The Girl from the Big Horn Country

  CHAPTER XX

  THE VIGILANTES' LAST MEETING

  "It's absolutely unbelievable!" cried Priscilla.

  "It's a fairy-tale!" said Vivian.

  "I'll just count the minutes till August!" declared Virginia.

  "Mine is a reward for getting all _A's_," said Priscilla. "My! but I'mglad I worked!"

  "I'm thankful papa came for Commencement," said Vivian. "Mamma wouldnever have said 'Yes.' She still thinks I'm going to be killed. Areyou sure you have room for us all, Virginia? Is a ranch large?"

  "Of course we have room. Besides, I sleep in a tent summers."

  "Oh, may we, too?"

  "Why, yes, if you like. Mary wants to. It's lovely out-of-doors."

  "Aren't there any rattle-snakes around?"

  "Only on the hills, and in rocky and sandy places. Oh, Dorothy, we'reselfish talking like this when you can't come!"

  "No, you're not. I dote on hearing about it. I wish I could come, butI'm glad I'm going to be with father. It makes me frightfully proud tothink he wants me to keep house for him; and we're going to have aheavenly little bungalow right by the ocean. It will be lovely, Ithink; and we haven't been together for so long, it will be likegetting acquainted over again."

  "I think it's splendid, Dorothy," said Priscilla, "and I'm so proud ofyou! Mother is too--she said so. And being all Vigilantes, we'll betogether in thought, anyway. Oh, Virginia, I think your father wasperfectly lovely to give us our pins!"

  "Wonderful!" cried Dorothy.

  "They're the sweetest things!" said Vivian.

  "Wasn't that your secret when we held our first meeting in May?" askedDorothy.

  "Yes, that was it. When you mentioned the hepatica, I thought howlovely it would be to have little hepatica pins. I wrote father allabout it, and he said he'd love to have them made for us as a giftfrom him. They are sweet! I love them!"

  She lifted hers from her blouse and examined it, while the otherVigilantes did the same. They were little hepaticas in dull gold. Inthe heart of each glowed three small pearls; and in a circle aroundthe pearls were engraved in tiny letters the words, "Ever Vigilant."

  "They'll be such a help to us this summer, I think," said Dorothy. "Iknow mine will. It will help me remember--lots of things."

  They were sitting on their rock back of the Retreat. It was afternoonof the day following the pageant, and this was their last Vigilantemeeting.

  "Doesn't it seem as though everything had come out just right?" askedPriscilla after a little pause. "This morning in chapel when Miss Kingannounced that we'd won the cup, I could have screamed, I was so glad!And that's due to you, Dorothy, more than to any one else. Just thinkof your Latin examination! Miss Baxter has put it in the exhibit ofclass work. I'm so glad!"

  "I can't help feeling glad, too. But then it isn't any more than Iought to have done toward my share of winning the cup. I helped towardlosing it the first of the year."

  "Oh, don't let's talk about that part--ever again!" cried the founderof the Vigilantes. "It's never going to happen any more, and that'swhat makes me so happy, because now we understand each other, and nextyear we'll all be working for the same thing! Oh, I get happier everyminute!"

  "Won't it be lovely to have the Blackmores in The Hermitage?"

  "Has Miss King really said they could come?"

  "Yes, Jess told me this morning after chapel. At least, she's going totry them for three months."

  "They're going to Germany this summer. I wonder what they'll learn todo over there!"

  "You can depend upon it they'll learn something! You'll have enough todo to keep them straight, Priscilla."

  "Oh, dear," said Priscilla. "Why did you ever choose me monitor? I'llprobably get into more scrapes than any one else, especially with theBlackmores around. I'll try to be like Mary, but I know I can't."

  "Oh, won't we miss Mary and Anne?"

  "Anne's going abroad, too, with her mother; and then she's going tocollege in the fall with Mary."

  "College seems so far away, and so big some way. I'm glad we're goingto be at St. Helen's."

  A bell sounded across the campus.

  "It's time for the Senior song," said Priscilla. "We must go in aminute. I'm going to take a piece of pine for my Memory Book toremember the last meeting."

  They all followed her example. Then, standing on the big rock withtheir arms around one another's shoulders, they repeated earnestlytheir Vigilante principles:

  "We stand for fair play and true friendship."

  "And for taking care of our roots," added Virginia, as a postscript.

  Then they scrambled down from the rock, and ran through the wood pathto the campus, where the lower classes were gathering for the annualSenior song, which was held the last day of Commencement. From thewoods north of the campus came the twenty Seniors in white dresses.They marched two by two between long lines of crimson ribbon, whichthey held. As they drew near the campus where the other classesawaited them, they sang their Senior song.

  "We're the St. Helen's Seniors, The crimson and the white, We stand for fun and friendship, For loyalty and right, We'll ever praise St. Helen's, Her wisdom and her fame, The only school in all this land Our loyalty can claim."

  Cheers from Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshmen greeted them. Theymarched to all the buildings, before each one singing farewell songs,written by Senior poets; and then back again to the gathering-place ofthe admiring lower classes, who, as they approached, rose, and withgreater volume, but no greater feeling, saluted them with a song, alsowritten expressly for the occasion.

  "Farewell to the Seniors, We'll surely miss you sore When we come back again next fall, And find you here no more. We'll try to follow in your steps, Of loyalty and right, And never, never will forget The crimson and the white."