The others laughed at that.
"Oh, you girls!" said Walter. "To hear you talk, one would think you were hounded like slaves at Lakeview Hall. You should have such a strict teacher as my tutor, for instance. He's the fellow for driving one. He says he'll have me ready for college in two years; but if he does, I know I shall feel as stuffed as a Strasburg goose."
"This learning so much that one will be glad to forget when one grows up," sighed Bess, "is an awful waste of time."
"Why, Bess!" cried Grace Mason, "don't you ever expect to read or write or spell or cipher when you grow up?"
"No more than I can help," declared the reckless Elizabeth.
"And yet you've always talked about our going to college together," said
Nan, laughing at her chum.
"But college girls never have to use what they learn—except fudge-making and dancing, and—and—well, the things that aren't supposed to be in the curriculum," declared Bess.
"Treason! treason!" said Nan. "How dare you, Elizabeth? Pray what do girls go through college for?"
"To fit themselves for the marriage state," declared Bess. "My mother went to college and she says that every girl in her graduating class was married inside of five years—even the homely ones. You see, the homely ones make such perfectly splendid professors' wives. There's even a chance for Procrastination Boggs, you see."
"You ridiculous girl!" Nan said. "Come on! Who's going down town with me? I can find my way around now, for I have studied a map of Chicago and I can go by the most direct route to Mother Beasley's."