CHAPTER X.
BOYS.
After the football game, some of the more self-assured boys came over tothe visitors from Gresham and singled out their friends to conduct themto the tables on the lawn where the matron was serving ice cream.
All the boys spoke to Miss Cox and seemed on the most friendly termswith her. I remembered then that she went over to Hill-Top twice a weekfor the purpose of training a chorus. She knew them all by name andchatted with them very freely, much more freely than she did with any ofthe girls, except Dum and Dee and me.
"Evidently, Miss Cox understands boys better than she does girls andthey understand her," thought I. Her manner with them was frank andnatural, exactly as it had been with Mr. Tucker.
A tall, good-looking boy was holding a laughing conversation with herabout the game. He it was who had saved the day for the Seniors when ithad looked as though the younger class would certainly win, owing to thestrategic movements of the popular Shorty.
"Didn't the kid make a fine play, though, Miss Cox? It seemed a pity totake the game from them; but I tell you, if the Sophomores won from theSeniors there would be no living with them. They're rather a cocky lotas it is, bless 'em."
"Yes, they are fine boys and I wish they might have won just this once.They worked so hard and you Seniors were playing so lazily you almostlet the game slip through your fingers. It would have been a good lessonfor your team if they had lost."
"That's just what I tell them, Miss Cox. I hate lazy playing, even ifyou are up against something easy. I believe in playing the game to thebest of your ability, if it's nothing but push-pins."
I certainly liked the way that boy talked and agreed with him. Iunconsciously drew nearer to where he and Miss Cox were standing, notwith any idea of being introduced but because I was interested in whatthey were saying.
"No, you don't, Miss Buttinsky," was whispered in my ear, "Seniors firstwhen there is a good thing in sight," and Mabel Binks crowded in frontof me and deliberately joined the group around Miss Cox. An introductionto the handsome football player naturally followed. I drew back abashed.One of the most hateful things about Mabel Binks was that she usuallyattributed her motives to other persons. She was determined to meet thisboy and she took for granted it was what I was after, too.
I felt like employing Dum's method and praying not to "biff MabelBinks," but I was anxious to see what the outcome would be and if thehandsome youth, whose name I had learned was Harvie Price, would beattracted by the charms of the stylish Mabel. Mabel was not abad-looking girl, rather handsome, in fact, but a trifle too vivid formy taste. Her eyes were as black and shiny as new patent-leather shoes;her abundant hair, coarse and curly; her lips too full and red; herfigure handsome but rather too well developed for a girl of seventeen.She was always richly dressed and in the latest style.
The idea of the directors of Gresham in having the pupils dress in bluesuits and black hats was to do away with the custom of overdressingcommon to many boarding schools. They seemed to think that a blue suitwas a blue suit. They were vastly mistaken, however, as anyone with halfan eye could see by comparing Mabel Binks with Annie Pore. Annie Pore'sappearance I have described. Mabel's suit was a costly affair ofhandsome cloth combined with velvet and trimmed with fur. The skirt wasslit, showing a cerise petticoat; a cerise crepe de Chine tie gave colorto her very V-necked blouse; and around her velvet sailor she had pinnedseveral large, fine ostrich plumes. The latest style of high-heeledpumps with cut steel buckles were on her feet, making them a little tooprominent, considering their size and shape. Spotless white glovesfinished her costume; unless one might consider the strong odor of muskperfume the finishing touch. She did look handsome and her clothes werepretty and fine, but a little too fine for a football match.
"Oh, Mr. Price," she gushed, "your playing was just grand. All of uswere just wild about it. I said 'it,' not 'you,' you understand," andshe giggled affectedly. "I think it was real noble of you to let thekids get any points at all."
"Yes, mighty noble," said Harvie Price, looking at his dashing admirerrather quizzically, "so noble they came mighty near winning the wholeshooting match."
"Isn't that ice cream they are serving over there?" she hinted. "I thinkice cream is simply grand."
"Ah, Miss Binks, you praise my feeble game and ice cream with the samewords. Fortunately, ice cream is more easily taken in than I am. Hey,you Shorty, come here," he called to the jolly-looking little Sophomorewho was trotting by. "I want to introduce you to Miss Binks. Mr. ThomasHawkins, Miss Binks. Shorty, she's dying for some ice cream."
"Your humble servitor, madam," and Thomas Hawkins made a low bow. "ShallI bring it to you or take you to it?"
"Bring it here," said Mabel shortly. Just then Harvie Price saw AnniePore talking to Mary Flannigan and Dee.
"Tell me who that girl is over there, the one with the thick yellowplait," he asked Mabel.
"Oh, that's 'Orphan Annie.' Isn't she a mess?"
"Is her name Annie Pore?"
"I believe it is or poor Annie, if you prefer."
"Well, by Jove! Who would have thought it!" and Harvie Price without anyapology left the dashing Mabel and going up to Annie took her by bothhands. He shook them warmly and exclaimed: "Little Annie Pore, where onearth did you come from? I am glad to see you." And Annie, without theleast embarrassment, was equally delighted to see him.
"Oh, Harvie, I did not dream you were here. You've grown so I didn'tknow you."
"Grown! And what have you been doing? Certainly not standing still. Andhow is everyone at the Landing? Geewhilikins, I'd like to spend anothersummer there! Just think, it is five years since I have been there."
"Everything is about the same. Your grandfather is rather more feeblebut as handsome as ever."
"Yes, I know, poor old Grandad," said Harvie soberly. Annie told meafterward that a family row had separated old General Price from hisson, Harvie's father, and for that reason the boy had not been allowedto come to his ancestral home at Price's Landing.
"And how is your father? As British as ever and still invisibly clothedin blue paint?"
"Yes, about the same," blushed Annie.
"You know I like your father, Annie, and didn't mean anything," and theboy looked very sorry that he had embarrassed his little friend.
"That's all right, Harvie, but you know----"
"Yes, I know," he said sympathetically. "Now come on and let's have someice cream. Who are your special friends? Introduce me and I'll take themall."
Dum and Dee and Mary Flannigan and I were of course the chosen few, andas soon as Shorty had arranged so Mabel Binks could "take in" the icecream, he joined us and a very merry time we had. We met many boys andliked most of them. They were a healthy, wholesome lot and almost asmuch fun as girls. Miss Cox joined us and let herself go with as muchabandon as she had in the Lobster Quadrille.
I have never seen anyone so happy as Annie Pore. She and Harvie Pricehad been friends from the time they could walk. The boy had spent agreat deal of his time with his grandfather at Price's Landing and thelittle English maid, whose father kept the country store, was the onewhite child in the neighborhood whom the proud old aristocratic GeneralPrice considered suitable to associate with his grandson.
"You ought to see Mr. Pore," Harvie confided to me. "I tell you he is arare one. He is about the best educated man I ever met. Grandad says hecan think in Latin. Be that as it may, he can certainly teach it. I hadsome lessons from him during one summer and have been grateful to himever since. He is awfully English and just as strict with Annie as canbe. Mrs. Pore was a beautiful woman and it seemed strangely incongruousto see her in the country store measuring calico and what not. Grandadused to say she looked like a Duchess at a Charity Bazaar. Nobody atPrice's Landing ever has known what brought Mr. Pore to keeping acountry store in a little Virginia village."
"Maybe thinking in Latin wasn't nourishing," I suggested.
"I fancy that was it," he laughed, "but why should an Oxford g
raduatekeep a country store for a livelihood? There must have been otheravenues open to him."
"Perhaps his beautiful wife discovered she had a genius for selling atCharity Bazaars, and when the time came to choose a profession, shechose what she had shown talent for as an amateur," I hazarded.
"Well, I see Miss Page Allison has some imagination and if she ever hasto choose a profession it should be novel writing."
"Perhaps it will be," I said, "but I'd rather keep a country store thando anything. You can see so many people that way, 'specially if youhave the postoffice in it."
"You like people, then?" inquired the boy.
"Like people? I should say I do. I just adore people; and I mean to knowjust as many people as I can."
"Well, that is the requisite for successful novel writing, so ourprofessor in English tells us: 'Know people and sympathize with them,all kinds and conditions.' But tell me something, Miss Page, does Anniesing? Mrs. Pore's voice brought old sinners to church that had not beenfor many a year. She sang in the choir at the little old Episcopalchurch at Price's Landing and although I was nothing but a kid,--you seeI have not been there for five years,--I used to thrill all over whenshe chanted the _Te Deum Laudamus_."
"Oh, yes, Annie's voice is splendid. Miss Cox is teaching her and Ibelieve she expects great things of her. We are to have a concert atGresham before long and then you can hear her."
I looked over at a group of girls and boys where Dum and Annie weretalking very gayly with Tom Hawkins, alias Shorty, and smiled to thinkof Annie's hesitancy in coming that day because she was so afraid ofboys, and then I laughed outright when I considered how little Shortyresembled Dum's hero, Prosper le Gai.
The ice cream that Shorty brought to Mabel Binks must have been asbitter as gall, judging from the faces that young lady made whiledevouring it, nor did it "set easy on her innards," as Mammy Susan wouldput it. Could it be that she had literally turned green from jealousyand the ice cream was innocent, after all? It must have been a bitterpill to have the despised "Orphan Annie," with her kid friends, carryoff the most desirable young man at Hill-Top.
"Aren't you feeling well, Mabel?" said the good-natured Josephine Barr,as Harvie Price and I passed near her on our way to join the group wheremy special friends were.
"Yes, I'm just disgusted. Did you ever see such a beau grabber in yourlife as that countrified Page Allison? And there's 'Orphan Annie'actually posing as a belle! They make me sick."
I did not hear what Jo answered, but I felt that Annie and I were safein her hands. My cheeks were burning as though Mabel had given me a realslap.
"Don't you mind, Miss Page. If girls only knew how fellows detest thatkind of thing! It must be awful to be a girl and not fight things out.If a boy had insulted me as that girl did you just now, I'd either beathim or get beaten in short order."
"Well," I said, pulling myself together as I realized that after allMabel Binks was not much of a lady, "you see, I have already beaten her,although I did not know at the time I was doing it. Annie and I have gotthe 'beaux,' that is, if she means you and Shorty."
"Bully for you! That's the way to talk. I see Miss Binks will not pulloff anything over you. Can Annie defend herself, too?"
So I told him of the first day at Gresham and the cheer the Seniors gaveAnnie because of her come-back at Mabel Binks.
"Poor little Annie! I don't see how anyone could try to hurt her," andthe big boy looked very tenderly at his one-time playmate. "I amcertainly glad she has found such good friends at Gresham as you andthose wonderful twins, and also that nice little square Irish girl wholooks like a match for our Shorty."
That night before lights out bell rang, we had a little chat in ourroom. Mary and Annie had scurried across the hall in their kimonos. Dumwas in bed and Dee and I had unearthed some slight refreshment in theway of crackers and sweet chocolate, which we passed around.
"I bet Prosper le Gai would have played a dandy game of football," saidDum, getting her sheets all crumby with crackers. "He always smiled inbattle. I noticed Harvie Price did, too."
"Do you know, I think Harvie Price looked a little like Laurie in'Little Women,'" said Dee.
"I always did think so," exclaimed Annie. "When you were talking aboutLaurie this morning I thought of Harvie. I never dreamed of seeing him.I'm so glad you girls liked him."
"I tell you he's all right," said Mary, "but I wouldn't be at allastonished if Charles O'Malley wasn't just such another boy as Shortywhen he was a kid."