“I accept!” declared Laura, suddenly, with flashing eyes. “I believe it can be done.”
“Huh! you think you’re so smart, Laura,” drawled Lily Pendleton.
“But it would be just great if we could get him interested,” sighed Jess.
“Leave it to me,” said Laura, boldly. “I’m going to try!”
CHAPTER VIII—LAURA AND THE PRINCIPAL
It was two days later, during which time the two principal topics of conversation among the girls of Central High had been athletics and Bobby Hargrew’s trouble. All sorts of rumors sped from lip to lip regarding Bobby’s fate. They had her dismissed, or suspended, a dozen times, and reinstated again. But the only thing that was really known about it was that Gee Gee had “taken up” with Mr. Sharp.
The girls had a great deal of faith in Mr. Sharp’s sense of justice. He was a man who made up his mind leisurely, although once it was made up he was not known to change it for any light reason. The girls liked him very much indeed; but of course there were times when the principal, as well as the rest of the teachers, was arraigned against the pupils upon some topic. That will always be so as long as there are pupils and teachers!
In the case of Bobby, some of the girls—especially those of her own age and class, and more especially some who looked up to the harum-scarum Hargrew girl as a leader in mischief—angrily upheld the culprit’s side of the controversy, and declared that Gee Gee had no business to accuse her of setting the fire at all. Bobby’s saying she didn’t do it was enough!
The Central High students—girls and boys alike—were governed on honor. A student’s word was supposed to be taken without his or her going before a notary public and “swearing” to the truth of the statement. That was Mr. Sharp’s own statement. So, why make a divergence from the accepted rule in poor Bobby’s case? Why not believe her when she said she did not throw the burning punk into the wastepaper basket?
Upon the score of Hester Grimes’s testimony against the accused girl there was division, too. Some of Hester’s classmates were for ostracizing her entirely—“sending her to Coventry.” She was a “tattle-tale”—and some of the girls were quite warm over her case.