Grace Harlowes Plebe Year at High School | Page 9

of the school, the new teacher in mathematics, Miss Leece,
who was so unpopular; the girls' principal, Miss Thompson, beloved by
all the pupils; the merits of the Freshman Basketball Team and a dozen
other schoolgirl topics that seemed to delight the ears of Mrs. Gray.
"The truth is," she said, "I believe this freshman class is going to be one
of the finest Oakdale High School has ever turned out. I have a feeling
that I shall be very proud of my new girls, and at Christmas time I
mean to do something I have never done before, if all goes well."
"Oh, do tell us what it is, Mrs. Gray," cried the girls in great
excitement.
"I mean to celebrate with the largest Christmas party that's been given
in Oakdale for many a long year. Grace, you shall manage it for me,
and all of you shall help me decorate the tree and the house. We'll
invite the freshmen boys and have a real dance with Ohlson's band for
the music."
"Oh, oh!" cried the girls ecstatically, even quiet Anne joining in the
chorus.
"By the way," went on Mrs. Gray, "do you know any girl who would
like to come up and read to me twice a week, and write my notes for
me? I'm getting to be an old woman. My eyesight is growing dim. Is
there any girl who would like to earn a little pocket money? But she
must have a sweet, soft voice, like Anne's here."
"Anne would be the very girl herself, Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace.

"She reads and recites beautifully."
"You are not sure it would trespass on your time too much, Anne?"
observed the wily old lady. "I don't want to impose on you."
Anne's face fairly radiated with happiness. Could those girls possibly
guess how much it meant to her to earn a little money! Five dollars was
to her an enormous sum, and perhaps she might earn as much as that in
time.
"Might I do it?" she exclaimed, beside herself with joy.
Grace turned her face away a moment. She felt almost ashamed of her
own comfortable prosperity. And how like Mrs. Gray it was to do a
kind thing in that way, as if Anne would be conferring a favor by
accepting the position.
"Indeed, you might, my dear. And I feel myself lucky to get the
brightest girl in her class, and maybe in Oakdale High School, to come
and entertain me twice a week."
CHAPTER IV
THE BLACK MONKS OF ASIA
"Who wants to go nutting?" demanded Grace Harlowe in the basement
cloakroom a few afternoons later.
"We do," came a chorus of voices.
"I don't," answered one.
"Don't you like nutting parties, Miriam?" asked Grace.
"She's too old," put in a sophomore. "This is a young people's party, I
presume?"
"Well, it's not a sophomore party, at any rate," retorted Nora.

"Ma-ma, ma-ma," cried a number of other sophomores, imitating the
cries of a baby.
The freshmen were nettled by the superior attitude of the older class,
but they knew better than to say anything more just then.
"Never mind, girls," said Grace in a low voice, after the sophomores
had strolled away, "we'll be sophomores ourselves next year. Now, all
who want to join the party, meet Nora and Jessica and me at the old
Omnibus House at three-thirty. And, above all, don't give the meeting
place away."
"Not in a thousand years," said Marian Barber.
It was evident that Miriam Nesbit had hoped to break up the party by
declining to go herself. But she was not quite strong enough in the class
to divide it utterly, and she went off in a huff, with the secret wish to
take revenge on somebody. As she started up Chapel Hill to her home
she was joined by one of the sophomore girls, who lived across the
street.
"Your plebes are getting away from you, Miriam," exclaimed the older
girl in a bantering tone. "You haven't got them well in hand yet.
Nutting parties should be left behind for the Grammar School pupils."
"They certainly should," replied Miriam in a disgusted tone. "It's Grace
Harlowe who gets up all these foolish children's games. She's nothing
but a tomboy, anyhow."
"She's the captain of the basketball team, isn't she?" asked the other
dryly.
"Yes," admitted Miriam reluctantly, "but she never would have been if
she hadn't brought along all her friends to vote for her."
"Whew-w-w!" whistled the sophomore. "You don't mean to say it
wasn't a fair election?"

"Oh, fair enough," said Miriam, "except that I didn't bother to bring any
of my special friends, and she did. I don't call that exactly fair."
"Oh, well," consoled the other, "you have a few things coming to