“I presume all of these girls would make one hundred per cent on that, wouldn’t they? Witness this morning’s assembly?”
The choice was not an easy one, but it was made, to be kept a secret until the G. A. A. banquet when the honors were to be given.
Meanwhile last senior hikes and picnics took their place in history, during the lovely days of April, May and early June. Color Day, a girls’ affair, marked by class stunts and contests, was a jolly occasion. Betty’s only honor was winning the basketball throw and that was an accident, she claimed. But she had helped get up the senior stunt, which won the prize, filling the senior girls with delight. “Betty, you made a grand class manager,” declared Mathilde, amazing Betty, who did not suppose that Mathilde thought she could do anything right. But Betty had never retaliated nor seemed to notice Mathilde’s little slights, except to avoid contact more or less. “That’s nice of you to say, Mathilde,” responded Betty with a bright smile. “I’m going to miss all the times we girls have had,” she added, “and these field days have been such fun. I’ll miss all of it.”
“So shall I,” said Mathilde, thoughtfully. “I’m going to be married, Betty. Tell you some more some time.”
A successful and almost too well attended concert of glee clubs and orchestra finished Betty’s “fiddling” for the year, she said, though she still attended practices. She was happy over having the largest “score” and thus winning that past swimming meet. Swimming and music ought to go together, she told her father. He agreed and reminded her how fishermen were lured to their doom by the Lorelei and other sirens.
“Oh—you’re a great daddy!” Betty told him, “but you’ll be proud of your little goldfish yet!”
“I am now, Betty. There isn’t a girl as fine as mine over there!”
“Why, Father! That’s better than the diploma! I know you’re prejudiced, but it’s very pleasant!”
Then came a day when Ramon Sevilla came “home.” Tall, big, strong, confident, he had gotten past fear, established in his own country, with backing now in America as well. But plans changed. Mrs. Sevilla was not quite strong enough yet to be taken across the Atlantic. The school paper, known as the Roar, came out with a little account which gave a summary of Ramon’s experiences:
A Former Football Hero Returns.