The Girls of Central High Part 29

She flashed before the eyes of Hester and her mother the veil that had been used to gag her when she was overcome by the "ghost" in the haunted house in Robinson's Woods.

"No! That isn't her veil," declared Hester, quickly, but growing redder in the face than Nature, even, had intended her to be. "She never saw that veil before."

"Why, hold on, child!" exclaimed Mrs. Grimes. "That looks like mine."

"No, it isn't!" snapped her daughter.

"Yes it is, Hes," said Mrs. Grimes, and she took the proffered veil from Laura's hand.

"'Taint, either, Ma!" cried Hester.

"I hope I know my own veil, Hessie Grimes. This is it. Where did you find it, Laura?" asked the butcher's wife.

"I found it where Hester left it," said Laura, quietly, and looking straight into the other girl's face. "It was the night the M. O. R.'s went to Robinson's Woods."

"There! what did I tell you, Hes?" exclaimed the unsuspecting lady. "I knew you lost it that night. I'm a thousand times obliged, Laura. I don't suppose you would have known it was mine if you hadn't heard me hollering about it?" and she laughed, comfortably. "I _do_ shout, that's a fact. But Laws! it got me back my veil this time, didn't it?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Laura, unsmilingly. "And Hester! Monday morning Miss Carrington will want to speak to you before school."

She turned back without any further explanation to the culprit. She knew that she could make this unveiling of Hester's meanness do Bobby Hargrew a good turn. Hester must admit to Miss Carrington that she had told a falsehood when she said she saw Bobby throw something in the princ.i.p.al's wastebasket. If Hester would not make this reparation Laura was determined to make public what Hester had done to her in the haunted house.

CHAPTER XXIV-THE FIRST FIELD DAY

The girls of Central High had looked forward to this open-air exhibition of dancing and field athletics with great expectations. The pretty folk dances were enjoyed by the girl pupils of Central High in a.s.sembly. All of the girls who were physically able were expected to take part in such exercises, and Mrs. Case had trained her cla.s.ses, separately and together, in several of the Morris dances, in the Maypole dance of England, and in the Italian Tarantella.

Besides these general dances there was a special cla.s.s that danced the Hungarian Czardas and the Swedish Rheinlander as exhibition dances. The gymnasium dresses of the girls of Central High were a dark blue with white braid. In the special dances the cla.s.s going through the exercises changed costumes in the bath houses and appeared in Hungarian and Swedish peasant costumes.

With these general exercises at this first field day of the school were also relay races-a simple relay, shuttle relay and potato relay.

Following which the champion basket-ball team of the school would play a scrub team, although the field was not a really first cla.s.s place for a basket-ball court.

For a finale the girls were to repeat the Maypole dance and then break up into running and skipping groups over the greensward of the field, the groups as a whole forming a picture pleasing and inspiring to the eyes of the spectators, who could view the proceedings from the grandstand that had been built along one side of the field.

Sprightly little Bobby Hargrew was a beautiful dancer, and enjoyed the exercise more than she did anything else in athletics. She had been one of Mrs. Case's prize dancers before the unfortunate occurrence that had cut her out of the after-hour fun.

Of course, she took the exercises the physical instructor put into the regular work of the cla.s.ses; but, forbidden by Mr. Sharp, she could not hope to take part in any of the events on the field. She would be obliged to sit in the stand and look on.

And this deprivation hurt the girl's pride. She hated, too, to have it said that of all the girls of Central High, she was the one singled out for such punishment. It seemed hard, too, when she knew she was not guilty of the offense of which she stood accused.

However, she needed n.o.body to point out to her that her own thoughtlessness and love of joking had brought the thing about. Had she not deliberately set out to annoy Miss Carrington, her teacher, by appearing to smoke a cigarette, the Chinese punk would never have been in Mr. Sharp's office. Then they could not have accused her of setting the fire.

It seemed to the fun-loving girl, however, that the punishment did not "fit the crime." The punishment was so hard to bear! She began this last week before the Field Day in a very despondent mood, for her-for Clara Hargrew was not wont to despond over anything.

To her surprise, on Tuesday morning, however, she was called to Miss Carrington's office. The teacher looked very seriously through her thick spectacles at the girl, and her face was a little flushed, Bobby thought.

"Miss Hargrew," said Gee Gee, "you have proved to my satisfaction during the last few weeks that you can behave yourself almost as well as any other pupil in our school-if you so wish. Ahem!"

"Yes, ma'am," said Bobby, demurely.

"And if you can behave so well for these weeks, why not all the time?"

"I don't know, ma'am," admitted Bobby.

"Can't you?"

"Sometimes I fear I shall burst, Miss Carrington," said the girl, bluntly.

"Well! you have improved," admitted the teacher. "But you are not willing to say anything further about the fire?"

"I didn't set it," said Bobby, doggedly.

"And you did not go near that waste basket?"

"I did not."

"Well! it is perfectly ridiculous. The fire could have been set in no other way. There was not a soul in the room but yourself. And the punk was afire when we all left you. That is so; is it not?"

"Yes, ma'am," admitted the girl, with a flash in her eye. "But I want to repeat to you that Hester Grimes never saw me throw that match into the basket--"

"Wait!" observed Miss Carrington, holding up her hand reprovingly. "Do not say anything you would be sorry for about Hester."

"I guess anything I'd say about her I'd not be sorry for," declared Bobby, bluntly.

"But you would. Hester has done a very brave thing. And she has helped you in-er-Mr. Sharp's estimation and-and in my own."

"What's that?" demanded the amazed Bobby.

"She has come to me and confessed that-out of pique-she made a mis-statement," said Miss Carrington, gravely. "She admits that she did _not_ see you put anything in the basket. She said it because she was angry with you--"

"Well! I declare!" burst forth Bobby. "Who ever knew Hessie to do a thing like that before?"

"Why, Miss Hargrew, you seem to be ungrateful!" cried the teacher. "And you do not appreciate what a sacrifice your school friend has made for you. Her conscience would not let her remain silent longer. She had to tell me. She came to me yesterday morning--"

"All her lonesome-by herself, I mean?" demanded Bobby.

"Certainly."

"And n.o.body made her tell the truth?"

"Her conscience only."

Bobby had been thinking hard, however. She was amazed at this outcome of the matter, but she was not so glad that she could not see some reason for the change of heart on the part of Hester Grimes. "I bet a cent,"

thought Bobby, to herself, "that Laura had something to do with it. She ran out and spoke to Hessie and her mother Sat.u.r.day. She _had_ something on Hessie, and made her do this."

But the girl saw it would not be wise to indicate her suspicions to Gee Gee. Besides, Laura evidently wished to keep the matter a secret.