CHAPTER XXV--"MOTHER-WIT"
Whether Colonel Richard Swayne was an enthusiastic and interestedspectator of the sports Laura fielding did not know at the time. She wastoo busy on the field herself.
She and her closest friends were in the relay races; and of course sheplayed in the basket-ball game. This time Hester Grimes managed tobehave herself. She was playing under the eyes of the instructors, herown parents, and the parents of her schoolmates, and she restrained hertemper.
Besides, since Laura had caught her in the matter of the veil, and shehad been obliged to acknowledge that she had told a falsehood aboutBobby Hargrew, Miss Grimes was much subdued.
"Really, she acts like a tame cat. What do you suppose has happened toHester?" demanded Laura's chum, Jess Morse, in the dressing room.
But Laura kept her own counsel.
The basket-ball game went off splendidly. So did most of the exercises.The dancing, that was interspersed between the games, pleased theparents immensely. And the final number--the dance around the Maypoleerected in the middle of the green--was as pretty an outdoor picture asone could imagine, despite the fact that the girls wore dark gymnasiumsuits.
At the end, the running and skipping on the grass delighted the parents.To see these girls, so merry and untrammeled, with the natural grace ofhealthy bodies displayed in their movements, was charming. At the end ofthe afternoon Laura saw Colonel Swayne in close consultation with Mr.Sharp and members of the Board of Education. But the girl heard noparticulars of that conference until she went to school the followingMonday morning.
Just before noon she chanced to have an errand in the principal'soffice. Mr. Sharp looked up at the young girl as she entered, nodded toher, and said, with a smile:
"And how does Central High's fairy-godmother do to-day?"
Laura looked astonished, but she smiled. "Do you mean me, Mr. Sharp?"
"Who else would I mean?" he asked, chuckling. "Haven't you heard thenews?"
"Not that I was a fairy-godmother," she returned, puzzled.
"Don't you know that in the estimation of a certain gentleman you arethe very smartest and wittiest girl who goes to this school? Because youmade a thunderstorm for him, and saved a man from falling from a churchsteeple, he believes that it is athletics for you girls that puts thewit into your heads! But I tell him, in your case, it is 'Mother wit.'"
"You mean Colonel Swayne?" whispered Laura, with sparkling eyes.
"I do, indeed."
"And he has agreed to do something for us?"
"He says he will do a great deal for us," said Mr. Sharp. "He agrees tomake Central High a gift of twenty-five thousand dollars for a properathletic field for you girls, if the Board of Education will find a likeamount. And it will be found, I believe. Before many months the girls ofCentral High will have one of the finest athletic fields in the State."
"Isn't he a dear, good man?" cried Laura, with tears in her eyes. "Butit wasn't _I_ who did it. It was because he saw us the other day, andsaw how happy we were. And--perhaps--because he wants us girls to grow upand be different women from his own daughter."
"Ah! perhaps that last is true, too," said the principal, softly.
The sun shining in at the long window behind the principal almostdazzled Laura, yet as she looked toward him through her tears she sawsomething that made her dart forward.
"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Sharp.
"Oh! the poor fish!" cried the girl. "That sun is pouring right in uponthem."
The four new goldfish in the principal's bowl were swimming around andaround madly. Mr. Sharp saw the reason for these activities at once.
"I declare!" he said, with contrition. "I usually remember to pull downthe shade."
"Oh! the water is almost hot!" cried Laura, putting her hand in thebowl.
"Let me move that stand," said the principal.
But Laura suddenly held up her hand with such a bright, yet amazedexpression on her face, that the principal was startled.
"Please! Please, Mr. Sharp, send for John! Tell him to bring a pail offresh water and the scoop net. Let him take the fish out of the waterhere. I have a--a _tremendous_ idea."
"What's this? what's this?" demanded the principal, with a puzzledsmile. "One of your great ideas, Miss Belding."
"Don't make fun of me, sir," cried the girl, earnestly. "It is the verygreatest idea I ever had. And if it is a true idea, then it is bound tomake a certain person the happiest girl in Centerport to-day!"
Mr. Sharp picked up the desk telephone and called the janitor. In fiveminutes the old man appeared and the struggling fish were scooped out ofthe water.
"Now, young lady?" demanded the principal.
"Let the bowl of water stand just as it does. See! Look at the'spot-light' on the floor. Why, the oil in the floor fairly smokes! See!A great burning-glass!"
She swished the wastepaper basket, again almost full of scrap paper, sothat the rays of the sun, passing through window pane and water-filledbowl, struck upon the loose papers. In a few minutes a light smoke beganto rise from the basket. A bit of the paper turned brown slowly, andthen curled up and broke into flame.
"Great Heavens!" gasped the principal. "John, put that out! The girl isa regular little firebug! Is that what you have learned from yourdipping into physics and chemistry?"
He ran and pulled down the shade to shut out the sun. Then he turnedwith both his hands held out to the trembling girl.
"I see! I see!" he cried. "I should have seen it before. 'Mother wit,'indeed! Colonel Swayne is right. You are an extraordinarily smart girl.That is how the fire started before--and the fish were dead when youemptied the bowl of water upon the burning basket.
"Your young friend is freed of suspicion, Miss Belding. I congratulateher on having such a friend. I congratulate you---- Why, why! my dearchild! You are crying?"
"Because I am such a dunce!" gasped Laura, through her tears, and withboth hands over her face.
"Such a dunce?" demanded the amazed principal.
"Ye--yes, sir! I should have known what started the fire all the time. Ishould have seen it at once!"
"Why, pray?"
"Because it was a burning glass that started another fire in Bobby'sfather's store that very day--and I put it out by shutting out the sun. Ishould have seen this right then and there, and saved poor Bobby allthis trouble. Don't call me smart! I--I'm a regular dunce."
But other people did not think just as Laura did about it. Indeed, theprincipal's statement that she possessed "Mother wit," went the roundsof the school and the neighborhood, and those who loved LauraBelding--and they were many--began to call her from that time, in gentlesportiveness, by that nickname--"Mother Wit." And if you wish to readmore about Laura Belding, and her friends, and the athletic trials andtriumphs of the girls of Central High, they will be found narrated inthe second volume of this series, entitled, "The Girls of Central Highon Lake Luna; Or, The Crew That Won."
Bobby Hargrew's delight when she was called up publicly before the wholeschool at Morning Assembly, and Principal Sharp told her that she wasfreed from any taint of blame in connection with the fire in his office,can scarcely be described. But she knew who to thank particularly forher escape from expulsion, and if one would wish to find a more loyalsupporter of Laura Belding than Clara Hargrew, one must search "the hilldistrict" of Centerport well.
And the other girls were glad that Bobby was freed from suspicion, too.Now the crew of the eight-oared shell hoped to make a better showing inthe forthcoming water sports. Bobby was active in other athletics. Thegirls of Central High were out to win all honors, and in the future itwas hoped that the standing of the school in the Girls' Branch Leaguewould be high indeed.
And with that hope we will leave them.
THE END