Of course the girls with whom Shirley was walking wanted to sit in the very front seats, where Shirley would be in plain view of everybody! But then, the front of the boat was the most desirable place and Shirley knew that she would enjoy cutting the waves there, with the prow, and seeing the water tossed aside. Hope was being “nice to her,” Shirley knew, as she asked Shirley to sit in a certain spot that was a favorite location and took a seat beside her. Shirley already knew that Hope Holland came from Chicago and was a member of the “Double Three.” She found Hope a very pleasant companion, but she had Madge also, on the other side of her, and Dulcie sat beyond Hope.
Sidney, with Fleta and Irma, was now making her way toward the prow and girls were coming to the dock in numbers. “Nobody is going to take Shirley Harcourt for me today,” Sidney thought, as she saw the hat and coat and glanced with some satisfaction at her own soft sport coat, new and trim. A gay, close little red hat confined her golden locks. A scarf of the newest design fluttered its ends in the wind.
Shirley, as she caught a glimpse of the red hat and the white coat, sighed and thought much the same thing that Sidney had thought, though with a difference. She could hear Stella Marbury’s voice exclaiming not far away. “Sid! That must be a new coat; I’ve never seen it before. It is certainly nifty.”
“I’m glad that you like it,” said Sidney, drawing it a little more closely around her and putting her hands in its pockets. “Yes, it’s new. I got it for just such occasions as this. Thank fortune, we don’t have to wear those uniforms off the school grounds!”
“Why I thought that you liked the uniform idea. I’m sure I heard you say once that it was so democratic and sensible.”
“Probably I did,—last year. It is different now.”
“And I know why,” replied Stella. Then Stella dropped her voice and said something else. Hope spoke to Shirley then, asking her about her summer’s trip, which Madge had mentioned. As Hope had been through the western parks, both girls expressed their enthusiasm over the scenery, the tramps and the horseback rides, and Shirley was glad not to hear any more of Stella’s conversation. Dulcie she liked very much. “Dulce” had a quaint touch of humor all her own at times. It was not long before Shirley forgot her coat and hat that were not all she could wish. She was her own interested and interesting self, friendly, but not too talkative, and giving the other girls a chance to lead the conversation and to be as friendly as they evidently wanted to be. She suspected Hope of some intention in the matter, but what difference did it make why they were with her. She would enjoy the fun.
Cad Scott had brought her guitar, and two of the girls, Betty Terhune and Olive Mason, had their “ukes.” Tall Olive clasped her ukelele and beat away upon its strings with the greatest enjoyment, in the latest popular songs or the old ones that everybody knew. Shirley heard the school songs for the first time. They were clever and pretty, she thought, and different from the university songs. She was glad that she had come. It was nice girl stuff! There sailed a white schooner with full sails under the strong wind. Gulls and other water birds flew sometimes near them.
Her mind a blank, as she would have said, except for present impressions, Shirley leaned back to watch the water, the boat and girls, and to listen, humming such tunes as she knew and singing such new words as might be repeated in choruses. “You have a good voice, Shirley,” said Hope.
“Thank you,” Shirley returned. “I want to take lessons some day. My mother sings, though her voice is of a different quality.”