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Senge eee een gents menace: pete me igepaaratec ements Sent pape a mp opine att ti twat nee
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Copyright, 1917, by David C. Cook Publishing Company.
PUBLISHED
WEEKLY.
Vol. 16. No. 44..
DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING COMPANY,
ELG1y, ILLINOIS
November 3, 1917.
Sas Billic -May-
we -by. Gdith- ‘faylor- -Garnshaw-
ISS NEWMAN, Dean of Norville
M sat before her desk in the bright
bay window of her comfortable sit-
ting- room on a Monday morning near the
middle of January.’ So absorbed -was she
in ‘the papers before her that she did not
-hear the flutter of six frightened but none
the less determined skirts, nor the excited
whispering that preceded the timid knock.
The knock, however, made her lift her head
and say “ Come in!” ©The door swung open
immediately and the girls scuttled into the
room, each looking a little sheepish. They
. _had the wholesomest kind of fear of the
“What is it, girls?”
Wilhelmina Mayberry, far better known
to her acquaintances in. the college as
Billie May, had evidently been appointed
spokesman.
“We've come tq talk about our table
in the. dining room, Miss Newman,” she
said, advancing a little. “or rather, one
of the girls at the table.” The others
shifted a little uneasily. under the Dean's
unperturbed gaze.
“-“ You know who I mean,”
went on Billie
. May, “the girl that came in the last part
,
~ in Rowena Gay, ~
of October—Helen Stuart!"
“What is the matter with Helen?” asked
Miss Newman. “Does she eat with her
“Oh, no, not that! She's just not very
—not—that is, she isn’t much of an ad-
dition to the life at the table,” she finished,
lamely.
“Miss Newman, she is like a clam,” put
in pretty Nan Crawford. “I never saw any
one soequiet in my life.”
“She’s just—just stodgy!” said Lillian
Cook in a low, tense tone,
“We like the other’ new girls you. put
there,” said Myrtie Pretlow, finding her
voice with an effort, “ Madge Fonville and
Mary McPherson and Eleanor French are
nice as can be. But we thought maybe
you could arrange to put this Stuart girl
at one of the other tables when the new
term begins—”
“We've just been talking it over,” put
“in Billie May’s room.
And we decided it would be better to come
-and see you before we get so busy with
examinations we can’t think of anything
else—didn't_ we, Nellie Sue?”
Nellie Sue Graham, a slender, black-eyed
girl, was Rowena’s particular chum, Now
she colored, and nodded vigorously, saying
dt"
_ emphatically, “ Yes, indee
_ tle experiment.
Miss Newman eyed the girls in silence a
few seconds. then she shook her head slow-
. “J don't think I'll make that change,”
she said. “The truth is, I’m trying a lit-
Make the best of it, girls.
Now sit down, won't you, and. make a
visit?”
“We can't, thank you so much,” said
Billie May, a little mournfully, and a mo-
ment later they were in the hall once more.
“T feel like a little, wet chicken,” said
Lillian Cook, sadly.
“T'm going to develop indigestion, and
bave my meals serv ed in State in my room.
said Myrtie, “all dressed up in a pin
negligee. There's nol, much fun in the
diniog room any mor
“Well, Um going to study Physics,”
said
“ing to do with the money?”
practical Billie May, and the six went their
separate ways.
erm examinations began the next day,
to continue for ten days. “At dinner on
Wednesday night the talk was of nothing
else. Billie May, feeling worn out and dis-
traught herself, was nagged by the in-
sistence of the discussion until she burst
out, almost -irritably: “I’m going to
fine the next Person that says the word
‘examination’
“ Good scheme,
Rowena, “how mu
“Oh, not less than a nickel, and it's
got to be paid, too!”
“T’m frightened,” said Eleanor French,
“for I know I'll be in trouble all the
time. I can think of nothing else!”
“* And neither can 1!” Madge Fonville,
another new girl, locked around
the table in a puzzled sort of
way. “But what are we go-
Billie May,” cried
ich 2”
The discussion began at once,
every one taking part but Helen
tuart.
She was a large, powerful-
ly ‘built girl, yet
gave’-the impres-
of a vessel
ing, for her clothes
were ill-fitting and
badly chosen, and
her hair was ar-
ranged in a tight
plait, wound into
a sort of biscuit
on the back of her
head. Yet one
could tell by a
glance at her gray
nota dull girl.
laid down her knife
and fork when the
discussion began, and a slow flush crept
over her face, yet she did not speak a
word. .
“Wear! Ilear!” said Billie May, at
length, “it has been suggested that. the
money shall go to buy a feast, to be called
‘The Examination Feast’—each word be-
ginning with a ~ capital letter! So it: has
been ordered, and so it shall be! I'll keep a
notebook in the pocket of my middy skirt,
and take down the: fines. Don’t be stingy
with the word, girls, for I feel that I’m
going to be hungry after examinations—
there, I’m the first one! My poor pocket-
okt”
The meal was finished merrily, so that
the girls were really refreshed when they
went to work once more. -
In the days that followed there were
many offenders. Billie May was kept busy
making entries in the little red notebook.
Only Helen Stuart did not utter the fate-
ful word. That, of course,’ was because
she uttered scarcely any words at all, As
usual, she replied to questions, asked now
and then for food to be passed, but as for
helping to carry on conversation at the
table, she made no attempt at such a thing.
Finally examinations were nearly over,
and the strain relaxed enough for a few
of the girls to meet in Billie May’s room
o make fudge one night after study hour.
“T can't understand her,” said Rowena,
dropping down on a pile of sofa pillows
with a sigh when Helen's name was men-
tioned. “I'd think she was timid if she
didn’t seem to get on so well in her classes.
Really, girls, you'll have to admit that she
is clever; entering nearly a month and a
half late, and making up all the back work
and carrying her dailies with credit, so
that now she’s full freshman, with pros-
pects of being on the honor list!”
“T think it is a pity she has no room-
mate,” said Billie May, stirring the candy,
“you can't live in the same room with a
person without knowing her pretty well.
I can’t help feeling—
she turned and faced
“We've just been talking it over.”
the other girls, “ somehow—
“ Here, stir, that noe !’’ said Nellie
Sue, “it's about to boil over. You can't
express your theories and make fudge at
the same time, Billie May, so don’t try. I'l
talk. I can’t help feeling—somehow—that
it will go against the grain to have Helen
Stuart come to our ‘Examination Feast’
when she hasn't paid a cent toward the
st.” -
“*There was a young man so benighted,
He never knew when he was slighted;
He went to a party,
And ate just as hearty,
As if he'd been really invited !’"
quoted Lillian Cook, laughingly. ‘Make
her say the word, Billie May!’
“IT wish she would,” she said, and there
was real concern in her tone, “it would
make us all enjoy the feast more, especially
Helen,
At luncheon on Friday Ilelen was given
several opportunities to be fined for the
feast, but she evaded all of them, even
Nellie Sue's pointed remarks on the sub-
ject, such as: “ Billie May, have I really
said ‘examination’ thirteen times? Well,
here’s the money.” “I'm sure I'll have a
good appetite for the feast.” “It's your
last opportunity, girls; have a heart, now,
don’t be timid, let’s have a real. spread
while we're at it.” “ Hasn't Tlelen Stuart
really said the word a single time? What
an economical person she must © be—in
words, of course!” And yet the girl kept
silent; when the meal was over, and the
girls had dispersed to their rooms, Billie
May counted the money which had by
agreement been brought in, and found that
the treasury contained several dollars. Yet
her eyes did not sparkle as they might
have done, and she ‘went off to her last:
examination with a heavy heart,
The feast was set for, Saturday night, in
Billie May's room. Miss Newman had al-
ready given permission to -several of the
girls who were seniors to go to town and
buy the good things on Saturday afternoon.
Therefore the feast was the chief topic of
conversation at dinner on Friday night.
Helen Stuart did not appear that night
at the table, and Billie May hurriedly
ate her dinner and asked to be excused,
pleading ‘important business.” She went
swiftly through the deserted hall, up three
flights of stairs, down another hall, then
paused before a closed door. Her heart be-
gan to beat suddenly and unaccountably ;
she had certainly heard a sob from with-
in! This was an isolated room; once it
had been used as a plunder place for col-
lege rubbish; when Helen Stuart came
late in October, it was the only available _
the room
spot. She roomed here alone;
was large enough for but one girl.
Billie May stood at the door undecided
whether to knock or to go away as quietly
as she had come. Then she shook herself
and tapped on the door. She never knew:
whether any answer came from within, she
only knew that she was determined to en-
ter, so she did. Helen Stuart was lying
across the bed with her face hidden in a
pillow. So much could be seen by the
light from the transom.~ Billie May ap-
proached the bed.
“TIelen,” she said,
edge,
sitting down on the
“Helen!” Then she went back to
the door, closed and: locked it noiselessly, -
and came back to where the girl lay.
“Probably it’s homesicknes:
Then asked herself, Was it? -She remem-
bered that some one had told her that: —
Helen had not gone home during the Christ-
mas holidays. She sat there for what
seemed to her a long time without being .
noticed, then she ventured to lean over-
and pat the heaving shoulder. It-was easy,
then to put an arm about the moist, warm
neck, How long it remained there Billie
May never knew, but at length she said:
“It's just Billie May; won't you tell me
about it?”
Then the surprise came. Helen Stuart
sat up, lifted two strong arms, and flung
them about Billie May. .Then the words
came tumbling forth, making Billie May
think of a pent-up waterfall. She heard
a story of Helen’s home, of clean, wind-
swept beaches,” with the surf pounding
against the rocks; of the Sound, a body
of water separated from the ocean by a
narrow strip of beach, of the marsh grass,
green from the fresh salt kiss of the tide;
of the big, lonely house, the library with
its books ;
turn, “but, oh, the best father!” She was
told of days and weeks when no human
creature save her father, the old house-
keeper, and an occasional fisherman crossed
her. pathway: of happy hours on the
Sound; of romps down the beach, with a
splendid Newfoundland dog pounding at
her heels, while the tide came frolicking
in to lick their feet, bringing funny, awk-
. ery
of Helen's father, learned, taci-
4
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