“Well, I suppose it does hurt some of the boys and girls once in a while, when they get reckless and try more than they ought to do; but they are all examined, you know, and they have rules. The seniors beat, by the way, so I suppose they’re satisfied. It would be hard to be beaten when it was your last year. And, Mother, may I go to the G. A. A. banquet with Carolyn? And, won’t you think twice about going yourself? Carolyn says that her mother is going and wants to entertain you and me. I suppose we couldn’t get Father there, could we?”
“Oh, no, Betty. He is too busy to take time now for a girls’ affair. Perhaps I can go another year, but not now.”
“Mrs. Gwynne was going to call you up, or come to see you if she could.”
“That will be very kind,” said Mrs. Lee. “You may go, Betty, but I think that you’d better pay for your own ticket. We shall see what seems polite to do.”
“You see, Mother, honors are distributed that night and we find out who the honor girl is and get whatever we do get for our points.”
This was one of the last events before the “finals” and Commencement. Betty, in her “partiest frock,” came home full of enthusiasm to report that the mystery was a mystery no longer and that Louise Madison “got the honor ring.” That was the crowning honor and the last thing given.
For the “first time in history” the freshmen received the baseball chevrons. Betty declared that she wasn’t ashamed of being a freshman, but oh, to think that her first year was nearly over! The banquet was simply great, everything so good; and then after it came the speeches and the presenting of awards, while the girls that had done things were “all excited inside,” and the seniors, of course, all wondering which of them would get the great honor.
“I’ve decided that I’m going to ride in order to get one of those ducky pins, a silver pin with a tiny black horse and rider, a girl, too, jumping over a bar!”
“Now, isn’t that just like a girl!” exclaimed Dick, who was listening while some of this was being told at the breakfast table.
“It ought to take a very strong motive, Dicky,” mischievously replied his sister, “to induce one to make an art of riding! Still, I can stick on a horse out at Grandma’s, can’t I?”