Billy To-morrow Stands the Test

by Sarah Pratt Carr

And so it transpired. The contest was quickly over. Hector won by a clear majority of thirty-seven. The jollification followed; and several of the teachers, waiting in the building conveniently in case of difficulty, came into the assembly-room and listened to the riot of exultation.

The other party was dazed. They had counted so confidently on Jim Barney’s contention that “queering Billy meant queering Hec Price,” that they could not at once realize their defeat. Their leader was a master at vilifying; but had not lived long enough to know that reputation is cumulative and powerful for better or for worse. Billy had built his good name in the school too surely to be downed by one blow; and the students who didn’t know Billy proved their good sense by voting for Hector on his merits instead of his connections.

But the leader “played his game” to the end. After Hector had closed his speech of appreciation, the Kid claimed the floor and delivered a scathing speech, full of innuendo, and interrupted by hisses and cat-calls, and ending with a startling threat.

“I leave school in a few days. I know the schools are run in the interest of certain political factions, in the interest of the classes. I’ll be a voter pretty soon; and when I am, I’ll have my father and his bunch behind me, and we’ll make school matters sizzle. We’ll see that student rights are not invaded by teachers, and that the smooth-tongued element gets what’s coming—”

Because Hector had been the speaker’s opponent he felt that his first act in the newly created chair could not be one of repression; but now the speech was becoming so incendiary that riot threatened. The factions vied with each other in demonstration, each going as far as it dared in the presence of teachers.

At this point Hector rapped for order, ineffectually at first but insistently; and two or three of Barney’s followers who had another year in the school to forfeit if they overstepped discipline, plucked at him and audibly warned him that he was likely to lose his diploma.

He glared at them and went on. “They can’t do it. They can’t refuse me my diploma because I exercise the right of free speech. I can call the President of the United States any name I please, and the president of a school-board or a principal is no better, because my taxes support all of ’em. I—”

He got no farther. Redtop whispered something in Walter Buckman’s ear that made him start up in his seat. He reached over and pulled the Kid down, and three or four boys hustled him from the room. And Hector adjourned the most threatening meeting in the history of the school.

Affairs moved on to the end of the term in outward quiet; yet the Principal, aided by a few of the teachers, carried on a thorough search for the author of the circular, that proved little. The small firm that printed the circulars told what they knew, but said the business was carried on entirely through correspondence. The copy being private matter required no signature, and the payment was by coin brought by a small boy whom they could not identify, and to whom they delivered the order.

Thus when graduation came, Jim Barney stepped arrogantly forward and, as the others, received his diploma. Billy’s anger swelled again, but he could not indulge it for long. There was Reginald who had won first place, delivering his oration with a power that cheered; and many others Billy knew, receiving well earned rewards. Only Erminie’s name was not called, and Billy felt anew his remorse as he remembered that but for him she would have been there, more beautiful than any of them.