"In spots," answered Rosemary, the tears rushing to her eyes. "It has been ever so long, sometimes, Hugh."
"Well, let's all get promoted," suggested Shirley, in her little chirpy voice. "Mother would like us all promoted, wouldn't she, Hugh?"
"She'll about eat you up, promoted or not," he answered, swinging Shirley to the top of his desk the better to hug her. "But by all means be promoted; that will be fine news to tell her."
The dreaded examinations approached relentlessly, engulfed each fearful class and released them, after a few days, to wait their fates. Shirley was sure she had "passed in everything," Sarah was superbly indifferent, and Rosemary had secret qualms about history. Jack Welles confided that he didn't care so much whether or not he passed, but the uncertainty was driving him mad.
"If I pass, I get my choice of three dandy fishing rods," he explained to Rosemary. "And if I flunk, I have to work in the garden all summer without a single fishing trip."
This state of suspense extended to the last day of the term. The senior classes, in the high and grammar schools, were given their ratings earlier, to allow them to prepare for the graduating exercises. Rosemary, Sarah, Shirley and Aunt Trudy went to the exercises and all through the hot June night Rosemary sat, wide-eyed and delighted, wondering if the day would ever come when she could sit on the platform in a white frock with her arms filled with roses, and perhaps be called on to read an essay.
The day after the graduation, the cards were handed out among the other grades. Jack Welles waited to walk home with the Willis girls and though his patience was sorely tried by the prolonged farewells, he managed to keep fairly good-humored.
"Why was Bessie Kent kissing you as though she never expected to see you again?" he asked Rosemary curiously. "Doesn't she live near you and won't you see her nearly every day this summer?"
"Oh, that's just because it was the last day of school," explained Rosemary.
"Silly, I call it," declared Sarah, voicing Jack's sentiments. "I got promoted, Jack. And I'm going to hunt specimens all summer for the biology teacher. He asked me to."