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Highacres, a fiction by Jane Abbott |
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Chapter 14. The Prize |
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_ CHAPTER XIV. THE PRIZE "Good-morning, Mr. Westley!" Barbara Lee's demure voice halted John Westley in a headlong rush through the school corridor. "Oh--good-morning, Miss Lee." If a stray sunbeam had not slanted at just that moment across Miss Lee's upturned face, turning the curly ends of her fair hair to threads of sheen, John Westley might have passed right on. Instead, he stopped abruptly and stared at Miss Lee. "I declare--it's hard to believe you're grown-up! And a teacher! Why, I could almost chuck you under the chin--the way I used to do. I suppose I'd get into no end of trouble if I ever tried it----" "Well," her face dimpled roguishly, "I don't think it's ever been done to anyone in the faculty. I don't know what the punishment is. Anyway, I'm trying so hard to always remember that I am very much grown-up that it is unkind of you to even hint that I am failing at it--dismally." "I think--from what my girls say--that you're succeeding rather tremendously, here at Highacres." "That is nice in you--and them! I wonder if I can live up to what they think I am." Miss Lee's face was very serious; she was really grown-up now. "Miss Lee, can you give me half an hour? I was on my way to Dr. Caton's office when----" "You nearly knocked me over!" "Yes--thinking you were one of the school children----" "We can go into my library or--down in my office." "Your office, by all means." John Westley was immensely curious to see Miss Lee's "office." It was as business-like in its appearance as his own. A flat-topped desk, rows of files, a bookcase filled with books bearing formidable titles, and three straight-backed chairs against the wall gave an impression of severity. Two redeeming things caught John Westley's eye--a bowl of blooming narcissi and a painting of Sir Galahad. "I brought that from Paris," explained Barbara Lee. "I stood for hours in the Louvre watching a shabby young artist paint it and--I had to have it. It seemed as if he'd put something more into it than was even in the original--a sort of light in the eyes." "Strange----" John Westley was staring reflectively at the picture. "Those eyes are like--Jerry Travis!" "Yes--yes! I had never noticed why, but something familiar in that child's expression has haunted me." Though John Westley had come to Highacres that morning with an important matter on his mind and had, on a sudden impulse, begged Miss Lee to give him a half-hour that he might talk it over with her, he had to tell her, now, of Jerry and how he had found her standing on the Wishing-rock, visioning a wonderful world of promise that lay beyond her mountain. "Her mother had made an iron-clad vow that she'd always keep the girl there on Kettle. Why, nothing on earth could chain that spirit anywhere. She's one of the world's crusaders." Barbara Lee had not gone, herself, very far along life's pathway, yet her tone was wistful. "No, you can't hold that sort of a person back. They must always go on, seeking all that life can give. But the stars are so very far off! Sometimes even the bravest spirits get discouraged and are satisfied with a nearer goal." John Westley, sitting on the edge of the flat-topped desk, leaned suddenly forward and gently tilted Miss Lee's face upward. There was nothing in the impulsive movement to offend; his face was very serious. "Child, have you been discouraged? Have you started climbing to the stars--and had to halt--on the way?" The girl laughed a little shamefacedly. "Oh, I had very big dreams--I have them still. And I had a wonderful opportunity and had to give it up; mother wanted me at home. She isn't well--so I took this position." She made her little story brief, but her eyes told more than her words of the disappointment and self-sacrifice. "Well, mothers always come first. And maybe there's a different way to the stars, Barbara." There was a moment's silence between them. John Westley was the first to break it. "I want your advice, Miss Lee. I believe you're closer to the hearts of these youngsters out here than anyone else. I've something in my mind but I can't just shape it up. I want to build some sort of a scholarship for Lincoln that isn't founded on books. "The trouble is," he went on, "that every school turns out some real scholars--boys and girls with their minds splendidly exercised and stored--and what else? Generally always--broken bodies, physiques that have been neglected and sacrificed in the struggle for learning. Of what use to the world are their minds--then? I've found--and a good many men and women come under my observation--that the well-trained mind is of no earthly value to its owner or to the rest of the world unless it has a well-trained body along with it." "That's my present business," laughed Miss Lee. "I must agree with you." "So I want to found some sort of a yearly award out here at Highacres for the pupil who shows the best record in work--and play." "That will be splendid!" cried Miss Lee, enthusiastically. "Will you help me?" John Westley asked with the diffidence of a schoolboy. "Will you tell me if some of my notions are ridiculous--or impossible?" He picked up one of the sharpened pencils from the desk and drew up a chair. "Now, listen----" and he proceeded to outline the plan he had had in mind for a long time. One week later the Lincoln Award was announced to the pupils of the school. So amazing and unusual was the competition that the school literally buzzed with comments upon it; work for the day was abandoned. Because the award was a substantial sum of money to be spent in an educational way, most of the pupils considered it very seriously. "Ginny Cox has the best chance 'cause she always has the highest marks and she's on all the teams." "It isn't just being on teams," contradicted another girl, studying one of the slips of paper which had been distributed and upon which had been printed the rules covering the competition. "It's the number of hours spent in the gym, or in out-of-door exercise. And you get a point for setting-up exercises and for walking a mile each day. And for sleeping with your window open! Easy!" "And for drinking five glasses of water a day," laughed another. "And for eating a vegetable every day. And for drinking a glass of milk." "That lets me out. I just loathe milk." "Of course--so do I. But wouldn't you drink it for an award like that?" "Look, girls, you can't drink tea or coffee," chimed in another. "And you get a point for nine hours' sleep each school night! That'll catch Selma Rogers--she says she studies until half-past eleven every night." "I suppose that's why it's put in." "And a point for personal appearance--and personal conduct in and out of school! Say, I think the person who thought up this award had something against us all----" Patricia Everett indignantly opposed this. "Not at all! Miss Lee, and she's the chairman of the Award Committee, said that the purpose of the award is to build up a Lincoln type of a pupil whose physical development has kept pace with the mental development. I think it will be fun to try for it, though eating vegetables will be lots worse than the bridge chapter in Caesar!" Jerry Travis, too, had made up her mind to work for the award. She had read the rules of the competition with deep interest; here would be an opportunity to make her mother and Little-Dad proud of their girl. And it ought not to be very hard, either--if she could only bring up her monthly mark in geometry! She had, much to her own surprise, lived through the dreaded midwinter examinations, though in geometry only by the "skin of her teeth," as Graham cheerfully described his own scholastic achievements. Jerry found that Gyp had been carefully studying the rules--Gyp who had never dreamed of trying for any sort of an honor! But poor Gyp found them a little terrifying; like Pat Everett she hated vegetables and she despised milk; there was always something awry in her dress, a shoelace dangling, a torn hem, a missing button. But if one could win a point for correcting these little failings just the same as in chemistry or higher math., was it not worth trying? "Whoever do you s'pose thought of it all?" Gyp asked Jerry and Graham. The name of the Lincoln "friend" who was giving the award had been carefully guarded. Not one of the younger Westleys suspected Uncle Johnny who sat with them and listened unblushingly and with considerable amusement to their varied comments. "Well, I'll try for it," conceded Graham. "Who wouldn't? Even Fat Sloane says he's goin' to and he just hates to move when he doesn't have to! But five hundred dollars for washing your teeth and walking a mile----" "And standing well in Cicero," added Uncle Johnny, mischievously. "Do you s'pose Cora Stanton will be marked off in personal appearance 'cause she rouges and uses a lipstick?" asked Gyp, with a sly glance toward Isobel, who turned fiery red. "I know she does, 'cause Molly Hastings went up and deliberately kissed her cheek and she said she could taste it--awfully!" "Cora's a very silly girl. Anyway, if she lives up to the rules of the competition she won't need any artificial color--she'll have a bloom that money couldn't buy!" "Well, I'm not going to bother about the silly award," declared Isobel. "Grind myself to death--no, indeed! I don't even want to go to college. If you're rich it's silly to bother with four whole years at a deadly institution--some of the girls say you have to study awfully hard. Amy Mathers is going to come out next year and I want to, too." Isobel talked fast and defiantly, as she caught the sudden sternness that flashed across Uncle Johnny's face. Mrs. Westley started to speak, but Uncle Johnny made the slightest gesture with his hand. Into his mind had come the memory of that half-hour with Barbara Lee and something she had said--"the stars are very far off!" Her face had been illumined by a yearning; he was startled now at the realization that, in contrast, Isobel's showed only a self-centered, petty vanity--his Isobel, who had been so pretty and promising, for whom he had thought only the very noblest things possible. But although he saw the dreams he had built for Isobel dangerously threatened, he clung staunchly to his faith in the good he believed was in the girl; that was why he lifted his hand to stay the impulsive words that trembled on the mother's lips and made his own tone tolerant. "Making plans without a word to mother--or Uncle Johnny? But you'll come to us, my dear, and be grateful for our advice. I don't believe just a lot of dances will satisfy my girl--even if they do Amy Mathers. And after they're over--what then? Will you really be a bit different from the other girl because you've 'come out'? What do you say to taking up your drawing again and after a few years going over to Paris to study?" The defiant gleam in Isobel's eyes changed slowly to incredulous delight. Uncle Johnny went on: "And even an interior decorator needs a college training." "John Westley, you're a wonder," declared Mrs. Westley after the young people had gone upstairs. "You ought to have a half-dozen youngsters of your own!" He stared into the fire, seeing visions, perhaps, in the dancing flames. "I wish I did. I think they're the greatest thing in the world! To make a good, useful man or woman out of a boy or girl is the best work given us to do on this earth!" _ |
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