“You mean Colonel Swayne?” whispered Laura, with sparkling eyes.
“I do, indeed.”
“And he has agreed to do something for us?”
“He says he will do a great deal for us,” said Mr. Sharp. “He agrees to make Central High a gift of twenty-five thousand dollars for a proper athletic field for you girls, if the Board of Education will find a like amount. And it will be found, I believe. Before many months the girls of Central High will have one of the finest athletic fields in the State.”
“Isn’t he a dear, good man?” cried Laura, with tears in her eyes. “But it wasn’t I who did it. It was because he saw us the other day, and saw how happy we were. And—perhaps—because he wants us girls to grow up and be different women from his own daughter.”
“Ah! perhaps that last is true, too,” said the principal, softly.
The sun shining in at the long window behind the principal almost dazzled Laura, yet as she looked toward him through her tears she saw something that made her dart forward.
“What’s the matter?” asked Mr. Sharp.
“Oh! the poor fish!” cried the girl. “That sun is pouring right in upon them.”
The four new goldfish in the principal’s bowl were swimming around and around madly. Mr. Sharp saw the reason for these activities at once.