Betty smiled up at Ted as she added the last in complimentary fashion, but he shook his head at her, pleasantly acknowledging the introduction. “She doesn’t say what I’m prominent for, you notice,” but with a salute from his hatless forehead, Ted was gone. There was no standing on ceremony when school hours were on and everything, even lunch, ran on schedule.
“I’ll not have to hurry as much as I thought, girls, since it was first lunch. I’m about crazy today, I suppose, with delight at your being here and wanting you to know about everything and everybody. What would you like to do while I’m in class and study hall? Want to visit both of them?”
“How many periods have you this afternoon, Betty?”
“Three, but one of them’s in gym.”
“All right, we’ll visit study hall and gym and stay in the library or auditorium during your class.”
So it was decided. “Gym” proved most interesting. Study hall was full of possibilities, Sue said, for it was interesting to see whether this one or that one studied or not, to guess who they were and to recognize those whom they met. And after the last gong had rung, how odd it was to pass through those crowded halls, where pupils were putting away their books in their lockers, getting their wraps from them, and going to their home rooms until dismissed. It was all on a bigger scale than in their home school. And the crowded street car was another feature, not so pleasant, perhaps.
But Betty looked out for the girls, to see that they had each a strap, until Chet and Budd and a freshman boy Betty knew, who were, happily, near, caught Betty’s eye and signaled the girls to come where they were sitting, half rising, yet holding the seats until the girls should be ready to slide into them.
“Now, then,” said Chet, hanging to a strap in the aisle, after a brief introduction to Janet and Sue, “what do you think of our school? I noticed you had company, Betty.”
“We’re quite overwhelmed by the school, really,” answered Janet, politely, and smiling up at the boy whose seat she was occupying. “But we have a good school, too, and I think you can learn anywhere.”
“I suppose you can,” said Chet, “if you work at it. Did you see the stadium?”