"And danced," added Nora.

"I don't know how to dance, nor did I ever see a game of football," said Anne.

"Meaning that Mr. David suits you, Miss Anne," said Grace teasingly.

"It was nice of him to ask me, too," was all Anne said in reply.

"How do you do, my dears?" said Mrs. Gray, a few moments later, when John, the aged butler, ushered the girls into the long, old-fashioned parlor. "You are most kind to come and cheer up a lonely old woman. I shall expect you to be very gay and tell me all the gossip of the Oakdale High School, the four of you."

"Luncheon is served, ma'am," announced John, whereat the sprightly old lady led the way to the dining room.

Over the delicious broiled chicken and other good things they discussed the affairs of the school, the new teacher in mathematics, Miss Leece, who was so unpopular; the girls' princ.i.p.al, Miss Thompson, beloved by all the pupils; the merits of the Freshman Basketball Team and a dozen other schoolgirl topics that seemed to delight the ears of Mrs. Gray.

"The truth is," she said, "I believe this freshman cla.s.s is going to be one of the finest Oakdale High School has ever turned out. I have a feeling that I shall be very proud of my new girls, and at Christmas time I mean to do something I have never done before, if all goes well."

"Oh, do tell us what it is, Mrs. Gray," cried the girls in great excitement.

"I mean to celebrate with the largest Christmas party that's been given in Oakdale for many a long year. Grace, you shall manage it for me, and all of you shall help me decorate the tree and the house. We'll invite the freshmen boys and have a real dance with Ohlson's band for the music."

"Oh, oh!" cried the girls ecstatically, even quiet Anne joining in the chorus.

"By the way," went on Mrs. Gray, "do you know any girl who would like to come up and read to me twice a week, and write my notes for me? I'm getting to be an old woman. My eyesight is growing dim. Is there any girl who would like to earn a little pocket money? But she must have a sweet, soft voice, like Anne's here."

"Anne would be the very girl herself, Mrs. Gray," suggested Grace. "She reads and recites beautifully."

"You are not sure it would trespa.s.s on your time too much, Anne?"

observed the wily old lady. "I don't want to impose on you."

Anne's face fairly radiated with happiness. Could those girls possibly guess how much it meant to her to earn a little money! Five dollars was to her an enormous sum, and perhaps she might earn as much as that in time.

"Might I do it?" she exclaimed, beside herself with joy.

Grace turned her face away a moment. She felt almost ashamed of her own comfortable prosperity. And how like Mrs. Gray it was to do a kind thing in that way, as if Anne would be conferring a favor by accepting the position.

"Indeed, you might, my dear. And I feel myself lucky to get the brightest girl in her cla.s.s, and maybe in Oakdale High School, to come and entertain me twice a week."

CHAPTER IV

THE BLACK MONKS OF ASIA

"Who wants to go nutting?" demanded Grace Harlowe in the bas.e.m.e.nt cloakroom a few afternoons later.

"We do," came a chorus of voices.

"I don't," answered one.

"Don't you like nutting parties, Miriam?" asked Grace.

"She's too old," put in a soph.o.m.ore. "This is a young people's party, I presume?"

"Well, it's not a soph.o.m.ore party, at any rate," retorted Nora.

"Ma-ma, ma-ma," cried a number of other soph.o.m.ores, imitating the cries of a baby.

The freshmen were nettled by the superior att.i.tude of the older cla.s.s, but they knew better than to say anything more just then.

"Never mind, girls," said Grace in a low voice, after the soph.o.m.ores had strolled away, "we'll be soph.o.m.ores ourselves next year. Now, all who want to join the party, meet Nora and Jessica and me at the old Omnibus House at three-thirty. And, above all, don't give the meeting place away."

"Not in a thousand years," said Marian Barber.

It was evident that Miriam Nesbit had hoped to break up the party by declining to go herself. But she was not quite strong enough in the cla.s.s to divide it utterly, and she went off in a huff, with the secret wish to take revenge on somebody. As she started up Chapel Hill to her home she was joined by one of the soph.o.m.ore girls, who lived across the street.

"Your plebes are getting away from you, Miriam," exclaimed the older girl in a bantering tone. "You haven't got them well in hand yet.

Nutting parties should be left behind for the Grammar School pupils."

"They certainly should," replied Miriam in a disgusted tone. "It's Grace Harlowe who gets up all these foolish children's games. She's nothing but a tomboy, anyhow."

"She's the captain of the basketball team, isn't she?" asked the other dryly.

"Yes," admitted Miriam reluctantly, "but she never would have been if she hadn't brought along all her friends to vote for her."

"Whew-w-w!" whistled the soph.o.m.ore. "You don't mean to say it wasn't a fair election?"

"Oh, fair enough," said Miriam, "except that I didn't bother to bring any of my special friends, and she did. I don't call that exactly fair."

"Oh, well," consoled the other, "you have a few things coming to you anyway, Miriam. You're at the head of your cla.s.s, as usual, I suppose?"

Miriam nodded her head without answering. She was thinking of little Anne Pierson and what a close race they were running together. Even studying harder than she had ever had to do before, Miriam found it difficult to keep up with Anne.

"Where are they going?" asked the other girl suddenly, after they had walked along a few minutes in silence.

"Where are who going?" asked Miriam.

"Why, the nutting party, of course."

Here was Miriam's chance for revenge. The soph.o.m.ores were a famously mischievous cla.s.s, and this girl was one of its ringleaders. Back in Grammar School days they had played many pranks on their school fellows, and even in their freshman year they had dared to turn off all lights, one night at a dance of older schoolmates.

"If I tell, you won't give me away, will you?" asked Miriam.

"I promise," said the older girl.

"Very well, then. They meet at three-thirty at the Omnibus House on the River road."

"Good," said the soph.o.m.ore. "Don't you want to come along and see the fun?"