But once more did Mascot appear in public that year, and that was on Class Day when Cordelia read the class will and bequeathed the gray cat to the sister class.
Then while Janet held him, he was divested of his big bow of pink and brown and, with much ceremony, was dressed up in the sophomore colors. Then he was handed over to Madge Ostrom, the president of the sophomores and was borne away in triumph. Yet it must be said that this relinquishing of possession caused more than one pang to the members of the senior class.
"It is the beginning of the end," sighed Lee to Janet as the latter resumed her seat. "How much we shall be giving up."
"And how much we shall be gaining," returned Janet cheerfully. "Think of the lovely feeling of having your mother always close at hand, and the comfortable knowledge that you can have whatever you want to eat, not to mention the bliss of sleeping late in the mornings, when you are sleepy, without thinking of chapel."
"There are compensations," admitted Lee.
"How lovely some of our girls look to-day," said Janet. "What could be sweeter than our lassies?"
"Molasses," returned Lee promptly.
And Janet almost laughed outright though Charity was at that moment reading a solemn composition in the form of an ode, which, as Janet said afterward, made her feel as if it were not worth while to take any view of life except the old one that they had come to call "the worm's eye view." She lapsed into quite a pensive mood and sat wondering what duties and sorrows lay in the life before her.
Lee, however, speedily recovered her spirits, and vowed that she should allow no one to dwell upon the future, so that because of her gayety no merrier seniors ever enlivened Class Day.