Betty Wales, Senior

by Harriet Pyne Grove

  CHAPTER XVIII

  THE GOING OUT OF 19--

  Next morning came the really important part of commencement,--thegetting of your diploma, or, to speak accurately, the getting ofsomebody's else diploma, which you could exchange for your own later.

  "Let's stand in a big circle," suggested Madeline Ayres, "and pass thediplomas round until each one comes to its owner."

  It wasn't surprising that Eleanor Watson, with her newly acquired dutiesas toastmistress, should keep getting outside the circle to consultvarious toasters and members of the supper committee; but it did seem asif Betty Wales might stay quietly in her place. So thought the girls whohad noticed that Carlotta Young, the last girl in the line that went upfor diplomas had not received any. Carlotta was a "prod"; it was onlybecause she came at the end of the alphabet that she was left out, butthanks to Betty's fly-away fashion of running off to speak to somejunior ushers, and then calling the Blunderbuss, whose mother wanted tosee her a minute, nobody could find out positively who it was that hadbeen "flunked out" of 19--.

  The next excitement took place when the class, strolling over to theStudents' Building to have luncheon with the alumnae--why, they werealumnae themselves now!--met a bright-eyed, brown-haired little girl,walking with a tall young man whose fine face was tanned as brown as anIndian's.

  "Don't you know me, 19--?" called the little girl gaily.

  "Why, it can't be--it is T. Reed!" cried Helen Adams, rushing forward.

  "And her Filipino," shrieked Bob Parker wildly.

  "Of course I came. Do you think I'd have missed my own commencement?"said T., shaking hands with four girls at once. "Frank, this is HelenAdams, my best friend at Harding. Miss Parker, Mr. Howard. I'm sorry,Bob, but he's not a Filipino. He's just a plain American who lives inthe Philippines."

  "Have you forgotten how to play basket ball, T.?" called somebody.

  T. gave a rapturous little smile. "Could we have a game this afternoon?That's what I came for, really. We meant to get here last week, but theboat was late. Yes, I'm sorry to have missed the play and the concert;but it's worth coming for, just to see you all." T.'s bright eyes grewsoft and misty. "I tell you, girls, you don't know what it means to be aHarding girl until you've been half across the world for awhile. No, I'mnot sorry _I_ left, but it's great to be back!"

  Mary Brooks, arrayed in a bewitching summer toilette, stood at the doorof the Students' Building, and managed to intercept Betty and Roberta,as they went in.

  "You may congratulate me now if you like," she said calmly, leading themoff to a secluded corner behind a group of statuary, where theirdemonstrations of interest wouldn't attract too much attention. The newswasn't at all surprising, but Mary looked so pretty and so happy andassured them so solemnly that she had never dreamed of anything of thekind at Christmas, that there was plenty of excitement all the same.

  "And of course I must have posts at my wedding," said Mary, whereatBetty hugged her and Roberta looked more pleased than she had when Mr.Masters called her a genius. "And bridesmaids," added Mary, with theproper feeling for climax. "Laurie is going to be maid-of-honor, and ifyou two can come and be bridesmaids and the rest of the crowdalmost--bridesmaids, in the words of the poetical Roberta----"

  She never finished her sentence for the rest of the crowd had discoveredher retreat, and guessing at the news she had for them bore noisily downupon her.

  "It's so convenient that she's going to be married this summer," saidBabbie jubilantly. "We can have our first reunion at the wedding. Isimply couldn't have waited until June to see you all again."

  "We couldn't any of us have waited," declared Bob. "Somebody else mustget married about Christmas time."

  "Why don't you?" asked Babbie nonchalantly, while Madeline looked hardat Eleanor and wished New York and Denver weren't so dreadfully farapart. For how could Dick Blake, busy editor of "The Quiver," make loveto the most fascinating girl in the world when she lived at thatdistance.

  They had something to eat after a while, sitting on the stairs withMary, while Dr. Hinsdale beamed on them all and brought them salad andices.

  "You mustn't talk about it, you know," Mary explained, "because it won'tbe announced until next week, and you mustn't think of running off andleaving us out here alone."

  "All right," Katherine promised her. "We'll be the mossy bank for yourmodest violet act. Only do try not to look so desperately in love oreverybody who sees you will guess the whole thing, and it will look asif we told."

  Most of the seniors spent the afternoon at the station seeing theirfamilies off, but Betty left hers in Nan's care and went canoeing withDorothy King in Paradise. Dorothy was just as jolly and just as sweet asever. She wanted to know about everything that had happened at Hardingsince she left it, and especially all about Eleanor Watson.

  "You've pulled her through after all, haven't you?" she said.

  "No, she pulled herself through," Betty corrected her. "I only helped alittle, and a lot of others did the same. Why even Jean helped,Dorothy."

  Dorothy laughed. "I can't imagine Jean in that role," she said, "butI'll take your word for it. Let's go and see Miss Ferris."

  Miss Ferris was alone and delighted to see her visitors.

  "Everything has come out right, hasn't it?" she said, smiling intoBetty's radiant face.

  Betty nodded. "Just splendidly. Did you know about Eleanor's beingtoastmistress?"

  "Yes, she came in to tell me herself. What has come over Jean Eastman,Betty?"

  "I don't know," said Betty with a tell-tale blush that made Miss Ferrislaugh and say, "I thought you were at the bottom of it."

  "Dorothy used to be the person who managed things of this kind," shewent on. "Who's going to take your place, Betty?"

  "According to what I hear nobody can do that," said Dorothy quickly, andBetty blushed more than ever, until Miss Ferris took pity on her andasked about her plans for next year.

  Betty looked puzzled. "Why, I haven't any, I'm afraid. I never get achance to make plans, because the things that turn up of themselves takeall my time. I'm just going to be at home with my family."

  "Leave out the 'just,'" advised Miss Ferris. "So many of you seem tofeel as if you ought to apologize for staying at home."

  "Oh, I'm glad to hear you say that," said Betty soberly. "A lot of girlsin our class who don't need to a bit are going to teach, and CarlottaYoung said to me the other day that she thought we all ought to test oureducation in some such way right off, so as to be sure it was reallyworth something."

  "And you are sure about yours without testing it?" asked Miss Ferrisquizzically.

  Betty smiled at her happily. "I'm sure I've got something," she said."I'm afraid Carlotta wouldn't call it much of an education and I know Iought to be ashamed that it isn't more, but I'm awfully glad I've gotit."

  "I'm glad you have, too," said Miss Ferris so earnestly that Bettywondered what she meant. But she didn't get a chance to ask, forsomebody knocked just then and the two girls said good-bye and hurriedoff to dress for their respective class suppers.

  19--'s was held in the big hall of the Students' Building. The juniorushers had trimmed it with red and green bunting, and great bowls of redroses transformed the huge T-shaped table into a giant flower-bed.

  "I hope they haven't more than emptied the treasury for those flowers,"said Babe anxiously, when she saw them.

  "Hardly," Babbie reassured her. "Judge Watson sent the whole lot, so youneedn't worry about your treasury. He consulted me about the color.Isn't he a dear?"

  "Yes, he is," said Bob, "and he evidently thinks his only daughter isanother. Where's the supper-chart?"

  "Out in the hall," explained Babbie, "with the whole class fighting fora chance at it. But I know where we sit. Betty thought we'd better keepthings lively down at the end of the T."

  "Well, I guess, we can do that," said Babe easily. "Where is Betty,anyway?"

  "Here," answered Betty, hurrying up. "And girls, please don't sayanything about it, but non-
graduates don't generally come to the suppersand the seating committee forgot about T. Reed, so she hasn't anyplace."

  "The idea!" cried Bob indignantly. "But she can have Eleanor's seat."

  Betty hesitated. "No, because they changed the chart after they heardabout Christy's not coming. But Cora Thorne is sick, so I'm going to letT. have my seat, right among you girls that she used to know----"

  "You're not going to do anything of the kind," declared Babbie hotly."Shove everybody along one place, or else put in a seat for T."

  "The chairs are too close together now and Cora's place is way around atthe other end. It would make too much confusion to move so many people.Here comes T. now. I shall be almost opposite Eleanor and Katherine, andI don't mind one bit."

  So it happened that Betty Wales ate her class supper between ClaraMadison and the fat Miss Austin, and enjoyed it as thoroughly as if shehad been where she belonged, between Babbie and Roberta. The supperwasn't very good--suppers for two hundred and fifty people seldomare--but the talk and the jokes, the toasts and the histories, Eleanor'sradiant face at the head of the table, the spirit of jollity andgood-fellowship everywhere,--these were good enough to make up. Besides,it was the last time they would all be together. Betty hadn't realizedbefore how much she cared for them all--for the big indiscriminate massof the class that she had worked and played with these four years. Shehad expected to miss her best friends, but now, as she looked down thelong tables, she saw so many others that she should miss. Yes, sheshould miss them all from the fat Miss Austin who was so delighted to besitting beside her to the serious-minded Carlotta Young, with hertheories about testing your education.

  Katherine was reading the freshman history, hitting off the reception,with its bewildering gaiety and its terrifying grind-book, those firsthorrible midyears, made even more frightful by Mary Brooks's rumor, thebasket-ball game--when that was mentioned they made T. Reed stand on herchair to be cheered, and then they cheered the rest of the team, who, asKatherine said, "had marched so gallantly to a glorious defeat." AsChristy wasn't there, somebody read her letter, which explained that hermother was better but that the twins had come down with the measles andChristy was "standing by the ship." So they cheered the plucky letterand then they sang to its author.

  "Oh, here's to our Christine, We love her though unseen, Drink her down, drink her down, Drink her down, down, down!"

  When the team was finally allowed to sit down, Katherine went on to thejoys of spring-term, with its golf and tennis, its Mary-bird club andits tumultuous packing and partings. When she had finished and beenapplauded and sung to, and finally allowed to sit down and eat a verycold croquette, Betty looked over at Emily Davis and the next minutefor no reason at all she found herself winking back the tears. She hadhad such a good time that year and K. had picked out just the comicallittle things that made you remember the others that she hadn'tmentioned.

  Little Alice Waite was toasting the cast. Alice was no orator. Shestammered and hesitated and made you think she was going to break down,but she always ended by saying or doing something that brought down thehouse.

  "I think you ought to have given this toast to somebody else," she beganinnocently. "I can't act, and I can't speak either, as it happens.Besides words speak louder than actions. No, I mean actions speak louderthan words, so I will let the cast toast themselves."

  "Roast themselves, you mean," said Katherine, pushing back her chair.

  And then began a clever burlesque of the casket scene in which Gratianoplayed Portia's part, Shylock was Nerissa, Gobbo Bassanio, and Jessicathe Prince of Morocco. Next Alice called for the Gobbos and Portia andthe Prince of Morocco "stood forth" and went through a solemn travestyof the scene between the father and son that left the class faint andspeechless with laughter.

  Then there were more toasts and when the coffee had been served theymade the engaged girls run around the table. Betty was sorry then thatshe wasn't in her own place, to help get Babbie Hildreth started. Herfriends were all sure that she was engaged and she had hinted that shemight tell them more about it at class-supper, but now she denied it asstoutly as ever. Finally Bob settled the question by getting up andrunning in her place,--a non-committal proceeding that delightedeverybody.

  After that came the last toast, "Our esprit de corps." Kate Denise hadit, for no reason that Betty could see unless Christy had wanted to showKate that the class understood the difference between her and the otherHill girls. And then Kate was one of 19--'s best speakers and so coulddo justice to the subject.

  "I think we ought to drink this toast standing," she began. "We've drunkto the cast and the team, to our presidents, our engaged girls, ourfaculty. Now I ask you to drink to the very greatest pride and honor ofthis class,--to the way we've always stood together, to the way we standtogether to-night, to the way we shall stand together in the future, nomatter where we go or what we do. It's not every class that can put thistoast on its supper-card. Not every class knows what it means to be run,not in the interest of a clique or by a few leading spirits, but by thegood-feeling of the whole big class. And so I ask you to drink one moretoast--to the girl who started this feeling of good-fellowship at acertain class-meeting that some of us remember, and who has kept it upby being a friend to everybody and making us all want to be friends.Here's to Betty Wales."

  When Betty heard her name she almost jumped out of her chair withamazement. She had been listening admiringly to Kate's eloquent littlespeech, never dreaming how it would end and now they were all clappingand pushing back their chairs again, and Clara Madison was trying tomake her stand up in hers.

  "Speech!" shouted the irrepressible Bob and the girls sat down again andthe big table grew still, while Betty twisted her napkin into a knot andsmiled bravely into all the welcoming faces.

  "I'm sure Kate is mistaken," she said at last in a shaky little voice."I'm sure every girl in 19-- wanted every other girl to have her shareof the fun just as much as I did. The class cup, that we won at tennisin our sophomore year is on the table somewhere. Let's fill it withlemonade and sing to everybody right down the line. And while they'refilling the cup let's sing to Harding College."

  It took a long time to sing to everybody, but not a minute too long.Betty watched the faces of the girls when their turns came--the girlswho were always sung to, like Emily Davis, and the girls who had neverbeen sung to in all the four years and who flushed with pride andpleasure to hear their names ring out and to feel that they too belongedto the finest, dearest class that ever left Harding.

  "Now we must have the regular stunts," said Eleanor. There was ashuffling of chairs and she and Betty and the people who had had toastsslipped back to their own particular crowds, leaving the top of thetable for the stunt-doers. It was shockingly late, but they wanted allthe old favorites. Who knew when Emily Davis would be back to do hertemperance lecture or how long it would be before they could hear MadamePatti sing "Home, Sweet Home" through a wheezy gramophone?

  "Was it all right?" Eleanor whispered to Betty as they hunted up theirwraps a little later.

  "Perfectly splendid," said Betty with shining eyes. "The loveliestend-up to the loveliest commencement that ever was."

  "We haven't got to say good-bye yet," said somebody. "There's a classmeeting to-morrow at nine, you know."

  "Half of us will probably sleep over," said Babe in a queer,supercilious tone. Not for all the morning naps in the world would Babehave missed that good-bye meeting.

  CHAPTER XIX

  "GOOD-BYE!"

  "And after commencement packing," said Madeline Ayres sadly, "and that'sno joke either, I can tell you."

  "Oh, I don't know," said Babe airily. "Give away everything that youcan't sell, and you won't be troubled. That's what I've done."

  "I couldn't give up my dear old desk," said Rachel soberly, "nor mybooks and pictures."

  "Oh, I've kept a few little things myself," explained Babe hastily,"just to remember the place by."

  "My mother wa
nted to stay and help me," laughed Nita. "She thought if weboth worked hard we might get through in a day."

  "Mary Brooks did hers in two hours," announced Katherine, "and I guessI'm as bright as little Mary about most things, so I'm not worrying."

  "Isn't it time to start for class-meeting?" asked Betty, coming out onthe piazza with Roberta.

  "See them walk off together arm in arm," chuckled Bob softly, "just asif they knew they were going to be elected our alumnae president andsecretary respectfully."

  "Don't you mean respectively, Bob?" asked Helen Adams.

  "Of course I do," retorted Bob, "but I'm not obliged to say what I meannow. I'm an alum. I can use as bad diction as I please and the long armof the English department can't reach out and spatter my mistakes withred ink."

  The election of officers didn't take long. It had all been cut and driedthe night before, and the nominating committee named Betty for presidentand Shylock for secretary without even going through the formality ofretiring to deliberate. Then Katherine moved that the surplus in thetreasury be turned over to "our pet philanthropy, the Students' Aid,"and Carlotta Young inquired anxiously whether the first reunion was tobe in one or two years.

  "In one," shouted the assembly to a woman, and the meeting adjournedtumultuously. But nobody went home, in spite of the packing thatclamored for attention.

  "Good-bye, you dear old thing!"

  "See you next June for sure. I'm coming back then, if I do live away outin Seattle."

  "You're going to study art in New York, you say? Oh, I'm there veryoften. Here, let me copy that address."

  "Going abroad for the summer, you lucky girl? Well, rather not! I'mgoing to tutor six young wigglers into a prep. school."

  "Wasn't last night fun? Don't you wish we could have it all overagain,--except the midyears and the papers for English novelists."

  "Good-bye!"

  "Good-bye!"

  "Good-bye!"

  But these weren't the good-byes that came hardest; those would be saidlater in the dear, dismantled rooms or at the station, for very closefriends would arrange to meet again there. But the close friendshipswould be kept up in letters and visits, whereas these casualacquaintances might never again be renewed.

  "I've seen you nearly every day for three years," Madeline Ayres toldlittle Miss Avery, whose name came next to hers on the class-list, "andnow you're going to live in Iowa and I'm going to Italy. The world is abig place, isn't it?"

  But Nita Reese thought it was surprisingly small when she found thatEmily Davis was going to teach French in the little town where shelived, and Betty got a great deal of comfort from the fact that fourother 19-- girls lived in Cleveland.

  "Though I can't believe it's really over," Betty confided to Bob. "Idon't feel a bit like an alum."

  "That's because you still look just like a freshman," returned Bob,unfeelingly. "I'll bet you a trolley-ride to any place you choose thatyou'll be taken for one before you leave Harding."

  Sure enough Betty, hurrying across the campus a moment later tointercept the man who had promised to crate her desk and then never comefor it, was stopped by a timid little sub-freshman with her hair in abraid, who inquired if she was going to take the "major French"examination, and did she know whether it came at eleven or twelveo'clock?

  "So we're all got to go off on a trolley-ride," shouted Bob jubilantly,and though Betty protested and called Helen to witness that she hadn'tpromised Bob any trolley-ride whatever, everybody agreed that they oughtto have one last picnic somewhere before they separated. So they allhurried home to do what Katherine called "tall strides of work," and atfour o'clock they were waiting, with tempting-looking bags and bundlestucked under their arms, for a car.

  "We'll take the first one that comes," Bob decided, "and go until we seea nice picnic-y place."

  Generally no one place would have pleased everybody, but to-day no onesaid a word against Bob's first choice,--a steep, breezy hillside, witha great thicket of mountain laurel in full bloom near the summit and aflat rock, shaded by a giant elm-tree, for a table.

  "LADIES, BEHOLD THE PRECEPTRESS OF THE KANKAKEE ACADEMY"]

  It was such a comical supper, for each girl had obeyed Bob's haphazardinstructions to bring what she liked best. So Roberta had nothing butginger-snaps and Babbie solemnly presented each guest with a bottle ofolives. Madeline had brought strawberries with sugar to dip them in, andHelen, Betty and Eleanor discovered to their amazement that they had allchosen chocolate eclairs.

  "It's not a very substantial supper," said Madeliner "but we can stopat Cuyler's on our way back."

  "For a substantial ice," jeered Bob.

  "Who's hungry anyway after last night?" asked Nita.

  "I am," declared Eleanor. "They took away my salad before I was throughwith it, and K. stole my ice."

  "Well, you're growing fat," Katherine defended herself, "and you've gotto save your lovely slenderness until after Mary's wedding. She'll telleverybody that you're the college beauty and you must live up to thereputation or we shall be undone."

  Katherine knew that she couldn't come on from Kankakee for that wedding,and Helen and Rachel knew that they couldn't either, though they livednearer. And Madeline was sailing on Saturday for Italy, "to stay untildaddy's paint-box runs out of Italian colors." But they didn't talkabout those things at the picnic, nor on the swift ride home across thedark meadows, nor even at Cuyler's, which looked empty and deserted whenthey tramped noisily in and ordered their ices.

  "Everybody else is too busy to go on picnics," said Bob.

  "We always did know how to have the best kind of times," declared Babbieproudly.

  "Of course. Aren't we 'Merry Hearts'?" queried Babe. "Being nice tofreaks was only half of being a 'Merry Heart.'"

  "_Why_, girls," cried Nita excitedly, "as long as we didn't give awaythe 'Merry Hearts,' we can go on being them, can't we?"

  "We couldn't stop if we tried," said Madeline. "Remember, girls, two isa 'Merry Hearts' quorum. Whenever two of us get together they can have ameeting."

  They said good-night with the emphasis strongly on the last syllable,and went at the neglected packing in earnest. Betty's train didn't gountil nearly ten the next morning, but Helen left at nine and Madelineand Roberta ten minutes later, so there wouldn't be much time foranything but the good-byes, that, do what you might, could not be putoff any longer.

  But after all they were gay good-byes. Helen Adams, to be sure, almostbroke down When she kissed Betty and whispered, "Good-bye and thank youfor everything." But the next minute they were both laughing at K.'sridiculous old telescope bag.

  "It's a long rest and a good meal of oats the poor beastie shall have atthe end of this trip," said Katherine. "Ladies, behold the preceptressof the Kankakee Academy. Father telegraphed me yesterday that I've gotthe place, and I hereby solemnly promise to buy a respectable suit-caseout of my first month's salary."

  "Oh, you haven't any of you gone yet, have you?" asked Babbie Hildreth,hurrying up with Eleanor and Madeline. "You see Babe kept more thingsthan she thought and it was too late to send for another packing-box,so she put them into a suit-case and a kit bag and a hat-box. And thecarriage didn't come for us, so she tried to carry them all from thecar, and of course she got stuck in the turn-stile. The girls aregetting her out as fast as they can. They sent us on ahead to find you."

  Just as Helen's train pulled in Bob appeared with the rest of the "MerryHearts" as escort and a small boy to help with her luggage; and they hada minute all together.

  "Well," said Madeline lightly, "we're starting out into the wide, wideworld at last. I'll say it because I'm used to starting _off_ to queerplaces and I rather like it."

  "Here's hoping it's a jolly world for every one of us," said Rachel.

  "Here's to our next meeting," added Katherine.

  "Girls," said Betty solemnly, "I feel it in my bones that we are goingto be together again some time. I don't mean just for a 19-- reunion,but for a good long time."

>   "With me teaching in Boston," laughed Rachel.

  "And me teaching in Kankakee," put in Katherine proudly.

  "And Madeline in Italy, and the rest of you anywhere between New Yorkand Denver," finished Rachel. "It doesn't look very probable."

  "It's going to happen though,--I'm sure of it," persisted Betty gaily.

  "Oh, I do just hope so," said little Helen Adams, stepping on board hertrain.

  "They say that what you want hard enough you'll get," said Madelinephilosophically. "Come on, Shylock. Don't any of you forget to send mesteamer letters."

  "Wait! we're going on that train too," cried Babe, clutching herparcels.

  "Babe can't make connections if we wait," explained Babbie.

  "And she'd get lonely going so far without us," added Bob.

  The four who were left stood where they could wave by turns at the twotrains until both were out of sight.

  Then Betty caught her three oldest friends into a big, comprehensivehug. "After all," she said, "whether we ever get together or not, we'vehad this--four whole years of it, to remember all our lives. Now let'sgo and get one more strawberry ice before train-time."

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  The Books in this Series are:

  BETTY WALES, FRESHMANBETTY WALES, SOPHOMOREBETTY WALES, JUNIORBETTY WALES, SENIORBETTY WALES, B.A.BETTY WALES & CO.BETTY WALES ON THE CAMPUSBETTY WALES DECIDES