miss Anne." + +"Tell him," said Anne to the boy, putting the note back in the envelope +and giving it to him, "that what he asks is impossible." + +"Couldn't you squeeze us into the carriage, mother?" asked David, +returning presently with his hat. + +"I have invited Miss Leece to drive home with us, mother," interrupted +Miriam, giving her brother a blighting glance. "There is room for only +one more person. Perhaps Jessica will take it." + +"You are very kind," said Jessica coldly, "but I prefer to walk with the +girls." + +"_You'd_ better walk, too, cross-patch, and learn a few manners from +your friends," was David's parting advice to his sister. + +"Children, children!" exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit, "don't, I beg of you, +quarrel in public." + +Presently the five young people had slipped out of a side door of the +gymnasium and started down a back street in the direction of Anne's +house. They had not gone far, however, before they became aware that +they were being followed. Grace was the first to call the attention of +Nora and Jessica to a long, slim figure stealing after them in the +shadows. + +"Here he comes," whispered Jessica. "What in the world do you suppose he +wants with our poor little Anne?" + +"I believe he's going to stop us," returned Grace. "He is coming nearer +and nearer." + +"Anne, I command you to wait!" called a voice from behind them. + +They all stopped suddenly and Anne jumped as though she had received a +shock. + +A tall, theatrical-looking individual had come up to them. He wore a +shabby frock coat and a black slouch hat, which he raised with an +elaborate flourish when he saw the young girls. + +"Pardon me, ladies," he said, "but I wish to speak with my daughter." + +Anne controlled herself with an effort. + +"I cannot see you now, father," she said. "It is quite late and I must +get back." + +"You shall not only speak to me but you shall come with me," exclaimed +the man, with a sudden flare of anger. "I will not submit to +disobedience again. Come at once!" + +"Father, I cannot go with you," cried Anne, clinging to her friends. "I +would rather be with mother and Mary. They need me more than you do and +I want to go to school and study to be a teacher." + +The man was now beside himself with theatrical rage. + +"Miserable child!" he cried, waving his arms wildly. "I shall take you +if I must by force." Breaking through the group, he seized the hand of +his daughter and dragged her after him. + +"Oh, save me!" cried the poor girl, struggling to release herself. + +"I can't stand this! If she doesn't want to go with him, she shan't, +father or no father," growled David, dashing after the pair. + +"Stop, sir!" he cried, seizing Anne's other hand. "I must ask you to +release this young lady at once." + +"Insolent boy!" cried the other, giving each word an oratorical +flourish, "are you not aware that this young lady, as you call her, is +merely a child, and that she happens to be my daughter? I cannot see +that you have a right to interfere in a family matter." + +"But I have no proof that Miss Pierson is your daughter," retorted +David. "It is enough that she doesn't want to go with you. I undertook +to see her safely to her own home, this evening, and I mean to do it. +After that you may settle your difficulties as you please." + +"Miserable upstart!" cried the man, now so thoroughly angry that he let +go Anne's hand, "I have a good mind to give you what you deserve. As for +you, undutiful, wretched girl," he added, his voice rising to an +emotional tremolo, "you shall be well punished for this!" + +"Don't wait," whispered Anne. "If we run, we can get away, now, while he +is so angry." At that they all took to their heels, David following +after them, much relieved to have given Anne's father the slip without +further disagreeable argument. + +No one spoke until they had reached the Pierson cottage and had seen +Anne safely to the front door. + +"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed at last, trying not to cry. "I wouldn't +for anything have had it happen, and just when you were all beginning to +like me a little. Will you forgive me?" + +"Forgive you, Anne!" cried Grace. "It wasn't your fault. We are only +awfully sorry for you." + +"We will just forget all about it, and never speak of it to anyone," +promised Jessica, taking the girl's hand kindly. + +"But I want you to understand that I was right in not going," protested +Anne. "Some day I will explain." + +"Of course you were right," said David, "and I hope you will never be +persuaded to go." + +"Thank you, all, a thousand times!" came gratefully from Anne; "and good +night." Then she disappeared into the cottage. + +"Well, this was a night's adventure," observed Grace, as they started +homeward. + +"I am afraid Anne's father is a night's adventurer," muttered David. "He +looks mightily like one of those strolling actors who go barnstorming +through country towns." + +"Poor Anne! Do you suppose he wants her to barnstorm?" asked Nora. + +"I haven't a doubt of it," replied the young man. "I think you girls had +better adopt that poor child and look after her." + +"We have already," answered Grace. "Didn't Miriam tell you about it?" + +"Miriam? No; she never tells me anything. Besides, what has she to do +with it?" + +The girls were silent. + +"By the way," continued Grace, "speaking of barnstorming, we want to ask +your advice, David. The sophomores played a mean trick on us the other +day at the old Omnibus House." + +"I heard something about the Black Monks of Asia," answered David, +laughing. + +"Can't your inventive brain devise a scheme of revenge?" went on Grace. +"If we don't get even with them soon, the story will be all over town." + +"Well," replied David, "I can tell you a secret I happened to have +overheard when one of the sophomores was calling on Miriam. I was an +eavesdropper entirely by accident, but what I heard might help some. The +sophomores are going to give an initiation mask ball a week from +Saturday night. Only the class and a few outsiders, among them Miriam, +are to be present. Everybody is to be in fancy dress, and disguised out +of all recognition. Can't you work up a scheme with that to go upon, +girls?" + +"We certainly can," cried Nora. "It's the chance of a lifetime." + +"Just wait and see!" exclaimed Grace. + +"By the way, David, you didn't happen to overhear the password, did +you?" asked Jessica. + +"I did," he replied. "Nothing escaped me, for I was caught in a trap. +You know I don't care for that large, husky young damsel who leads the +sophomores, and if I had made my presence behind the screen known, I +should have had to speak to her. So I just sat still and said nothing. +The password is 'Asia.'" + +"They are trying to rub it in, I suppose," cried Grace. "But I think +they won't be so ready to use that word after their old ball is over." + +"If you want any help," offered David as he left Grace at her front +door, "you know where to come for it, don't you?" + +"You're a true brick, David!" said Grace. "Good night." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SOPHOMORE BALL + + +There was an undercurrent of excitement in the air on the day of the +sophomore ball. + +The sophomores themselves were full of secrets, whispering around in +groups, their faces grave with self-important expressions. This was to +be their annual Initiation Ball, and many new members, after receiving +initiation into the various sophomore societies, were to be invited to +the gymnasium, which had been turned over to the class for the evening. + +There was no end to the fun of these balls, according to feminine +gossip, for no male was ever admitted and only three invitations were +issued to girls of other classes. It was, in fact, to be nothing but fun +and frolic, and every costume had been planned weeks ahead. + +One teacher was asked to be present to keep order in case of intrusion, +for the gymnasium door, on that famous night, was always besieged by +youths from the Boys' High School, who roared and jeered as each cloaked +and masked figure rushed under the archway and disappeared. + +The freshmen, all through the day, were unusually quiet. They kept to +themselves and had little to say. Miriam and her three particular +friends were carefully avoided by their classmates. Miriam, herself, +felt the snub at once. Had she, after all, made a mistake, and was she +losing ground in the class? But her vanity was like a life buoy to her +sinking hopes. She refused to see that the other girls regarded her with +growing dislike. + +When school was over, that afternoon, six girls strolled down the High +School walk arm in arm. They were Grace and her three chums and two +other girls who were popular in the freshman class. + +Anne's small figure seemed almost dwarfed next to Grace, who towered +half a foot above her. Ever since Anne's trying scene with her father, +Grace had been doubly tender and kind to her, until the young girl +seemed to expand under the happy influence. + +"Well, girlies, dear, we are the chosen six. I hope we shall be a credit +to the class." + +"Don't talk so loudly, Nora. I feel as if we were surrounded by spies +to-day. Everybody has been so mysterious and queer." + +"One thing is practically certain," whispered Grace: "I believe it was +Miriam who told the sophomores about the Omnibus House. Why else did +they invite her to their ball?" + +"We can never prove it, though," said one of the others, "unless we get +her up a tree some day and make her admit it." + +"Remember, Anne," cautioned Grace, when they came to the cross street +leading to the Pierson cottage, "eight o'clock sharp at my house! And +don't bother about things. We shall have more than enough among us." + +At half-past eight that night the sound of a stringed orchestra floated +out on the breeze as the door of the gymnasium swung back and forth to +admit disguised sophomores, who each whispered the countersign to the +doorkeeper, after running the gauntlet of the waiting crowd, and slipped +in. + +The music was furnished by a troupe of women players especially engaged +to play in this Adamless Eden. What would not the crowd of waiting boys +have given for one glimpse of the ball room, where ballet girls, clowns +and courtiers, Egyptian snake charmers, Mephistopholeses and +Marguerites, priests and priestesses of the Orient, all whirled madly +together? + +Every door had been locked and bolted and every downstairs window +securely closed. Ventilation was obtained through the half-open windows +opening on the upper gallery, which ran around the four sides of the +gymnasium. The doors to this gallery had also been locked and the only +way to reach it was by steps leading up from the gymnasium. + +Six masked and hooded figures swung down High School Street together, +talking and laughing in low voices. The smallest of the six appeared to +stumble over her feet, and once tumbled in the road. Her friends gayly +helped her up, when it was disclosed that she wore a pair of boy's shoes +much too large for her. + +"If we don't break our necks stumbling over these brogans," whispered +the tallest girl, "we'll be lucky." + +As a matter of fact, each one of the six maskers was wearing a pair of +men's shoes. + +"I stuffed my toes with cotton," laughed another, "but even now they are +hard to manage." + +Just then a motor cycle shot past them, slowed down and stopped +altogether. + +The rider rested it against a tree and came back. + +"I recognized you by your big feet," he said in a whisper. "Grace, +here's the duplicate key to the laboratory. I had some trouble getting +it, but no one knows, and you'll be safe enough. I'll let myself in with +the other duplicate key and lock the door. They will be sure to try it +at intervals. If you get into any trouble, early in the evening, make a +dash for the steps and blow your horn loud. Now, that's all, I think. +I'll be hidden in the laboratory until my turn comes. Good-bye and good +luck!" + +In another instant he was off on his motor cycle. + +Six figures, well disguised in dominoes of as many hues, presently +appeared on the ball room floor, just in time for the grand march. It +was a pity no one, except the lone teacher, was permitted to look at the +brilliant picture. But such was the tradition of the class. After the +march, ten ballet girls in tarlatan skirts, their faces concealed by +little black satin masks, gave a performance. Following this, a Spanish +dancer, whom the six dominoes recognized at once as the treacherous +Miriam Nesbit, gave an exhibition of her skill. + +"I'm going to have some fun with her," whispered the blue domino to the +red one. "Just follow me and see." + +The last speaker joined the dancer as the music struck up a waltz. + +"That was a good day's work you did for our class, not long ago," she +whispered as they danced off together. + +"What do you mean?" asked the Spanish dancer. + +"I mean the Black Monks of Asia. Now, do you understand?" + +"But I thought it was not to be told," exclaimed the dancer, flushing +under her mask. + +"Only to the committee so that you might be rewarded with an +invitation," whispered the domino, as she slipped away. + +"_She_ did confess it, and every freshman in the class shall know it +to-morrow!" the emissary exclaimed privately to her friend, the red +domino. + +"In spite of what her brother is doing for us to-night?" returned the +red domino. + +"You are quite right, child. I never thought of that. Perhaps that is +the very reason he is helping us get even to-night." + +"I think it is," added the other, quietly. + +"Girls, we must hurry up and begin," whispered another of the six +dominoes. "They are all going to unmask at half-past ten." + +So the unrecognized intruders slipped away, stationing themselves about +the room. + +Pretty soon a rumor began to spread among the dancers that there were +young men present. No one knew exactly how it started, but it grew and +spread with such persistency that it finally reached the ears of the +chaperon. + +"Some of the girls saw their feet," said her informant, "and not only +their feet but their trousers, too." + +The teacher rose and rapped sharply for order. + +"Young ladies," she called in a loud voice, "I am sorry to disturb the +dancers, but we have every reason to believe there are some men in the +room. Since it is not yet time for you to unmask, it will be simple to +find out who does not belong here by having you file past me. I will +lift each mask myself." + +The dancers accordingly arranged themselves in a long line and walked +single file past the teacher. She saw only girl's faces, however, as she +peeped under the masks, and the dance proceeded. + +The next disturbance came when the maskers had all taken their stand at +one end of the room at the request of the six dominoes, who managed to +whisper to each sophomore that there was presently to be a surprise. + +An expectant hush fell over the company as the six dominoes filed out of +a side room and stood, for a moment, in full view of the sophomores. +Then the six deliberately lifted their dominoes, disclosing trouser legs +and men's shoes. Instantly the place was in pandemonium; yet before the +sophomores could rush upon the intruders six long horns were blown in +unison, and immediately the lights went out. In the darkness the six +dominoes made for the stairs, rushed along the gallery, and were +admitted to the laboratory by the duplicate key. But, just before the +blue domino disappeared, she called out in a loud voice from the +gallery: + +"The freshmen are avenged!" + +When the doors were safely closed the lights were turned on again, +disclosing the sophomores blinking foolishly at each other after the +sudden startling change from darkness to light. + +"They are in the laboratory!" cried one. "Let's cut off their escape!" + +The angry sophomores made a rush for the door. + +"Hurry girls!" urged David, who had just returned to the laboratory +after manipulating the lights. "They'll catch us before we know it." + +But the young fugitives were too late. Just then there was the sound of +many feet running up the stairs from the other door. + +"How about one of the gallery doors?" asked Grace. + +"They are all locked," answered David. "There only remain the skylight +trap-door and the roof. Do you think you could manage it if I helped +you?" + +"Of course; we could manage anything," protested the freshmen girls. + +It was an easy matter to climb up the ladder, and clamber through the +trap-door on to the roof. + +"We're just in time," whispered David. "They have found the right key to +the gallery door, and they'll be coming in both ways. Crawl carefully +now, girls, for heaven's sake, and don't slip!" + +The seven young people began slowly to draw themselves along the +gymnasium roof on their hands and knees. Fortunately, it was not a very +sloping roof, and their only danger lay in their movements being heard +from below. Meanwhile the gymnasium had emptied itself, and parties of +enraged sophomores were engaged in searching the adjoining class rooms +and passages. + +"Let's surround the building on the outside," cried one of the class +leaders. "They can't escape, then, by any of the fire escapes, and we +are sure to catch them!" + +In a few moments, David peeping over the edge of the roof, saw figures +stationed at every possible exit, waiting patiently. + +"Lie low," he whispered, "and crawl on your stomachs, or you're surely +caught." + +Soon after the seven had reached the end of the hundred feet of +gymnasium, where their flight was stopped short by a blank wall where +the gymnasium joined the High School building. + +"Here's a pretty pass," whispered David. "I forgot about this old school +wall. The only thing to do, now, is to hide behind this chimney and wait +for the row to quiet down." + +There they lay, as flat as possible, listening with bated breath to the +sophomores below. Presently there was a sound of footsteps on the +gymnasium roof and they heard Miriam's voice saying: + +"They must have escaped through the trap-door in the laboratory and come +along here. Wait a minute, girls, and I'll see." + +"O Grace, we're caught!" groaned Jessica. "What shall we do?" + +"No we aren't yet," answered Grace. "Especially if she is coming alone, +and that is what I am praying for." + +"I'll come with you, Miriam," called the voice of the sophomore leader. + +"Why don't you take the other side?" proposed Miriam. "And I'll go +around and meet you." + +"Very well," came the answer. + +The freshmen clutched each other and waited. + +Miriam ran lightly along the roof, and came upon the seven prostrate +figures so suddenly that she almost lost her balance. + +"Don't speak," said Grace, in a distinct whisper, "and don't give us +away. If you do, you will regret it. Remember the blue domino who +waltzed with you!" + +She hoped Miriam would understand what she meant and so save her from +further explanation. In this Grace was right. Miriam was trapped at +last. She deliberately turned and walked away without a word. + +"Come on, girls," they heard her call to the others, "let's waste no +more time on them." When all was quiet the seven intriguers slipped down +the fire escape and disappeared in the darkness--safely escaping +discovery. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ALL HALLOWE'EN + + +"Anne," called a chorus of boys' and girls' voices, "come out and have +some fun. Have you forgotten it's Hallowe'en?" + +The door of the Pierson cottage opened and Anne appeared on the +threshhold. + +"I can't," she answered; "I must study to-night." + +"Oh, bother lessons!" exclaimed Grace Harlowe. "Skip them, for once, and +join the crowd. We are going Hallowe'ening. Mother allowed it because +David Nesbit and Reddy Brooks are along to look after us." + +Anne looked longingly at the little company. + +"I'll come," she sighed, "although it was my algebra I was working on. +You know Miss Leece hates me, and, if I slip up, she'll be much harder +than any of the other teachers." + +"Hang Miss Leece!" said David promptly. + +"Well, let's hang her, then," exclaimed Nora. "Let's dress her up and +hang her on a limb of a tree." + +"What do you mean by 'hang' her?" asked Grace, while Anne went in to put +on her hat and coat. + +"Don't you know?" replied Nora. "You stuff an old dress full of hay and +paper, make a head out of any old thing, put a hat on it, and there you +have her mighty fine." + +"That's an old stunt, Nora," observed David. "Let's have something more +improved and up-to-date. Suppose, for instance, we use Marian's +Jack-o'-lantern for the head. I'll put some little electric bulbs in the +eye holes and attach them to a battery so that we can turn her eyes off +and on. And we'll ride her on a broomstick in good style." + +"Only, nobody must know it's Miss Leece whose being effigied," urged +Grace. "This must be merely for our own private satisfaction. Everybody +promise not to tell." + +Everybody promised; so, with Anne safely in tow, they started for +Jessica's house to make the figure. Here they were not likely to be +interrupted. Jessica's mother was dead and her father spent most of his +evenings in his library. + +Half a broomstick, with a small pumpkin attached to one end, formed the +framework of Miss Leece's effigy. A cross beam gave a human touch to the +shoulders and with the skeleton ready, the business of stuffing an old +ulster and hanging it over the figure was simple. Tiny electric bulbs +were placed in the eyes and a bonnet tied on the head with a green veil +floating behind. Miss Leece, Nora insisted, always wore one growing out +of her left ear. There was nothing left to do now, but to place the +figure in a legless chair that had been nailed to two poles, and the +procession was ready. + +"She's a very fine lady," cried Grace, running ahead to get the effect +of the absurd lopsided figure whose eyes glared and went out +alternately. "I wish the real Miss L. could see herself now. She would +know exactly what she looks like when she glares at poor little Anne in +class." + +"Yes, Anne," said David, "this shall be your party. We are going to give +you satisfaction for your wrongs in the only way that lies in our +power." + +"Oh, I don't really mind her," replied Anne, "only I'm afraid she'll +catch me unprepared, some day, and then I _will_ get it in earnest." + +"It's a perfect outrage," exclaimed Grace. "Miss Leece is so cruel to +little Anne, David, that it makes my blood boil. I sometimes think she +is trying to make Anne lose the freshman prize." + +"The old Hessian!" cried David, who was on a sort of rampage that +evening. "What shall I do to her, Anne? Give her an electric shock?" and +he pressed the electric button rapidly up and down, which made the eyes +glare hideously and go out several times in succession. + +In a town the size of Oakdale strolling parties of boys and girls, on +Hallowe'en night, made a not unusual sight, so when our young people +paraded boldly down the main street, singing and blowing horns, nothing +was thought of it. What they were doing might be considered exceedingly +out of place by a few straightlaced persons, but boys and girls will +have their fun, even if it must sometimes be at the expense of other +people. + +Certainly Miss Leece was the most unpopular teacher ever employed in the +High School as far back as memory could reach. She was cruel, strict and +sharp-tongued. Often her violent, unrestrained temper got the better of +her in the class room; then she gave an exhibition that was not good for +young girls to see. Anne, especially, was the victim of her rages--poor +little Anne who never missed a lesson and studied twice as hard as the +other girls. Miss Leece had but one weakness, apparently, and that was +Miriam Nesbit. + +Twice had the faculty convened in secret session to consider Miss +Leece's case, but it had been decided to keep her through the year at +least, since she was engaged by contract and was moreover an excellent +instructor in mathematics. + +So, it was no wonder that even this early in the school year, she was +the object of dislike to the High School girls. But could our girls have +foreseen what the evening's fun would bring forth, they would never have +been so reckless in carrying the effigy about town. + +"Suppose we take her across the square," cried Reddy; "then over the +bridge to the old graveyard and hang her on the limb of the apple tree +just outside the wall?" + +Off they started, singing at the tops of their voices: + + Hang a mean teacher on a sour apple tree, + Hang a mean teacher on a sour apple tree. + +When they reached the center of the public square, where a big electric +light shed its rays, who should spring out of the shadows, from nowhere +apparently, but Miss Leece herself? Nothing escaped her sharp ears and +her cold blue eyes; neither words of the song nor the figure in detail, +green veil and all; nor Anne Pierson, who happened to be standing quite +near the effigy at the moment. + +And what was worse, and still more incriminating to the guilty +merrymakers, the moment they caught sight of her they stopped singing. +The eyes in the pumpkin suddenly lost their glare, and a silent +procession wound its way hurriedly from the square. + +"Good heavens!" cried Grace. "Why did we stop the song? If we had only +gone right ahead, it wouldn't have looked half as bad." + +"It was a mistake," admitted David, gravely, "especially as she seemed +to have seen Anne first of all. Anne, if she walks into you to-morrow +morning, you can just lay the blame on me, do you hear? I got up the +whole party and I'm willing to stand for it." + +"No, no," cried Anne. "That wouldn't be fair, David. I couldn't think of +doing that." + +"Well, you are not to get the blame, at any rate," said David, "if I +have to go up and make a confession to the principal herself." + +"Let's go and hang her now, anyhow," cried Reddy. "We'll take no +half-way measures with old Queen Bess." + +But somehow the spice of the adventure seemed to have gone out of it. + +"It really would be dangerous now," said Grace. "She would be certain to +hear of it and make it worse for all of us." + +"Why not burn her," put in Nora, who was afraid of nothing and had often +looked at the scolding teacher with such cold, laughing eyes, that even +Miss Leece was disconcerted. + +"Good!" cried several of the others. "We will take her down below the +bridge and burn her as a witch." + +No one objected to this, since the ashes of the effigy would tell no +tales. Once more they started singing: "Merrily we roll along!" as they +marched out of the village, crossed the bridge over the little river and +finally paused on the bank below. + +"Plant the pole in deep," said David, "so she won't topple, and fix her +up to suit yourselves, girls, while we get the fagots." + +The boys began to search about for dried sticks and twigs, while the +girls were arranging the figure for her funeral pyre. + +Suddenly, there was a wild war whoop. A crowd of boys dashed out of a +thicket near by, each one carrying a lighted Jack-o'-lantern on top of a +pole, and surrounded the effigy of the teacher. + +"Help!" cried the girls, trying to defend the absurd thing from the +attack, but they were too late. One of the boys seized the pole and +rushed off in the darkness. + +Miss Leece, in effigy, had been kidnapped in an instant, before David +and his friends had had time to realize what had happened. + +"Which way did they go?" he asked breathlessly. + +"Through the thicket," cried Grace. + +And the whole crowd dashed after the kidnappers. It was great fun for +everybody except Anne, who was too tired to keep up the chase for long, +and was soon lagging behind the others. David saw her and turned back. + +"You are too little for all this junketing, Anne," he said kindly. +"Suppose I take you home? Shall I?" + +"I wish you would, David," answered the girl. "I'm just about ready to +drop, I'm so tired." + +Taking her arm, he helped her over the ruts and rough places, until they +finally emerged from the wood and started on the road to town. + +There were many other Hallowe'en parties out that night; singing and +laughing was heard in every direction. + +"It's like a play," said Anne, "only everything is behind the scenes. +Don't think I haven't enjoyed it, David, just because I got tired. I +never played with boys and girls of my own age before. What fun it is!" + +"Isn't it?" replied the young man, "I love to get out, once in a while, +and have a good time like this. I find I can work all the better after +it's over." + +Presently the others caught up with them, breathless and laughing. + +"Miss Leece is stolen," cried Grace, "before ever she was hanged or +burned. I do wonder what they'll do with her." + +"Oh, leave her in the woods," responded Reddy, "to scare the birds +away." + +"Good night, Anne," continued Grace. "David will take you home. We go +this way. Don't be frightened about to-morrow. I doubt if she says +anything; and if she does, we are all implicated." + +The young people separated, still singing and laughing; never dreaming +of the storm brewing from their evening's prank. + +"Anne," pursued David, as they strolled down River Street together, +"when I make my flying machine will you be afraid to take a sail with +me?" + +"Never," replied Anne, "but I wish it had been made in time to carry me +away from Miss Leece to-morrow morning." + +And Anne's words had more meaning than either of them realized at the +time. + +Imagine the surprise and horror of the Hallowe'en party when, next +morning, they discovered the effigy of Miss Leece planted right in front +of the Girls' High School! + +And the teacher herself was the first to see the impious outrage. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +MISS LEECE + + +Yes, there stood the hideous, grotesque effigy just where her abductors +had left her the night before, her green veil floating in the breezes. +As a figure of fun and an object of ridicule, she might not have created +more than a ripple with the faculty. But it was evident that Miss +Leece's function, even in effigy, was to make trouble. + +And trouble was certainly brewing that memorable morning. The figure +itself might never have been recognized, but a placard which had been +pinned on the front of the old ulster left no room for doubt. Across it +had been inscribed in large printed letters: + +"THE MOST UNPOPULAR TEACHER IN SCHOOL." + +No one dared take the effigy away for fear of being implicated. +Everybody had seen it, both men and women professors and the boys and +girls of the two schools. But it was not until Miss Thompson, the +principal of the Girls' High School, had arrived that the figure was +removed. + +"How could those boys have been so mean!" exclaimed Grace to her three +friends just before the gong sounded. "They might have known what would +happen." + +There was an ominous quiet in the various class rooms all morning; but +nothing was said or done to indicate just when the storm would burst. +When the first class in algebra met, Anne trembled with fear, but Miss +Leece, in a robin's egg-blue dress, which offset the angry hue of her +complexion, was apparently too angry to trust herself to look in the +direction of the young girl and the lesson progressed without incident. + +However, she was only biding her time. + +"Miss Pierson," she said, toward the end of the lesson, in a voice so +rasping as to make the girls fairly shiver, "go to the blackboard and +demonstrate this problem." + +Then she read aloud in the same disagreeable voice, the following +difficult problem: + +"'Train A starts from Chicago going thirty miles an hour. An hour later +Train B starts from Chicago going thirty-five miles an hour. How far +from Chicago will they be when Train B passes Train A?'" + +The girls looked up surprised. The problem was well in advance of what +they had been studying and Miss Leece was really asking Anne to recite +something she had not yet learned. + +Anne hardly knew how to reply to the terrible woman who stood glowering +at her as if she would like to crush her to bits. + +"I'm sorry," said the girl. "I cannot." + +"Miss Nesbit," said the teacher, "will you demonstrate this problem?" + +Miriam rose with a little smile of triumph on her face and went to the +blackboard, where she worked out the problem. + +"Why, what on earth does the woman mean?" whispered Grace. "Are we +expected to learn lessons we have never been taught and has that horrid +Miriam been studying ahead?" + +"I think I must be dreaming," replied Anne, looking sorrowfully at Miss +Leece. + +"Miss Pierson," thundered the teacher, "you are aware, I believe, that I +permit no conversation in this class. Stupidity and inattention are not +to be supported in any student, and I must ask you to leave the room." + +Anne rose in a dazed sort of way, looking very small and shabby as she +left the room. + +But Miss Leece was not to come off so easily in the fight, and Anne had +a splendid champion in Grace Harlowe, who could not endure injustice and +was fearless where her rights or her friends' rights were concerned. + +She rose quietly and faced the angry teacher, who already regretted +having gone so far. + +"If Miss Pierson is to be ordered from the room, Miss Leece, I shall +follow her. I spoke to her first. I was naturally surprised that you +gave out a problem so far in advance of our regular work. It is doubtful +if any girl in the class could do it except Miriam, and she must have +been prepared." + +"Miss Harlowe," said Miss Leece, stamping her foot, and again giving way +to rage, "I must ask you to take your seat at once and never interfere +again with the way I conduct this class." + +"You conduct this class with injustice and violence, Miss Leece," said +Grace, turning very white, but holding herself in admirable control +considering the conduct of the older woman. + +"I am in no humor to be answered back this morning, Miss Harlowe, and I +would advise you to be careful," continued the enraged woman. "I have +had enough to try me since last night and this morning. Miss Pierson +must answer to the principal for those insults, and her insubordination +just now has only made matters worse." + +"Miss Pierson has nothing to answer for which I have not, and I shall +join her," replied Grace, and she left the room. + +Miss Leece was about to continue the lesson when Jessica, pale and +trembling, rose and followed her friend. Nora was next to go and in +another moment there was not a girl left in the algebra class except +Miriam and her four particular friends. The gong sounded as the last +pupil closed the door behind her, but there was little doubt that the +first class in algebra had gone on a strike. + +The noon recess gong had sounded before the girls were able to meet and +talk about the incident, and, during the time that intervened, Anne had +received a summons in the form of a small note to meet the principal in +her office at three that afternoon. She said nothing to her friends, +however, and hid the envelope in her pocket. + +The girls in IV. algebra gathered around their friends to hear the +story. They were indignant and expressed their readiness to join the +strike out of sympathy in case there was any more trouble. + +"They have no right to put such a violent woman over us," said Grace, as +she nibbled at a pickle and a cracker in the locker room. "I wish they +would give me the opportunity. I should be more than willing to testify +to her behavior before the entire faculty and the school board +combined." + +Anne, herself, the center of the whole affair was very quiet. This +remarkable young girl seemed to possess some secret force that she was +able to draw upon when she most needed it. + +"Anne, you precious child," exclaimed the impetuous Nora, "you must not +get scared. Whatever happens, the whole class means to stand by you. +Don't we, girls?" + +"Yes," came from all sides. + +"I don't think anything in particular will happen," replied Anne. "I +believe Miss Leece really wants to prevent my winning the prize. That's +all." + +"She has certainly adopted a pet," cried Marian Barber. + +"What did Miriam Nesbit mean by studying ahead like that?" exclaimed +another. "It was disloyal to the whole class." + +"It looks very much as if they had fixed it up between them," continued +Grace. "I'm sorry about the effigy, but I won't stand that kind of +favoritism. It's mean and underhanded." + +After school Anne lingered in the corridor until the other girls had +gone. Then she made her way slowly to the office of the principal. "Come +in," came the answer to her timid knock. + +Miss Thompson, the principal, was a fine woman, much beloved by the +people of Oakdale where she had served as principal of the Girls' High +School for many years. She had adjusted numerous difficulties in her +time, but never such a knotty problem as the present one. It was +incredible that Anne Pierson, who stood so well in her classes that she +had already been mentioned by the faculty, should have engaged in such +an escapade as Miss Leece had accused her of. + +"Sit down," she said kindly to the young girl, whose small, tired face +appealed to her sympathies. "What is this trouble between you and Miss +Leece, Miss Pierson?" she continued, plunging into the subject. + +"I do not know myself, Miss Thompson," answered Anne quietly. + +"But she accuses you of rather terrible things, Miss Pierson," went on +the principal, picking up a slip of paper and reading aloud, +"'inattention, insubordination, impertinence and a tendency to make +trouble.' Have you any answer to make to these charges?" + +"No," replied Anne. + +"Have you nothing to say?" + +"Only that they are untrue." + +"Miss Pierson," continued the principal, opening a closet door, "do you +recognize this figure." + +[Illustration: "Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?"] + +There, hanging by its neck on a coat hook and still wearing its +fantastic bonnet and green veil, was the famous effigy. + +Anne looked at the absurd thing for a moment in silence. Then her eyes +met Miss Thompson's, and both teacher and pupil burst out laughing. + +The young girl never knew how far that laugh went to soften her present +predicament. As a matter of fact, Miss Thompson had never liked the +teacher in mathematics, while the small, shabby pupil appealed strongly +to her sympathy. + +"Were you not the originator of this outrageous plot, Miss Pierson?" + +Anne was silent. She could hardly say she was the originator and still +she had participated. + +"I will put the question in another form," said the principal. "If you +were not the originator, who was?" + +Still Anne made no reply. + +"Miss Leece," continued the principal, "alleges that she distinctly saw +you standing by the figure. She did not recognize the other faces. Do +you think, Miss Pierson, that such an escapade as you engaged in last +night was entirely respectful or worthy of a pupil of Oakdale High +School?" + +"No," replied Anne at last. + +"Do you know that suspension or expulsion are the punishments for such +behavior?" + +Anne clasped her hands nervously. She saw the freshman prize floating +away, and her eyes filled with tears, but she said nothing. + +Instead of being angry, however, Miss Thompson was pleased with the +girl's pluck and loyalty. But she was puzzled to know how to proceed. +Her judgment and her sympathies revolted against punishing this prize +pupil, and still it looked as if Miss Leece had everything on her side. +A tap at the door interrupted her reflections, and Anne opened it, +admitting Mrs. Gray escorted by David and Grace. + +"My dear Miss Thompson," said the old lady, "I know you will consider me +an interfering old woman, but when I heard that my particular child, +Anne Pierson, was in trouble, I came straight to you. I want to talk the +whole matter over comfortably; since it's my own freshman class that's +on the rampage, I feel as if I had a right to put in a word." + +"You are most welcome, Mrs. Gray," replied Miss Thompson, cordially. + +She was exceedingly fond of the lonely old lady who had been a +benefactor to the school in so many ways. "But what's this you say about +the freshman class? I have heard nothing about it." + +"Grace," said Mrs. Gray, "suppose you tell Miss Thompson what you have +just finished telling me." + +Then Grace related the incident in the algebra class and the long +succession of insults Anne had endured from the terrible Miss Leece. + +"Dear, dear," murmured Miss Thompson, "this looks like persecution and +very strong favoritism on the part of Miss Leece. A thing we wish to +keep out of the school as much as possible. But what about this!" and +she opened the door of the closet where the pumpkin face of the effigy +grinned at them grotesquely from the shadows. + +"I have something to say about that, Miss Thompson," declared David. "I +am the author of this 'crime' and I intend to take the blame for it. +Miss Pierson had so little to do with it that we had fairly to drag her +out of her own house to make her join the crowd." + +"I think, Miss Thompson," put in Mrs. Gray, "that a teacher must have +been exceedingly sharp and disagreeable to have inspired such nice +children to this," and she pointed to the figure. + +"I believe you are right," admitted the principal after a moment's +thought, "and I trust, under the circumstances, that the whole affair +can be settled without the interference of the School Board. Suppose you +leave Miss Leece to me. And young people," she added, "if you will +promise to say nothing more about the subject, I think Miss Leece may be +persuaded to let the matter drop." + +And so ended the Hallowe'en escapade. Miss Thompson paid a visit to Miss +Leece that evening, at the teacher's rooms in Oakdale, and was closeted +with her for more than an hour. No one ever knew what happened. Miss +Thompson was a woman to keep her own counsel; but the affair never came +up before the School Board and Miss Leece, after that, though somewhat +stiff in her manner, had no more outbursts of rage for some time. +Undoubtedly her display of favoritism in the algebra class had lost her +the day. + +Miss Thompson was a woman of fine judgment and broad and just views. She +was proud of the Oakdale High Schools and the splendid classes they +turned out year after year. She realized perfectly what a disturbance a +woman like Miss Leece could cause and she determined to check her at +every point, especially when the most prominent and finest pupils of the +two schools were implicated. + +Therefore the offenders went scot-free and Anne was once more safe to +pursue the freshman prize. + +Miss Leece, however, was only biding her time. While Anne had won this +battle she might lose the next. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THANKSGIVING DAY + + +"Oh, how I love Thanksgiving!" cried Grace. + +"Oh, how you love turkey, you mean," exclaimed her bosom friend, Nora +O'Malley. + +"Yes," admitted Grace, "the turkey is a grand old bird, bless him, but +football is what I really love, delightful, thrilling football. I wish I +could play center on the home team. I know I could make a touchdown as +well as the best of them." + +The crowd of young people were seated on straw in the bottom of a large +road wagon that was slowly making its way from Grace's house out to the +football grounds. It was decorated with the colors of the Oakdale High +School, sea-blue and white, and the girls wore blue and white rosettes +and carried long horns from which dangled ribbon streamers. Numbers of +Oakdale people were hurrying down the road toward the field, and the +crisp autumn air vibrated with the sounds of talk and laughter. In the +distance could be heard the music of the town band, which always gave a +concert before the Thanksgiving game. + +"And to think that little Anne has never in her life seen a football +game!" exclaimed Jessica. + +Anne blushed. + +"Yes," she replied reluctantly, "I'll have to admit this is my very +first game, but I understand the rules. Grace has explained them to me. +I hope our boys will win." + +"If the Dunsmore boys are in good trim, I'm afraid they'll give us a +stiff pull," observed David, "but the stiffer the pull the more +interesting it is to watch, so long as they don't lick us." + +Just then the wagon drew up at the grounds and the boys and girls jumped +out and made their way through the crowd to their seats. + +Everybody in Oakdale turned out for the annual Thanksgiving football +game. The professors and their wives, the teachers from the Girls' High +School and all the pupils were there in full force, besides the citizens +of Oakdale and their families. There was really a very large assemblage +in the semicircular ampitheater which was hung with bunting and flags in +honor of the great occasion, and probably not one in the whole cheerful +company but had enjoyed a good Thanksgiving dinner that afternoon, so +good humor beamed from every face. + +"Don't you think this is a thrilling sight, Anne?" demanded Grace, for +there was not a soul in Oakdale who was not vain of the High School +football team, which had won for itself honors all over the state. + +"Wonderful!" exclaimed Anne, clasping her hands and waiting impatiently +for the performance to commence. + +Just then the band struck up again, and under cover of the music David +whispered to Jessica: + +"Do you see that man over there to the right on the back seat, with +long, dark hair and a slouch hat?" + +Jessica found the individual presently, starting slightly when she saw +his face. + +"I do believe it's Anne's father," she whispered. + +"It just is," said David, "and he's looking hard at Anne, too. I wonder +if he means to make another scene." + +"Poor Anne!" sighed Jessica. "She seems to have more than her fair share +of troubles." + +The two teams then filed out for warming-up practice; the excitement of +the ensuing game drove all thought of the sinister looking Mr. Pierson +out of their heads, for the time being. The first half ended in a +brilliant touchdown for the High School boys, though the kick for goal +failed. Immediately the place rang with the cheers of the spectators. +Crowds of boys rushed up and down giving the High School yell and when +the noise died down somewhat the girls started the High School song: + + "Here's three cheers for dear old Oakdale, + God bless her, everyone!" + +Anne was thrilled. Never had she enjoyed herself so much. She stood upon +the seat beside Grace and waved a blue and white banner as frantically +as anybody else. + +"I don't think I quite understand what it's all about," she confided to +David, who sat next to her, "but I am very happy all the same." + +David smiled down into the radiant face. What a new dress and hat can do +for one small, insignificant little person is quite wonderful sometimes. +And Anne, with the money she had earned from Mrs. Gray, had replenished +her wardrobe. In her neat brown suit and broad-brimmed hat she was +really pretty, in a queer, quiet sort of way, David thought. He wondered +if the father, hidden by rows of people, in the back, would be able to +see how prosperous and well his daughter was looking. But his attention +was recalled to the football field, for the next half was going against +the High School, and there was apprehension among the sons and daughters +of Oakdale. + +"Dunsmore! Dunsmore!" cried a delegation from Dunsmore College. + +But Dunsmore was not to be the victor that Thanksgiving Day. It was +ordained that, just as hope had almost expired, a slender, fleet-footed +young junior of the High School team should seize the ball and fly like +the wind across the line. Score 10 to 1--Oakdale's score! + +Immediately a terrific hubbub began. Surely the place had gone mad, Anne +thought. The hundreds of spectators, including Grace and her party, had +rushed from the ampitheater, clambered over the railing and dashed into +the field of glory. Such yelling and roaring, such blowing of horns +while the hero of the afternoon was carried about on the shoulders of +his fellows, made her heart palpitate wildly. Her friends had forgotten +all about her, evidently, or perhaps they thought she had followed. + +"Anne," said a voice in her ear, "don't make any disturbance. I want you +to come with me." + +Anne turned around quickly and faced her father. + +"Come at once!" he said. "I want to get out of this howling mob as soon +as possible. We can talk later." + +He took her hand, not ungently, and presently they found themselves on +the other side of the fence surrounding the field. Anne had not meant to +go, but she knew her father was quite capable of making a scene and she +felt she couldn't endure it just then. Once outside, she thought she +might escape. Never once, however, did he release her hand until he had +her safe in one of the town hacks and they had started down the road. + +When Grace and her friends finally recovered from their wild joy and +excitement there was no Anne to be found. + +"Perhaps she stayed in her seat," exclaimed Grace, but the place was +quite empty. + +David and Jessica looked about them uneasily. + +"What chumps we were!" said the young man presently. "We never bothered +to look after her, and now probably that old parent of hers has actually +gone and kidnapped the poor child." + +They searched through the crowds everywhere, but Anne was nowhere about. + +At last David and Jessica confessed their suspicions to Grace. + +"Oh, oh!" cried Grace, "I feel as if we were personally responsible for +her! What shall we do?" + +David thought a minute. + +"Is there a play at the Opera House to-night?" he asked presently. + +"I believe there is," replied Grace. "Why?" + +"Ten to one Anne's father is acting in it," said David, "and that is the +reason he happens to be in Oakdale to-day." + +"That's a very brilliant idea if it happens to be true," said Jessica. +"But don't you think we had better see Miss Mary Pierson before we do +anything?" + +"No," exclaimed Grace decisively. She was in the habit of thinking +quickly and her friends usually let her have her way; but it was +generally the best way. "It would be a pity to alarm her unnecessarily +if we can avoid it. Anne isn't expected home until late, anyway. She is +invited as are all of you to eat supper at my house. Suppose we go right +to town, while David makes some inquiries at the Opera House. Then, if +Anne's father is really acting in town to-night, we shall know what to +do." + +Accordingly, they tumbled into the road wagon, whipped up the horse and +drove back to Oakdale as fast as they could go. On the way in, they saw +a new bill posted on a wall, advertising a play entitled "Forsaken." It +showed, in vivid colors, a young girl very ragged and tired looking, +asleep on the steps of a large church. + +"Let's go to the show," cried Nora, who always managed to combine +amusement with duty; "that is," she added, "if Anne's father is in it. +Of course, Anne will probably be somewhere about, in that case, and we +could spirit her away while he is acting." + +"That isn't a bad idea," answered David. "But I'd better find out a few +things first. I'll come over to your house, Grace, and report," he +called as he jumped out of the back of the cart. + +The girls waited impatiently for his return, feeling that every moment +Anne might be speeding away in some outgoing train, and they were losing +valuable time. Grace had thought of consulting her mother, her best and +wisest counsellor at all times, but Mr. and Mrs. Harlowe had gone on a +long drive to the home of Mrs. Harlowe's mother and would not return +until late that night. In half an hour their patience was rewarded; the +gate clicked and David ran breathlessly up the walk, joining them +presently in the parlor. + +"It's true," he cried excitedly. "Anne is at the Spencer Arms, probably +locked up in a room. Her father is acting to-night in 'Forsaken,' and +the whole company leaves town on the 11.30 train. I suppose Anne must go +to the theater, for there will be no time to go back to the hotel after +the play. I got the whole thing out of the clerk." + +"Then we can all go to the theater," cried Nora triumphantly. + +"What good will that do Anne?" demanded practical Grace. + +"It may do her no good whatever," said David, "but it would be well not +to lose sight of the father, even, if we must follow him to the train. +And if Anne knows we are near, she will be able to get back her nerve." + +"Children," cried Grace suddenly, "I have a scheme. I won't put it into +action unless it's absolutely necessary, but it's bound to work." + +"What is it?" demanded the others. + +"I won't tell," replied Grace mysteriously, "because I may not have to +use it, and I'll warn you that it's rather dangerous. But it will save +Anne, and we just mustn't get caught." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +GRACE KEEPS HER SECRET + + +The "best" Oakdale people did not often see the melodramas that appeared +from time to time at the small opera house. Occasionally, if something +really good came along, Oakdale society turned out in force and filled +the boxes and the orchestra seats; but, generally speaking, the little +theater was only half filled. + +And such was the case on this Thanksgiving night. Most of the audience +was made up of farmers out holiday-making with their families, factory +girls from the silk mills and a few storekeepers and clerks. + +"I am glad there are so few people here," observed Grace, looking around +the scanty audience; "because, if we have to resort to my scheme, it +will make it much easier and less dangerous." + +"What in the world is it?" pleaded Jessica. + +"Never mind," answered her friend. "I'm afraid you'll object, so I won't +tell until the last minute." + +Just then a wheezy orchestra struck up a march and the High School party +settled down in their seats, each with a secret feeling that it was +rather good fun, in spite of the peculiar reason that had taken them +there. + +"Here he is," said Nora, pointing to the name on the programme. "He +takes the part of Amos Lord, owner of the woolen mills." + +At that moment the lights went down and the music stopped short. The +curtain rolled up slowly disclosing the front of a church. It was night +and lights gleamed through the stained glass windows. Snow was falling +and from the church came the sound of organ music playing the wedding +march. The picture was really very impressive, although the music was +somewhat throaty and the flakes of snow were larger than life-size. + +But who was it half lying, half sitting on the church steps, shivering +with cold? + +The girls had not been so often to the theater that they could afford to +be disdainful over almost any passable play, and from the very moment +the curtain went up their interest was aroused. Certainly, there was +something extremely romantic and interesting about the lonely little +figure on the church steps. + +"That's the heroine," whispered Jessica. "Her name is Evelyn Chase." + +Then people began to go into the church. It was a wedding evidently, +although the groom was a tall, lean, middle-aged individual with gray +hair. + +"It's Mr. Pierson himself," exclaimed Nora in a loud whisper. + +The bride-to-be was young and quite pretty. She was not dressed in +white, but it was plain she was the bride because she carried a bouquet +and hung on the arm of Anne's incorrigible parent. As they started up +the steps, what should they stumble over but the half-frozen form of the +young girl! + +Then, there was a great deal of acting, not badly done at all, thought +David, who had had more experience in these matters than his friends. +The bride refused to go on with the ceremony until the poor little thing +was taken care of. The groom would brook no delay, for, oh, perfidy, he +had recognized in the still figure his own child by a former wife +deserted years before. + +Slowly the forsaken girl regained consciousness, lifted her head from +the steps, threw back her shawl, and---- + +"Heavens and earth, it's Anne herself!" exclaimed Grace. + +It was Anne. They were so startled and amazed they nearly tumbled off +their seats. + +"As I live, it is Anne, and acting beautifully!" whispered David. + +"Where did she learn how?" demanded Jessica. "Strange she never told +it." + +But they were too interested to reply, for the action of the play was +excellent and the interest held until the curtain rang down on the first +act. + +"No wonder he wants to keep her with him," ejaculated David when the +lights went up. "She is the star performer in the show." + +"She is wonderful," declared Grace. "To think that little, brown, quiet +thing could be so talented! I always imagined acting was the hardest +thing in the world to do, but it seems as though she had always been on +the stage." + +"Are we still going to try to save her?" asked Nora. + +"Of course," replied David. "She doesn't want to act. Didn't you hear +her say so that night? She wants to go to school." + +"But it seems a pity, somehow, when she is so talented." + +"She's just as talented in her studies," said Grace, "and I've often +heard that stage life is very hard. No, no! I intend to do my best to +get Anne away this very night, if it upsets the entire town of Oakdale." + +When the second act was over, and Anne had actually so moved her +audience that one old farmer was audibly sobbing into a red cotton +handkerchief, and the girls themselves were secretly wiping their eyes, +Grace whispered to David: + +"I'm going to write a note, if you'll lend me a pencil and a slip of +paper, and wrap it around the stem of this chrysanthemum. When Anne +appears in the next act, you go up in the box, and if she's alone an +instant pitch it to her. Then she will know what she's to do." + +"But what is she to do?" demanded the others. + +"I won't tell," persisted Grace. "You'll object, if I do." + +"All right," said David. "I'll obey you Mistress Grace, although I wish +you would confide in me." + +But Grace was obdurate. She would tell no one. + +The last act disclosed an attic at the top of an old tenement, with +dormer windows looking out on a wintry scene. Anne appeared, more ragged +than ever, carrying a little basket of matches. It was evident that she +was a match girl by trade, and that this was her wretched domicile. As +she crept down the center of the stage, ill and wretched, for she was +supposed to be about to die--David saw his opportunity. From behind the +curtain of the box he tossed the chrysanthemum, which fell right at her +feet. + +"If she only sees it," he thought. + +But apparently she didn't. Going wearily to an old cupboard, she took +out a crust of bread. Then she drew the ragged curtains at the windows +and lit a candle. Simultaneously the entire attic was illuminated, for +stage candles have remarkable powers of diffusing light. + +"Why doesn't she pick up the flower?" exclaimed Grace. "If she doesn't +the scheme won't work at all." + +"I believe she's going to die," whispered Nora in a broken voice. + +Just then the Irish comedian appeared, puffing and blowing from the long +climb he had had to the top of the house. He had come to bring help to +the dying girl, but he was funny in spite of the dreary tragedy, and +Nora changed her tears to laughter and began to giggle violently, +burying her face in her handkerchief in her effort to control her mirth. +Her laughter was always contagious, and presently her two friends were +giggling in chorus. + +"Do hush, Nora O'Malley!" whispered Jessica nervously. "You know that if +you once get us started we'll never stop." + +A countryman, sitting back of Nora, touched her on the shoulder. + +"Be you laughing or crying, miss?" he asked. "It ain't a time for +laughing nor yet for crying, since the young lady ain't dead yet and I +don't believe she's goin' to die, either." + +"She just is," exclaimed Nora, wiping the tears from her eyes. "She'll +die before she gets off that bed to-night, I'll wager anything." + +All this while, the chrysanthemum with the note twisted and pinned to +its stem lay in the middle of the stage. In the meantime, Anne had +fallen into a stupor from cold and hunger. The kind little comedian +rushed about the stage, making a fire, putting on the tea kettle and +stumbling over his own feet in an effort to be useful. + +"Now, all the others will enter in a minute," whispered Grace +disgustedly, "and she'll never get it at all." + +Just then Anne turned on her pillow and opened her eyes. They looked +straight at David, who was sitting in the front of the box. He pointed +deliberately at the chrysanthemum. + +"She sees it," said Jessica, for Anne's eyes were now fixed on the +flower. + +When the kind Irishman departed to spend his last cent on medicine and +food for the dying girl, she rose, staggered across the stage, seized +the chrysanthemum and rushed back again, just in time to be lying prone +when her father entered, now a repentant and sorrowful sinner. + +"It's all right," whispered Grace in a relieved tone. "I feel sure that +the plan will work to perfection." + +Anne _did_ die a stage death, and there was not a dry eye in the house +when she forgave her father, bade farewell to the entire company, who +had now gathered in the attic, and her soul passed out to soft music +while the lights were turned very low. + +"Fire! Fire!" rang out a voice from the darkened house. + +Where did the voice come from? Nora and Jessica were so startled they +could only clutch each other and wonder, while Grace whispered: + +"Don't move from your seats." + +"Grace, was that your voice?" whispered David, who had joined the girls +during the death-bed scene. + +But Grace made no reply. She only put her finger to her lips as she held +his arm with a detaining hand. + +There was a panic in the house. The audience rushed for the doors while +the actors leaped over the footlights in their mad scramble to escape. +Several women's voices took up the cry of fire and the place was in wild +confusion. Evidently the man who managed the lights had been too +frightened to turn them on again, for the theater still remained in +semi-darkness. + +The four young people did not move while the audience was crowding out +of the aisles. + +"We might as well be suffocated as crushed," observed David. "It's a +much more comfortable death, and besides I can't smell any smoke." + +Grace smiled but was silent. + +"I'm here at last," announced Anne's well-known voice behind them. + +And there she was, still in her ragged stage dress, carrying her hat and +coat on her arm. + +"Why, Anne Pierson!" cried Nora, "I thought you were dead and gone." + +Anne laughed. + +"Not dead," she said. "But I would certainly have been gone in another +half hour. We needn't hurry," she continued. "I don't believe he would +ever think of looking for me inside the theater, and, for the time +being, this is the safest place." + +"Anne, why did you never tell us you were an actress!" demanded David. + +"I was afraid to," faltered the girl. "I was afraid you would all hate +me if you knew the truth. Besides, I never acted but six months in all +my life. We toured in this play a year ago, and I knew the part +perfectly. It would have been cruel of me not to have played to-night. +The girl who usually does it was sick and there was no one to take her +part. When father told me that, I knew I should have to do it this once, +but if the fire panic hadn't started I couldn't have gotten away from +him very easily. He would have made a terrible scene. And even then, it +might have been difficult. No stranger would have helped me run away +from my own father, who is determined that I shall go on the stage. He +thinks I have the making of an actress. But I don't like the stage life. +It is hard and ugly. I want to study, and be with girls like you." A +charming smile radiated her small, intelligent face. + +"Where do I come in?" asked David, looking at her. + +"I think you are the best friend I have in the world, David," declared +Anne. "I can never forget your kindness." + +"And now, Mademoiselle Annette Piersonelli," asked David, secretly much +pleased at the girl's earnestness, "can't you divest yourself of your +ragged dress before we go?" + +"Yes, indeed," she replied. "I am fully clothed underneath." She slipped +off the stage dress and put on her hat and coat. + +Meanwhile, not a soul was left in the theater except two of the ushers, +who were sniffing around trying to find out where the fire scare had +originated. + +"There comes father," whispered Anne. "Can't we hide behind the seats?" + +"Quick," cautioned David. "He's coming down the center aisle." + +The five young people crouched low while the actor stalked down the +aisle. But it was plain he was not looking for his daughter in the +theater, for he called out to one of the ushers moving about at a +distance: + +"Have you seen anything of the young girl who was with the company? I +lost her during the panic and I haven't been able to locate her since. I +must be leaving town in a few minutes," he added, consulting his watch. +"It's almost time for the train now." + +"The company all left with the audience," said the usher. "I guess she +went along with 'em." + +"Now is our time," said Anne, when the actor had disappeared. "Suppose +we go out the stage entrance and down that side street!" + +Whereupon she led the way back of the boxes and into the wings, followed +by her friends, who looked curiously about them at the unusual sight. + +"What a queer place," said Grace, "and how smudgy the scenery looks! Are +these little places dressing rooms, Anne?" + +"Yes," answered Anne. "You see, it's all horrid when you are close. And +the life is worse--riding almost every day on smoky trains and spending +each night in a different place. The people are so different, too. I +would rather go to Oakdale High School," she exclaimed, "than be the +greatest actress in the world." + +They were standing in one of the larger dressing rooms while Anne +endeavored to wipe the powder and rouge from her face with a pocket +handkerchief. + +A tall figure darkened the doorway, and in the glass Anne saw the +reflection of her father's face. Without a word, she ran to the open +window and jumped out on the fire escape. The others followed nimbly +after her. Mr. Pierson turned and rushed down the passage to the side +entrance. + +"Hurry, Anne!" called David. "He will meet you at the bottom if you +don't." + +They climbed quickly down the ladder, almost treading on each other's +fingers in their haste, and in another moment they were running down an +alleyway. + +"Another narrow escape," cried Anne, when they were out of danger. "How +shall I ever thank you, dear friends?" + +"You have already discharged the debt, Anne, by letting us see you act," +answered Grace. + +"By the way, Grace," commanded David, "own up now. It was you, wasn't +it, who started the fire panic?" + +"I told you I wouldn't tell," answered Grace, "and I never shall." + +"Anne, did she say anything about it in her note?" asked Nora. + +"No," said Anne mysteriously, "she never mentioned the word 'fire' at +all." + +"I feel certain it was you who called 'fire,' Grace," said Jessica. + +"I'll never, never tell," cried Grace teasingly; "so you'll never, never +know." + +She turned in at her own gate and to this day the mystery is still +unsolved. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MRS. GRAY'S ADOPTED DAUGHTERS + + +After Mrs. Gray's luncheon party in honor of Grace and her three friends +a tiny little idea had implanted itself in her mind. As the weeks rolled +on, and Christmas holidays approached, it grew and spread into a real +plan which occupied her thoughts a considerable part of every day. + +As a secretary Anne had turned out admirably. The only drawback was that +Mrs. Gray could not see enough of her. The lonesome old lady almost +lived on Anne's semi-weekly visits, but the girl was too busy to give +any more of her time to reading aloud or driving with her benefactor. + +Finally Mrs. Gray took a bold step. She invited the four girls to meet +at another Sunday luncheon, and announced her intentions from the head +of the table. + +"My dear children," she said, "you are aware that I am a very old +woman." + +"We are not aware of anything of the sort, Mrs. Gray," interrupted +Grace. + +"Nevertheless I am," pursued Mrs. Gray. "A very old, lonesome person +with few pleasures. I have decided, therefore, to do an exceedingly +selfish thing, and give myself a real treat." + +"You deserve it if anyone in the world does, Mrs. Gray," put in Jessica. +"You who are always giving other people treats." + +"Wait until you hear the plan, child, before you pass judgment," +answered Mrs. Gray. "It's been too many years to count since I have had +a really, jolly Christmas," she continued. "I have just sat here in this +quiet old house, and let the holidays roll over me without even noticing +them." + +"Now, Mrs. Gray," exclaimed Grace, "the poor people in Oakdale would not +agree with you on that point. Only last Christmas I saw your carriage +stopping in front of the Flower Mission, and it was simply bursting with +presents." + +"Yes, yes, my dear. It is the easiest thing in the world to give +presents and not so much pleasure after all. What I want is some actual +fun, good Christmas cheer and plenty of young people. But I shall have +to be selfish if I'm to get it all, because it will mean that I'm to rob +mothers and fathers for a whole week of their children. Mr. and Mrs. +Harlowe will have to learn to do without you, Grace, for seven days and +nights. Your father, Jessica, must keep his own house. Nora, your +brothers and sister must not expect to see you at all while you belong +to me. As for my precious Anne, here, I should just like to steal her +away altogether from her mother. In fact, my dears, I am going to adopt +you for a whole week during the holidays and then--such larks!" + +And the charming old lady looked so gay and pretty that the girls all +laughed joyously. + +"Do you mean that you really want us to make you a visit, Mrs. Gray?" + +"I do indeed. That is the exceedingly selfish wish I have been +entertaining for the last six weeks. I not only want it, but I have +arranged for it already. I have made secret calls, my dears, and mothers +and fathers, brothers and sisters are all most agreeable. You are to +come to me a week before Christmas and must settle yourselves exactly as +if you were my own children. I mean to punish any homesick girl severely +by giving her an overdose of chocolate drops. Families may be visited +once a day, if necessary, though I shall frown down upon too frequent +absences. But, young ladies, before we get any further, tell me what you +think of the plan?" + +The girls were almost speechless with amazement and pleasure. To visit +Mrs. Gray's beautiful home and live in a whirl of parties and funmaking +such as would be sure to follow was more than any of them had ever +dreamed of. + +"It's perfectly delightful, Mrs. Gray!" they cried almost in one breath. + +"And we shall give the Christmas party together, my four daughters and +I, and we'll do exactly as we choose and invite whom we please." + +"Oh, oh!" exclaimed the four young girls. "Won't it be fun?" + +"It will for me," said the little old lady. "And I need to have a good +time. I am getting old before my time for lack of amusement. And now, my +lady-birds, who else shall we invite to the house party?" + +"Who else?" said Grace, somewhat crestfallen; for four intimate girl +chums are invariably jealous of admitting other girls to the charmed +circle. + +"Do you mean what other girls, Mrs. Gray?" asked Jessica. + +"No, no, child; I mean what other boys, of course. Do you think I want +any more than my four nice freshmen to amuse me? But I don't think this +party would be complete without four fine fellows to look after us. Who +are the four nicest boys you know?" + +"David," exclaimed all four voices in unison. + +Mrs. Gray laughed. + +"There seems to be no difference of opinion on that score," she replied; +"but is David the only boy in Oakdale?" + +"He's the nicest one," said Anne, who could never forget how kind David +had been to her when his sister was her bitter enemy. + +"Reddy Brooks is nice, too," said Nora. "He threw apples at some tramps +once, and saved us from being robbed." + +"Very good," said Mrs. Gray. "Reddy Brooks shall certainly be invited to +the house party. I admire courage above all things." + +"Then there's 'Hippopotamus' Wingate," said Jessica. + +"Who?" demanded Mrs. Gray. + +"His name is really 'Theophilus', but the boys have always called him +'Hippopotamus,' and now the name sticks to him and everybody forgets he +has any other." + +"Are you agreed on Hippopotamus, my adopted daughters?" demanded Mrs. +Gray. + +It was voted by acclamation, that Hippopotamus was agreeable to the +company. + +"And now, I have a fourth to propose," announced Mrs. Gray. "I think I +should like to import my great-nephew, Tom Gray, from New York. He is a +little older than these boys, perhaps. Nineteen is his age, I think, and +I haven't seen him since he was a child; but he's obliged to be nice +because he bears the name of one beloved by all who knew him." + +"Whose name, Mrs. Gray?" asked Nora. + +"That of my husband," said the old lady, softly. "The nicest Tom Gray +this world has ever known." And she looked at a portrait over the +sideboard of a very handsome young man dressed in the uniform of an Army +officer. + +"He loved his country, my dears, and fought for it nobly. He was a +soldier and a gentleman," went on the old lady proudly, "and I am sorry +he left no son to follow in his footsteps. He was a great hunter and +traveler, too. I used to tell him if he had not loved his family so +dearly, he would certainly have been a gypsy. He liked camping and +tramping, and used to wander off in Upton Woods for hours at a time. He +knew the names of all the trees and birds and animals that exist, I +believe. But he loved his home, too, and no woods had the power to draw +him away from it for long. I used to tell him he had brought a piece of +the forest and put it in our front yard, for he planted all those +beautiful trees you now see growing on my lawn, which my old gardener, +who has been with me since I was first married, cherishes as he would +his own children." + +"And is young Tom Gray like him, Mrs. Gray?" interposed Grace. + +"I hope so, my dear," sighed the old lady. "If he has inherited the +beautiful traits of his uncle, his wholesome tastes for the outdoors and +nature, he can't help being a fine fellow. But I have not seen my nephew +since he was a child. He has been living here and there all these years, +sometimes in America and sometimes in England. His mother and father are +both dead, and he has been brought up by his mother's unmarried sisters, +who are half English themselves. But he must be a nice boy, even if he +has only one drop of his uncle's blood in his veins." + +The girls sighed and said nothing. It was touching and beautiful to see +the old lady's loyalty and devotion after all these years of loneliness; +for her husband had been dead since she was a young woman. Still Mrs. +Gray never brooded. She was always cheerful and happy in doing +kindnesses for other people. + +"If ever I marry," sentimental Jessica was thinking, "I hope it will be +somebody like Mrs. Gray's husband." + +"I should like to have a brother like Tom Gray," observed Grace aloud. + +"Well," said Mrs. Gray, "we shall have to wait and see what the new Tom +Gray is like. He may be utterly unlike _my_ Tom Gray." + +And the old lady sighed. + +"We shall all have to get new party dresses," exclaimed Nora to change +the subject. "I have been wanting one for an age and now I have a good +excuse." + +"Oh, yes," cried Grace enthusiastically. "Now, at last, I shall be able +to get the blue silk mother promised I could have if at any time there +was an occasion worthy of it." + +"I'm going to ask papa to give me a lavender crepe for a Christmas +present," said Jessica. + +"O Mrs. Gray," continued Nora, "we are going to have such fun Oakdale +can't hold us." + +"I think we should have a surprise for Mrs. Gray," announced Grace. "She +is doing so much for us. O girls! I have an idea." + +"What!" demanded the others breathlessly, including Mrs. Gray herself, +who was as full of curiosity as a young girl. + +"No, no," cried Grace, "it wouldn't be a surprise if I gave it away. But +it's going to require a lot of work and planning to carry it out." + +"Is it big or little?" asked the dainty old lady as eager as a child to +find out the secret. + +"It's rather small," answered Grace. + +"Fine or superfine?" + +"Both," laughed Grace. "But you'll not know till Christmas night; so +stifle your curiosity." + +"I suppose I must wait, but it's going to be very hard," replied Mrs. +Gray plaintively. + +And so the party was arranged. Notes, written by Anne, were dispatched +to the four boys; plans were discussed for the week's amusements, and +the four girls finally started home in a state of great excitement to +look over their wardrobes and furbish up their party dresses. + +Only Anne had looked somewhat dubious during the conversation. How could +she spend a week in a beautiful house, with parties every night and +company all the time, and nothing to wear but that hideous black silk? + +"Anne," called Mrs. Gray, as the young girl was about to close the front +door and follow the others down the steps. "Wait a moment. I want to see +you." She led Anne into the big drawing room. "Do you know that I am +greatly in your debt, my child?" continued the old lady, as she drew +Anne down beside her on the sofa. "I don't think I could ever possibly +repay you for the good you have done me this autumn. But I am going to +try, nevertheless, by making you a Christmas present before Christmas +arrives. Now, when I was your age, I preferred clothes to other things. +I think all young girls do; or, if they don't they are most unnatural. +Therefore, child, I have decided to pay off some of my indebtedness to +you by getting my dressmaker to make you some dresses, if it is +agreeable to you. Why, what is this! My little girl crying?" + +The tears were streaming down Anne's cheeks. + +"You mustn't cry, my own child," sobbed Mrs. Gray. "For I always cry +when I see other people doing it, and it's very bad for my old eyes, you +know." + +"You are so good to me!" said Anne. "It makes me cry because I'm so +happy." + +"Well, well!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, drying her eyes and beginning to +laugh. "What a couple of sillies we are, to be sure. Now go, Anne, to my +dressmaker, Mrs. Harvey, who has orders to make you four dresses, two +for evening and two for afternoon. Mrs. Harvey has good taste and will +help you select them. But perhaps you will like the ones she and I +looked at the other day. One of them I am sure you will admire. I chose +it specially because it will give color to your pale cheeks." + +"What is it, Mrs. Gray?" asked Anne eagerly. + +"It's pink crepe de Chine, my dear." + +And Anne held her breath to keep from crying again. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MIRIAM PLANS A REVENGE + + +For weeks Miriam Nesbit had felt a sullen resentment toward her brother, +David, because he persisted in being friends with at least two of the +girls in Oakdale High School whom she disliked most. + +When he announced, one morning at breakfast, that he had been included +in Mrs. Gray's house party, his sister suddenly burst into tears of +passionate rage. + +"Please don't cry, Miriam, old girl," said David, who was not of a +quarrelsome disposition. "I'm awfully sorry if I hurt you, but, you +know, Mrs. Gray was one of my earliest sweethearts." + +Which was perfectly true. When David was a little boy he used to crawl +through the garden hedge and call on the charming old lady nearly every +day. + +David had hoped that Miriam would laugh at this, but she stormed all the +more, while poor Mrs. Nesbit looked wretched. + +"It isn't Mrs. Gray," sobbed Miriam. "But to think that my own brother +would associate with Grace Harlowe, who is always working against me, +and that common little Pierson girl whose sister takes in sewing!" + +"Miriam, Miriam!" exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit, "I am shocked to hear you say +such things. Because the girl is poor she is not necessarily common. +Your grandfather was a poor man, too. He started his career as a +machinist. You would never have had the money and position you have now +if he had not become an inventor. Is it possible you would try to keep +some one else from rising in life, when your own family struggled with +poverty years ago?" + +Miriam was silenced for a moment. She had seldom heard her mother speak +so forcibly; but Mrs. Nesbit had seen, with growing misgivings, the +innate snobbishness in her daughter's character, and for a long time she +had been looking for an opportunity like the one that now presented +itself. + +David had risen during Miriam's contemptuous speech, and had turned very +white; which was always a signal that his slow wrath had been kindled at +last; but since he was a child he had had such admirable control of his +feelings that it had often been remarked by older people. Miriam, +however, knew the sign and resorted again to tears to draw attention to +her own sufferings. + +"You and mother have turned against me," she cried. "Mother, you have +always loved David best, anyhow." + +"Nonsense!" replied David. "You are a willful, selfish girl, jealous +because a poor girl is getting ahead of you in your classes and because +you are not included in the house party. Do you think Mrs. Gray would +ask you to join those four nice girls in her house after that Miss Leece +business? If you had learned to be polite and agreeable you would never +have gotten into this state now." Having delivered himself of his +opinion, and spent his rage, David walked out of the room and quietly +closed the door after him. + +"You see what you have done, Miriam," exclaimed Mrs. Nesbit. "You have +made your brother angry. I have seldom seen him like that before, not +since the stable man beat his dog. But don't cry, my child. It's all +over now," and Mrs. Nesbit drew her daughter to her and stroked her hot +forehead. "Why don't you give a house party, too?" she added after a +moment's thought. "Would it give you any pleasure or help to heal your +hurt feelings?" + +"O mother!" exclaimed Miriam, looking up quickly. "I believe I _will_ +invite four girls and boys to spend Christmas week with me. Wouldn't it +be fun?" + +And it was in this manner that a plan for an opposition house party +sprang into existence; although the son of the house had joined the +other side. + +All through her preparations Miriam carefully guarded the secret that +she was bitterly hurt at having been left out of Mrs. Gray's party, and +she meditated a revenge that was still only a half-formed idea. In the +first place, she chose Julia Crosby as one of the guests of the +Christmas house party; Julia Crosby the tall, mischievous sophomore who +had originated the "Black Monks of Asia." Surely the two together could +work out some scheme which would bring her enemies to her feet and +humble little Mrs. Gray, who had dared to slight her. + +Meanwhile, the holidays were approaching. The crisp, cold air resounded +with the jingle of sleigh bells, for snow had fallen the first week in +December and all the sleighs in Oakdale were taken from their summer +quarters. + +The four chums were full of secret preparations. Grace had devised a +scheme of entertainment which, in the town of Oakdale, would be unique, +but it required much work and practice to perfect it. In the meantime +Nora O'Malley had decided to entertain her friends at a bobbing party to +start the Christmas holidays. And it was at this party that Miriam +seized her first opportunity to make trouble. + +"Anne, you are learned in many things, but not in outdoor fun," said +Grace as the young people in mufflers and sweaters started to climb the +long hill where the coasting was best. + +"Do you mean to say you have never been coasting, Anne?" demanded David. + +"I'm afraid I'll have to admit it," replied Anne. "To tell the truth, I +never did have any fun, except reading, until I started in the High +School and met all of you. You see, little city children are denied all +these nice things unless they go to the parks, but it's no fun going +alone." + +"Well, you won't be alone now," said Hippy Wingate. "There are four to a +sled, and we'll put you in the middle to keep you from getting lost in +the snow." + +"Look out, here comes some one!" called Grace, just as a small sled shot +past them like a flash, with a laugh and a cheer from its occupants, +Miriam and Reddy Brooks. + +"They ought not to have done that," exclaimed David. "We couldn't see +them over the knob of the hill and they might have run us down." + +By this time they had reached the top of the hill, and Anne's heart +bounded at the sight of the long, white track made by the sled which had +just passed them and disappeared far below across a flat meadow now +smooth and hard as a table top. + +"Don't be frightened, Anne," said David, who sat behind her on the sled. + +He pinioned her arms with his own and with a wild whoop the four young +people skimmed down the hill. + +There was no time to be frightened, no time even to think, as they shot +through the fine bracing air like a ball from a cannon. Before they knew +it, they were landed at the bottom. + +"O Hippy," cried Grace, her cheeks glowing like winter berries, "I feel +as if I were riding the comet. But look out for the others," for the +remaining sleds followed in quick succession and the air resounded with +the whoops of the boys and girls as they shot past. "Is there any sport +in the world that can touch it?" she demanded of the world in general. + +Three or four more such rides, and Anne felt an exhilaration she had +never before known. She was climbing the hill for a final trip before +the party returned to Nora's for hot chocolate and sandwiches, when she +heard some one cry out just behind her. She had lingered a little to +watch the sleds pass, and had failed to notice a small sled with a +single occupant come over the brow of the hill well out of the beaten +path and make straight for her. It was Miriam Nesbit, riding flat on her +stomach and going like the wind. + +"Jump to the left, Anne," cried Grace's voice, "or you'll be hurt!" + +Anne looked up and saw the sled. It all happened in a flash, and how +David managed to get there first she never knew; but the next instant +the two were rolling over and over in the snow with Miriam on top of +them and a broken sled skidding on its back down the hillside. + +"It was Miss Pierson's fault," exclaimed Miriam as she pulled herself +out of the snow, and the others came running to the scene of the +accident. "Why didn't she get out of the way? Inexperienced people ought +not to come to bobbing parties. They always get hurt." + +David was binding up a cut in his wrist, which was sprinkling the snow +with blood. He was too angry to trust himself to answer his sister +before the others just then. They had pulled Anne out of a snowdrift and +she was leaning limply against Jessica, trying to collect her senses. It +seemed to her that she had been walking well out of the sled track, out +of everybody's way; but it didn't make any difference since nobody was +killed. + +"All I can say now, Miriam," said Grace, "is that you are entirely +mistaken. If you hadn't hit Anne you'd have knocked me over. I was +walking just ahead of her and nobody can say I am inexperienced." + +"Grace Harlowe, do you think I did it on purpose?" demanded Miriam +furiously. + +"I haven't insinuated anything, Miriam," replied Grace. "I simply wanted +to disabuse your mind of a mistake. That was all." And she turned away +from the angry girl. + +All this time the other young people had said nothing. It was really an +embarrassing situation, considering that David had not said a word +either for or against his sister. + +"I think we had better not coast any more to-night," said Nora, after a +pause. "David has hurt his hand and Anne is so shaken that it would be +well to give her something hot to drink. Come on, everybody." + +"David, are you much hurt?" asked Grace uneasily. + +"Nothing but a little cut," he said shortly, so shortly that Grace +flushed. Perhaps he was angry with her for having spoken out to Miriam. + +"I hope you aren't hurt much, David," said Miriam. + +David made no reply. + +"David," she repeated in a louder voice. + +But her brother had started down the hill, his hands in his pockets. +Nobody took much notice of Miriam as the young people followed after +him. Reddy Brooks was secretly congratulating himself that he hadn't +been riding behind her on the sled as she had wished, insisting that she +wanted to do the guiding herself. It was curious, he thought, and might +have resulted in a serious accident, at least to Anne if David hadn't +pulled her away. If Miriam had only thought to throw herself to the +right when she saw Anne in the way. Girls had no heads, anyway, that is, +most girls. Grace, he decided, was almost equal to a man for coolness +and good judgment. But there were few girls who could touch Grace +Harlowe; and he did a series of cartwheels in the snow to emphasize his +feelings, to the relief of everybody present, for the silence was +becoming uncomfortable. + +"Nora," said Anne when they had reached town, "if you'll excuse me I +think I'll go home. I'm a little tired." + +"I'll take you home, Anne," said David, who had heard her remark. "I +don't feel much like partifying either after this jolt. Come along, +little girl," and he tucked Anne's arm in his and marched her off +without another word. + +"All my party is leaving before the party," cried Nora in despair. + +"No, not all," replied Hippy Wingate. "There are still a few of us left, +and I promise to drink any extra chocolate you may happen to have." + +"Don't give the animals sweets, Nora," exclaimed Reddy. "Especially the +hippopotamus. He has a delicate stomach. You see, his keeper used to +feed him chocolate drops three times a day." + +Hippy grinned good-naturedly. He was a round roly-poly boy, famous for +his appetite. + +"Get away from here, Red Curls," he cried, hitting Reddy in the back +with a snowball. + +"Oh, you coward," cried Reddy, talking in a high falsetto voice, "to hit +a man when his back is turned. I'll slap you for that," and he landed a +snowball on Hippy's chest. + +Hippy crouched behind the girls. + +"I was a fool to throw at a pitcher," he cried; "he'll be sending me one +of his curves in a minute." + +"Hiding behind the ladies, hey?" returned Reddy, beginning to pitch +snowballs at the girls. + +"Let's wash his face," cried Nora to the other boys and girls coming up +just then. They chased Reddy all the way to Nora's house and rolled him +in the snow until he cried "enough." + +Once inside Nora's cozy home, the coasters were soon doing ample justice +to the good things to eat, which Nora's sister had prepared for them. +Although all three of Anne's chums regretted deeply the unpleasant +affair on the hill it was not mentioned again during the evening. Still, +each girl felt in her heart that poor little Anne had, in Miriam Nesbit, +a dangerous enemy. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS + + +"Here's the tack-hammer, Hippy, and don't fall off the ladder, please," +cautioned Grace, as she assisted Hippy Wingate to tack up an evergreen +garland in Mrs. Gray's drawing room. + +Not in twenty years had the old house taken on such holiday attire. +Great bunches of holly and cedar filled the vases and bowls and +decorated the chandeliers. Fires blazed on every hearth and the warm +glow from many candles and shaded lamps brightened the fine old rooms. + +"My dear young people," exclaimed Mrs. Gray, coming in just then, "how +happy you make me feel! I do wish you were all really my children and +could forever stay just the ages you are now." + +"This house would be like the palace of everlasting youth, then, +wouldn't it, Mrs. Gray?" suggested Anne. + +"Until some meddlesome little Pandora came along, opened the box and let +all the troubles out," interposed David, who was still feeling very +bitter toward his sister Miriam, and glad to leave home for a time until +his anger had cooled. + +"Ah, well, we have no Pandoras here," answered Mrs. Gray, smiling on the +young guests. "You are all girls and boys after my own heart, and I +trust we shall have a beautiful time together. But here comes that +nephew of mine, Tom Gray. I wonder if he's grown out of all +recollection." + +While she was speaking one of the town hacks had driven up to the steps, +and there was a violent ring at the bell. + +"Mr. Thomas Gray," announced the old butler at the door and Tom Gray, +who had been the subject of endless speculation and conjecture, entered +the room. + +"If he turns out to be disagreeable or stupid or anything," the girls +had been whispering, "it would be such a pity because everybody else is +so nice." + +Neither had the boys felt inclined to be prepossessed in Tom Gray's +favor. He was a stranger, from New York, older than themselves and in +college. + +"I wish he wasn't going to butt in with his city manners," Reddy Brooks +was thinking regretfully. "He is sure to have a swelled head and try to +boss the crowd." + +They had pictured him as a sort of dandy, with needle-toed patent +leather shoes and a coat cut in at the waist and padded over the +shoulders. + +Even David had voiced a few thoughts on the subject of Tom Gray. + +"I'll bet he's an English dude," he said. For Mrs. Gray's nephew had +spent most of his life in England. "He'll probably carry a cane and wear +a monocle." + +They were not surprised, therefore, when a young man entered the room +who bore out somewhat the picture they had conjured. He was tall and +slender, very dapper and rather ladylike in his bearing. His alert, dark +eyes were set too close together, and his face had a narrow, sinister +look that made them all feel uncomfortable. He spoke with a decided +English accent, in a light, flippant voice which sent a quiver of +dislike up and down David's spine, and made Reddy Brooks give his right +arm a vigorous twirl as if he would have liked to pitch something at the +young man's head. + +Mrs. Gray was the most surprised person in the room. It must be +remembered that she had not seen her nephew since he was a child, and +she had hoped for better things than this. However, always the most +courteous and loyal of souls, she now made the best of the situation and +greeted the newcomer cordially, though she did not bestow upon him the +motherly kiss she had been saving. + +Tom Gray bowed low over his aunt's hand. + +"You are so much changed, Tom; I should hardly have known you," +exclaimed the old lady, trying to conceal her disappointment and dismay. +"England has weaned you away from your own country. You look as if you +had just stepped out of Piccadilly." + +"And so I have, aunt," replied the young man, using a very broad "a." "I +have been in this country only a few months. England is the only place +in the world for me, you know. I can't bear America." + +Hippy Wingate gave himself an angry shake, which made all the ornaments +on the mantelpiece rattle ominously. + +"You must let me introduce you to my young friends, Tom," said Mrs. +Gray, changing the subject quickly. + +The introductions having been accomplished, she took his arm and led the +way back to dinner. + +"Do you think we can stand him for a week?" whispered David to Grace, as +they followed down the hall. + +"We'll have to," replied Grace, "or hurt Mrs. Gray's feelings. But isn't +he the limit?" + +"Asinine dandy!" hissed Hippy. + +"I knew he'd be a Miss Nancy," exclaimed Reddy. + +The girls did not express their disappointment, but as the meal +progressed the conversation was strained and stupid. + +"How did you leave your cousins in England, Tom?" asked Mrs. Gray, +trying to keep the ball rolling and inwardly wishing she had never asked +her nephew down. + +"Quite well, thank you, aunt," replied Thomas Gray. "I expect to leave +this beastly country and join them very soon." + +"Indeed?" answered Mrs. Gray, flushing and with difficulty keeping back +the tears of disappointment. To think a nephew of hers could have turned +out like this! + +"Do you play football?" demanded Hippy abruptly. + +"Really, I don't care for the game," answered Thomas. "It's awfully +rough, don't you know." + +"Perhaps you prefer baseball?" suggested Grace. + +"No," continued the young man, "I can't say I do. The truth is, I don't +like outdoor games at all." + +"What do you like, then?" demanded Nora, giving him a glance of +ineffable scorn. + +"I like afternoon tea," he answered, "and bridge." + +Reddy almost groaned aloud, but he remembered his manners and choked his +outburst of disgust. + +"It is a pity," said Tom's aunt, turning her nearsighted blue eyes on +him in amazement and displeasure. "Our Oakdale boys are all athletes. +Even David here, the scholar and inventor, I'll venture to say, knows +football and baseball as well as his friends." + +"I'm not much of an inventor, Mrs. Gray," protested David. "You know my +airship tumbled down before it got half way across the gym. But I shall +never lose hope." + +"Ah, airships?" exclaimed Thomas Gray, and deliberately taking a monocle +from his pocket, he stuck it in his eye and stared at David, who choked +and sputtered in his glass of water, while Hippy dropped a fork that +fell on his plate with a great clatter. + +Mrs. Gray raised her lorgnette and looked at her nephew. + +"Thomas," she said sternly, "don't wear that thing here. It's not the +custom in this town or in this country, for that matter. If you are +nearsighted, buy yourself a pair of spectacles." + +"Certainly, aunt, certainly; it shall be as you wish," replied Thomas, +without a tinge of embarrassment. "I am so unused to America, you know." + +Then Nora relieved the painful situation by laughing. She was taken with +the giggles and she laughed till the tears rolled down her cheeks. The +others laughed, too, even Mrs. Gray, who felt that she might give way to +hysterics at any moment. + +After dinner Thomas Gray detained his aunt in another room, while the +girls and boys returned to the parlor. The two were closeted together +for some time, and when they finally appeared, Mrs. Gray looked +strangely flushed and nervous. But there was a smile on her nephew's +thin lips and a dangerous flicker in his crafty eyes. + +"I'll stake my last cent he's been getting money out of his poor little +aunty," said David to Grace. "He's just the kind to do it." + +"Poor Mrs. Gray!" exclaimed Grace. "I am so sorry for her. You can't +think how she's been planning this party for months. Why did she ever +ask down that wretch of a nephew? David, do try and make friends with +him. Maybe there's something good in him after all, and it will help +things along if Mrs. Gray feels that we want to like him." + +"All right," promised David. "It goes against my grain to talk with a +Miss Nancy dandy like that. It gives me a feeling in my chest like +indigestion and bronchitis combined--but I'll make the effort." + +So he went over and joined the Anglo-American, and began to talk with +him in an easy, friendly sort of way. + +"Won't you come over by the fire," he said. "I think we are going to +play some games the girls have planned." + +"Thanks, no," said the other, stifling a yawn. "I think I'll retire. +I've had a long journey and I'm awfully knocked out. By the way, old +chap," he continued, coming closer to David and whispering in his ear, +which made that sensitive young man draw back with a quiver of dislike, +"you couldn't favor me with a few dollars, could you? I left my check +book in my portmanteau, which is still on the way and I find I haven't a +cent. I'll return it to-morrow." + +David regarded him with amazement. Here was a man whom he had met only +an hour before, already trying to borrow money from him. Schoolboys are +not likely to have money about them, but David did happen to have five +dollars in his pocket. + +"Certainly," was all he said, as he handed over the money. + +The transaction had only taken a moment and when David drew out the five +dollar bill, he was careful not to let anyone see him do it. However, +Mrs. Gray, who had been out of the room, returned at the very moment the +money was changing hands. In a flash she saw what her nephew had done. +Without stopping to think she made straight for the two young men. + +"Tom Gray," she said, speaking too low for anyone except her nephew and +David to hear, "how dare you ask me for money and then borrow from one +of my guests? You are a disgrace to your father, and to the name of +Gray! I am ashamed of you and I command you to give that money back to +David instantly." + +Tom Gray was as angry as his aunt. His face went from red to white, and +he looked as if he would like to break a vase or tear something to +pieces. + +"'Eavens, awnt, don't make a scene. I wouldn't a' awsked 'im, h'if I +'adn't needed more money. I'll pay him to-morrow." + +Mrs. Gray and David were too surprised to speak. It was plain that, when +Tom Gray was angry, he dropped his h's. + +David looked at him curiously, then he drew the old lady's arm through +his. + +"Don't bother, Mrs. Gray," he said. "It was only a small loan, and I was +glad to be of service. I believe Mr. Gray wants to go to bed now. He +just said he was very tired. Shall I take him up?" + +"If you will," replied Mrs. Gray, quieting down. "His room is next +yours, David. Will you show him the way?" + +"Young people," she said, going across to the boys and girls, who had +gathered around the fire and were laughing and talking in low voices, +"would you mind if we all went up early to-night? I feel a little out of +sorts--bewildered--I don't know what. Children change so as they grow +up," she added, sighing. + +The poor old lady's eyes filled with tears. She slipped her arm around +Anne's waist. + +"You will never change, my dear boys and girls. You will all grow into +fine men and women, I feel certain, and be devoted citizens of this +splendid country of ours, which has always been good enough for our +mothers and fathers, and ought to be quite good enough for us." + +"Three cheers for America!" cried Hippy Wingate, giving his plump figure +a twist like a whirling dervish. + +Mrs. Gray laughed. + +"Yes, indeed, my dears, America is a splendid country and every American +should be proud to say so." + +"And Oakdale is one of the nicest places in America," piped up Anne. + +"Hurrah for Oakdale!" cried Hippy again. + +"And Oakdale High School!" added Anne. + +"And hurrah for the sponsor of the freshman class!" exclaimed Grace. + +Whereupon they formed a circle, with Mrs. Gray in the middle, and danced +about her laughing and singing: + +"Hurrah for Mrs. Gray!" + +The pretty, little old lady beamed happily upon her adopted family, as +she called them. + +"My darling children!" she cried. "Kiss me good night, every one of you, +and we'll all go up to our beds." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A MIDNIGHT ALARM + + +The dry, cold air of the outdoors, and the warm fires inside the old +house, certainly had the effect of making a very sleepy crowd of boys +and girls who were not sorry, after all, to turn in early. + +Grace and Anne occupied a room together so large that it could easily +have been turned into two apartments and each have been the size of +ordinary bedrooms. + +"I'm glad our beds are close together, anyway," said Grace. "The rest of +the furniture in this room seems to be miles apart." + +Mrs. Gray's room was just in front; Nora and Jessica were in a smaller +one back of theirs, and across the hall were the boys' rooms. + +"Isn't it a wonderful old house?" replied Anne. "I never slept in such a +big room in all my life. And how kind Mrs. Gray is! There is nothing she +hasn't remembered." + +Each girl had found on her bed a pretty dressing gown of silk and wool +and beside it a pair of bedroom slippers. There was a bowl of fruit on a +table, and just before they dropped off to sleep a maid brought in a +tray of glasses with a pitcher of hot milk. + +"Mrs. Gray says this will warm you up before you go to bed," explained +the maid. + +"Dear, sweet Mrs. Gray," continued Anne, as she curled up on a rug +before the fire to sip the warm drink, "she has planned so many things +for this party. I am so sorry she has been disappointed." + +"He's not a bit like her, Anne," replied her friend, not caring to +mention names. "I do wish she had never asked him." + +"My only hope," said Anne, "is that we will all seem so young and +childish to him that he will get bored and leave." + +"Well, just strictly between us and as man to man, as David is always +saying, don't you think he is horrid? He has no manners at all, and it's +hard to believe he's a product of the Gray family." + +"He has such shifty eyes," said Anne, "and I had a feeling that his +dislike for America was all put on to shock us. I feel so warm and +sleepy," she continued drowsily when the lights were put out and they +had snuggled down in the soft, comfortable beds. + +"I heard him drop an 'h' once," whispered Grace, in a sleepy voice. + +But there was no reply. Anne was already dreaming of her four beautiful +new dresses. + +It might have been midnight, perhaps a little later when Grace awoke +with a start. Not a sound disturbed the peace of the old house except +the ticking of the clock on the mantel and the occasional crackling of +dying embers in the fireplace. Yes; there was one sound and it aroused +her. A loose board creaked in the floor, or was it a door which opened +and closed softly? Perhaps it was nothing after all. And she closed her +eyes and drew the eiderdown quilt close about her shoulders. + +No; there it was again. A distinct footfall. She raised herself on her +elbow and peered into the shadows. Far over at the other side of the +chamber--it seemed an infinite distance just then--stood a figure. Grace +looked at it calmly. She had never been a coward and she was not +frightened now, only she wondered who could be invading their room at +this hour. Perhaps Mrs. Gray; perhaps one of the servants. No, it was +neither; of course it couldn't be because it was the figure of a man. +She saw him now plainly enough hovering over the dressing table. + +A small, cold hand slipped into hers. Anne was awake too. She had seen +the figure and lay quite still watching it. Grace silently returned the +pressure; then the two lay watching the man's stealthy motions for a +moment, while Grace's mind was busy devising a plan by which the robber +might be caught. + +Oakdale was a quiet, prosperous place, and burglars were unusual. +Occasionally the hands in the silk mills made a disturbance, and there +had been a few highway robberies, but an actual house-breaker seldom +troubled the law-abiding town. The two girls, as they lay watching him +from under the covers, guessed that this man was a real burglar. He wore +a black soft hat and carried a small electric lantern, while, with a +practised hand, he picked the lock of a small drawer in the dressing +table where the girls had put their purses. Once he turned the light +toward the beds. Instantly the girls' eyelids dropped and they lay as +still as mice. Having satisfied himself that all was well, the prowler +went on with his work, finally tiptoeing into the front room where Mrs. +Gray was sleeping. Evidently he had made a circuit of the three bedrooms +on that side of the house. As he slipped out Grace leaped from the bed. +Now was the time for action. Putting on her dressing gown and slippers +she dashed to the door leading into the hall, only to come upon the +burglar again who had probably been frightened in his last venture and +had retired to the hall for safety. + +Fortunately he was standing with his back to her while he closed the +door, and feeling that she was safe for the moment, she crouched in the +shadow of the doorway. The thief evidently thought he also was safe, for +he seized a large, heavy-looking valise from the floor and made straight +for the steps without looking to right or left. + +Now a door across the hall opened and another figure appeared. Grace +trembled for a moment, fearing it might be another thief. She had always +heard they traveled in pairs. But it was David, wrapped in a long gray +dressing gown, looking for all the world like a monk. + +He glanced up and down the hall for a moment, then tapped on the door of +the next room and without waiting for an answer walked in. In an instant +he was out again and had started swiftly down the stairs, Grace +following him. She had intended to speak to him, but it had all taken +place so quickly there was no time. David made straight for the dining +room, opening the heavy door. The room was brightly lighted. In a flash, +Grace saw on the table a pile of the beautiful Gray silver, brought over +from England by past generations of Grays. Grace never knew what +instinct prompted her to enter the dining room by the butler's pantry at +the very end of the long hall. As she pushed the swinging door, she +heard David say: + +"You low blackguard, what do you mean by stealing your aunt's silver?" + +Grace started at the mention of the word "aunt." It was, then, the +wretched Tom Gray who was robbing his own relative! + +"Get out!" returned the other coldly, "and attend to your own business. +You are only a kid." + +"Give up those things you have stolen, or I'll pound you to a jelly!" +cried David, making a rush at the burglar, who dodged nimbly. + +Then Grace had an inspiration, which assuredly saved David from very +disagreeable consequences. Real burglars, like rattlesnakes, are not +likely to be dangerous except when they are disturbed. It is then that +they become dangerous characters. Grace slipped back into the pantry, +swiftly opened one of the linen drawers and drew forth what turned out +later to be a breakfast cloth, which was lucky because it was small and +easy to manage. + +When, in the next instant, she had pushed the door open, what she saw +made her blood run cold. Tom Gray had whipped out a small pistol and +pointed it straight at David's head. + +"Get out of here, quick!" he said just as Grace opened the table cloth +with a jerk and flung it over his head. A pistol shot rang out, but +David had dodged in time and the bullet was buried in the mahogany +wainscot back of him. The astonished burglar dropped the weapon, and +began to struggle violently to release himself. + +Instantly David pinioned his arms from the back. But the fellow might +even then have struggled free, if Reddy Brooks and Hippy Wingate had not +burst into the room, followed by Anne, who had roused them after Grace +had gone. The three boys swiftly overpowered Tom Gray and tied him to a +chair with cord Grace had found in the pantry. + +But now, what was to be done? Undoubtedly the noise would awaken Mrs. +Gray and she would have to be told that her nephew was a burglar about +to make off with the family silver. + +Perhaps the loss of the silver would hurt less than family disgrace. + +In the midst of their council Mrs. Gray herself appeared. + +"What in the world is the matter?" she demanded. + +No one replied for a moment. It was a very uncomfortable situation for +the young guests of the house party. If only the burglar had not been a +member of the Gray family! + +Then Tom Gray himself spoke. + +"I must say this is a nice 'ospitable way to treat a guest and a +relation. 'Ere I am taken by a lot of silly children for a burglar. I, +your own nephew, awnt, who 'ad come down stairs on the h'innocent +h'errand of finding some h'ice water." + +Mrs. Gray looked from one to another of the silent group. Her eyes took +in the silver piled on the table, the pistol on the floor and the +burglar's tools and lantern. + +"You are a burglar," she said, "a wretched, common thief. I knew it as +soon as you entered my house last night. I could not then explain the +feeling of repugnance I had, but I know now what it meant. I shall not +offer hospitality to a coward, for all thieves are cowards. Boys, take +what he has stolen from his pockets." + +Reddy and Hippy searched the bulging pockets of the thief's coat and +waistcoat, and brought forth a quantity of jewelry, watches and purses. + +"Now, David," continued Mrs. Gray, firmly, "be kind enough to give me +that pistol." + +David obeyed her, wondering if she meant to shoot her own nephew. + +Mrs. Gray pointed the pistol at the thief with as steady a hand as if +she had been shooting at targets all her life. + +"Untie the cords," she commanded. + +They cut the cords with a carving knife. + +"Now, go!" said the old lady, still pointing the pistol at his head. +"Leave my house quickly. I shall not punish you, because a thief is +always punished sooner or later." + +Tom Gray looked immensely relieved, Grace thought, in spite of his +crestfallen, hangdog air. They followed him down the hall, Mrs. Gray in +the lead, until he slammed the front door after him and disappeared in +the night. + +Then, turning with her old, sweet manner, she continued: + +"My dear children, I want to thank you for helping me rid my house of +this man. I know I can depend on all of you never to mention it to +anyone. It would have been a great blow to me if I had not been so +angry; but now let us all go to our beds and forget this horrid episode. +To-morrow we shall be as happy as ever. I am determined it shall not +interfere with our good time." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +TOM GRAY + + +The company which met around the breakfast table, next morning, was +entirely restored to its old gayety. There was not one member of the +house party, including Mrs. Gray herself, who did not feel unbounded +relief that the place was so well rid of Tom Gray. + +David was glad there had been no arrest, and that the mistress of the +house had with so much dignity and spirit turned out the culprit. It +would have been a bad business, testifying in court against Mrs. Gray's +nephew when he had been visiting in her house. + +"Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace, "if you haven't made any plans this +morning for us, I think we had better spend an hour or so rehearsing our +surprise." + +"Very well, my dear, you may spend as much time as you like at it; but +if I peep over the transom, or listen through a crack in the door, you +mustn't scold. I don't know that I can wait much longer to find out what +it is." + +"No, no! You're not to come near the third story," protested Grace. "We +shall nail down the transom and stuff the keyhole with soap if you do." + +"I never could stand suspense," exclaimed the old lady, shaking her head +until her lace breakfast cap, with its little bows of lavender ribbon, +quivered all over. "I fear I shall be tempted to break into the room +before Christmas night and unearth the whole business. But tell me this +much. Who is in the surprise?" + +"All of us," declared Nora. "But now we'll have to get somebody to take +the place of----" + +She paused and blushed scarlet. + +"Mr. Thomas Gray," announced the old butler at the door, with a peculiar +expression on his countenance. + +There was a dead silence. Mrs. Gray sat as if turned to stone, while +David half rose from his seat and Hippy seized a bread and butter knife +to plunge into the heart of his enemy, if necessary. + +"Aunt Rose," cried a voice outside, "aren't you glad to see me?" + +A broad-shouldered, well-built young man walked into the room and kissed +the old lady right in the mouth, before she could say a word. He had a +sunburned, wholesome face, kindly gray eyes, light-brown hair, and wore +a heavy suit of rough, blue cloth. He carried no cane; neither were his +shoes pointed at the toes, and there wasn't a tinge of English in his +accent except that his enunciation was unusually good. + +Mrs. Gray rose from her chair and examined the young man long and +carefully. + +"The very image of your uncle," she cried at last, and gave him a good +hug. "The very image, my dear Tom. Your old aunty has been a most +egregious fool. Why didn't you come last night?" + +"Didn't you get my telegram? I sent it in good time. I was delayed and +had to take the night train up. I am awfully sorry if it inconvenienced +you." + +"You haven't inconvenienced me, my boy, except for a slight loss of +sleep, and a fright and a narrow of escape from losing the family +silver, which David and Grace, here, prevented." + +Then Mrs. Gray sat down and burst out laughing. The others joined in and +for a few minutes the breakfast table was in an uproar. + +The real Tom Gray, who was the image of his uncle's portrait over the +sideboard, looked from one to another of the strange faces and then +began to laugh too, since it seemed to be the proper thing to do. He had +one of those delightful, hearty laughs that ring out in a whole roomful +of voices. When Mrs. Gray heard it she stopped short, patting her nephew +on the cheek; for he was sitting beside her now in a place hastily +arranged by the butler. + +"Exactly your uncle's laugh. It's good to hear it again. You're a Gray, +every inch of you; and, thank God, you're a fine fellow! If you had come +down here with an English accent and no 'h's' and a monocle, I should +have shut the door in your face. I should, indeed." + +"Who, me?" demanded her nephew, forgetting his grammar in his surprise +at such a state of affairs. "Not me, dear aunt. America's good enough +for me. I've had lots of good times with my English cousins, but +America's my home and country." + +"Hurrah!" cried Hippy, dashing around the table and seizing the young +man's hand. "We're glad to know you. We're proud and happy to make your +acquaintance." + +There was such an uproar of fun and laughter at this that Tom Gray began +at last to see that something had really happened, and that his sudden +and unheralded appearance had brought immense relief to the assembled +company. + +"Don't you think it's time somebody put me on?" he asked finally when +the noise had quieted down a little. + +"Tom," replied his aunt, "did you tell anyone you were coming to Oakdale +for Christmas to visit me!" + +"Why, yes," answered Tom after a moment's thought. "I believe I did. In +fact I know I did. I was staying for a week in New York, with an English +friend, Arthur Butler. I told him all about it. It was on his account +that I stayed over one night. I sent the telegram by his servant, +Richards." + +"Ah, ha!" cried Mrs. Gray. "And pray tell us what that wretch of a +servant looked like." + +Tom laughed. + +"Richards is quite an unusual fellow, a good servant I believe, but +rather effeminate and a kind of a dandy----" + +"That's the man!" + +"He's the one!" + +"The very fellow!" + +Half a dozen voices interrupted at once. + +Then Mrs. Gray explained the rather serious adventure of the night +before. She ended by saying: + +"I never, in my heart of hearts, really believed he was you, Tom, dear." + +"The scoundrel!" exclaimed the young man. "Can't we set the police on +him?" + +"The police in Oakdale are slow, Tom," replied his aunt. "Slow from lack +of occupation. Robbers do not flock here in great numbers." + +"At least, I'll telegraph to Arthur Butler," said Tom, "and warn him. +They may catch him from that end." + +The telegram was accordingly sent. Likewise the police were notified, +but Richards, who turned out to be a well-known English crook, made good +his escape and was heard from no more. + +It did not take our young people long to make the acquaintance of the +real Tom Gray, nor to decide he was a fine fellow and one they could +admit to their circle without regret. + +"He's like a breath of fresh air," thought Grace, and indeed it was +disclosed later that he intended to study forestry because he loved the +country and the open air, and spent all his vacations camping out and +taking long walking trips. But there was nothing of the gypsy in him. He +was full of energy and ambition and infused such a wholesome vigor into +whatever he did that the young people felt a new enthusiasm in his +presence. + +"I propose to celebrate the return of the real Tom Gray," announced Mrs. +Gray, "by sending my boys and girls off on a sleighing party this +afternoon. The big old sleigh holds exactly eight. Reddy, you may drive, +since the roads are so familiar to you. You must all be back at six +o'clock, for, remember, to-night we decorate the Christmas tree and +every girl freshman in Oakdale High School must have a present on it." + +Just after lunch, therefore, after a hard morning's work over Mrs. +Gray's "surprise," the young people bundled into the big side-seated +sleigh, and tucked the buffalo robes tightly around them. The horses +snorted in the crisp, dry air; there was a jingle of merry sleigh bells +as off they started down the street toward the open country. + + Jingle bells, jingle bells, + Jingle all the way. + Oh, what fun 'tis to ride + In a one-horse open sleigh. + +they sang as they bowled over the well-beaten track; and Tom Gray +breathed a sigh of pure delight. + +"Isn't this great!" he exclaimed. "Wouldn't you rather do this than +write an essay or study Latin prose composition?" + +"Next to riding in an airship and skating, it's the finest thing I know +of," answered David. + +"Have you ever ridden in an airship?" demanded Tom. + +"No, but I intend to," replied the other; for David had never for a +moment relinquished his pet scheme, but worked on his experiments +whenever he had a spare moment; little dreaming that one day he was to +become the talk of the town. + +As the sleigh passed the Nesbit house, Miriam and some of her friends +were just entering her front gate. She saw the party and a shadow of +black jealousy darkened her face. + +"Why don't we do the same thing?" she exclaimed aloud, and in another +twenty minutes she had bundled her own guests into the Nesbit sleigh, +while she herself took the reins and guided the pair of spirited black +horses. + +"Miriam, I do wish you would let one of the boys drive," said her +mother, who had come to the door to see her off. + +"I prefer to do the driving, mother," replied the spoiled girl, and with +a crack of the whip, the second sleighful was off after the first. It +was not long before the Nesbit sleigh had met and passed the other, +which was not going at a very great rate of speed. Mrs. Gray's carriage +horses were much older and more staid than Miriam's pair of young +blacks. + +"Who is the girl in front?" asked Tom, as the sleigh flashed past. + +"My sister," answered David shortly. + +"She must be a pretty good driver," observed Tom. + +David made no reply. He knew perfectly well that Miriam was not strong +enough to hold in the black team, once the horses got the upper hand; +but he hoped one of the boys would take the reins if they showed any +symptoms of running away. + +The early twilight was just falling when the Gray house party came to a +narrow, rickety old bridge spanning the bed of a creek. Here they +stopped the horses for a time, while Grace and Hippy gathered some +branches of evergreen growing on the edge of a wood, just over the +bridge. + +Suddenly the stillness was broken by the sound of bells ringing so +violently that it seemed as if all Bedlam had broken loose. Around a +curve and down the road in front of them loomed Miriam's blacks, making +straight for the other group. They were going like the wind, and the +empty sleigh, lying on its side, was clattering behind them. + +"Jump, girls!" cried Tom, while with the other boys he started to cross +the bridge to intercept the horses. + +If Grace had paused to reflect she might never have attempted +accomplishing the daring deed that suggested itself to her. Quickly +snatching off her scarlet cape, she dashed into the middle of the road, +waving it before her. Perhaps the horses also thought Bedlam had been +let loose. At sight of the terrifying apparition, they slackened up, +snorted and reared backward. + +"She is a brave girl," thought Tom Gray, as he leaped at the nearest +rearing, plunging animal, while David seized the other. Far down the +road came the sound of a faint halloo. + +"I'll pick up the others. I suppose they are in a drift," said Reddy, as +he drove off and in a few minutes returned carrying Miriam and her +party. Miriam herself looked white and frightened, although she +pretended to treat the affair lightly. + +"A rabbit scared the horses," was all she said. "I'll let one of the +boys drive us home." + +"Indeed, I shan't go back in that sleigh," cried Julia Crosby. + +"Perhaps you'll accept a ride in the freshman sleigh, Miss Crosby," +suggested Nora; and the other girl, somewhat ashamed, was obliged to +place herself at the mercy of her enemies. + +"All of you girls get into Mrs. Gray's sleigh," commanded David, "and +Tom and I will drive the other sleigh back." No one ever cared to +disobey David when he spoke in this tone. Even his wilful sister took +her seat between Grace and Anne without a word and never spoke during +the entire drive back, except to say good night at her own front gate. + +But Grace could not refrain from one sharp little thrust. + +"You seem to be unlucky with sleighs and sleds both, Miriam," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE MARIONETTE SHOW + + +Do you remember your first party dress? How it gave a glimpse of the +throat and neck, and seemed to sweep the ground all around, although it +merely reached your shoe tops? + +Did you feel a thrill of pleasure when the last hook and eye was +fastened and you surveyed yourself in the longest mirror in the house? + +So it was with Anne in her pink crepe de Chine. Or was it really Anne, +this little vision in rose color with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes? +She stood spellbound before the glass on that memorable Christmas night, +and no one disturbed her for awhile. Mrs. Gray and the girls had stolen +out so as not to embarrass the young girl who, for the first time, saw +herself in a beautiful new silk dress exactly the color of pink rose +petals, which hung in soft folds to the tips of her small pink satin +slippers. + +"Give her a chance, girls," whispered Mrs. Gray. "We mustn't be too +enthusiastic about the difference. It might hurt her tender little +feelings. But she _does_ look sweet, doesn't she?" + +"As pretty as a picture, Mrs. Gray," answered Grace, kissing the old +lady's peach blossom cheek. "But they are coming. I hear them on the +walk. We must get behind the scenes and see that everything is all +ready." + +The big drawing room of the Gray house was soon full of young people +watching the folding doors leading into the library with expectant +faces. In the hall a string orchestra was discoursing soft music and the +place was filled with the hum of conversation and low laughter. Mrs. +Gray, seated on the front row, in the place of honor, occasionally +looked about her and smiled happily. + +"Why didn't I do this long ago?" she said to herself. "But then, were +there ever before such nice girls as my four adopted daughters?" + +Miriam sat near, with the other members of her house party. It had been +a source of much discussion whether or not to admit Julia Crosby to the +freshman party. But, since she was Miriam's guest, what else was there +to do? + +"We shall be only heaping coals of fire on her head at any rate," hinted +Jessica, "and that certainly ought to make her feel worse than if she +had been left out." + +After everyone was comfortably seated three loud raps were heard from +behind the folding doors. Some one began to play "The Funeral March of a +Marionette" on the piano, and the doors slid slowly back. + +There was a murmur of surprise and wonder. + +Two curtains had been stretched across the door opening above and below +and two hung down at each side, leaving an oblong space in the middle in +which stood a little doll theater nearly a yard and a half long and a +yard high. A row of footlights across the miniature stage presently +blossomed into light, and the freshman girls smiled as they recognized +some of those same little bulbs that had served to illuminate the +pumpkin face of Miss Leece's effigy. The music ceased and the curtains +rolled back. There sat Cinderella by the kitchen fire, very stiff and +straight, but weeping audibly with her little fists in her eyes. She was +ten inches high and, on careful examination, it could be seen that two +threads attached to her arms, and another to the back of her neck, made +it possible for her to move about and use her hands in a remarkably +life-like manner. + +Wild applause from the audience. Well there might be, for the scene was +perfect, from the old brick fireplace with an iron pot steaming on the +coals to the rows of shining pans and blue dishes on a shelf at the +side, all of which came from a toy shop, along with a little kitchen +bench and chairs. + +The cruel sisters swept in, dressed for the ball. When they spoke there +were convulsive titters among the guests for the voices of the cruel +step-sisters were those of Nora and Hippy. Anne read the lines of +Cinderella so plaintively that Mrs. Gray shed a secret tear or two when +Cinderella was left alone in the gloomy old kitchen. When the fairy +godmother appeared, in a peaked red hat and a long red cape, it was +Jessica who spoke the lines in a sweet, musical voice. How Cinderella +rolled out the pumpkin and displayed six white mice in a trap, and how, +after a brief interval of total darkness, could be seen through the open +door a coach of gold in which sat Cinderella in a silken gown, need not +be related here. It all took place without a single slip and the dolls +went through their parts with such funny life-like motions that the boys +and girls forgot they were not watching real actors. + +It was the scene of the ballroom, however, which was the real triumph of +the evening. + +"How did those clever children ever do it?" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, aloud, +when the curtain rolled back and disclosed the ballroom of the palace, +with a drop curtain at the back showing a vista of marble columns and +pillars. A gilt chandelier was suspended in the middle, from which +stretched garlands of real smilax. There were rows of little gilt chairs +against the walls filled with dolls in stiff satins and brocades. And +one large throne chair with a red velvet cushion in it, on which sat the +prince, who spoke with the voice of David Nesbit, and entertained his +guests in royal state. After the exciting arrival of Cinderella, Nora +played a minuet on the mandolin, the tinkling music of which seemed best +suited to the doll drama, and the prince and Cinderella executed a dance +of such intricate steps and low bows that the audience was convulsed +with laughter. There were even suppressed titters from behind the +scenes. This dance, which had been devised by Tom Gray and Grace, +necessitated two extra threads to manipulate the feet. It was most +difficult and had required long and tedious practice, but the results +were quite worth all the time and trouble. + +Mrs. Gray laughed till the tears rolled down her cheeks and made a +personal appeal for an encore, which was given; but there was a mishap +this time; Cinderella's threads became entangled and she came near to +breaking her china nose. Audiences are invariably most pitiless when +they are most pleased, and have no mercy on exhausted actors. At the cry +of "Speech! Speech!" the Prince stepped forward and made a low bow. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "we thank you for your approval and if +strength and breath permitted us, and the lady had not injured her nose, +we would gladly dance again for you." + +Then came the last scene. The step-sisters made desperate efforts to +wear the slipper; Cinderella finally retired triumphantly on the +prince's arm, and the curtains closed only to open again a few moments +later upon a scene which bore a strong resemblance to Oakdale High +School. The fairy godmother occupied the center of the stage while the +entire company of dolls were lined up on either side. Cinderella and the +prince, each held the end of an open scroll, which bore a printed +inscription that could be seen by the audience. It read: + +"A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE FAIRY GODMOTHER OF THE FRESHMAN CLASS." + +A scene of wild enthusiasm followed. The young people gave three cheers +for Mrs. Gray and ended with the High School yell. The actors came out +and were cheered each in turn. + +Grace, Tom Gray and Reddy had worked the marionettes, it seemed, +standing on the back of the table where the theater was placed, while +the others, sitting on low stools at the sides where they could see and +not be seen, read their lines which had been composed by Anne. + +"It wasn't so hard as you might think," said Grace, explaining the +marionettes to a group of friends. "Dressing the dolls was easy; we +glued on most of their clothes, and we made the step-sisters ugly by +giving them putty noses. Hippy painted the scenery and David supplied +the electric lights. The threads that moved the arms and bodies were +tied to little cross sticks something like a gallows, so that they could +be held from above without being seen." + +But the marionette show was only the beginning of the party. There was +to be feasting and dancing, and, lastly, a big Christmas tree loaded +with presents. + +The floors were cleared. The notes of a waltz rang out, and away whirled +the happy boys and girls. Anne and David, who did not dance, retired to +a sofa in the library to look on. + +"Are you happy, Anne, in your beautiful pink dress?" asked David, +regarding her with open admiration. + +"How can I help being happy?" she replied. "This is the first pretty +dress that I have ever had and I never went to a party before, either." + +"I never enjoyed a party before," said David, "but I'm enjoying this +one. I hope, for Mrs. Gray's sake, it goes off without a hitch." + +Just then Tom Gray waltzed by with Grace. They stopped when they saw +their friends, and came back. + +"Our efforts are certainly crowned with success," exclaimed Grace. "It's +the most beautiful ball ever given in Oakdale. Everyone says so. By the +way," she added, "get your partners and fall in line for the grand march +to supper." + +"I already have mine, all right," declared Tom Gray. + +"And I think I have mine," observed David. "She's wearing a pink dress +and is just about as tall as a marionette." + +Anne laughed and stood on tiptoe to make herself look taller. Suddenly +she caught the eye of Miriam Nesbit, who was lingering in the doorway, +watching the scene with an expression that the circumstances and holiday +surroundings hardly seemed to justify. + +"I wonder if the party will go off without a hitch," thought Anne, as +they joined the grand march into the dining room. + +When the beautiful, illuminated tree had been disburdened of all its +presents and the guests were well advanced on their supper, Mrs. Gray +approached Anne, carrying an oblong box, neatly done up in white tissue +paper tied with red ribbons. Pinned to the ribbon with a piece of holly +was a Christmas card on which was printed in fancy lettering "A +Christmas Thought." + +"Why, what is this, Mrs. Gray?" demanded Anne, rather excited, while +many of the boys and girls gathered around her and some stood on chairs +in order to see what the mysterious box contained. + +"I know no more than you, dear," replied the old lady. "A man left it at +the door a moment ago, and one of the servants gave it to me. Why don't +you open it and see?" + +Anne hesitated. Something told her not to open the box, but how could +she help it with dozens of her friends waiting eagerly to see what was +in it? + +"Hurry up, Anne, aren't you curious to see what it is?" some one called. + +"It looks like flowers," said another. + +"Or candy," observed a third. + +And still Anne's fingers lingered on the bow of red ribbon. Was there +anyone in the world who could be sending her a box that night? Certainly +not her mother nor her sister, nor any of her friends who had exchanged +presents in the morning. Mrs. Gray evidently had not sent it and there +was no one else in her small list of friends who would have taken the +trouble. + +"Anne, you funny child, don't you see we are all waiting impatiently?" +said Grace at last. + +Anne slipped off the ribbons and opened the package. In the box was some +object, carefully done up in more tissue paper. + +"It looks like a mummy," exclaimed Hippy. + +Untying the wrappers, Anne held up to the curious view of the others a +large doll. + +At first she hardly comprehended what it was and held it out at arms' +length looking at it wonderingly. It was dressed as a man in a black +suit with a long Prince Albert coat, very crudely made on close +inspection, but still cut and fitted to give the right effect. The face +had been cleverly changed with paint and putty, and pinned on the head +was a black felt hat, constructed out of the crown of an old one +evidently, in which had been sewn some lank black hair. + +A card was tied around the doll's neck, and some one looking over Anne's +shoulder read aloud the following inscription written upon it: + +"Why have imitation actors when you can get real ones?" + +Anne gave a gasp. + +Who could have played this cruel trick upon her? She knew her four +friends had never spoken of the happenings of Thanksgiving night, but +such secrets would leak out in spite of everything, and there may have +been others in the audience who had recognized her. Moreover, her father +himself would not have hesitated to tell who she was, so that it was not +difficult to understand how the story had spread. + +But who would have the heart to hold her father up to ridicule in this +way, and to cause her such secret pain and unhappiness? While her +thoughts were busy, David had seized the doll and wrapped it up again. +He was very angry, but it was wiser to keep silent. + +"What was it, dear?" demanded Mrs. Gray, who had not been able to hear +the message written on the card. + +"Just a silly trick on Anne, Mrs. Gray," replied David, for Anne was too +near to tears to trust the sound of her own voice. + +"Something about actors, wasn't it?" asked Julia Crosby, who was +hovering near, and before she could be stopped, she had snatched the +doll from Anne's lap. The covers fluttered to the floor and the others +pressed eagerly around to get a glimpse of it. + +David leaped to his feet so vigorously that he upset a chair. + +"Give that back!" he commanded. "It is not yours." + +[Illustration: "Give That Back! It Is Not Yours."] + +"I will not," answered Julia Crosby. "Neither is it yours." + +"I say you will," cried David, furiously, losing his temper completely. + +"Get it if you can!" challenged the girl, darting through the crowd with +David at her heels. + +Suddenly there was a crash, a startled cry and the great fir tree with +all its ornaments and lighted candles fell to the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AFTER THE BALL + + +Yes, here was the hitch that Anne had secretly dreaded and which the +other girls had anxiously hoped to avoid. + +She had not dreamed what it would be, but she had felt it coming all +evening, ever since she had seen Miriam hovering near the library door. +And, in a way, Miriam was connected with the disaster. Had not Miriam's +guest and chum exceeded all bounds of politeness by prying into other +people's affairs? No doubt, as she fled from David, her dress had caught +in one of the branches of the tree and so pulled it over. + +All this darted through Anne's head as she stood leaning against the +wall while the room was fast filling with smoke and the pungent odor of +burning pine. + +Suddenly, some one at her elbow deliberately called "Fire! Fire!" These +were the same ominous words she had heard Thanksgiving night, only they +seemed now more alarming, more threatening. Who could be so foolish, so +ill-advised as to scream those agitating words in a roomful of girls and +boys already keyed up to a high pitch of excitement? Anne turned quickly +and confronted Miriam. + +"Don't do that!" exclaimed Anne. "You will only make matters worse." + +Miriam looked at her scornfully, although it was evident she had not +noticed her before. + +"Be quiet, spy," she hissed, "and don't make trouble." + +"I suspect you of making a great deal," returned Anne, calmly. + +She was not afraid of this passionate, spoiled girl, and only the fact +that Miriam was the sister of David, her devoted friend, kept Anne from +saying more. + +In another moment, the entire Christmas tree was in a bright blaze. Anne +had climbed up to a chair, and thence to the table that the crowd had +pushed against her as it ran. Anne was about to leap to the floor when +Grace and Tom Gray dashed in with an armful apiece of wet blankets. With +the help of the others they spread the blankets over the burning tree +and the blaze was extinguished almost as soon as it was born. + +"No harm has been done," said Tom. "The canvas covering saved the floor +and fortunately all the furniture has been taken out anyhow. It's all +right, Aunt Rose. Nobody hurt; nothing damaged. I never heard of a more +accommodating fire in my life." + +"Open the windows now and let out the smoke," ordered Mrs. Gray, "and, +if you have all finished eating, I think you had better come into the +drawing room while the servants clear out this debris. Tom, please tell +the musicians to play a waltz. I do not want my guests to carry away any +unpleasant impressions of this house." + +The music struck up and the dance began again. + +"Well," said Grace, "no one need feel badly about the fire, because a +Christmas tree generally has to be burned, anyway, and nothing of value +but the ornaments was destroyed. So everything is all right." + +"It was all my fault," exclaimed David, in a contrite voice. "Mrs. Gray, +you will have to forgive me before I can enjoy a clear conscience again. +If it hadn't been for that lumbering sophomore, Julia Crosby, I should +never have lost my temper the way I did." + +"My dear David," cried Mrs. Gray, patting him affectionately on the arm, +"you couldn't do anything I would disapprove of. If you wanted to rescue +Anne's doll I am sure you had some excellent reason for it." + +Mrs. Gray had not heard the history of Anne's father, for Grace and her +friends had kept the secret well, and Anne, herself, had never cared to +tell the story. She was a quiet, reserved girl who talked little of her +own affairs. + +"He _did_ have a good reason, Mrs. Gray," put in Grace, "and it was +enough to make him lose his temper. Julia Crosby is everlastingly +playing practical jokes and getting people into trouble. However, I +don't suppose she upset the tree on purpose," she added, thoughtfully. + +"Well, well," exclaimed Mrs. Gray, "let us forget all about it and wind +up the party with a Virginia reel. Tom and Grace must lead it off, and +Anne, you and David watch the others so that when it comes your turn you +will be able to dance it yourselves." + +So it was that Mrs. Gray's freshman Christmas ball ended as gayly as it +had started, with a romping, joyous Virginia reel. There was not a soul, +except the little old lady herself, who did not join the two long lines +stretching from one end of the rooms to the other and when it came +Anne's turn, she was not afraid to bow and curtsey as the others had +done, for she had quickly mastered the various figures of the dance. +Moreover, was she not wearing a beautiful dress of pink crepe de Chine? +After all a pretty dress does make a great difference. Anne felt she +could never have danced so well in the old black silk. + +When the reel was over the boys and girls joined hands and formed an +immense circle about their charming hostess, whirling madly around her +as they cried: + +"Three cheers for Mrs. Gray!" + +The old lady was very happy. She waved her small, wrinkled hands at them +and called out over the din: + +"Three cheers for my dear freshmen boys and girls!" + +At length, when the hands of the clock pointed to two, and the last of +the dancers had departed, Mrs. Gray sank into a chair exhausted. + +"I am tired," she said, "but I never in my life had such a good time!" + +Was there ever a girl in the world who did not want to exchange +confidences with her best friends after a party? + +Grace and Anne, therefore, were not surprised when two figures in +dressing gowns and slippers stole into their room, crouching on the rug +before the fire. + +"We've all sorts of things to say," exclaimed Nora, "else we wouldn't +think of keeping you up so late. In the first place, wasn't it perfectly +delightful?" + +"Grand!" sighed the others. + +"Everything except that one accident, and the thing that caused it," +answered Grace. + +"By the way, Anne, where is the doll?" asked Jessica. + +Anne produced it from its box. + +"Here it is," she said sadly. "But it was a cruel joke. Can you imagine +who could have done it?" + +"I have several suspicions," answered Grace, "but I make no accusations +without grounds." + +The four girls examined the doll carefully. + +"My poor father!" exclaimed Anne, her eyes filling with tears. + +"I'll tell you what, girls," cried Nora suddenly, "there's more to this +than just Anne's secret. How did anyone know we were going to have a +marionette show? Didn't we keep it dark?" + +"Yes," they answered. + +"Perhaps it got out through the servants," suggested Jessica. + +"It certainly is rather an underhanded business," cried Grace, "for +whoever did this not only must have bribed one of Mrs. Gray's servants, +but also must have some way or other raked up Anne's secret. It was +evidently some one who had a grudge against you, poor dear," she added, +patting Anne on the cheek. + +"Girls!" exclaimed Jessica, who all this time had been looking the doll +over carefully, "where have you seen this material before?" She pointed +at the fancy red waistcoat the doll was wearing. + +"It has a familiar look," answered Nora. + +"It looks to me very much like a red velveteen suit I saw somewhere once +upon a time," observed Grace. + +"You did see it, Grace. But it was--how long ago? Two or more years, +wasn't it?" + +"I know," cried Nora. "Miriam Nesbit's!" + +"Sh-h-h!" warned Grace. "Remember David. He's just across the hall." + +"And he must never know," added Anne, "not if she sent me a dozen +dolls." + +"But I haven't finished," continued Jessica. "I feel exactly like a +detective on the scent. This doll is wearing something else that is +familiar to us all. Anne, you have seen it, I am sure." + +They scanned the doll eagerly. The shabby black suit was made of some +indescribable material that might have come from anywhere. The red +velveteen waistcoat they had already identified. Then came a little +white cotton dickey, with a high standing collar and then---- + +"The tie!" cried Nora. "The green tie! Is that it, Jessica?" + +"You are right," answered Jessica. "Have you never seen that green silk +before?" + +Grace was in a brown study. + +Anne could not recall it and Nora was groping in the dark. + +"I'll tell you this much," said Jessica, who loved a mystery; "It just +matches a certain veil----" + +"Miss Leece!" exclaimed Grace. "It's a piece of the trimming on an old +dress she sometimes wears." + +"Exactly," said Jessica. "Who, having once seen it could ever forget +it?" + +And so Miss Leece and Miriam had combined forces against poor little +Anne! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A WINTER PICNIC + + +"Aunt Rose," exclaimed Tom Gray, several mornings after the Christmas +dance, "I have a scheme; but, before I ask your permission to carry it +out, I want you to grant it." + +"Why do you ask it at all, then, Tom, dear?" answered his aunt. + +"Because we want your seal and sanction upon the undertaking," replied +Tom, giving the old lady an affectionate squeeze. "Is it granted, little +Lady Gray?" he asked. + +"I am merely groping about in the dark, my boy, but I trust to your good +sense not to ask me anything too outrageous. Tell me what it is quickly, +so that I may know exactly how deeply I am implicated." + +"Well," said Tom, "here's the scheme in a nutshell. I want to give a +picnic." + +Mrs. Gray groaned. + +"A picnic, boy? Whoever heard of a picnic in mid-winter. What mad notion +is this?" + +"But you have given your consent, aunty, and no honorable woman can go +back on her word." + +"So I have, child, but explain to me quickly what a winter picnic is so +that I may know the worst at once." + +"A winter picnic is a glorious tramp in the woods, with a big camp-fire +at noon, for food, warmth and rest, and then a tramp back again." + +"And can I trust to you to take good care of my four girls? Anne and +Jessica are not giants for strength. You must not walk them too far, or +let them get chilled; and, if you find they are growing tired, you must +bring them straight back." + +"On my word of honor, as a gentleman and a Gray, I promise," said Tom, +solemnly. + +"And you will all be in before dark?" continued Mrs. Gray. + +"We promise," continued the young people. + +"Wear your stoutest shoes and warmest clothing," she went on. + +"We promise," they cried. + +"And we want a lot of lunch, aunt," said Tom coaxingly, "and some nice +raw bacon for cooking and eating purposes." + +"You shall have everything you want," said Mrs. Gray, "but who will +carry the lunch?" + +"We will distribute it on the backs of our four pack mules," replied +Grace. "But Hippy must carry the coffee-pot. He's not to be trusted with +food." + +"Now, wouldn't it be a remarkable sight to see a pack mule eating off +his own back!" observed Hippy. "There are several animals that can turn +their heads all the way around, I believe, but not the human animal." + +"We had better start as soon as possible," broke in Tom. "Hurry up, +girls, and get ready, while the servants fix the lunch." + +In half an hour eight young people, well muffled and mittened, started +off toward the open country. It was a clear, cold day and the +snow-covered fields and meadows sparkled in the sunshine. + +"If I were a gypsy by birth, as well as by inclination," declared Tom, +as they trudged gayly along, "I should take to the road in the early +spring, and never see a roof again until cold weather." + +"But being a member of a respectable family and about to enter college, +you have to sleep in a bed under cover?" added David. + +"It's partly that," said Tom, "and partly the cold weather that is +responsible for my good behavior two thirds of the year. If I lived in a +warm climate all the year around, every respectable notion I had would +melt away in a week and I'd take to the open forever." + +"I have never been in the woods in the winter time," said Anne. "Are +they very beautiful?" + +"One of the finest sights in the world," cried Tom enthusiastically, his +wholesome face glowing from his exercise. + +Just then they climbed an old stone wall and entered a forest known as +"Upton Wood," which covered an area of ten miles or more in length and +several miles across. + +"It is beautiful," said Anne as she gazed up and down the wooded aisles +carpeted in white. "It is like a great cathedral. I could almost kneel +and pray at one of these snow covered stumps. They are like altars." + +"The fault I find with the woods in winter," observed Grace, "is that +there is nothing to do in them, no birds and beasts to make things +lively, no flowers to pick, no brooks to wade in. Just an everlasting +stillness." + +"I admit there's not much social life," replied Tom. "The inhabitants +either go to sleep or fly south, most of them. But don't forget the +rabbits and squirrels and----" + +"And an occasional bear," interrupted Reddy. "They have been seen in +these parts." + +"Worse than bears," said Hippy. "Wolves!" + +"Goodness!" ejaculated Tom. "You are doing pretty well. I didn't know +this country was so wild. But that's going some." + +"Oh, well, as to that," said David, "nobody has ever really seen +anything worse than wildcats, and we have to take old Jean's word for it +about the wolves. He claimed to have seen wolves in these woods three +years ago. As a matter of fact they chased him out, and he was obliged +to turn civilized for three months." + +"Who is old Jean?" asked Tom, much interested. + +"He is a French-Canadian hunter who has lived somewhere in this forest +for years. He comes into town occasionally, looking like Daniel Boone, +dressed in skins with a squirrel cap, and carrying a bunch of rabbits +that he sells to the butchers." + +"He's a great sight," said Grace. "I saw him on his snowshoes one day. +He was coming down Upton Hill, where we coasted, you know, Anne, and he +sped along the fields faster than David's motor cycle." + +They had been walking for some time over the hard-packed snow and were +now well into the forest, which hemmed them in on every side and seemed +to stretch out in all directions into infinite space. + +"Reddy, are you perfectly sure we won't get lost in this place?" +demanded Jessica at last. + +They had been walking along silently intent on their own thoughts. +Perhaps it was the grandeur of the great snow-laden trees that oppressed +them; perhaps the vast loneliness of the place, where nothing was +stirring, not even a rabbit. + +"We're all right," returned Reddy. "My compass tells me. We go due north +till we want to start home and then we can either turn around and go +back due south or turn west and go home by the road." + +"I have neither compass nor watch," said Hippy, "but nature's timepiece +tells me that it's lunch time. This cold air gives me an appetite." + +"Gives you one?" cried David. "You old anaconda, you were born with an +appetite. You started eating boiled dumplings when you were two years +old." + +"Who told you so?" demanded Hippy. + +"Never mind," said David. "It's an old story in Oakdale." + +"Let's feed the poor soul," interposed Grace. "It would be wanton +cruelty to keep him waiting any longer." + +"He'll have to make the fire, then," said Reddy. "Make him pay for his +dumplings if he wants 'em so early." + +"All right, Carrots," cried Hippy. "I'll gather fagots and make a fire, +just to keep you from talking so much." + +"I'll help you, Hippy," said Nora. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I am +very hungry too. It's the people who are never able to eat at the table, +and then go off and feed up in the pantry, who always manage to shirk +their work." + +The others all laughed. + +"Let's make a fair division of labor," put in Grace, "so as to prevent +future talk." + +While some of them gathered sticks and dried branches, the others began +clearing away the snow in an open space, where the fire could be built. + +Anne and Jessica unpacked the luncheon and poured some coffee from a +glass jar into a tin pot to be heated, while Tom peeled several long +switches and impaled pieces of bacon on the ends to be cooked over the +fire, which was soon blazing comfortably. + +"How do you like this, girls?" he asked presently, when the broiling +bacon began to give out an appetizing smell and the hot coffee added its +fragrance to the air. "How's this for a winter picnic?" + +"I like it better than a summer picnic," interposed Hippy. "The food is +better and there are no gnats." + +"Gnats are very fond of fat people," said Reddy. "They drink down their +blood like--circus lemonade." + +"Get busy and give me some coffee, Red-head," said Hippy, who sat on a +stump and ate energetically, while the others were broiling their slices +of bacon. + +"Here, Hippy," said Nora, pouring out a steaming cupful, "if it wasn't +interesting to watch you store it away, perhaps I wouldn't wait on you +hand and foot like this." + +"This is the best way in the world to cook bacon," said Tom, holding his +wand over the fire with several pieces of bacon stuck on the forked +ends. + +"A very good method, if your stick doesn't burn up," replied Anne. +"There! Mine fell into the fire. I knew it would." + +Meantime, Jessica and Grace were frying the rest of the slices in a pan. + +"That's good enough, but this is better and quicker," said Grace. +"There's no reason for dispensing with all the comforts of a home just +because you choose to be a woodsman, Tom." + +They never forget how they enjoyed that luncheon, devouring everything +to the ultimate crumb and the final drop of hot coffee. + +Although it was bitterly cold, they did not feel the chill. The brisk +walk, the warm fire and their hearty meal had quickened their blood, and +even Anne, the smallest and most delicate of them all, felt something of +Tom's enthusiasm for the deep woods. + +At last it was time to start again. + +The boys were trampling down the fire while the girls began stowing the +cups and coffee-pot into a basket. The woods seemed suddenly to have +grown very quiet. + +"How still it is," whispered Anne. "I feel as if everything in the world +had stopped. There is not a breath stirring." + +"Perhaps it has," answered Grace. "But we mustn't stop, even if +everything else has, now that the fire is out, or we'll freeze to +death." + +She was just about to call the others briskly, for the air was beginning +to nip her cheeks, when something in the faces of the four boys made her +pause. + +They were standing together near the remains of the fire, and seemed to +be listening intently. + +Not a sound, not even the crackling of a branch disturbed the stillness +for a moment and then, from what appeared to be a great distance, came a +long, howling wail, so forlorn, so weird, it might have been the cry of +a spirit. + +"What is it?" whispered the other girls, creeping about Grace. + +"I think we'd better be hurrying along, now, girls," said David in a +natural voice. "It's getting late." + +"You can't deceive us, David," replied Grace calmly. "We know it's +wolves." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +WOLVES! + + +Wolves! The name was terrifying enough. But their cry, that +long-drawn-out, hungry call, gave the picnickers a chill of +apprehension. + +"We must take the nearest way out of the wood, Reddy," exclaimed Tom. +"They are still several miles off, and, if we hurry, we may reach the +open before they do." + +All started on a run, David helping Anne to keep up with the others +while Reddy looked after Jessica. Nora and Grace were well enough +trained in outdoor exercise to run without any assistance from the boys. +Indeed, Grace Harlowe could out-run most boys of her own age. + +"Go straight to your left," called Reddy, consulting his compass as he +hurried Jessica over the snow. + +Again they heard the angry howl of the wolves, and the last time it +seemed much nearer. + +"It's a terrible business, this running after a heavy meal," muttered +Hippy, gasping for breath as he stumbled along in the track of his +friends. "I'll make a nice meal for 'em if they catch me," he added, +"and it looks as if I'd be the first to go." + +"Reddy, are you sure you're right?" called Tom. "The woods don't seem to +be thinning out as they are likely to do toward the edge." + +"Keep going," called Reddy, confident of the direction. "You see, we had +gone pretty far in, but I believe the open country is about a mile this +way." + +A mile? Good heavens! Jessica and Anne were already stumbling from +exhaustion, while Hippy was quite winded. Another five minutes of this +and at least three of the party would be food for wolves, unless +something could be done. So thought David, who, breathless and light +headed, was now almost carrying Anne. + +"Hurrah!" cried Grace, who had been running ahead of the others. "Here's +Jean's hut!" + +There, sure enough, right in front of them, was a little house built of +logs and mud. + +Had it been put in that particular spot years ago just to save their +eight lives now? Anne wondered vaguely as she blindly stumbled on. + +As Grace lifted the wooden latch of the door, she looked over her +shoulder. Not three hundred yards away loped five gaunt, gray animals. +Their tongues hung limply from the sides of their mouths and their eyes +glowered with a fierce hunger. + +"Hurry!" she cried, in an agony of fear. "Oh, hurry!" + +Tom and David were carrying Anne now, while Jessica was half staggering, +assisted by Nora and Reddy. Hippy, the perspiration pouring from his +face, brought up the rear, and they had scarcely pulled him in and +barred the door before the wolves had reached the hut and were leaping +against the walls howling and snarling. + +Nobody spoke for some time. Those who were not too tired were busy +thinking. + +What was to be done? Eight young people, on a bitter cold winter +afternoon, shut up in a hut in the middle of a forest while five +half-starved wolves besieged the door. + +Presently Tom Gray began to look about him. + +There was a fireplace in the hut, which, by great good luck, contained +the remains of a large backlog. More fuel was stacked in the corner, +chiefly brushwood and sticks. He made a fire at once and the others +gathered around the blaze, for they felt the penetrating chill now, +after their rapid and exhausting flight through the forest. + +"Here's a rifle," exclaimed Grace, who was also exploring, while Tom +kindled the fire. + +"Good!" cried Tom. "Let's see it. It may be our salvation." + +He seized the gun and examined the barrel, but, alas, there was only one +shot left in it. They searched the hut for more cartridges, but not one +could they find. + +In the meantime the wolves, which might have been taken for large collie +dogs at a little distance, were trotting around the house, leaping +against the door and windows and occasionally giving a blood-curdling +howl. + +"Suppose you feed me to them?" groaned Hippy. "You could get almost to +Oakdale before they finished me." + +The suggestion seemed to break the apprehensive silence that had settled +down upon them, and they burst out laughing, one and all; even Anne, who +was lying on a bearskin in front of the fire. + +"I suppose the beasts were driven down from the hills by hunger, and +when they smelled the fat bacon frying, the woods couldn't hold them," +observed David. "I have always heard that a hungry wolf could smell +something to eat on another planet." + +"Well, what are we going to do?" demanded Nora. "If we leave this +charming abode of Jean's, we shall be eaten alive, and if we stay in it +we shall starve." + +"You won't starve for a while yet, child. You have only just eaten. You +remind me of the story of the people who were locked up in a vault in a +cemetery. They divided the candle into notches and decided to eat a +notch apiece every day. They had just finished the last notch, and were +expecting to die at any moment of starvation, when somebody unlocked the +door, and how long do you suppose they had been shut up!" + +"Several days, I suppose," answered Nora, "since they appeared to have +eaten several notches." + +"Not at all," replied David. "Only three hours." + +"I'd rather be in a vault, with the dead, than out here," observed +Hippy. + +"Are we such poor company as all that, Fatty!" laughed Reddy. + +"I've made a great find," announced Tom Gray in the midst of their +chatter. He was standing on a bench examining something on a shelf +suspended from the ceiling. + +"What?" demanded the others in great excitement. + +"A pair of snowshoes," he answered. + +There was a disappointed silence. + +"Well, don't all speak at once," said Tom at last. "Don't you agree with +me that it's a great find?" + +"We are sorry we can't enthuse," answered David, "but we fail to see how +snow shoes can help us out of our present predicament." + +"Nobody here knows how to use them," continued Reddy, "and even if he +did, he couldn't out-run a pack of wolves." + +"I know how to use them," exclaimed Tom. "I learned it in Canada a few +winters ago, but I will admit I couldn't beat the wolves in a race. +However, the shoes may come in handy yet." + +Just then one of the wolves threw his body against the door and the +small cabin shook with the force of the blow. + +"By Jove!" exclaimed David, "I thought they had us then. Another blow +like that and the old latch might give way." + +They looked about them for something to place against the door, but +there was not a stick of furniture in the room. Even the bed, in one +corner, was made of pine boughs and skins. + +"I wonder how there happens to be only five wolves," said Anne. "I +thought they went about in large packs." + +"They are probably mama and papa and the whole family," replied Hippy. +"The smallest, friskiest ones, I think, are young ladies, by the way +they switched along behind the others and hung back kind of shy-like." + +"Now, Hippy Wingate, don't tell us such a romance as that," warned +Grace, "when you were so winded you could hardly look in front of you, +much less behind you." + +At that moment there was another crash against the door while two gray +paws and the tip of a pointed muzzle could be seen on one of the window +sills. + +"It's almost three o'clock," said Tom Gray, looking at his watch. "I +think we'll have to do something, or we shall be penned here all night. +Now, what shall it be? Suppose we have a friendly council and consider." + +"All right," said David; "the meeting is open for suggestions. What do +you advise, Anne?" + +Anne smiled thoughtfully. + +"I have no advice to offer," she said, "unless you shoot one of the +wolves and let the others eat him up. Perhaps that would take the edge +off their appetites." + +"No, that would only serve as an appetizer," answered David. "After they +had eaten one member of the family they would be still hungrier for +another." + +"And yet that isn't a half bad idea," said Tom, "and for two reasons. +Did you notice a path which began at the hut and which was evidently +Jean's trail? I saw it from the corner of my eye as I ran." + +No, the others had not noticed anything of the sort. But who would stop +to think of trails with a pack of hungry wolves at his heels? + +Tom's training in the woods had taught him to take in such details, and +consequently he had noticed it particularly. Moreover, the trail led +straight to the left, presumably toward the west. + +"Now, this is what I propose to do," he continued, taking down the +snowshoes and looking over their straps and fastenings carefully. +"Reddy, who, I hear, is a good shot, must climb up at one of the windows +and shoot the first wolf he sees. Eating the dead wolf would probably +occupy the attention of his brothers for some ten minutes or so--perhaps +longer. While they are busy I shall make off on the snowshoes. With that +much of a start, and with plenty of tasty human beings close at hand, I +doubt if they even follow me. If they do, why I'll just shin up a tree. +But I believe I can beat them. I'm pretty good on snowshoes." + +"Tom Gray, you shan't do it!" cried Grace. "It may mean sure death. How +do you know the wolves won't seize you the moment you open the door? +Besides, you don't know the way. Suppose you should get lost?" + +"No, no," insisted Tom. "None of these things will happen. I know +positively that a hungry wolf will stop chasing a human being and eat up +a dead wolf, or a shoe, or a rug, or anything that happens to be thrown +to him. I never was surer of anything in my life than that I can get +away from here before the beasts know it." + +There was a storm of protestation from the others, but Tom Gray finally +overruled every objection and they reluctantly consented to let him go. + +It was arranged that Reddy should stand on a bench by one of the small +windows and attract the attention of the wolves by throwing out a rabbit +skin that was nailed to one of the walls. While the beasts were tearing +this to pieces he was to shoot one of them. Furthermore, the instant the +live wolves had finished devouring the dead one, Reddy was to pitch out +another skin, of which there were many about the hut, of foxes, rabbits +and other small animals, which the trapper had collected. + +This, they agreed, would probably keep the wolves occupied for awhile, +until Tom had got a good start down the trail. + +Tom slipped his feet in the snowshoes and stood by the door waiting. +While the wolves howled and fought over the rabbit skin, bang went the +rifle. + +"I got him!" cried Reddy. + +In an instant Tom Gray had flung open the door and was off down the +trail. + +As he had expected, the live wolves were hungrily eating the dead one +and had not apparently even noticed his departure. + +The boys and girls in the hut sat breathlessly waiting, while Reddy +watched the famished animals gorge themselves with the blood and fresh +meat of their comrade. + +Reddy had rolled up a fox skin into a small bundle, and was prepared to +pitch it out to them the moment they had finished. + +Just as they had lapped the last drop of blood, he cast out the skin. +They sniffed at it a moment, gave a long, disapproving howl, that sent +the cold chills down the spines of the prisoners, and then made off down +the trail after Tom Gray. + +Reddy gave a loud exclamation and jumped down from the bench. + +"_They have followed Tom!_" he cried, in a high state of excitement. + +There was a long pause. + +"We'll have to go, then," said David finally. "Girls, you are safe as +long as you stay inside the hut, and some of us at least will be able to +bring help before long." + +With that, all three of the boys, for Hippy was no coward, in spite of +his size and appetite, rushed out of the hut and disappeared in the +wood. + +The afternoon shadows were beginning to lengthen when Grace fastened the +latch and returned to the fire where her three friends sat silent, +afraid to speak for fear of giving way to tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE GRAY BROTHERS + + +The four girls never knew how long they waited that afternoon in the +hunter's cabin. It might have been only minutes, but the minutes seemed +to drag themselves into hours. The uncertain fate of the boys, the +tragedy that surely awaited perhaps all of them made the situation +almost unbearable. + +Grace piled the fireplace high with the remaining wood, but the blaze +could not keep away the chill that crept over them as the sun sank +behind the trees. They shivered and drew nearer together for comfort. + +Should they ever see their four brave friends again? + +And David? + +Anne could endure it no longer. She rose and began to move about the +hut. There lay her coat and hat. Almost without knowing what she did she +put them on, pulled on her mittens and tied a broad, knitted muffler +around her ears. + +"Girls," she said suddenly. She had gone about her preparations so +quietly the other three had not even turned to see what she was doing. +"I'm going. I don't want any of you to go with me, but I would rather +die than stay here all night without knowing what has happened to David +and the others." + +"Wait a moment," cried Grace, "and I'll go, too. It would be unbearable +not to know--and if we meet the wolves, why, then, as Tom said, we can +climb a tree. Poor Tom!" she added sadly. "I wonder where he is now." + +Nora and Jessica rose hastily. + +"Do you think I'd stay?" cried Nora. "Not in a thousand years!" + +"Anything is better than this," exclaimed Jessica, as she drew on her +wraps and prepared to follow her friends into the woods. + +Grace opened the door, peering out into the gathering darkness. + +"There is not a living thing in sight," she said. "We'd better hurry, +girls; it will soon be dark." Then the four young girls started down the +trail and were soon out of sight. + +When Tom Gray left old Jean's hut, with nothing between him and the +ravenous wolves, except the angle of a wall, he took a long, gliding +step, his body swinging gracefully with the motion, and was off like the +wind, under a broad avenue of trees. But he had not gone far before one +of the straps loosened and his foot slipped. He fell headlong, but was +up instantly. + +It took a few moments to tighten the strap, and it must have been then +that the wolves caught the scent, and after hurriedly finishing the meal +in hand, galloped off for another without taking the slightest notice of +the fox skin that Reddy had tossed to them. Tom made a fresh start, +feeling more confident on his feet than he had at first, and he was well +under way when he heard the howl of the wolves behind him. Gathering all +his energies together he managed to keep ahead of them until the woods +became less dense, and he saw through the interlacing branches the open +meadows and fields. + +"They are too hungry to leave off now," he said to himself as he +hurriedly searched the valley below for the nearest farmhouse. In front +of him was a very high, steep hill, that same hill, in fact, where +Nora's coasting party had taken place. Glancing behind him, he caught a +glimpse of the gray brothers trotting through the forest. + +"I'll take the hill," he thought. "It's quickest and there must be some +kind of a refuge below." With long, swift glides he reached the knob +which had hidden Miriam's sled from view as she bore down on Anne the +night of the coasting party. + +The wolves were right behind him now, and unless something turned up he +hardly dared think what would happen. + +But Tom Gray had always possessed an indomitable belief that things +would turn out all right. It seemed absurd to him that he was to be food +for wolves when he had still a long and delightful life before him. +Certainly he would not give up without a struggle. + +Perhaps it was this fine confidence that his destiny was not yet +completed that gave him the strength which now promised to save him. As +he fled down the hill he saw below an old oak tree whose first branches +had been lopped off. Exerting every atom of strength in him, just as he +reached the bottom Tom gave a leap. He caught the lowest limb with one +hand, pulled himself up and calmly took his seat in the crotch of the +tree. + +He was just in time. The wolves were at his heels, snarling and snapping +like angry dogs. The boy regarded them from his safe perch and burst out +laughing. + +[Illustration: Tom Gray Escapes from the Wolves.] + +"So I fooled you, did I, you gray rascals?" he said aloud. "You think +you'll keep me here all night, do you, old hounds? Well, we'll see who +wins out in the long run." + +Meanwhile, the wolves ran about howling disconsolately while Tom sat in +the branches of the tree, rubbing his hands and arms to keep warm. He +had removed the snowshoes and was just contemplating climbing to the top +of the tree to keep his blood circulating, when three figures appeared +on the brow of the hill. + +"As I live, it's the boys," he said to himself. "Go back!" he yelled, +waving a red silk muffler. "Climb a tree quickly!" + +They had seen and heard him, and making for the nearest tree, each +shinned up as fast as he could. + +"Here's a howdy-do," said Tom to himself. "Four boys treed by wolves and +night coming on." + +Yet he swung his legs and whistled thoughtfully, while the others +shouted to him, but he could not hear what they said, for the wind was +blowing away from him. In the meantime the wolves did not all desert him +and he could only wait patiently, with the others, for something to turn +up. + +What did turn up was a good deal of a shock to all of them. + +Grace, Jessica, Nora and Anne suddenly emerged from the forest, standing +out in bold relief on the brow of the hill. + +The three boys at the top of the hill all jumped to the ground at once. + +"Run for the trees," cried David, for the wolves had caught the new +scent and had started toward them on a dead run. + +"Crack, crack," went a rifle. Instantly the first wolf staggered and +fell backward. + +How was it that the boys had not noticed before that the girls were not +alone? + +Another shot and a second wolf ran almost into their midst, gave a leap +and fell dead. One more dropped; and the sole surviving wolf beat a +frenzied retreat. + +"We found old Jean!" cried Grace. "Wasn't it the most fortunate thing in +the world? And now nobody is killed and we are all safe and I'm so +happy!" She gave the old hunter's arm a squeeze. + +Old Jean, enveloped in skins from top to toe, smiled good-naturedly. + +"It was the Bon Dieu, mademoiselle, who have preserve you. Do not t'ank +ole Jean. It was the Bon Dieu who put it in ole Jean's haid to set +rabbit trap to-night." + +He would accept neither money nor thanks for shooting the wolves. + +"I will skin them. It is sufficient." + +It was not long before eight very tired and very happy young people were +seated around Mrs. Gray's dinner table. Grace was a little choky and +homesick for her mother, now that all the danger was over, but the week +of the house party was almost up, so she concealed her impatience to be +home again. + +The softly shaded candles shed a warm glow over their faces, and the +logs crackled on the brass andirons. They looked into each others' eyes +and smiled sleepily. + +Had it all been a dream, their winter picnic, or was old Jean at that +very moment really nailing wolf skins to his wall? + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE LOST LETTER + + +Spring was well advanced, full of soft airs and the sweet scents of +orchards in full bloom. + +Through the open windows of the schoolroom Grace could hear the pleasant +sounds of the out of doors. The tinkle of a cow bell in a distant meadow +and the songs of the birds brought to her the nearness of the glorious +summer time. + +She chewed the end of her pencil impatiently, endeavoring to withdraw +her attention from the things she liked so much better than Latin +grammar and algebra. Examinations were coming, those bugbears of the +young freshman, and then vacation. A vision of picnics crossed her mind, +of long days spent out of doors, with luncheon under the trees and +tramps through the woods. Yet, before all these joys, must come the +inevitable final test, the race for the freshman prize. Although, after +all, only two would really enter the race, Miriam and Anne. Nobody else +would think of competing with these two brilliant students. + +How tired Anne looked! She had done nothing but study of late. No party +had been alluring enough to beguile her from her books. She had even +discontinued her work with Mrs. Gray, and early and late toiled at her +studies. + +"She will tire herself out," Grace thought, and made a resolution to +take Anne with her on a visit to her grandmother's in the country just +as soon as the High School doors were closed for the summer. + +Miriam was not studying so hard. But then she never did anything hard. +She simply seemed to absorb, without taking the trouble to plod. She had +been very defiant of late, Grace thought, and more insolent than ever +before. She and Miss Leece were "thicker" than was good for Miriam, +considering that teacher's peculiar disposition to flatter and spoil +her. However, that was none of Grace's business, and certainly Miss +Leece had been careful since the sound rating Miss Thompson had given +her. + +Just then the gong broke in upon Grace's reflections. With a sigh of +relief she closed her book and strolled with her friends down to their +usual meeting place in the locker room. + +There was but one topic of conversation now, the freshman prize. + +"Anne," predicted Nora, "you just can't help winning it! I don't believe +it's in you to make a mistake. Miss Leece always gives you the hardest +problems, too, but she can't stump little Anne." + +Anne smiled wearily. It was well examinations were to begin in two days. +In her secret soul she felt she could not hold out much longer. +Moreover, Anne was worried about family affairs. She had received a +letter, that morning, which had troubled her so much that she had been +on the point, a dozen times, of bursting into tears. However, if she won +the prize--not the small one, but the _big_ one--the difficulty would be +surmounted. + +Another worry had crept into her mind. She had lost the letter. A +little, wayward breeze had seized it suddenly from her limp fingers and +blown it away. She knew the letter was lurking somewhere in a corner of +the schoolroom, and she had hoped to find it when the class was +dismissed. But the missing paper was nowhere in sight when she had +searched for it during recess. Perhaps it had blown out the window, in +which case it would be brushed up by the janitress and never thought of +again. Not for worlds would Anne have had anyone read that letter. + +It was during the afternoon session, in the middle of one of the +schoolroom recitations, that she caught sight of her letter again. But +after the class was dismissed and she had made haste to the corner of +the room, where she thought she had seen it under a desk, it was not +there. Disappointed and uneasy Anne put on her hat and started home. + +All afternoon she worried about it. Perhaps it was because she was so +tired that she was especially sensitive about the letter being found by +some one else. If that some one else should read the contents, she felt +it would mean nothing lees than disgrace. + +"You look exhausted, child," said Anne's sister Mary, who was weary +herself, having worked hard all day on a pile of spring sewing Mrs. Gray +had ordered. "Why don't you take a walk and not try to do any studying +this afternoon?" + +"I think I will, sister," replied Anne; and, pinning on her hat, she +left her small cottage and started toward High School Street. + +Turning mechanically into the broad avenue shaded by elm trees, she +strolled along, half-dreaming and half-waking. She was so weary she felt +she might lie down and sleep for twenty years, and like Rip Van Winkle +awaken old and gray. It was foolish of her to be so uneasy about that +letter. + +Was it a premonition that compelled her to return to the schoolroom and +search again for it? Perhaps the old janitress might have found it. The +young girl quickened her pace. She must hurry if she wanted to catch the +old woman before the latter closed up for the night. + +Anne had not thought of looking behind. Her mind, so trained to +concentration, was now bent only upon one object. But would it have +swerved her from her present purpose, even if she had noticed Miss Leece +following her? + +The High School was still open, although Anne could not find the +janitress. Perhaps the old woman was asleep somewhere. On several +occasions she had been found sleeping soundly when she should have been +brushing out schoolrooms and mopping floors. Anne was determined, +however, to give one good, thorough search for her letter and she +accordingly mounted to the floor where the freshmen class room was +situated and entered the large, empty recitation room. + +She looked long and carefully under the desks and benches, even going +through the scrap baskets, but there was no sign of the letter. Then she +went into some of the other class rooms, but her search was unrewarded. + +"What's the use?" she asked herself at last. "It's sure to have been +destroyed. I think I'll just have to give it up, and try to rest a +little before to-morrow, or I'll never be fit to try for that prize." + +As she started down the broad staircase she heard the rasping voice of +Miss Leece mingling with the principal's cool, well-modulated tones. +Anne paused a moment, watching the two figures below. Miss Leece looked +up and caught her eye, but Miss Thompson was engaged in unlocking the +door, and did not see the little figure lingering on the steps. + +Just as the door opened, another door slammed violently, and the next +moment Anne heard footsteps running along a small passage that crossed +the corridor. Leaning far over the rail she caught a glimpse of a +figure. It was--no, Anne could not be certain of the identity. But it +looked like--well, never mind whom. Anne meant to keep the secret, for +it was evident that the person had been bent on mischief, else why slam +a door and run at the approach of Miss Thompson! And now Anne heard the +door open again and Miss Thompson's voice calling: "Who is there?" But +there was no answer. Deep down in Anne's heart there crept a vague +suspicion. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DANGER AHEAD + + + MY DEAR GRACE: + + Will you come and see me at my office after school to-day? I have + something very important to discuss. + + Sincerely yours, + + EMMA THOMPSON. + +Grace read the letter over twice. What in the world could Miss Thompson +want to discuss with her? Perhaps she had not been doing well enough in +her classes. But Grace rejected the idea. She always kept up to the +average, and it was only those who fell below who ever received warnings +from the principal. + +Perhaps it was--well, never mind, she would wait and see. As soon as +school was over she hurried to the principal's office and tapped on the +door. + +"Well, Grace, my dear," said Miss Thompson, as the young girl entered, +"did my note frighten you?" + +"No, indeed," replied Grace; "I had a clear conscience and I don't +expect to fail in exams to-morrow, although I am not so studious as Anne +Pierson or Miriam." + +"Of course you don't expect to fail, my dear," said the principal, +kindly, for, of all the girls in the school, Grace was her favorite. "I +didn't bring you here to scold you. But I have something very serious to +talk about. While I have threshed out the matter with myself, I believe +I might do better by talking things over with one of my safest and +sanest freshman." + +"Why, what has happened, Miss Thompson?" asked Grace curiously. + +"First, let me ask you a few questions," answered the principal. "Tell +me something about the competition for the freshman prize. Which girl do +you think has the best chance of winning it?" + +"I know whom I want to win," replied Grace innocently. "Anne, of course, +and I believe she will, too. While Miriam is more showy in her +recitations, Anne is much more thorough, and she studies a great deal +harder. The fact is, I am afraid she is making herself ill with +studying. But she is determined to win not the little prize, but the big +one, which is more than even Anne can do, I believe. Whoever heard of +having every examination paper perfect?" + +"It has not been done so far," admitted Miss Thompson, "but why is Anne +so bent on winning the prize? Is it all for glory, do you think?" + +"Anne is very poor, you know, Miss Thompson," said Grace simply. + +"So she is," replied the principal, "and the child needs the money." +Miss Thompson paused a moment, looking thoughtfully out over the smooth +green lawn. "Grace," she resumed, finally, "I have something very +serious to tell you. Two days ago I made a discovery that may change the +fate of the freshman prize this year considerably. You know I keep the +examination questions here in my desk. That is, the originals. A copy is +now at the printers. So, you see, I have only one set of originals. I +had occasion to come back to my office quite late the day of the +discovery, and, as I let myself in at that door," she pointed to the +door leading into the corridor, "what I thought was a gust of wind +slammed the door leading into the next room which I usually keep shut +and bolted on this side. My desk was open and the freshman examination +papers undoubtedly had been tampered with. I could tell because they are +usually the last in the pile and they were all on top and quite +disarranged. Whoever had been here, had heard my key in the lock, and +without waiting to close the desk had fled by the other door. I feel +deeply grieved over this matter. I should never think of suspecting any +of my fine girls of such trickery; and, yet, who else could it have been +except one of the freshmen?" + +"Oh, Miss Thompson, this is dreadful," exclaimed Grace, distressed and +shocked over the story. "I don't believe there's a girl in the class who +would have done it. There must be some mistake." + +"That is why I sent for you, Grace," said the principal. "I want your +advice. Now Anne----" + +"_Anne?_" interrupted Grace horrified. "You don't suppose, for a minute, +Anne would be dishonest? Never! I won't stay and listen any longer," and +she rushed to the door. + +Miss Thompson followed, placing a detaining hand on her arm. + +"You are right, Grace, to be loyal to your friend," said the principal, +always just and kind under the most trying circumstances; "but Anne, I +must tell you, is under suspicion." + +"Why?" demanded Grace, almost sobbing in her anger and unhappiness. + +"The afternoon of the discovery Anne was here long after school hours. +She was seen by two people wandering about the building." + +"Who were the people?" demanded Grace incredulously. + +"The janitress, who saw her from the window of another room, and--Miss +Leece." + +"I thought so," exclaimed Grace, with a note of triumph in her voice. +"It is Miss Leece, is it, who is trumping up all this business? I tell +you, I don't believe a word of it, Miss Thompson. Anne would no more do +such a thing than I would, and I am going to fight to save her if it +takes my last breath. Do you know how hard she has worked to win this +prize? Simply all the time. I believe, if she knew what you suspected, +it would kill her. I believe it's some tale Miss Leece has made up. And +besides, why shouldn't she have come back to the building? Perhaps she +forgot a book or something. I'd just like to know what Miss Leece was +doing here at that time of day." + +"She came here to meet me on business," answered Miss Thompson. "That is +why she knows something of the unfortunate affair. She was with me when +I found my desk had been broken open and the papers disturbed. She also +heard the other door slam and it was then she told me of having seen +Anne wandering about the building for which, as you say, there might +have been a dozen reasons; I believe, as firmly as you do, that the +child is incapable of cheating, and I intend to leave no stone unturned +to get at the truth. But there is still another fact against Anne that +is very black." The speaker took from a drawer a slip of folded paper. +"This was found in the building," she continued, "and since it was an +open letter, without address and under the circumstances, so important, +it was read and the contents reported to me. I have since read it myself +and I now ask you to read it." + + DEAR ANNE: + + I must have one hundred dollars at once, or go somewhere for a long + time. I foolishly signed a friend's name to a slip of paper. I + didn't know he would be so hard, but he threatens to prosecute + unless I pay up before the end of next week. I know you have rich + friends. I have been hearing of your successes. Perhaps the old + lady, Mrs. G., will oblige you. I trust to your good sense to see + that the hundred must be forthcoming, or it will mean disgrace for + us all. + + Your father, + + J. P. + +Grace limply held the letter in one hand. + +"Oh, poor, poor Anne!" she groaned, wiping away the tears that had +welled up into her eyes and were running down her cheeks. + +"I feel just as you do, my child," went on Miss Thompson. "I am deeply, +bitterly sorry for this unfortunate child. But you will agree with me +that she has had a very strong motive for winning the prize." + +Grace nodded mutely. + +"By the way," she asked presently, when she had calmed herself, "who was +it that found the letter?" + +"Miss Leece again," replied Miss Thompson, hesitatingly. + +"There, you see," exclaimed Grace excitedly, "that woman is determined +to ruin Anne before the close of school. I tell you, I won't believe +Anne is guilty. It has taken just this much to make me certain that she +is entirely innocent. Is there no clue whatever to the person who copied +the papers?" + +"Yes," answered Miss Thompson, "there is. This had been shoved back in +the desk under the papers. It does not belong to me, and it could not +have gotten into my desk by any other means. I suppose, in her hurry to +copy the freshmen sheets, whoever she was, laid it down and forgot it." + +Miss Thompson produced a crumpled pocket handkerchief. Grace took it and +held it to the light. There were no marks or initials upon it whatever; +it was simply a cambric handkerchief with a narrow hemstitched border, a +handkerchief such as anyone might use. It was neither large nor small, +neither of thin nor thick material. + +"There's nothing on it," said Grace. "I suppose the stores sell hundreds +of these." + +"That's very true," answered the principal, "but I hoped you would be +familiar enough with your friends' handkerchiefs to recognize this one." + +"No," replied Grace, "I haven't the least idea whose it is. Wait a +moment," she added quickly, smelling the handkerchief; "there is a +perfume on it of some sort. Did you notice that?" + +"I did," replied Miss Thompson. "It was one of the first things I did +notice. I am very sensitive to perfumes; perhaps because I dislike them +on clothing. But I waited for you to find it out for yourself. In fact, +my dear, this will be the only means of trapping the person. Now, what +perfume is it, and who in the class uses it? I am not familiar with +perfumes, but I thought perhaps you were. And now, I will tell you that +this is the reason I sent for you. The reason I showed you this letter, +which has only been seen by one other person besides myself--Miss Leece, +of course. I do not wish to tell anyone else about this matter. I do not +care to put the subject before the School Board for discussion. I do not +believe, any more than you, that Anne is guilty and I have taken you +into my confidence because I believe you are the one person in the world +who can help me in this predicament. Miss Leece, of course, intends to +do everything in her power to bring the child 'to justice.' But, until I +give her permission, she will hardly dare to speak of it. So far, we +three are the only people who know what has happened. In the meantime, I +shall turn over this handkerchief to you. Keep it carefully and be very +guarded about what you do and say. You are a young girl," she continued, +taking Grace's hand and gazing full into her honest eyes, "but I have a +great respect for your judgment and discretion, and that is the reason I +am asking for your help in this very delicate matter. You may rest +assured that I shall do nothing whatever; at least, not until after +examinations. I have an idea that we may get a clue through them. We +must save Anne, whose life would be utterly ruined by such a false +accusation as this. And I feel convinced that it is false." + +"Well, I can tell you one thing, Miss Thompson," returned Grace as she +opened the door, "and that is Anne Pierson never used any perfume in her +life. She hasn't any to use." + +Miss Thompson nodded and smiled. + +"I was sure of that," she called. + +Grace had little time to lose. The examinations, which took place the +next day and the day after, would undoubtedly bring matters to a crisis. + +She took the handkerchief from her pocket and sniffed at it. Neither was +she familiar with perfumes, and this odor was new to her. Suddenly an +idea occurred to her and she made straight for the nearest drugstore. + +"Mr. Gleason," she demanded of the clerk in charge, "could you tell me +what perfume this is?" + +The druggist sniffed thoughtfully at the handkerchief for some seconds. + +"It's sandalwood," he said at last. "We received some in stock a week +ago." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT + + +How examinations loom up on the fatal day, like monstrous obstacles that +must be overcome! How the hours slip past, with nothing to break the +stillness save the scratching of pens on foolscap paper, while each +student draws upon the supply of knowledge stored up during the winter +months! + +A fly buzzes on the window pane; a teacher rises, tiptoes slowly about +the room and sits down again. She can do nothing, now, but keep watch on +the pairs of drooping shoulders and the tired, flushed faces. + +Anne was so absorbed in her work that she was oblivious to everything +about her. Her pen moved with precision over her paper and her copy was +neat and clear. + +It was the second day of the examinations and she felt that her fate +would soon be decided; but she was too tired now to worry. She worked on +quietly and steadily. She had almost finished, and, as she answered one +question after another, she was more and more buoyed up by the +conviction that she would win the prize. + +Miriam had finished her work. Her impatient nature would not permit her +to do anything slowly. As she gave a last flourishing stroke with her +pen, she leaned back, looking about her. She smiled contemptuously as +her eyes rested on Anne. + +"What a shabby, slow little creature she is!" Miriam murmured. "It would +be a disgrace for a girl like me to be beaten by her. I'll never endure +it in the world." + +It was not long before the girls had all finished and turned in their +papers to the teacher in charge. + +"Oh, glorious happy day!" cried Nora, as she sped joyously down the +corridor. "Examinations are over, and now for a good time!" + +A dozen or more of the freshman class had been invited to Miriam's to a +tea to celebrate the close of school. Anne, of course, was not invited; +but Grace and her friends had received invitations and promptly accepted +them. + +Grace had taken Nora and Jessica into her confidence to some extent. She +needed their help, but she had not mentioned the letter from Anne's +father. The three girls met early by appointment, at the Harlowe house, +to discuss matters before going to Miriam Nesbit's. + +"Here's a list of the people in Oakdale," said Nora, "who have bought +sandalwood perfume. I have been to four drug stores and all the dry +goods stores." + +Grace took the list and read: + +"'Mrs. I. Rosenfield, Miss Alice Gwendolyn Jones, Mr. Percival Butz, +etc.' Good heavens!" she cried, "there's not a single person on this +list who has anything to do with Oakdale High School. Mr. Percival +Butz," she laughed. "The idea of a man buying perfume. Really, girls," +she added in despair, "we've been wasting our time. I can't see that any +of us has made the least headway. I have called on almost every freshman +in the class and inquired what her favorite perfume is, and I know some +of them thought I was silly. Anyway, not one of them claimed to use +sandalwood." + +"The stupidest girls would be the ones who would be most likely to want +to copy the papers," observed Jessica, "but those girls are much too +nice to believe such horrid things about. I went to see Ellen Wiggins +and Sallie Moore yesterday afternoon. Neither of them use perfume. +Sallie Moore told me she had an orris root sachet that had almost lost +its scent. Which reminds me," she continued, "why couldn't this +handkerchief have been scented by some other means than just perfume. +Perhaps it was put into a mouchoir case with sandalwood powder." + +"Why, of course," exclaimed Grace. "Jessica, I never thought of asking +who had been buying sachet powders. You have a great head." + +"Must I go back and ask all those storekeepers for more lists?" demanded +Nora. + +"No, child," replied Grace. "Just give us time to think first." + +"It's time to go to Miriam's anyhow," observed Jessica. "Perhaps some +sort of inspiration will come on the way," and the three girls set out +for the tea party. + +As they paused to admire the beautiful flower beds on the Nesbit lawn +Jessica said: + +"Have you inquired Miriam's favorite perfume?" + +"Oh, yes," answered Grace. "She said she liked them all and had no +favorites." + +"Why are all these strange young women breaking into my premises?" +demanded a voice behind them. + +"David Nesbit," cried Grace, "where have you been all this time? You +never seem to find the time to come near your old friends any more." + +"I have been busy, girls," replied David. "Never busier in my life. But +I believe I've struck it at last. It will not be long, now, before I +turn into a bird." + +"Oh, _do_ show it to us!" cried Grace. "Where is the model?" + +"In my workroom," he replied. "If you are very good, and will promise to +say nothing to the others, I'll give you a peep this afternoon. When I +signal to you from the music room, by sounding three bass notes on the +piano, start upstairs and I'll meet you on the landing. You may ask why +this mystery? But I know girls, and if all those chattering freshmen are +allowed to come into my room they are sure to knock over some of the +models, or break something, and I couldn't stand it." + +The three girls entered the large and imposing drawing room where +Miriam, in a beautiful pink mulle, trimmed with filmy lace insertions, +received them with unusual cordiality; and presently they all repaired +to the dining room where ice cream and strawberries were served with +little cakes with pink icing. It was, as a matter of fact, a pink tea, +and Miriam's cheeks were as pink as her decorations. She looked +particularly excited and happy. Each of the three chums had just +swallowed her last and largest strawberry, saved as a final relish, when +three low notes sounded softly on the piano in the adjoining room. + +In the hum of conversation nobody had noticed David's signal except +Grace and her friends, who strolled into the music room where he was +waiting. + +"Come along," he said, leading the way up the back stairs, "and please +consider this as a special mark of attention from the great inventor who +has never yet made anything go. Where's Anne?" + +"I suppose she is resting," answered Grace. "She had just about reached +the end of her strength to-day." + +"But she'll win the prize, I hope," continued David. + +"We are all sure of it," answered Grace, in emphatic tones. + +David opened the door into his own private quarters, which consisted of +a large workroom with a laboratory attached, where he had once worked on +chemical experiments until he had become interested in flying machines. + +"Here they are," he exclaimed, walking over to a large table in the +workroom. "I have three models, you see, and each one works a little +better than the other. This last one, I believe, will do the business." +He pointed to a graceful little aeroplane made of bamboo sticks and rice +paper. + +"Isn't it sweet?" exclaimed the girls in unison. + +"And it has a name, too," continued David unabashed. "I've called her +'Anne,' because, while she's such a small, unpretentious-looking little +craft, she can soar to such heights. There is not room here to show you +how good she is, but we'll have another gymnasium seance some day soon, +Anne must come and see her namesake." + +"There!" cried Grace in a tone of annoyance. "I have jagged a big place +in my dress, David Nesbit, on a nail in your table. Why do you have such +things about to destroy people's clothes?" + +"But nobody who wears dresses ever comes in here," protested David, +"except mother and the maid, and they know better than to come near this +table. Can't I do something? Glue it together or mend it with a piece of +sticking plaster?" + +"No, indeed," answered the girl. "Just get me a needle and thread, +please. I don't want to go downstairs with such a hideous rent in my +dress." + +"Why, of course," assented David. "Why didn't I think of it sooner? +Mother will fix you up," and he opened the door into the hall and called +"mother!" + +Mrs. Nesbit came hurrying in. She never waited to be called twice by her +son, who was the apple of her eye. + +"My dear Grace," she exclaimed when she saw the tear, "this is too bad. +Come right into my room and I'll mend it for you." + +So it happened that Grace was presently seated in an armchair in Mrs. +Nesbit's bedroom, while the good-natured woman whipped together the +jagged edges of the rent. + +"What a beautiful box you have, Mrs. Nesbit," said Grace, pointing to a +large carved box on the dressing table. + +"Do you like it?" replied the other. "I'm fond of it, probably because I +was so happy when I bought it years ago while traveling abroad with my +husband. It smells as sweet as it did when it was new," she added, +placing the box in Grace's lap. + +Nora and Jessica, who had been hovering about the room, now came over to +see the sweet-scented box. How strangely familiar was that pungent +perfume which floated up to them. Where had they smelled it before? + +"It is made of carved sandalwood," continued Mrs. Nesbit, opening the +lid, "and I have always kept my handkerchiefs in it, you see----" + +"Mother!" called David's voice from the hall, and Mrs. Nesbit left the +room for a moment. + +"Sandalwood!" gasped Grace. + +Yes, it was the same perfume that now faintly scented the famous +handkerchief. + +There was a pile of handkerchiefs in the box. Grace lifted the top one +and sniffed at it. She examined the border carefully and the texture. + +"It looks like stealing," she whispered, "but I must have this +handkerchief. I'll return it afterwards," and she slipped the +handkerchief into her belt. + +Nora and Jessica had exchanged significant glances, while Nora's lips +had formed the words, "exactly like the other one." + +In the meantime Miss Thompson had been closeted with Anne Pierson for +half an hour in the principal's office. By special request she had +arranged to have Anne's examination papers looked over immediately and +sent to her. The papers were therefore the first to receive attention +from each teacher, and were then turned over to Miss Thompson, who +hurried with them into her office and locked the door behind her. + +"It would be a pity if they were too perfect," she said to herself. +"That would tell very much against Anne, I fear." + +But, as her eyes ran over them, she shook her head dubiously. They were +marvels of neatness and not one cross or written comment marred their +perfection. At the foot of each sheet the word "perfect" had been +written. Some of the teachers had even added notes stating that no +errors of any sort had been found, while one professor had paid Anne the +very high compliment of stating that the perfection of her examination +papers had not been a surprise. Never in that teacher's experience had +he taught a more brilliant pupil. Miss Thompson looked with interest at +the algebra papers. If this had not come up, she thought, Miss Leece +would certainly have managed to find a flaw somewhere, even if she had +had to invent one. But under the circumstances, it was more to that wily +woman's purpose to give Anne her due. For Miss Leece knew that a perfect +examination paper would tell more against the young girl than for her. + +It was after this that Miss Thompson had her talk with Anne, a very +kindly, interested talk, in which the young girl's prospects, her work +and health had all come under consideration. And then in the gentlest +possible way Miss Thompson had produced the letter. + +"Is this yours, Anne?" she asked. + +Anne started violently. + +"O Miss Thompson," she cried, making a great effort to keep back her +tears, "where did you find it? I spent one entire afternoon here looking +for it. It was the very day you and Miss Leece were here." + +"Oh, you saw us then," replied the principal. "And where were you?" + +"I was outside on the steps," replied Anne. "Didn't Miss Leece mention +it? She looked up and saw me just as you unlocked the door. Then the +other door slammed and some one hurried down the passage. I saw her, +too, but----" + +"But what, Anne?" asked the principal slowly. + +"But I am not sure who it was." + +"Have you an idea?" + +"I could only guess from the outline of her figure," replied Anne. "And +it wouldn't be fair to tell her name unless I had seen her plainly. It +might have been some one else." + +Anne had a suspicion that something had happened, and that Miss Thompson +had brought her here to find out what she knew. But she never dreamed +that she herself was under suspicion. + +One thing had struck Miss Thompson very forcibly. Miss Leece had known +all along that Anne was on the staircase at the very moment the other +person was slamming the door in their faces. And yet Miss Leece was +determined to condemn Anne to the faculty that very night. She had said +so in as many words, in defiance of the principal's arguments against +such a course. + +"Well, good night, my child," she said at last, giving Anne a motherly +kiss. "You have done a good winter's work and I am proud of you." + +Anne hurried away, clutching the letter in her hand. She wondered if +Miss Thompson had read it, and somehow she didn't mind so much after +all. The principal seemed to her the very embodiment of all that was +good and kind. + +Miss Thompson was destined to have several callers that afternoon. In a +few moments Grace hurried in, breathless and excited. + +"Look at that, Miss Thompson," cried the girl, thrusting a handkerchief +into her hand. "Look at it and smell it." + +"Well," replied the principal, "I've seen it before and smelled it +before, too. Only you've had it washed and ironed, haven't you!" + +Grace took a crumpled handkerchief from her pocket. + +"Here's the real one," she cried triumphantly. + +The two handkerchiefs were certainly identical in shape and material and +both were perfumed with sandalwood. + +"Where did you get this one?" demanded the principal. + +"From Mrs. Nesbit's sandalwood handkerchief box," whispered Grace +slowly. + +"You think it was then----?" + +"Yes," replied Grace. "I'm certain of it. It's as plain as daylight. She +borrowed her mother's handkerchief." + +"Dear, dear!" exclaimed the principal. "How very foolish! How very +unnecessary! And all because she couldn't endure to be beaten! Do you +know," she continued presently, "that Miss Leece intends to denounce +Anne before the faculty to-night? My authority can't stop her, and I +don't believe the similarity of these two handkerchiefs will either." + +"Miss Thompson," exclaimed Grace, "I tell you I know perfectly well that +woman is going to try to ruin Anne for the sake of Miriam. I have known +it for months. Why, at Mrs. Gray's Christmas party she did a thing that +is too outrageous to believe," and here Grace opened a bundle she had +brought with her and produced the marionette of James Pierson. + +Miss Thompson was shocked at the recital of the story. She, too, +recognized the green silk tie, although she had no recollection of +Miriam's red velveteen suit, a piece of which formed the waistcoat. But +there was something about that green silk which stuck in the memory. +Probably because it was so ugly, having a semi-invisible yellow line +running through it. + +"Yes," she said, "I remember it very well. It was the trimming on a +blouse Miss Leece wore last autumn. I do not believe anyone could forget +such a hideous piece of material." + +Miss Thompson paused a moment and considered. + +"My dear," she continued presently, "I believe this is all I shall need +to confront Miss Leece with. Your bringing it to me at this moment shows +most excellent judgment. It may prevent a painful scandal in the school, +as well as saving Anne from disgrace. As for the two handkerchiefs, the +evidence is too slight to make any open accusations; but at any rate you +may leave both with me. I may need them in my interview with Miss Leece. +I may as well tell you I am anticipating a pretty stiff battle with her. +I don't believe I should have won with only the handkerchiefs." + +"Oh, I hope we can save Anne, Miss Thompson," cried Grace. + +"I earnestly hope so, too," replied the principal. "It would be too +heart breaking to have the child go down under this false accusation; +and aside from that, such scandals are bad for the school and I would +rather deal with them privately than have them made public. But run +along now, dear. You have done nobly and deserve a prize yourself." + +A knock was heard, and as Grace departed through one door Miss Leece +opened the other. + +"If Miss Thompson only wins this battle!" the young girl exclaimed to +herself. "I want to believe she will, but I know that terrible Miss +Leece will make a tremendous fight." + +She joined her friends, who were waiting for her outside. + +"Girls," she cried, "pray for Anne to-night!" + +Nora, good little Catholic that she was, went straight to her church and +burned two candles before the altar of the Holy Virgin, while she +offered up a humble petition for Anne's deliverance; while Grace and +Jessica, in their own bedrooms, that night prayed reverently and +earnestly that Anne might be saved from her enemies. Thus were Anne's +three devoted friends working and praying for her while she slept the +sleep of exhaustion. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE FRESHMAN PRIZE + + +Graduation night in Oakdale High School was one of the great social +events of the year. The floor and galleries of Assembly Hall were +invariably packed with an enthusiastic audience; for the two schools +united at the ceremony of graduation and the senior class formed a mixed +company on the stage. + +Most of the pupils attended commencement and the freshman class of the +Girls' High School was always there in full to witness the triumph of +one of its members, who was called forth from the audience to receive +the usual freshman prize of twenty-five dollars. + +The identity of the winner was always kept a secret until the great +night, when she was summoned from the audience to the stage and +presented with the money before the entire assembly. + +The readers can imagine, therefore, the uncertainty and trepidation that +fluttered in the hearts of our four girls as they sat together in the +center of the great hall. Anne had passed through a dozen stages of +emotions, both hopeful and otherwise, and had finally steeled herself to +give up all thought of winning either of the prizes. + +Miriam, confident and handsome, sat near them. She wore a beautiful +white dress trimmed with lace, and her thick, black plaits were twisted +around her head like a coronet. + +"She's all dressed up to step up on the stage and get her twenty-five," +whispered Nora to Jessica. + +"Perhaps she already knows she's going to get it," answered Jessica +doubtfully. "Perhaps Miss Leece has told her." + +"If Miss Leece knew it, she would certainly have told her," answered +Grace, leaning over so that Anne could not hear her; "but I feel sure +Miss Thompson has managed it somehow, although I kept hoping all day she +would send me a note or something. It may be she hated to tell me the +bad news." + +Hippy Wingate and Reddy Brooks came down the aisle in immaculate attire. +David followed behind, pale and silent. + +Did David suspect anything about his sister? Grace wondered. Certainly +he had directly or indirectly been the means of balking every one of +Miriam's schemes for injuring Anne. Perhaps Miriam had told him she was +to win the prize, and he was thinking of Anne's disappointment. All +three boys paused when they saw their friends of the Christmas house +party. Hippy leaned over to say: + +"Hello, girls! Can you guess what has brought us here to-night, all +dressed up in our best?" + +"Not unless it was to show off your clothes," replied Nora. + +"To see Miss Anne Pierson win the freshman prize. Simply that, and +nothing more." + +"But I don't expect to win it, Hippy," protested Anne. + +"If you don't, you aren't the girl we took you for, then," replied +Hippy. "I heard from a young person in your class that you hadn't made a +mistake in six months." + +"But just as many people think Miriam will win," said Anne. "Look at all +the people congratulating her already." + +Surely enough Miriam's friends had rallied around her at the final test, +and numbers of girls and boys and grown people, too, were already +prophesying victory. + +Just then the audience composed itself, for the exercises were about to +begin. Soft music was heard and the graduates filed out and took their +seats. + +Immediately they were seated, Mrs. Gray, in a beautiful lavender silk +gown and a white lace bonnet trimmed with violets, swept down the aisle, +bowing and smiling right and left. + +"Girls!" cried Grace delightedly, looking over her shoulder, "guess who +is with our precious little Mrs. Gray?" + +"Tom Gray!" cried the others in unison, just as Tom Gray himself +appeared opposite them and waved his hat, regardless of the many eyes +fastened upon him, for Mrs. Gray was an important personage not only at +these annual assemblages, but in Oakdale itself, of which she had always +been a most generous and loyal citizen. + +Mrs. Gray nodded cordially when she saw the girls, but shook her head +over Anne's pale, drawn little face. + +As the ceremonies proceeded after the opening prayer, Anne felt herself +drifting further and further away. She was a little boat on a troubled, +restless sea, with the noise of the waves in her head, and only +occasionally did she hear some one's voice reading a graduating essay or +making a speech--she couldn't tell which. She remembered there was a +piano solo, very loud and crashing, it seemed to her, and there was a +tremendous humming sound. The sea was growing very rough, she thought. A +storm was brewing somewhere. Then the wind died down again, there was a +complete and utter silence and she seemed to be entirely alone. + +"I have great pleasure in announcing," she dimly heard a voice say, +"that the annual freshman prize, so generously donated always by Mrs. +Gray, is awarded this year to one of the most brilliant and remarkable +pupils who has ever studied in Oakdale High School. My language, in this +instance, may appear to be rather extravagant, but the pupil, who has +been under the eye of the faculty for many months because of her most +excellent standing, has achieved a unique success in the history of the +school. I may say that she has turned in a set of examination papers +absolutely perfect in every detail, and it is with real delight I +announce that she has won not only the usual smaller prize of +twenty-five dollars, but the premium always offered at the same time, +but never before won by any pupil of this school, of one hundred +dollars, for a flawless examination. I would, therefore, ask Miss Anne +Pierson to come to the platform, that I may have the honor of delivering +both prizes to her." + +Such a shout as arose after this remarkable speech had never before been +heard at a high school graduation. The freshman class was fairly mad +with joy, while Hippy and Reddy yelled themselves hoarse. + +"Anne!" cried Grace. "Wake up, Anne! Are you asleep, child? Go up to the +platform. Miss Thompson is waiting for you." + +Tears of joy and relief were rolling down Grace's cheeks as she urged +Anne to rise from her seat. + +Anne stood up, half dazed, still wondering what it was all about, and +made her way through a sea of faces to the platform. + +"Hurrah!" roared the pupils of the High School in one voice. + +"Hi-hi-hi! Hi-hi-hi! Oakdale, Oakdale, HIGH SCHOOL!" + +This was an honor usually accorded only to football and baseball heroes. + +When Anne reached the platform she appeared so small and plain, in her +simple white muslin frock, that people looked at her wonderingly. It was +not everyone in Oakdale who was familiar with the little, dark-haired +girl. + +"My dear," said Miss Thompson, very handsome and imposing in a gray silk +dress, "I am happy to be the one to hand you these two prizes. You have +worked hard and richly deserve them both. I am sure everyone in this +house to-night is glad that your winter's unceasing labors are crowned +with success, and I now recommend you to take a good rest, for such +prizes are only earned by earnest and hard application, and hard work +carries with it, sometimes, its own penalty." (She placed special +emphasis on these last words.) "You have indeed earned the right to a +happy vacation." + +Two bouquets were handed over the footlights at this point, one a +beautiful bunch of pink roses and the other of lilies of the valley. + +Mrs. Gray had sent the roses Grace felt sure. It was her custom always +to send such a bouquet to the one who carried off the prize. But who had +sent the lilies of the valley? + +"Very likely David," Grace said to herself, watching the boy's face as +Anne took the flowers from the usher. + +Had he known then that his sister had lost the prize, or was his faith +in Anne so great? + +But something had happened. + +Suddenly the waves, which for the last half hour had been roaring and +tossing about Anne, seemed to submerge her completely. She felt a horrid +sensation of sickness for a moment; and then down, down she sank to the +bottom of nothing, carrying her flowers and prizes with her. + +"She's fainted!" cried some one. "The poor, little, tired girl has +fainted!" + +A tall young graduate picked up the small, limp figure and carried her +off the stage as easily as if she had been a child. The closing +exercises were then resumed, the benediction pronounced and the audience +filed out somewhat silently. + +Grace and her friends hurried around behind the scenes, where they found +Mrs. Gray in the act of placing a smelling-salts bottle to Anne's +nostrils, while Tom Gray and David Nesbit were cooling her temples with +lumps of ice. "She is conscious at last!" exclaimed the old lady, as +Anne opened her eyes. "It was entirely too much excitement for this +delicate, worn-out child. Tom, order the carriage. I mean to take her +straight to my own house and nurse her myself. I am the only person in +this town who has time to give her all the care and attention she needs. +I feel like such a lazy, good-for-nothing old woman when I see all these +bright young people winning prizes and doing so many clever things." + +"How you do go on, Mrs. Gray," said David. "You know very well you are +the brightest, youngest and prettiest girl in Oakdale." + +Anne sat up at this moment, and looked into the faces of her best +friends leaning over her anxiously. + +"I thought the boat capsized just as I was about to win the race," she +said faintly. + +"The little boat did capsize, dear," answered Mrs. Gray gently, "but not +until after you had won the race. And now, if you are well enough to let +this strong nephew of mine carry you, we are going to take you right +home. Are all my Christmas children here?" she continued, looking about +her. Hippy and Reddy had joined the group just then. "Yes, here you are. +Tom and I can't take you all up in the carriage, but I want you to +follow us, if your parents and guardians have no objections. I have +arranged a little supper to celebrate Anne's victory. I am sorry she +can't come to her own party, but she may hear all about it afterwards +and the rest of you shall make merry for her." + +Not long after, six young people strolled up Chapel Hill in the +moonlight, talking gayly of the happy days they had spent together with +Mrs. Gray; for Richards, the burglar, seemed now a sort of joke to them, +and even the terrible recollection of the wolves was softened by time, +and they could only laugh at poor Hippy's plight when his breath gave +out and his legs refused their office. + +"Oh, well," exclaimed Hippy, pretending to be much offended, "it is a +very good idea to remember only the funny things and forget the +dangerous ones, when all's said and done. But if I'd have had a stroke +of apoplexy just as that young lady wolf began to lick my heels, you +wouldn't have been so merry over the recollection." + +"Well," retorted Nora, "we would have been just about going into half +mourning, by now, and that's always a cheerful thought." + +"Grace," whispered Jessica, taking advantage of the talk of the others +not to be overheard, "did you notice Miriam when Miss Thompson began her +speech?" + +"No," answered Grace, "I was too intent upon Anne to look at Miriam. +Why?" + +"Well," continued Jessica, "you remember that Miss Thompson mentioned no +names until almost the very end of the speech!" + +"Yes," answered the other; "I remember it particularly, because I kept +wishing she would hurry and get to the point." + +"Exactly," went on Jessica, "and Miriam thought she had won the prize." + +"How do you know, Jessica! How could you tell?" + +"Oh, in a hundred different ways. I could tell by the smile on her face +that she took every compliment to herself. Lots of people were watching +her, too, and I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her, because +she is one of those people who just can't stand losing. When Miss +Thompson reached the place where she was about to ask Anne to step up +and get the prize, Miriam half rose in her seat. Mrs. Nesbit pulled her +back in the nick of time. I honestly believe she would have reached the +stage before Anne did, if her mother hadn't stopped her. Hippy told me +they left before the benediction. I suppose Miriam was not equal to the +mortification." + +"I thought perhaps Miss Thompson would have mentioned her name as coming +second in the contest," said Grace. "She usually does, you know. But +there were good reasons, and plenty, why she shouldn't this time, I +suppose. And to think, Jessica, that Miriam need never have done that +dreadful thing. She would probably have passed second in the class +anyway, and copying the papers didn't help her one little bit." + +Mrs. Gray reported Anne to be much better. She had taken some nourishing +broth and gone to bed, and she was at that moment sleeping soundly. + +So there was no cause for anything but good cheer at the supper party. + +And here let us leave them around Mrs. Gray's hospitable table. For, is +it not better to say farewell rejoicing so that no shadows may darken +the memory we shall carry with us during the long months of separation? + +Before Oakdale High School welcomes her children back again, David will +sail abroad with his mother and sister; Grace and Anne will set off for +the country to visit Grace's grandmother; the others and their families +will scatter to various summer resorts, while Mrs. Gray will seek a cool +spot in the mountains. + +However, in the next volume, which will be entitled, "Grace +Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School; Or, the Record of the Girl +Chums in Work and Athletics," we shall again meet the four girls and +their friends. This book, the record of the girl chums in athletics, +tells of the exciting rivalries of the sophomore and junior basketball +teams, culminating in a final hard-fought battle. Again Grace Harlowe +distinguishes herself by her bravery and good judgment, and again Miriam +Nesbit will do her best to thwart her at every point. And we may learn +what Anne Pierson did with the prize money. + + +THE END. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S + +CATALOGUE OF + +The Best and Least Expensive Books for Real Boys and Girls + +Really good and new stories for boys and girls are not plentiful. Many +stories, too, are so highly improbable as to bring a grin of derision to +the young reader's face before he has gone far. The name of ALTEMUS is a +distinctive brand on the cover of a book, always ensuring the buyer of +having a book that is up-to-date and fine throughout. No buyer of an +ALTEMUS book is ever disappointed. + +Many are the claims made as to the inexpensiveness of books. Go into any +bookstore and ask for an Altemus book. Compare the price charged you for +Altemus books with the price demanded for other juvenile books. You will +at once discover that a given outlay of money will buy more of the +ALTEMUS books than of those published by other houses. + +Every dealer in books carries the ALTEMUS books. + +Sold by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price + +Henry Altemus Company + +1326-1336 Vine Street, Philadelphia + + + + +The Motor Boat Club Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The keynote of these books is manliness. The stories are wonderfully +entertaining, and they are at the same time sound and wholesome. No boy +will willingly lay down an unfinished book in this series. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OF THE KENNEBEC; + Or, The Secret of Smugglers' Island. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT NANTUCKET; + Or, The Mystery of the Dunstan Heir. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OFF LONG ISLAND; + Or, A Daring Marine Game at Racing Speed. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AND THE WIRELESS; + Or, The Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB IN FLORIDA; + Or, Laying the Ghost of Alligator Swamp. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT THE GOLDEN GATE; + Or, A Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog. + + THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB ON THE GREAT LAKES; + Or, The Flying Dutchman of the Big Fresh Water. + + + + +The Range and Grange Hustlers + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +Have you any idea of the excitements, the glories of life on great +ranches in the West? Any bright boy will "devour" the books of this +series, once he has made a start with the first volume. + + THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE RANCH; + Or, The Boy Shepherds of the Great Divide. + + THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS' GREATEST ROUND-UP; + Or, Pitting Their Wits Against a Packers' Combine. + + THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE PLAINS; + Or, Following the Steam Plows Across the Prairie. + + THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS AT CHICAGO; + Or, The Conspiracy of the Wheat Pit. + + + + +Submarine Boys Series + +By VICTOR G. DURHAM + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS ON DUTY; + Or, Life on a Diving Torpedo Boat. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS' TRIAL TRIP; + Or, "Making Good" as Young Experts. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE MIDDIES; + Or, The Prize Detail at Annapolis. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SPIES; + Or, Dodging the Sharks of the Deep. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS' LIGHTNING CRUISE; + Or, The Young Kings of the Deep. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG; + Or, Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam. + + THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SMUGGLERS; + Or, Breaking Up the New Jersey Customs Frauds. + + + + +The Square Dollar Boys Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + + THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS WAKE UP; + Or, Fighting the Trolley Franchise Steal. + + THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS SMASH THE RING; + Or, In the Lists Against the Crooked Land Deal. + + + + +The College Girls Series + +By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A.M. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S FIRST YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S SECOND YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S THIRD YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S FOURTH YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S RETURN TO OVERTON CAMPUS. + + + + +Dave Darrin Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + + DAVE DARRIN AT VERA CRUZ; + Or, Fighting With the U. S. Navy in Mexico. + + + + +Pony Rider Boys Series + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +These tales may be aptly described the best books for boys and girls. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ROCKIES; + Or, The Secret of the Lost Claim. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN TEXAS; + Or, The Veiled Riddle of the Plains. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA; + Or, The Mystery of the Old Custer Trail. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE OZARKS; + Or, The Secret of Ruby Mountain. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ALKALI; + Or, Finding a Key to the Desert Maze. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN NEW MEXICO; + Or, The End of the Silver Trail. + + THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE GRAND CANYON; + Or, The Mystery of Bright Angel Gulch. + + + + +The Boys of Steel Series + +By JAMES R. MEARS + +Each book presents vivid picture of this great industry. Each story is +full of adventure and fascination. + + THE IRON BOYS IN THE MINES; + Or, Starting at the Bottom of the Shaft. + + THE IRON BOYS AS FOREMEN; + Or, Heading the Diamond Drill Shift + + THE IRON BOYS ON THE ORE BOATS; + Or, Roughing It on the Great Lakes. + + THE IRON BOYS IN THE STEEL MILLS; + Or, Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits. + + + + +The Madge Morton Books + +By AMY D. V. CHALMERS + + MADGE MORTON--CAPTAIN OF THE MERRY MAID. + + MADGE MORTON'S SECRET. + + MADGE MORTON'S TRUST. + + MADGE MORTON'S VICTORY. + + + + +West Point Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The principal characters in these narratives are manly, young Americans +whose doings will inspire all boy readers. + + DICK PRESCOTT'S FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT; + Or, Two Chums in the Cadet Gray. + + DICK PRESCOTT'S SECOND YEAR AT WEST POINT; + Or, Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life. + + DICK PRESCOTT'S THIRD YEAR AT WEST POINT; + Or, Standing Firm for Flag and Honor. + + DICK PRESCOTT'S FOURTH YEAR AT WEST POINT; + Or, Ready to Drop the Gray for Shoulder Straps. + + + + +Annapolis Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The Spirit of the new Navy is delightfully and truthfully depicted in +these volumes. + + DAVE DARRIN'S FIRST YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; + Or, Two Plebe Midshipmen at the U. S. Naval Academy. + + DAVE DARRIN'S SECOND YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; + Or, Two Midshipmen as Naval Academy "Youngsters." + + DAVE DARRIN'S THIRD YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; + Or, Leaders of the Second Class Midshipmen. + + DAVE DARRIN'S FOURTH YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; + Or, Headed for Graduation and the Big Cruise. + + + + +The Young Engineers Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +The heroes of these stories are known to readers of the High School Boys +Series. In this new series Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton prove worthy of +all the traditions of Dick & Co. + + THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN COLORADO; + Or, At Railroad Building in Earnest. + + THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN ARIZONA; + Or, Laying Tracks on the "Man-Killer" Quicksand. + + THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN NEVADA; + Or, Seeking Fortune on the Turn of a Pick. + + THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN MEXICO; + Or, Fighting the Mine Swindlers. + + + + +Boys of the Army Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +These books breathe the life and spirit of the United States Army of +to-day, and the life, just as it is, is described by a master pen. + + UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS; + Or, Two Recruits in the United States Army. + + UNCLE SAM'S BOYS ON FIELD DUTY; + Or, Winning Corporal's Chevrons. + + UNCLE SAM'S BOYS AS SERGEANTS; + Or, Handling Their First Real Commands. + + UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE PHILIPPINES; + Or, Following the Flag Against the Moros. + + + + +Battleship Boys Series + +By FRANK GEE PATCHIN + +These stories throb with the life of young Americans on to-day's huge +drab Dreadnaughts. + + THE BATTLESHIP BOYS AT SEA; + Or, Two Apprentices in Uncle Sam's Navy. + + THE BATTLESHIP BOYS FIRST STEP UPWARD; + Or, Winning Their Grades as Petty Officers. + + THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN FOREIGN SERVICE; + Or, Earning New Ratings in European Seas. + + THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN THE TROPICS; + Or, Upholding the American Flag in a Honduras Revolution. + + + + +The Meadow-Brook Girls Series + +By JANET ALDRIDGE + +Real live stories pulsing with the vibrant atmosphere of outdoor life. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS AFLOAT. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS IN THE HILLS. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS BY THE SEA. + + THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ON THE TENNIS COURTS. + + + + +High School Boys Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +In this series of bright, crisp books a new note has been struck. Boys +of every age under sixty will be interested in these fascinating +volumes. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN; + Or, Dick & Co.'s First Year Pranks and Sports. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL PITCHER; + Or, Dick & Co. on the Gridley Diamond. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL LEFT END; + Or, Dick & Co. Grilling on the Football Gridiron. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM; + Or, Dick & Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard. + + + + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +This series of stories, based on the actual doings of grammar school +boys, comes near to the heart of the average American boy. + + THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS OF GRIDLEY; + Or, Dick & Co. Start Things Moving. + + THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS SNOWBOUND; + Or, Dick & Co. at Winter Sports. + + THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN THE WOODS; + Or, Dick & Co. Trail Fun and Knowledge. + + THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER ATHLETICS; + Or, Dick & Co. Make Their Fame Secure. + + + + +High School Boys' Vacation Series + +By H. IRVING HANCOCK + +"Give us more Dick Prescott books!" + +This has been the burden of the cry from young readers of the country +over. Almost numberless letters have been received by the publishers, +making this eager demand; for Dick Prescott, Dave Darrin, Tom Reade, and +the other members of Dick & Co. are the most popular high school boys in +the land. Boys will alternately thrill and chuckle when reading these +splendid narratives. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' CANOE CLUB; + Or, Dick & Co.'s Rivals on Lake Pleasant. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER CAMP; + Or, The Dick Prescott Six Training for the Gridley Eleven. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' FISHING TRIP; + Or, Dick & Co. in the Wilderness. + + THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' TRAINING HIKE; + Or, Dick & Co. Making Themselves "Hard as Nails." + + + + +The Circus Boys Series + +By EDGAR B. P. DARLINGTON + +Mr. Darlington's books breathe forth every phase of an intensely +interesting and exciting life. + + THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE FLYING RINGS; + Or, Making the Start in the Sawdust Life. + + THE CIRCUS BOYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT; + Or, Winning New Laurels on the Tanbark. + + THE CIRCUS BOYS IN DIXIE LAND; + Or, Winning the Plaudits of the Sunny South. + + THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI; + Or, Afloat with the Big Show on the Big River. + + + + +The High School Girls Series + +By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. + +These breezy stories of the American High School Girl take the reader +fairly by storm. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshman Girls. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S SOPHOMORE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, The Record of the Girl Chums in Work and Athletics. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S JUNIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, Fast Friends in the Sororities. + + GRACE HARLOWE'S SENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; + Or, The Parting of the Ways. + + + + +The Automobile Girls Series + +By LAURA DENT CRANE + +No girl's library--no family book-case can be considered at all complete +unless it contains these sparkling twentieth-century books. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT NEWPORT; + Or, Watching the Summer Parade. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS IN THE BERKSHIRES; + Or, The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS ALONG THE HUDSON; + Or, Fighting Fire in Sleepy Hollow. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT CHICAGO; + Or, Winning Out Against Heavy Odds. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT PALM BEACH; + Or, Proving Their Mettle Under Southern Skies. + + THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT WASHINGTON; + Or, Checkmating the Plots of Foreign Spies. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High +School, by Jessie Graham Flower + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR *** + +***** This file should be named 20472.txt or 20472.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/4/7/20472/ + +Produced by David Newman, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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