THE JUNIOR TROPHY
I
WHAT THE CAT BROUGHT IN
The train from the west that bore Bert Bryant to New York was two hours late, for all the way from Clinton, Ohio, where Bert lived, the snow had been from four inches to a foot in depth. Consequently he had missed the one o’clock train for Mt. Pleasant and had spent an hour with his face glued to a waiting-room window watching the bustle and confusion of New York. Now, at four o’clock, he was seated in a sleigh, his suit-case between his feet, winding up the long, snowy road to Mt. Pleasant Academy. In the front seat was the fur-clad driver and beside him was Bert’s small trunk.
It was very cold and fast growing dark. It seemed to Bert that they had been driving for miles and miles, and he wanted to ask the driver how much farther they had to go. But the man in the old bearskin coat was cross and taciturn, and so Bert buried his hands still deeper in his pockets and wondered whether his nose and ears were getting white. And just when he had decided that they were the sleigh left the main road with a sudden lurch, that almost toppled the trunk off, and turned through a gate and up a curving drive lined with snow-laden evergreens. Then the academy came into view, a rambling, comfortable-looking building with many cheerfully lighted windows looking out in welcome. At one of the windows two faces appeared in response to the warning of the sleigh bells and peered curiously down. The sleigh pulled up in front of a broad stone step and Bert clambered out, bag in hand. The driver lifted the trunk, opened the big oak door without ceremony, deposited his burden just inside and growled: “Fifty cents.”
Bert paid him, the door closed, the bells jingled diminishingly down the drive and Bert looked around. He was in a big hall from which a broad stairway ascended and from which doors opened on all sides. Through one of them he caught sight of four tables already set for supper. The hall was evidently a living-room as well, for a wood fire crackled in a big fireplace and easy chairs and couches were all around, while the floor was spread with a number of rugs of varying sizes whose deep colors added warmth to the room. Bert waited, drawing off his coat and gloves. Presently, as no one appeared, he went to the fireplace and held his numbed feet to the blaze. Somehow the place didn’t look like any school he had ever seen and he began to wonder whether by mistake he had stumbled into some one’s private house. But from above came unmistakable sounds; boys’ voices in laughter and the scurrying of feet. Bert began to study the many closed doors, intending presently, if no one came, to knock at one of them. But before he had made a choice some one did come.
A door behind him opened suddenly and a girl of about fourteen burst in, caught sight of the newcomer and paused in surprise. Bert turned and for a moment the two observed each other in frank curiosity.
What Bert saw was a girl in a sailor suit of some dark blue material, a girl with a pretty, animated face, blue eyes and golden-brown hair which at the back descended to her waist in a long braid. What the girl saw was a good-looking boy of her own age with a sturdy figure, a pleasant countenance, brown eyes and hair and a good supply of freckles.
“Hello,” she said finally.