“Substitutes—Rose Craig, Frances Wright.”
“Congratulations, Ruth!” said Marjorie, sincerely. “Now you’ll surely be a Girl Scout!”
“I hope so,” said Ruth, as she walked down the hall with her old friend. “My last marks were pretty good—but, you never can tell.”
“If I ever pull up my Latin, I’m going in harder for swimming. I want to learn fancy diving and life-saving,” said Marjorie.
“That would be nice,” agreed Ruth, “but for the present I’m going to be content with plain dives and long-distance swimming. Anyway, I can swim well enough to be a First Class scout, if I pass the other qualifications.”
The girls separated to dress for dinner. It hardly seemed possible that Miss Allen could announce the new Scout candidates so soon, and yet a decided air of expectancy prevailed during dinner that evening. Every few minutes, one or two girls would allow their glance to wander in her direction, and they were finally rewarded by seeing her rise from her chair.
“You have all seen the names of the girls on the swimming team,” she said. “You know, too, that out of that list of eight girls, four are already candidates for the Scouts.
“All this goes to prove,” she continued, “just what Miss Phillips and I have always thought—the same girls go out for athletics over and over again, and the rest of the school is content to let them do all the work. Now what we hope the Girl Scout organization will do, is to make interest more general.
“Of the remaining four girls on the swimming team, only one stands high enough in her lessons to be selected as a candidate. That girl is Ruth Henry!”
As soon as the girls had stopped clapping, Miss Allen went on with the announcements. “The eight candidates—Dorothy Maxwell, Edith Evans, Helen Stewart, Frances Wright, Ethel Todd, Marian Guard, Lily Andrews, and Ruth Henry are to meet in my office to-morrow afternoon at two o’clock to organize and to elect their Captain.”