“Why wouldn’t a play fill the bill?” asked Laura. “Offer a prize for an original play written by a girl of Central High, irrespective of class or whether she is an M. O. R. or not—that will interest the girls in general. Have the play presented by boys and girls of the school—that will hold the boys. And the parents and general public can help by paying to see the performance.”
The younger members of the committee looked at one another doubtfully; but Mrs. Kerrick clapped her hands enthusiastically.
“A play! The very thing! And Mr. Sharp will approve that, no doubt. We will appoint him chief of the committee to decide upon the play. And we will offer a prize big enough to make it worth while for every girl to try her best to produce a good one.”
“But that prize must be deducted from the profits of the performance,” objected the practical Nellie Agnew.
“No,” replied Mrs. Kerrick, promptly. “That will be my gift. I will offer the prize—two hundred dollars—for the best play submitted before New Year’s. How is that? Do you think it will ‘take’? Come, Laura, does your inventive genius approve of that suggestion?”
“I think it is very lovely of you, Mrs. Kerrick,” cried Mother Wit. “Oh, my! Two hundred dollars! It is magnificent. Let us find Mr. Sharp at once and see if he approves. He is still in the house, I know,” and at her suggestion somebody was sent to hunt for the principal of Central High, who was one of the guests of honor of the M. O. R. on this particular evening.
Centerport was a lively, wealthy inland city situated on the shore of Lake Luna, and boasting three high schools within its precincts. The new building of Central High was much finer and larger than the East and West Highs, and there was considerable rivalry between the girls of the three schools, not only in athletic matters, but in all other affairs. Out of school hours, basketball and other athletics had pretty well filled the minds of the girls of Central High; and Laura Belding and her particular chums had been as active in these inter-school athletics as any.
In fact, it was Mother Wit, as her friends and schoolmates called Laura, who interested Colonel Richard Swayne, Mrs. Kerrick’s father, in the matter of girls’ athletics and so made possible for the girls of Central High the finest athletic field and gymnasium in the State.
Incidentally she had interested Mrs. Kerrick in the girls of Central High, too, and reminded the widowed lady that she was an alumna and a member of the M. O. R. In her renewed interest in the affairs of the secret society and in the Girls’ Branch Athletic League, Mrs. Kerrick had become very different from the almost helpless invalid first introduced to the reader in the first volume of this series, entitled “The Girls of Central High; Or, Rivals for All Honors.”
In that first volume was related the establishment of athletics for girls at Central High, and introduced Laura Belding and her especial chums in their school trials and triumphs. In the second volume, “The Girls of Central High on Lake Luna; Or, The Crew That Won,” were narrated the summer aquatic sports of the same group of girls and their boy friends.