“Oh, well, Ruth wanted to go,” said Phil, as indifferently as he could, “and Tom and I promised to——”
“I suppose Miss Tyler is going?” asked Sid quietly.
“Yes,” assented Tom, his face flushing under its bronze coat, though possibly it was from his exertion in pulling his tie into place.
“And so is Miss Harrison,” went on Phil, with a desperate effort, as if desirous of getting the worst over. “But you don’t need to worry,” he added, as he saw Sid sit limply down in a chair. “She probably won’t see you, so there need be no embarrassment. I thought it was a pity to have her miss it, especially as Ruth and Madge are going, and she rooms with them. We thought you wouldn’t mind, old fellow, but we weren’t going to tell you.”
“So that’s what you’ve been so mysterious about these last few days,” commented Sid. “I thought something was up. Of course it’s all right. I sha’n’t annoy Miss Harrison, only—Oh, what’s the use!” and he went on with his preparations.
It was the morning of the day of the annual sophomore picnic, and there was much excitement, especially in the ranks of the second-year men, and the more or less numerous fair ones who counted on being taken to the charming little island in the middle of Lake Tonoka. The affair was always held at this season of the year, when there was no danger of an attack from the freshmen students, who, by this time, had settled down into something approaching dignity.
“You’re not going to back out, because she—Miss Harrison—is coming, are you?” asked Phil, as he saw Sid cease his arrangements for dressing.
“No—no—of course not. I was just—just thinking. I’ll take my camera and specimen box along, and do a little work in biology and nature study. I need a little freshening up for the final exams. I probably won’t see much of you chaps.”
Phil and Tom departed ahead of Sid, who busied himself with his camera, his specimen box and his cyanide bottle, with which latter he painlessly killed such bugs and butterflies as he captured.
“We’ll see you later,” called Tom, as, with his blue tie very much in evidence, he and Phil went to get the girls.