CHAPTER XXIV
THE FRESHMAN PRIZE
Graduation night in Oakdale High School was one of the great socialevents of the year. The floor and galleries of Assembly Hall wereinvariably packed with an enthusiastic audience; for the two schoolsunited at the ceremony of graduation and the senior class formed a mixedcompany on the stage.
Most of the pupils attended commencement and the freshman class of theGirls' High School was always there in full to witness the triumph ofone of its members, who was called forth from the audience to receivethe usual freshman prize of twenty-five dollars.
The identity of the winner was always kept a secret until the greatnight, when she was summoned from the audience to the stage andpresented with the money before the entire assembly.
The readers can imagine, therefore, the uncertainty and trepidation thatfluttered in the hearts of our four girls as they sat together in thecenter of the great hall. Anne had passed through a dozen stages ofemotions, both hopeful and otherwise, and had finally steeled herself togive up all thought of winning either of the prizes.
Miriam, confident and handsome, sat near them. She wore a beautifulwhite dress trimmed with lace, and her thick, black plaits were twistedaround 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 Jessicadoubtfully. "Perhaps Miss Leece has told her."
"If Miss Leece knew it, she would certainly have told her," answeredGrace, leaning over so that Anne could not hear her; "but I feel sureMiss Thompson has managed it somehow, although I kept hoping all day shewould send me a note or something. It may be she hated to tell me thebad 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. Certainlyhe had directly or indirectly been the means of balking every one ofMiriam's schemes for injuring Anne. Perhaps Miriam had told him she wasto win the prize, and he was thinking of Anne's disappointment. Allthree boys paused when they saw their friends of the Christmas houseparty. Hippy leaned over to say:
"Hello, girls! Can you guess what has brought us here to-night, alldressed 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, andnothing 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," repliedHippy. "I heard from a young person in your class that you hadn't made amistake in six months."
"But just as many people think Miriam will win," said Anne. "Look at allthe 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 alreadyprophesying victory.
Just then the audience composed itself, for the exercises were about tobegin. Soft music was heard and the graduates filed out and took theirseats.
Immediately they were seated, Mrs. Gray, in a beautiful lavender silkgown 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 whois with our precious little Mrs. Gray?"
"Tom Gray!" cried the others in unison, just as Tom Gray himselfappeared opposite them and waved his hat, regardless of the many eyesfastened upon him, for Mrs. Gray was an important personage not only atthese annual assemblages, but in Oakdale itself, of which she had alwaysbeen a most generous and loyal citizen.
Mrs. Gray nodded cordially when she saw the girls, but shook her headover Anne's pale, drawn little face.
As the ceremonies proceeded after the opening prayer, Anne felt herselfdrifting further and further away. She was a little boat on a troubled,restless sea, with the noise of the waves in her head, and onlyoccasionally did she hear some one's voice reading a graduating essay ormaking a speech--she couldn't tell which. She remembered there was apiano solo, very loud and crashing, it seemed to her, and there was atremendous humming sound. The sea was growing very rough, she thought. Astorm was brewing somewhere. Then the wind died down again, there was acomplete 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 remarkablepupils who has ever studied in Oakdale High School. My language, in thisinstance, may appear to be rather extravagant, but the pupil, who hasbeen under the eye of the faculty for many months because of her mostexcellent standing, has achieved a unique success in the history of theschool. I may say that she has turned in a set of examination papersabsolutely perfect in every detail, and it is with real delight Iannounce that she has won not only the usual smaller prize oftwenty-five dollars, but the premium always offered at the same time,but never before won by any pupil of this school, of one hundreddollars, for a flawless examination. I would, therefore, ask Miss AnnePierson to come to the platform, that I may have the honor of deliveringboth prizes to her."
Such a shout as arose after this remarkable speech had never before beenheard at a high school graduation. The freshman class was fairly madwith joy, while Hippy and Reddy yelled themselves hoarse.
"Anne!" cried Grace. "Wake up, Anne! Are you asleep, child? Go up to theplatform. Miss Thompson is waiting for you."
Tears of joy and relief were rolling down Grace's cheeks as she urgedAnne to rise from her seat.
Anne stood up, half dazed, still wondering what it was all about, andmade 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 hersimple white muslin frock, that people looked at her wonderingly. It wasnot everyone in Oakdale who was familiar with the little, dark-hairedgirl.
"My dear," said Miss Thompson, very handsome and imposing in a gray silkdress, "I am happy to be the one to hand you these two prizes. You haveworked hard and richly deserve them both. I am sure everyone in thishouse to-night is glad that your winter's unceasing labors are crownedwith success, and I now recommend you to take a good rest, for suchprizes are only earned by earnest and hard application, and hard workcarries with it, sometimes, its own penalty." (She placed specialemphasis on these last words.) "You have indeed earned the right to ahappy vacation."
Two bouquets were handed over the footlights at this point, one abeautiful 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 alwaysto send such a bouquet to the one who carried off the prize. But who hadsent the lilies of the valley?
"Very likely David," Grace said to herself, watching the boy's face asAnne took the flowers from the usher.
Had he known then that his sister had lost the prize, or was his faithin Anne so great?
But something had happened.
Suddenly the waves, which for the last half hour had been roaring andtossing about Anne, seemed to submerge her completely. She felt a horridsensation of sickness for a moment; and then down, down she sank to thebottom of nothing, carrying her flowers and prizes with her.
"She's fainted!" cried some one. "The poor, little, tired girl hasfainted!"
A tall young graduate picked up the small, limp figure and carried heroff the stage as easily as if she had been a child. The closingexercises were then resumed, the benediction pronounced and the audiencefiled out somewhat silently.
Grace and her friends hurried around behind the scenes, where they foundMrs. Gray in the act of placing a sme
lling-salts bottle to Anne'snostrils, while Tom Gray and David Nesbit were cooling her temples withlumps of ice. "She is conscious at last!" exclaimed the old lady, asAnne opened her eyes. "It was entirely too much excitement for thisdelicate, worn-out child. Tom, order the carriage. I mean to take herstraight to my own house and nurse her myself. I am the only person inthis 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 thesebright young people winning prizes and doing so many clever things."
"How you do go on, Mrs. Gray," said David. "You know very well you arethe brightest, youngest and prettiest girl in Oakdale."
Anne sat up at this moment, and looked into the faces of her bestfriends leaning over her anxiously.
"I thought the boat capsized just as I was about to win the race," shesaid faintly.
"The little boat did capsize, dear," answered Mrs. Gray gently, "but notuntil after you had won the race. And now, if you are well enough to letthis strong nephew of mine carry you, we are going to take you righthome. Are all my Christmas children here?" she continued, looking abouther. 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 tofollow us, if your parents and guardians have no objections. I havearranged a little supper to celebrate Anne's victory. I am sorry shecan't come to her own party, but she may hear all about it afterwardsand the rest of you shall make merry for her."
Not long after, six young people strolled up Chapel Hill in themoonlight, talking gayly of the happy days they had spent together withMrs. 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 gaveout and his legs refused their office.
"Oh, well," exclaimed Hippy, pretending to be much offended, "it is avery good idea to remember only the funny things and forget thedangerous ones, when all's said and done. But if I'd have had a strokeof apoplexy just as that young lady wolf began to lick my heels, youwouldn't have been so merry over the recollection."
"Well," retorted Nora, "we would have been just about going into halfmourning, by now, and that's always a cheerful thought."
"Grace," whispered Jessica, taking advantage of the talk of the othersnot to be overheard, "did you notice Miriam when Miss Thompson began herspeech?"
"No," answered Grace, "I was too intent upon Anne to look at Miriam.Why?"
"Well," continued Jessica, "you remember that Miss Thompson mentioned nonames until almost the very end of the speech!"
"Yes," answered the other; "I remember it particularly, because I keptwishing 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 facethat she took every compliment to herself. Lots of people were watchingher, too, and I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her, becauseshe is one of those people who just can't stand losing. When MissThompson reached the place where she was about to ask Anne to step upand get the prize, Miriam half rose in her seat. Mrs. Nesbit pulled herback in the nick of time. I honestly believe she would have reached thestage before Anne did, if her mother hadn't stopped her. Hippy told methey left before the benediction. I suppose Miriam was not equal to themortification."
"I thought perhaps Miss Thompson would have mentioned her name as comingsecond in the contest," said Grace. "She usually does, you know. Butthere were good reasons, and plenty, why she shouldn't this time, Isuppose. And to think, Jessica, that Miriam need never have done thatdreadful thing. She would probably have passed second in the classanyway, and copying the papers didn't help her one little bit."
Mrs. Gray reported Anne to be much better. She had taken some nourishingbroth 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, isit not better to say farewell rejoicing so that no shadows may darkenthe memory we shall carry with us during the long months of separation?
Before Oakdale High School welcomes her children back again, David willsail abroad with his mother and sister; Grace and Anne will set off forthe country to visit Grace's grandmother; the others and their familieswill scatter to various summer resorts, while Mrs. Gray will seek a coolspot in the mountains.
However, in the next volume, which will be entitled, "GraceHarlowe's Sophomore Year at High School; Or, the Record of the GirlChums in Work and Athletics," we shall again meet the four girls andtheir friends. This book, the record of the girl chums in athletics,tells of the exciting rivalries of the sophomore and junior basketballteams, culminating in a final hard-fought battle. Again Grace Harlowedistinguishes herself by her bravery and good judgment, and again MiriamNesbit will do her best to thwart her at every point. And we may learnwhat Anne Pierson did with the prize money.
THE END.
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