“Did you find any wild flowers?”
“You’ve been up to mischief. You look as though we’d caught you in the act of stealing sheep.”
Betsy broke through the group of tormentors and ran to her room. Hastily she tidied her hair, then joined the procession of girls who, two by two, under the surveillance of Miss King, were descending the wide stairway to the basement dining room.
As they passed the blackboard in the lower hall near the door of the principal’s office, Betsy whispered, “Look at Babs admiring her own name.”
“That’s something you’ll never be able to do.” The speaker was Ethel Cummins, a girl whom Betsy especially disliked. Instantly she flared. “Indeed, is that so? Well, I’ll have you know that my name is to be on that board before the closing exercises.”
“Silence, young ladies, if you please!” Miss King was peering over her glasses as she looked back along the line to try to discover the offender but Betsy was at that moment passing with her head held high and a new determination plainly discernable on her usually laughing face.
How pleased her old dad would be if she could make the grade, she was thinking. “Erase the ‘if’” she told herself as she recalled how her father had often said, “Perseverance spells success, little daughter, just remember that. Choose a goal! Go straight toward it and count every failure as a spur to greater endeavor.”
But before that month was up, Betsy had many a moment of doubt.
CHAPTER XIX
SPRING VACATION
The two weeks’ vacation, which usually came at Easter time, had been postponed until May, the reason being that Mrs. Martin wished to visit Washington for a fortnight and attend the wedding of a favorite niece.