The Girls of Greycliff

by Harriet Pyne Grove

Helen, whom the girls sometimes called “Dixie,” had arranged a Greycliff song to that famous Southern tune and the girls started that as a beginning:

“O, Greycliff seniors strong are we,
A giddy, happy company,
Come away,
Come away,
Come away, Greycliff Girls!
Where the surf beats high we swim and dive,
We keep the other schools alive,
Come away,
Come away,
Come away, Greycliff Girls!
O, we love to be at Greycliff,
Hooray!
Hooray!
At Greycliff School
The seniors rule
And work and root for Greycliff!
Away!
Away!
Away to school at Greycliff!”

Next came a song that they used at the competitive games. “Come on, girls,” cried Dorothy Appleton, waving an imaginary baton, “let’s have ‘Greycliff has captured the score’!” In this the words named the tune.

“O, dear, what can the matter be?
Dear, dear, what can the matter be?
O, dear, what can the matter be?
Greycliff has captured the score!
It’s no use to try, for you know you can’t beat us,
No matter how hard you may work to defeat us,
Come on when you will, we invite you to meet us,
And Greycliff will capture the score!”

In the midst of so much fun and singing the girls had scarcely noticed how dark it was getting, nor had they seen the worried looks of Dr. Norris, Mickey and his new assistant, a wiry young fellow known as Jack. Patricia West was very quiet, not joining in the songs. “I don’t like the looks of that sky, Mr. Norris,” said Jack. “It looks squally to me.”

The wind began to come up and the lake grew rough at once. Spray began to sprinkle the girls who sat in the prow.

“We’re not far from the Island, girls,” called Dr. Norris, smiling to encourage the girls, and talking through the little megaphone till he had the attention of all. “And we may make it before the storm, but if it gets pretty rough, keep your heads, and I am going to hand around the life preservers now. Then we shall feel safe.”

Mickey and Jack were beginning to have their hands full in steering and watching the engine. Some of the girls looked a little frightened, but accepted their life preservers and put them on, throwing off their sweaters first, then tying them on outside and drawing their raincoats around them to protect them from the rain which by his time was pouring and beating down. Up and down tossed the boat. The waves were growing bigger and bigger. A few girls in front were thoroughly drenched by two or three curving waves which came over them when Mickey tacked to get on the leeward side of the Island, where they might land more easily, he hoped. There the approach was more shallow, the sand extended farther out, though the dock was not so large as the one at which they more often landed.

The rain was coming in such sheets that the girls could scarcely see each other. Occasionally some wave pounded upon the Greycliff with such force that it threatened to engulf her at once. A few girls would shriek a little, but Dr. Norris continued to talk encouragingly, telling them to keep their seats, to take off their shoes, ready to swim and to try to reach the rope if Jack were successful in getting it to the dock. Jack was standing with the rope in his hands ready to jump to the dock as soon as they reached it. They had already felt a slight diminution in the force of the wind as they drew near the hoped for side of the Island, yet the waves were a dangerous foe.

Then it happened, all in a moment it seemed. The engine, which had worked so hard for them against the wind and waves that beat upon the Greycliff till it quivered, broke. At the same time the steering wheel turned, useless, with connections torn apart. Mickey jumped up in despair. Jack lost the rope as the little Greycliff was whirled around, but as it fell and Jack was tossed out of the boat, Juliet, who had risen, with her arm around one of the supports, caught it and with her practiced hand, threw it through wind and rain to the dock where providentially it caught around a tall post, the one at which Juliet, half blinded by the spray, had aimed it. Not for nothing had Juliet been Polly’s shadow and learned to throw a lariat. But little did the rope avail to hold the Greycliff. The girls found themselves in the water, held up by the life preservers, it is true, but tossed and beaten upon by the heavy waves, scarcely able to get a breath, and only dimly sensing in which direction lay the shore.