“Oh, but English is so easy to bluff in!” I exclaimed, “almost any string of words will do if the teacher asks for a discussion of a tendency or of nature or vocabulary or poetic form or something. Didn’t you make a try at some sort of an answer?”
“I said I didn’t know,” sobbed Martha, “and I didn’t. My thoughts were all mixed up and I couldn’t remember a line.”
“You goosie!” I was disgusted. “If I said I didn’t know at every opportunity where I could say it truthfully, how long do you think I would be allowed to stay in this institution of learning? When I don’t know a fact, I use fancy. It is the greatest fun to catch a hint and elaborate it into a brilliant recitation without a jot of knowledge to back it up. It takes brains to do it. You’ve got to learn to bluff, and then get along without studying.”
The little freshman raised her heavy eyes, all reddened about the lids. “Oh, but that isn’t honest,” she said.
“Not honest?” For an instant I was actually alarmed. Once when I myself was a freshman I nearly lost my faith in human nature because a senior whom I admired did something that looked dishonest. But sending valentines to yourself in order to win a prize is different from bluffing. So I said, “Nonsense!” and was just hurrying out of the door when she called in a quivery voice: “P-please, may I borrow a sheet of theme paper? Mine’s all gone and I can’t buy—I mean, it’s due to-night.”
“Help yourself,” I answered, “there’s a heap of it that I carried away from the last German test. Right hand drawer of the desk.”
“No, no! I can’t take that. Haven’t you any that you bought with your own money? I’ll pay it back. That paper—they gave it to you—didn’t they give it to you just for the test?”
I stopped and walked over to feel of her head and tell her that she ought to see the doctor or take a nap or something. Then I gave her three sheets of the paper and told her not to be silly. I don’t know whether she used it or not. At luncheon she appeared with her fingers inky and her hat on.
Berta said, “Whither, my child?”
She answered, “Down town.” And then she looked at Lila with such anxious eyes that I jumped and clapped my hands together in contrition.