Then Betty surprised them all by asking: “What’s scaring you, Rosie? You know your lessons, don’t you?”
“Indeed I do! I know every word in every book from cover to cover,” Rosie responded. “And so do we all, for that matter, for we’ve been over them together at least twenty times.”
“Well,” Betty remarked, “my Uncle George told me that fear is really nothing at all but just our imaginations. I know that there is nothing to be afraid of, and I’m not going to be afraid of it.” And before the girls could recover from their astonishment, the last bell rang and they went to their class-room.
Miss Donovan smiled encouragingly at them as they entered, and then the books were taken up and the examination-papers passed.
Some of the grammar questions were rather hard, and took a clear brain to think out. Adele glanced anxiously at Betty, but when that little girl smiled back so reassuringly, she gave her no further thought.
For an hour and a half the girls wrote and wrote, and then the papers were taken up and they were allowed fifteen minutes for recreation.
“Now,” said Rosamond, “what I would like to know is, are we to have a written examination or is Mr. Dickerson coming in to give us an oral test?”
“Mr. Dickerson is the father of five children,” said Gertrude, “so we need not be in the least afraid of him. He must know that children are not perfect.”
Once more in their seats in the class-room, the girls watched the door eagerly. Would he come or would he not? Suddenly the door opened a crack and then closed again; but a second later it reopened and Bob Angel entered, bearing a message for Miss Donovan. He smiled broadly at the girls as he went out. He felt sure that the message he had brought would be a welcome one.
Miss Donovan smiled, too, as she announced, “Mr. Dickerson has been called away, and so we will have a written examination.”