“That was where I lived when I first came to Harding,” she began awkwardly, pointing them out. Then she looked at the girl opposite, read the misery in her big gray eyes, and opened her heart. Betty Wales, who had worked so hard to get at a little of the story of Helen’s freshman year would have been amazed at the confidences she poured out so freely to this stranger. Indeed Helen was surprised herself at the ease with which she spoke and the dramatic quality that she managed to put into her brief account of the awkward, misfit, unhappy freshman.
Miss Carter listened at first apathetically, then with growing interest.
“Thank you,” she said gravely, when Helen had finished. “I thought I was the only one who felt so.”
“Oh, no, you aren’t,” said Helen brightly. “There are lots of others, I guess.”
“No one with a thing like this,” said the girl, with a swift, passionate gesture toward her scar.
“Don’t,” said Helen gently. “Please don’t think about it. No one else does, I’m sure.”
“I got it just before I came here,” went on the girl, speaking almost fiercely. “It came in a horrible way, but it’s horrible just of itself. I entered Harding because I thought the college life—the girls and the good times and the work—would help me to forget it—or to get used to being so ugly.”
Helen considered a moment in silence. “I guess we’re even more alike than I thought,” she said at last. “We both expected college to do it all for us, while we—just sat. But I can tell you—do you play basket-ball? Anyhow you’ve seen it played. Well, you’ve got to keep your eye on the ball, and then you’ve got to jump—hard. Have you noticed that?”
Miss Carter laughed happily at Helen’s whimsical comparison. “No,” she said, “I’ve never been much interested in basket-ball. I’m afraid I’ve ‘just sat’ or jumped the wrong way.”
Helen considered again, her small face wrinkled with the intensity of her thought. “You mean you’ve jumped away from the very things you were trying to get hold of,” she said. “You’ve expected things to come to you. They won’t. You’ve got to do your part. You’ve got to jump very often, and as if you meant it.”