"Whom did you vote for, Concetta?"
"Oh, that's telling; we were not to tell until all the votes were counted; but I think—"
"Hush! Miss Julia's going to speak."
Then as all the eager faces turned toward her, Julia began her informal address.
"I need not remind you that last winter you were told that two prizes would be awarded at the end of the season. The first to the girl who in every way had been the most successful—whose record was really the best. The second to the girl who had succeeded in making the most of herself. Miss South and I have watched you all carefully. Every day we made a record of your improvement—in some cases, I am sorry to say, of your lack of improvement. We have talked the matter over, and have asked Miss Northcote to help us decide; and after we three had made one decision, we referred it to every other person who had lived here the past year, or who had taught you even for a short time."
Julia's natural timidity heightened perhaps the seriousness of her tone, and the faces before her grew sober.
"Now at one time, as I think I told you, we thought of leaving it to you girls to vote on both the first and the second prizes; but on second thought we have seen that the first prize ought to be based on the records that have been kept. Accordingly," and she opened a box that lay on the table before her, "it gives me great pleasure to present this case of scissors to Phœbe, as a prize awarded her for having made the best record in work and in all other things during the past year."
Now Phœbe had been so quiet a girl, so colorless in many ways, that no one had thought of her as a possible prize-winner. She accepted the scissors with a smile and a word of thanks, and passed the red morocco case around the circle that all might see its contents—six pairs of scissors, of the finest steel, ranging in size from a very small pair of embroidery scissors to the largest size for cutting cloth.
There were whispered comments in the interval that followed. One girl expressing her astonishment that Phœbe had been the winner, another replying, "Why, she never did wrong, not once; didn't you ever notice?"
Then in a little while Julia spoke again.