Jean Cabot at Ashton

by Gertrude Fisher Scott

But Peggy was available and perfectly willing to devote herself to Tom Cabot, of whom she was very fond in spite of the few times she had met him. About half an hour later Jean and Elizabeth came downstairs dressed in their soft white muslins and flower-bedecked hats. They did look attractive and Tom beamed approvingly upon them and was most gracious as Jean introduced Elizabeth. Then she said, "Now we'll go down to the Inn and then we're ready to show you the sights. You've got to see everything while you are about it, so we'd better hurry, for lunch is to be served half an hour earlier than usual to-day."

They went to the Inn and found it thronged with guests and students and it was very fortunate for Tom that Jean had engaged his room several weeks in advance. After he had deposited his suit-case they started out on their tour of inspection. Tom kept the girls busy with questions about everything in sight, and insisted upon knowing the name of every good-looking girl they met. Once in a while they stopped for introductions, and dropped into Miss Hooper's room in Wellington for a few moments.

"It's a mighty nice place, for a girls' college," said Tom as they finally entered Merton just as the bell sounded for lunch; "there's only one place I know of that's better and that's—"

"Yale, of course," said Jean; "you needn't bother to tell us. Are you ready for lunch now?"

"Ready! I should say I was; I'm nearly starved. I could eat half a dozen lunches. It's hours since I had my breakfast. Lead me to the food quickly or I perish. Am I going to be the only man among all you handsome girls? Not that I mind at all, but I'd like to know beforehand so I won't make any awful breaks to disgrace forever the House of Cabot."

"Don't worry, Tom; there'll be plenty of men besides you. Most of the girls will have their out-of-town guests here. Elizabeth is to wait on table, but we'll see her again after lunch. I've got to find Mrs. Thompson to see where we are to sit, for we won't have our regular seats to-day, as lunch is to be served in the reading-room as well as in the dining-room."

Lunch over, a lot of the young people met in the hall and introductions were pretty general. Peggy's man, Mr. Paul Thorndike, Harvard 1912, and Tom became good friends at once and agreed to stick together closer than brothers until the Tree Exercises were over, when the girls were to meet them and take them to the spreads. They strolled up the hill to the trees where the exercises were to be held, and found the grounds fairly alive with the Class-Day guests in their best summer gowns and hats. Beyond the space allotted for the classes were rows upon rows of settees for as many of the guests as could be accommodated, and the others leaned up against the chapel or College Hall or walked back and forth in the background.

Just after two o'clock the three lower classes appeared in view carrying a long white daisy-chain. The band, concealed behind the trees, began to play softly, and at the sound of the music the girls swayed back and forth, lifting their chain in the measure of the music and then danced in and out of the trees and finally formed two long lines on either side of the opening to the space roped off for the tree exercises. The chain was held high above their heads, and all at once every voice broke into "Alma Mater" and the stately seniors in their black caps and gowns marched down between the rows of girls and stood by the seats nearest the "Grand Old Elm," as the tree was called, under whose branches the temporary platform had been erected. Then the other classes dropped their chain upon the ground and marched two by two to their places. They had been singing "Alma Mater" all this time and when every girl stood by her seat all finished the verse they were upon and sat down together.

There was an address of welcome by the class president and then the tree oration, followed by the class history, which was extremely funny from beginning to end and boasted of all 1912 had done in her four glorious years at Ashton, and ended with the distribution of gifts to the undergraduates. There were class songs and class yells, and after the senior class ode the Class-Day marshal proposed that they cheer all the buildings. Forming as they had done at the beginning of the exercises, the under-class girls cheered the seniors as they passed through the double lines and headed the long procession that hurried on from one building to another. Not one was forgotten, and many a throat ached when they finished and disbanded at the chapel steps. Each girl then hastened to find her guests and go on to the society and private spreads which were to be held in the society rooms and some of the college buildings.