Joanne smiled back at him. “It has cleared off beautifully,” she answered.
Not a word was said about Jamestown either at table or during the evening. Joanne told of the amusing play she had seen. She played cribbage with her grandmother, and in answer to one or two anxious looks she smiled. “No, Gradda, not a sign of headache,” she said.
When she went to kiss her grandfather good-night he drew her close and whispered: “Congratulations on the victory.” And Joanne understood. She went to her room smiling.
CHAPTER IX
BABY OR SOLDIER—WHICH?
NOT a word did Joanne say to her girl friends about her summer plans. Cousin Sue’s advice had not fallen upon stony ground. Why should one dwell upon an unpleasant subject when there was no immediate need to? Why cross a bridge till you came to it? Meantime there were many things to occupy a schoolgirl’s thoughts, with examinations coming on, and quite as many things to interest a Girl Scout outside the matter of winning badges. Sunflower Troop took weekly hikes, sometimes no farther than to Potomac Park to see the Japanese cheery trees in blossom, sometimes as far as Arlington. There was a Saturday picnic to the Great Falls, another to Alexandria and Mt. Vernon. An afternoon at the Zoo gave an opportunity to those girls who were studying birds and animals. An afternoon in the Maryland woods permitted more than one to complete her list of wild flowers. So the weeks went by till June when Joanne was whirled away to Annapolis where her grandparents must go to join in the excitement of June week at the Naval Academy.
One might give chapters to the doings of that gay occasion, but while Joanne did participate in some of them her grandmother declared that she was still too young to go to the dances except as a looker on, therefore that sober pleasure was all that was hers.
However, she had plenty to report to an interested audience, when she returned, but that done she felt that she was nearing that dreaded time when she must disclose the fact that she would not be able to join her troop at the camp in July.
It was but a few days before the closing of school that she was walking home with Winnie and Claudia, and the subject came up.
“Just think,” said Winnie, “July will be here before we know it, and then, ho for the woods and dales of Maryland! Aren’t you excited about it, Jo? Now that those old exams. are over and you have come off with flying colors you can just rest your mind and dream of the lodge and the river.”
Joanne looked very grave. “Perhaps I should have told you before,” she answered, “but I simply couldn’t, for I have been hoping I wouldn’t have to. Girls, I’m not going.”