CHAPTER III--A REAL ALARM
A bevy of girls were lingering on the steps and in the portico of theHigh School building. Mr. Sharp had given permission for the girlsinterested in the formation of the athletic association to meet in thesmall hall--"the music room" it was called,--on the third floor of thebuilding, next to the suite given up to the teachers' offices andstudies.
Laura and her dearest friend, Josephine Morse, were welcomedvociferously by many of the waiting girls. Among them was Bobby Hargrew,but Laura did not tell her of the result of her practical joke in thewindow of the grocery store. Indeed, there was no opportunity to speakprivately to Miss Harum-scarum. She came running to meet the chums justas Dora and Dorothy Lockwood, who were twins, crossed their path, arm inarm.
"There!" cried Jess Morse, "which of you two girls did I lend my pencilto yesterday in chemistry class? I declare I meant to mark the one Ilent it to somehow; but you were dressed just alike then, and you'redressed just alike now. How do you ever tell each other apart?" sheadded, shaking both twins by their arms.
"Only one way there'll ever be to tell 'em apart," broke in BobbyHargrew. "When they get good and old, mebbe one will lose her teethbefore the other does--like the twins back in the town my father livedin."
"How was that, Bobby?" asked Jess.
"Why, those two twins, Sam and Bill, were just like Dora and Dorothy.Their own fathers and mothers didn't know them apart. But Bill lost allhis upper teeth and wouldn't buy store teeth. So folks that knew got totelling them apart. You see, if you put your finger in Bill's mouth andhe bit you, why 'twas Sam!"
A rather tall, stately looking girl--taller, even than Jess Morse--drewnear the group while the girls were laughing over Bobby's story.
"Oh, Nellie!" cried Laura. "I'm glad to see you here. What does thedoctor say about the scheme of our forming an athletic association?"
"I don't know what he thinks about the proposed association," returnedthe physician's daughter; "but I'm sure he approves of athletics forgirls. He told mother only yesterday that I ought to do at least halfthe sweeping, and so relieve mother and the maid," and Nellie Agnewlaughed. "What do you think of that? Father says I am getting roundshouldered and flat chested. I do hope we'll go in for athletics. Idon't like housework."
"Lazy girl!" said Laura. "That is the way it will be with lots of them--Iknow. If it is play, they'll like it; but anything like real work----"
"There goes Laura Belding again--telling us all how we should be good andproper," said a sneering voice behind Laura. "Really, I should thinkyou'd be tired of telling us all how to conduct ourselves. You ought torun a 'Heart to Heart Talks' department in the _Evening Awful_."
"Hessie Grimes! Mean thing!" hissed Jess in Laura's ear. But the latterturned an unruffled countenance upon the rather overdressed, red-facedgirl whose strident voice had broken in upon the good-naturedconversation of the group.
"Oh, no, Hester. I don't think my forte is journalism. We'll let Jesstake that position," Laura said. "I see you and Lily Pendleton are bothhere, so there is nobody else to wait for. We can go upstairs, I guess."
"Oh, I don't know as I want to join the silly old society," giggledLily, who was a slender, white faced girl, who always clung to Hesterand instead of giving the more assertive girl the benefit of hersupport, "clung like the ivy to the oak-tree's branch."
"Lil and Hessie expect to be 'touched' for the M. O. R.'s," said Jess,quickly.
"Huh!" exclaimed Bobby Hargrew. "Perhaps they've another guess coming.The Middle of the Road Girls are not taking in many Sophs--we can make upour minds to that."
"And do Hessie and Lily wish to join such a solemn conclave as theMothers of the Republic," demanded Nell Agnew, laughing, and makinganother play upon the initials of the most popular society of CentralHigh. "I wouldn't believe it."
"You don't know whether I wish to join or not, Miss!" snapped HesterGrimes.
"Say!" cried Bobby. "Heard the latest? Know what Chet and Lance andShort and Long call the M. O. R. girls?"
"What is it?" asked the twins, in chorus.
"The Mary O'Rourkes! And Mary O'Rourke is a member--she's a senior, youknow, and just the nicest girl! But her initials are the same as thesociety's--and nobody knows what the initials stand for. That is, nobodyoutside the society."
There had begun a general advance into the school building and up thebroad stairway, ere this. Chattering and laughing, in little groups andby couples, the girls mounted the two flights and advanced slowly intothe hall, or into the main office next to it. The windows of this officewere over the front entrance of the building, and although the room wasa very long one, it was brilliantly lighted, the windows reaching almostfrom ceiling to floor.
A large globe of water with goldfish and some aquatic plants and coralin it had the post of honor on a stand in the center of the bowedwindows. Before the window was Principal Franklin Sharp's greattable-desk, and a big rubbish basket beside it. The janitor had not yetdusted and cleaned these rooms for the week, knowing that the girls wereto hold their meeting there.
"Mrs. Case and Gee Gee are here already, girls," whispered BobbyHargrew, after peering in somewhat cautiously at the door of the musicroom.
Laura and her chum, with the doctor's daughter and some of the oldergirls, approached the hall where the meeting was to be held. There werealready fifty or more girls gathered in the music room and as many morewere strolling through the corridors, or in the office.
Suddenly a burst of half-stifled laughter arose from the office. A crowdof the more mischievous girls were about Bobby Hargrew. Miss Carringtonstepped down from the platform at the end of the music room and marchedsteadily toward the office.
"Oh! Bobby's going to catch it again!" whispered Jess in Laura's ear.
But there was no opportunity for her friends to warn the sprightly Claraof the approach of her nemesis. And when Miss Carrington, otherwise GeeGee, came to the doorway and through her eye-glasses beheld the heinousoffense of Bobby the teacher was, indeed, very much horrified.
Bobby was perched on the corner of Mr. Sharp's desk, in a mostunladylike attitude, and apparently just removing a burning cigarettefrom her rosy lips! The blue smoke curled away from the horrid thing,and Bobby was leaning back, with her roguish glance following thesmoke-rings, and apparently enjoying the weed immensely.
"Miss Hargrew!"
The awful voice startled everybody but Bobby herself. Perhaps the wickedone had been expecting it.
"What do I see, Miss Hargrew?" demanded Gee Gee, in a tone of coldhorror.
"I really do not know, Miss Carrington," replied Bobby, as the girlsshrank away from her vicinity, and she herself hopped down to the floor,hiding her hands behind her. "I never did know just how far you couldsee with your glasses."
"Miss Hargrew, come here!" snapped the teacher, in no mood forfrivolity.
Bobby approached slowly. She held her hands behind her back like anaughty child.
"Let me see what is in your hand, Miss!" commanded the teacher
Bobby brought forth her right hand--empty.
"Your other hand, Miss!"
Back snapped the culprit's right hand and then her left handappeared--likewise empty.
"Miss Hargrew! I demand that you give me what you are hiding in yourhand, at once!" cried Miss Carrington.
Slowly, and with drooping mien, the culprit brought forth both hands. Inthe fingers of one still smoked the brown object the teacher had spied.
"A vile cigarette!" she gasped.
"No, ma'am," replied Bobby, quite bravely. "Only a piece of Chinesepunk-stick left over from last year's Fourth of July celebration. Iwouldn't smoke a cigarette, Miss Carrington. I don't think they'renice--do _you_?"
It was impossible for the other girls to smother their laughter. Aripple of merriment spread back to the music room. Now, Miss Carringtonwas a very unfortunate woman. She had no sense of humor. There should bea civil service examination for educational instructors in the line of"sense of humor." Fo
r those who could not "pass" would never make reallysuccessful teachers.
"Clara Hargrew!" snapped Miss Carrington, her glasses almost emittingsparks. "You will show me a five hundred word essay upon the topic'Respect to Our Superiors' when you come to the classes, Monday morning.And you may go home now. Until your standing in deportment is higher,you can have no part in athletics, save those gymnastic exercisescatalogued already in the school's curriculum. After-school athleticsare forbidden you, Miss Hargrew."
Bobby at first paled, and then grew very red. Tears stood in her usuallysparkling eyes.
"Oh, Miss Carrington!" she cried. "I was only in fun. And--and this isnot a regular school session. This is Saturday."
"You are in the precincts of the school, Miss." said Gee Gee. "Do as youare bid. And throw that nasty thing away."
She swept back to the platform at the upper end of the music room, andthose girls who had not already gone ahead of her were quick to leavethe culprit to herself. Hester Grimes smiled sneeringly at poor littleBobby.
"Got taken up that time pretty short, didn't you, Miss Smarty?" shejeered.
Miss Grimes had often been the butt of Bobby Hargrew's jokes. Andthen--Bobby was Laura Belding's friend and eager supporter. The door wasclosed between the music room and the office and Bobby was left alone.
Mrs. Case, the girls' athletic instructor, was a very different personfrom the hated Gee Gee. She was a fresh-colored, breezy woman, in herthirties, whose clear voice and frank manner the girls all liked. Andthen, in the present instance, her proposals anent the athleticassociation fitted right into the desires and interests of most of thepupils present.
"The work of the Girls' Branch Athletic Association is spreading fast,"Mrs. Case said. "Centerport must not be behind in any good thing for theeducation and development of either her boys or girls. This is somethingthat I have been advocating before the Board for several years. Andother teachers are interested, too.
"An association will be formed among the girls of East High and WestHigh, as well. I understand that the school authorities of bothLumberport and Keyport are to take up the subject of girls' athletics,too. So, although inter-class athletics is tabooed, there will be plentyof rivalry between the girls of Central High and those of our East andWest schools, and those of neighboring cities. A certain amount ofrivalry is a good thing; yet we must remember to cheer the losers andwinners both. This is true sport.
"I want my girls," continued Miss Case, with a smile, "to be all-roundathletes, as well as all-round scholars. You may be rivals for allhonors with those of your own age in other schools. There are mostfascinating games and exercises to take up, as well as Folk Dancing. Theboys have a splendid association in our school----"
Suddenly Miss Carrington sprang up, interrupting her fellow-teacher. Shestood upon the platform a moment, looking toward the office, and sniffedthe air like a hound on the scent.
"Wait!" she commanded. "I smell smoke!"
She was a tall woman, and she darted down the room with long strides.She flung open the office door. Then she shrieked and fell back, andhalf the girls in the music room echoed her cry.
Flames rose half way to the ceiling, right near the principal's desk,and the office itself was full of smoke!