“I see. Well, don’t let us keep you, Betty, but do come and sit by me when you eat your breakfast,” said Lucia.
“If any,” added Betty. “I’m going to see that the great Sophomore Class of Lyon High serves enough to make this hike something to be remembered!”
“Hear, hear!” cried Peggy. “It smells like a million dollars, Betty!”
But it was not long before the fifty and a few more of the guest hikers were seated here and there and everywhere it was convenient or attractive. Mathilde was in good humor as she sat with a full plate right next to Lucia, contemplating with satisfaction her own new elk-skin shoes, laced high, in contrast with Lucia’s similar footgear, much the worse for wear. Lucia did look pretty and romantic, she thought; but her own outfit was much more in the latest style, which for Mathilde was the criterion of worth, along with the impression of expense.
“Oh, it wasn’t any trouble to finish the hike,” said she. “My fall only jolted me and the rest on that funny truck fixed me all right. And your alpenstock was a great help, Lucia. I shall have one myself if we go abroad next summer.”
“You could probably get the same thing in this country,” said Lucia.
Had Peggy been there she would have rolled her eyes at Carolyn, perhaps, at Mathilde’s mention of going abroad, but Peggy was at some distance with another group and this was one of older girls for the most part, girls who had their eye on Lucia for their sorority. When Carolyn and Peggy saw the move on the part of the older girls, they withdrew, though it might not have been necessary, and were sitting on an uneven log with Dotty Bradshaw, Mary Emma Howland and Selma Rardon. They, too, noted the junior girls with Mathilde and Lucia, but made no comment.
“Say, Carolyn,” said Dotty in a low tone, “did you notice Louise Madison and a lot of the University girls at the little skit and pep meeting of the Dramatic Club the other night? I heard Louise say they came over to help root for old Lyon High. And there was Ted Dorrance, big as life, joking with them in the hall before it began. Have he and Louise made up, do you think? I heard that they had a terrible break-up this summer.”
“Oh, a body can hear ’most anything, Dotty. I’m glad Louise and the other girls haven’t forgotten high school days. She’s only a freshman at the University, of course; and that isn’t as thrilling, I imagine, as being a senior at Lyon High.”
“It wouldn’t be, would it?” thoughtfully returned Dotty, while Peggy, who was more interested than she would admit in Ted and Louise, considered Dotty’s bit of news. But here came Betty with her plate piled full.