When at last the Sunny Seven were out under the elm-tree, Rosamond dropped down on the bench, exclaiming, “Well, girls, I don’t know how you all feel, but I am limp.”
Betty’s eyes were shining. “Wasn’t Miss Donovan a dear to give us so many i-e words!” she exclaimed joyously. “I almost think that I might as well name the pony.”
The next day Miss Donovan announced the result of the examinations, and she said: “First of all, I want to congratulate Betty Burd. Her grammar and spelling were perfect.” Then she added kindly, “Betty is to be excused from the test in arithmetic, because she is to be tutored in that subject during the summer, and then she will be promoted with the rest of the class in the fall.”
Such rejoicing as there was when the Sunny Seven were again under the elm-tree. Betty wanted the other girls to go home with her, and so across the meadows they joyously took their way. Into the house Betty danced, shouting, “Mumsie! Mumsie! I passed perfect in grammar and spelling.”
“It isn’t possible!” exclaimed her delighted and astonished mother, as she hurried from the library, embroidery in hand. But the card which Betty triumphantly produced verified this startling statement.
“Your Uncle George came home early this afternoon,” Mrs. Burd said. “He is in the study.”
But Mrs. Burd was wrong, for Uncle George, having heard the joyous commotion, knew that it could have but one meaning and was already in the hall.
“Just good enough to be true, Betsy Bobbets,” he exclaimed when he had heard the glorious news. Then Betty, remembering her manners, introduced the six girls, and Rosamond mentally decided that Uncle George was ever so good-looking and not so awfully old either.
“And now,” said that young man gayly, “let’s visit the barn.”
“Oh! Oh!” cried the delighted Betty, “Is that darling pony here this very minute?”