“And now, if you’ll never tell a soul, I’ll tell you what Sally Wright told me during lunch. I learned a lot by staying down and giving Sally an old chocolate bar!”
The girls promised, and the three, Betty in the middle, walked slowly toward the street, heads together, arms about each other.
[CHAPTER XVI: SOME FRESHMAN CONCLUSIONS]
What had happened between the teachers and the pupils who had cheated in the test was, naturally, not known, except that every one knew the penalty of losing a grade. The boys that had changed seats and generally “acted up” during the presence of the substitute were well rebuked and had to endure some penalty, the girls understood; but only those who had behaved ever mentioned the occurrence. The guilty carried it off with bland ignorance or nonchalance and pretended not to understand any jokes at their expense. Jakey Bechstein was out of school for several days, but came back as lively as ever and making good recitations. His basketball team lacked his presence.
At Betty Jakey never looked, but as she had never known him very well and as he did not ordinarily sit near her in any of her classes, she scarcely noticed that he avoided her till Peggy called her attention to it.
But the year went on and Betty had many more interesting things to take up her mind. The semester examinations were a nightmare, Carolyn claimed, but they managed to live through them, as they usually do. Miss Heath was particularly fond of Betty, she told her mother when Mrs. Lee, without Amy Lou, came to visit Betty’s classes one day. “Betty is a very charming little girl, Mrs. Lee, and very bright. She is a friend of some of our best freshman girls, too, as I imagine you’d like to know. It is rather important, you know, what sort of friends the children like.”
The winter passed. Betty for the most part worked at her lessons, with pleasant Saturday afternoons, sometimes with the girls, sometimes on expeditions with the family. Her father was greatly absorbed in business affairs, but as spring approached he often drove his family to find the first spring flowers at some spot outside of the city, or to observe the coming of bud and blossom.
On one warm April day, rather in advance of the season, they thought, Mr. Lee and Betty were alone and the machine was parked by the roadside near a little stream where some violets were growing. As the ground was dry upon the sloping bank, Betty sat down with her bunch of violets in her hand and her father decided to join her. “What do you think of this place, Betty? You’d hardly expect it so near the city, would you?”
“No, but there are lots of places in this town that are what you might call unexpected, because there are the hills and ravines, you know.”
“Yes, that is so.”