by Oliver Optic
III
THE RESCUE
Brenda started for school a little later than usual the morning afterJulia's arrival. As she walked up Beacon Street she saw Edith and Noraahead of her, half-way up the slope on the sidewalk next the Common.
"Oh, dear, they might look back," she said to herself. But they neitherlooked back nor paused on their way, and Brenda was prevented fromhurrying by a line of wagons and street cars which blocked CharlesStreet. She was kept standing for two or three minutes at the streetcrossing, and when she continued her way Edith and Nora had turned intothe side street leading to the school. When Brenda reached the schooldoor, Belle was the centre of a group of girls seated on the steps.
"Why didn't you call for me, Belle?" cried Brenda petulantly.
"Oh, I had to do some errands on the way, and I thought, too, that youwould stay home with your cousin."
"Well! I should say not. I shall see enough of her."
"Tell us about her, Brenda," cried Nora who came out from the house fora moment. "Belle says she has come. What _is_ she like?"
"Like? Why, like any girl. There's nothing special about her. She wearsblack and I think she feels kind of superior. It's going to be awfullyhard for me."
"Yes, Brenda," said a thin-faced girl in the group back by Belle. "Youdon't think any one could be superior to you, do you?"
Brenda, with her back to the sidewalk, was ready with a sharp reply,when a warning look from one of the girls closed her lips.
"Why, girls," said a cheerful voice behind her, "ought you not to goinside now? You should be in your seats by twenty minutes past nine. Ihave said many times that you were not to wait for me."
The girls all respected Miss Crawdon, and they were just a little afraidof her. Her authority was not always agreeable, when she chose to makethem feel it. Miss Crawdon was tall and blonde, with eyes some one said"that saw everything." These were the right kind of eyes for theprincipal of a girls' school. She had a pleasant voice with a tone ofdecision in it that no one dared dispute. At her words the girls seatedon the steps slowly arose, and in a very short time they were at theirdesks, getting out books and preparing for the day's work.
Brenda and Belle occupied adjacent seats. Edith and Nora were in thesame room, though a little nearer the window. They with about ten othergirls formed what might be called the middle class of a school of forty.There were about fifteen older girls who would stay in school one or twoyears longer, while Brenda and her friends had three years before them.At least they would not "come out" for three years.
The older girls naturally kept much to themselves. They "did up" theirhair, wore skirts almost touching the ground, and were in every wayenvied by their juniors. The youngest girls of all concerned themselvesvery slightly about the oldest of all. But the girls of Brenda's ageimitated in many ways the doings of these older girls, and when, asoccasionally happened, one of the graduating class invited a youngergirl to walk with her at recess, the latter for a day or two after wastreated with great deference by her companions.
These oldest girls were not ahead of their schoolmates in all theirstudies. In Latin and mathematics some of them recited with the youngergirls, or it might be fairer to say that some of the brighter younggirls were in the classes with the elder. Edith, for example, was aheadof Brenda in mathematics, and her class almost through geometry, wasplanning to go into trigonometry.
The discipline of the school was not unduly strict, yet after theopening, girls were not expected to speak to one another without specialpermission. In this matter they were put rather on their honor, for nospecial punishment was inflicted for disobedience. A word ofdisapprobation was usually the most severe reproof, although, in rarecases, girls had been kept after school. Nora, whose intentions werealways good, was, of the four friends whom we have been observing, themost likely to break some of the unwritten laws of the school. Shealways saw the funny side of things, and it was very hard for her tokeep still when she wished to share her fun with somebody else. Bellewas no more scrupulous than Nora about observing rules, but she couldwhisper to her neighbor in a quiet way without attracting attention.Edith was really a conscientious, painstaking girl. On this account someof those who did not know her well called her a "bore." Brenda was goodor bad by fits and starts. Sometimes for a week she devoted herself toher lessons. She would then put her finger to her lips when Nora, inpassing her desk, bent over her to tell her some bit of news. She wouldpretend not to understand when Belle laid a small piece of folded paperon her desk, and she would keep her eyes fixed on her books when anyother girl tried to distract her attention. To-day, however, it wasdifferent. In the first place she did not know her lesson very well anddid not feel like studying. In the half-hour in which she was supposedto be doing her Latin exercise her mind constantly wandered, and shecould not help seeing that Belle was anxious to tell her something. Atlength the little wad of paper fell on her desk.
"The tableaux were perfectly splendid! You ought to have been there."
Brenda nodded sadly. Surely this was not kind of Belle, who knew thatonly stern necessity had kept her at home.
"I suppose the tableaux will be as good to-night," and a second notefell on Brenda's desk, "but there won't be half as many people you know.Everybody was there last night. Shall you take Julia?"
Again Brenda nodded, but by this time she was growing impatient. Leaningforward toward Belle's desk, "Keep still, can't you, Belle," sheexclaimed in a voice intended to be a whisper. Unfortunately her voicewas louder than she thought, and she was recalled to herself by MissCrawdon's voice, "Be careful, Brenda," and Brenda applied herself to herbooks until the hour arrived for the Latin lesson.
At recess Belle, pretending not to see Brenda, joined two of the oldergirls and walked with them for the half hour, while Brenda and Nora andEdith sat on the steps.
"Why didn't you know your Latin lesson?" asked Brenda of Edith. "I neverknew you to stumble so, and you couldn't give a single rule."
"Well, you know I didn't study yesterday afternoon. I meant to, but itwas too lovely to go in the house, and then last evening I went to thetableaux. It seemed hard to have to stay home to study though I supposeI should have. You didn't know your own lesson very well, Brenda,although you stayed home all the evening."
"But, you see, I had company----"
"You'll find it hard to do your lessons if you make company of Julia.Isn't she coming to school too?"
"Oh, I guess so. Won't it be hateful to have her in the class above us?"
"Perhaps she won't be. Didn't you say she hadn't been at school much?"
"Oh, girls who have studied at home always think they know more than anyone else. Oh, there, there!" and Brenda paused in her speech as a littlechild playing on the opposite sidewalk ran out into the street in frontof the very wheels of a passing wagon. For a moment all held theirbreath, then Nora with a leap and a run was down the steps and in thestreet. Before the child realized its own danger she had snatched itfrom in front of the horses, and had dragged it to the sidewalk. Theteamster, a rather stupid-looking man, had dismounted from his place.
"Waal, now, the child ain't hurt, I guess," he said to the girl, "Ipulled up as soon as I heard you holler, but it was such a little miteof a thing that I couldn't hardly see it."
"Oh, it wasn't your fault," Brenda and Edith exclaimed. "It ran out soquickly, but if you hadn't stopped your horses, it might have beenkilled."
After assuring himself that the child was not really hurt, the teamsterwent on, the child himself, surrounded by a group of curious girls,clung closely to Nora's hand--a forlorn little thing--with bare feet anda torn pinafore. The mud spattered over his face did not show verydistinctly on his dark skin. One small hand he had thrust into his eye,and behind it the tears were slowly trickling down. Nora held the otherhand, and the child clung to her as if never intending to let go.
"What's your name, little boy?" cried one of the girls.
The child only sobbed.
"Here, A
my, give him a piece of your banana. He looks like an Italianfruit-seller's child. He'll eat a banana."
But the little boy was not to be tempted.
Just then the noon bell sounded from the schoolroom.
"There, Nora, let him go, he'll find his way home," suggested one of thegirls.
"Oh, no, I'm sure he's hurt. Where do you live, little boy?"
Still no reply. The other girls went back into school, while Nora walkedirresolutely toward the door, holding the child's hand. As she stood atthe foot of the steps wondering what to do, Miss Crawdon appeared at thedoor with Brenda and Edith who had hurried to tell her about the child.
"Is the little fellow hurt?" she asked with interest.
"Not really hurt, perhaps, but awfully frightened, and I'm sure hedoesn't live anywhere around here. I don't want to leave him when I gointo school, what _shall_ I do?"
"Don't look so distressed, Nora," said Miss Crawdon smiling. "I'm notsure myself what is best." Then, after a moment's reflection, "You maysend him down to the basement with the janitor, and later I will seewhat can be done."
So Nora, saying all the reassuring things that she could to the child,left him with the janitor, Mr. Brown, although this separation wasaccompanied with loud cries and shrieks on the part of the little boy.
It was very hard for Nora and the others to remain perfectly quietduring the hour and a half that remained of school. They were anxious toexchange questions about the child, to speculate about his home, and Iam sure that the little boy was more in the thoughts of Brenda, Edith,and Nora than their lessons.
Belle had missed the excitement of the morning, for at the moment of theaccident she and the two older girls whom she had joined, were out ofsight of the school walking in another street.
She had returned to the schoolroom hardly half a minute before the endof recess, when there was really no time to ask a question. She did notdare to ask a question of Brenda, who still wore an unamiableexpression.
When half-past one came, however, Brenda and Belle forgot their littledisagreement, and hastened after Nora to learn what she was going to dowith her protege.
"Now, I'll tell you girls, just what I'm going to do. Miss Crawdon saysit will be all right. Brenda and I are going with Mrs. Brown to seewhere Manuel lives--we have found out that his name is Manuel. We canget some luncheon here, and please, please, stop at my house, Belle, andtell my mother, and you, Edith, at Brenda's."
"Why don't you let Mrs. Brown go alone?"
"Oh, it will be so much more fun to go too."
"You can't find his house."
"Oh, yes; it will be somewhere down Hanover Street. Mrs. Brown knows. Ifwe take him there, he'll lead us on. Oh, it will be great fun."
"I don't believe your mother would like you to go without letting herknow."
"Well, I just have to go. I'm sure she won't care."
Though Nora was so confident, Brenda had some misgivings. She knew thatshe really ought to be at home, but the temptation to go with Nora wastoo strong to resist.
So, soon after two o'clock the strange procession began its march towardHanover Street, Manuel walking between Nora and Brenda, while Mrs. Brownbrought up the rear. Manuel was still silent.
"If he were a girl he'd talk more," said Nora.
Manuel showed very little interest in the whole proceeding. In fact heseemed so tired that Mrs. Brown would have carried him had he notresisted her efforts to take him in her arms.