CHAPTER XXXVII—AN APRIL FOOL ROMANCE.
“Vine Haven Seminary,
“April 4, 1922.
“Dearest Cowgirls:
You never could guess what has happened since I wrote you last and, since you are too far away for me to really enjoy mystifying you, I will tell you all about it.
Well, to begin at the beginning. You know there are certain girls in this school who have always wished that they could be members of “The Lucky 13,” but, for various reasons, we have not wished to enlarge our membership nor include these particular girls, and so they formed a club of their own and called it “The Exclusive Three.” Then, if you please, they actually told around that we had invited them to become members of our club, but that they had refused since some of our fathers were tradespeople, while all of their fathers are retired gentlemen.
Of course, you know, that sort of snobbishness never impresses “The Lucky Thirteen.” We took it all as a joke and were glad they were to have a club of their own, for we want everyone to be happy.
Poor Miss Piquilin happens to have the entire membership of these rival clubs in her algebra class, and, since the members of “The Exclusive Three” are not very studious, they often fail in their lessons. The consequence is that while Miss Piquilin is just dear to “The Lucky Thirteen,” she is still Miss Pickle at her sourest to “The Exclusive Three.” It seems that they decided to punish her by playing a practical joke on April Fools’ Day. We found out about it in this way. I went down to the library one evening to get a reference book. I didn’t turn on the light for I knew exactly where the book stood on the shelf. Just as I was reaching for it, I heard whispered voices in the portiere-covered alcove and I recognized Rose Hedge’s voice. She was saying: “We’ll get even with that sour Miss Pickle. She’s in love with Professor Pixley at the Drexel Military Academy. As though he would even look at her!”
Then I heard Hattie Drew ask: “How shall we get even, Rose?” I did want to stay and hear the answer, but mother has taught me that it is as wrong to listen to a conversation not intended for my ears as it is to steal something that does not belong to me, and so, having found the book, I left the room without having made my presence known.
I told the members of “The Lucky Thirteen” that the girls in “The Exclusive Three” were plotting some April Fool mischief against poor Miss Piquilin and we all decided that it was a mean shame if those spiteful girls succeeded in doing anything to shatter the budding romance.
We guessed this and surmised that, but, of course, we had no way of really knowing what those girls planned doing.
“Oh dear,” said Betsy Clossen, “I do wish it were not dishonorable to listen. Don’t you think that sometimes the end justifies the means?”
“Never!” Kittie Squires said so emphatically that we all jumped. Kittie seldom speaks but when she does, it’s right to the point.
“Well, then, what shall we do?” Jennie Clark asked. “Miss Piquilin has been so kind to us, it doesn’t seem right for us not to make an effort to save her romance from being shattered.”
“Leave it to me!” Betsy Clossen said. “I’ll find a way.” When Betsy spoke in that tone of voice, we all knew she would accomplish whatever she set out to do. We were curious to know how she would go about it, but it was April the first before we found out.
We girls played all of the regulation jokes, the same ones that are played every year. We bought candy that had cotton inside of a delicious chocolate coating; we slipped into each other’s closets and sewed up sleeves, but those things were tame compared to what happened during the two o’clock study hour.
Dora Wells had put a small green toad into Kittie Squire’s desk. I will never forget the terrorized cry that shrilled through the silence when that timid girl opened her desk and the equally frightened little frog, giving a leap for liberty, landed, first in Kittie’s lap, and then out on the floor of the study hall. Instantly it was like bedlam let loose.
The girls, who couldn’t see what wild animal was in their midst, imagined the worst, and scrambled up on their desks holding their skirts tight about them.
I laugh every time I think of the comical sight they made, and just at that moment the door opened and in came our principal, Mrs. Martin, and with her were the Reverend John Thornton and a very wealthy lady who was visiting our school, we heard afterwards, to see whether or not it was a proper place to send her niece who is related to nobility or some such.
Well, I wish you could have seen the expression on the face of dear Mrs. Martin when she beheld so many of the girls standing on their desks looking everywhere about as though they expected to see at least a huge rat.
“The Marchioness,” as we afterwards dubbed her, stared through her lorgnette in amazed horror, but the Reverend John proved that he was really human for there was a twinkle in his eye when he spied the frog and picking it up, he dropped it out of an open window into the garden below.
Of course, as you know, the young ladies of Vine Haven are well trained in manners, and so, a second later, we were all lined up on the floor making properly graceful courtesies, but afterwards we were told that “The Marchioness” decided not to send her niece to our school as she did not wish to have her drilled in “acrobatics.” She evidently supposed that we were all doing our daily exercises in some outlandish American fashion. The young lady, we heard later, was sent to a convent in Paris. My, but we’re glad she didn’t come here if she is anything like her aunt.
But all this time none of us knew what Betsy Clossen was doing to save the romance of poor Miss Piquilin.
When we went to our algebra class we of “The Lucky Thirteen” held our heads high and looked daggers at “The Exclusive Three,” who were whispering every time Miss Piquilin wrote on the board.
I glanced often at Betsy and I realized that her mind was not on algebra. Evidently she had not discovered what the enemy planned doing, but I had never known Betsy to fail in anything she undertook, and so I was sure that in due time she would unearth the desired information if it could be obtained in an honorable manner.
Nor was I wrong as we soon found out.
Becky Hensley was the only member of “The Exclusive Three” who did not appear happy. She seemed to have something on her mind that was making her miserable. Every little while she stared into space and when Miss Piquilin spoke to her directly, she seemed to come back to the school room with a start. We just knew that the other two had used Becky as a cat’s paw for their scheme, whatever it was.
Becky is really a nice girl, but she is easily led. Well, she failed completely on the test that morning, and Miss Piquilin, truly out of patience, and rightly so, commanded her to remain in that class room until she could hand in a perfect paper.
The poor girl was sobbing when the other pupils filed out and I was sure that in her upset state of mind, the child wouldn’t be able to solve the simplest kind of a problem if she stayed in the class room all night.
Betsy Clossen, who was monitor that day, stayed to put things away and she told us afterwards that as soon as they were alone, Miss Piquilin looked very sorrowfully at the bent head of the sobbing girl. Then going to her, she said kindly, “Becky, don’t you understand at all what I have been trying to teach you? Tell me! Don’t be afraid. Perhaps I have not been as patient as I should have been. It all seems so simple to me, now, perhaps I forget that once it was difficult.”
Becky looked up, seemingly surprised, and yet touched by the kind tone. “No, Miss Piquilin,” she replied, “I really don’t understand algebra at all.
“I was absent during the first part of the term, when—when mother died, and I guess I missed so much that I just can’t catch up.”
“Dear girl!” Miss Piquilin said tenderly, “Forgive me if I have been harsh. If you wish, I will stay during my rest period for half an hour and review what you have missed.”
Becky’s eyes glowed her gratitude. “Oh, Miss Piquilin, how kind you are!” she said. “Dad is so proud of me and I want to do well for his sake. I’m all he has, now.”
“And so he shall be proud of you,” Miss Piquilin declared. “Now dry your eyes, dear, and run out and play.”
When our teacher was gone, Becky sat staring out of the window with such an unhappy expression; then, all of a sudden she put her head down on her arms and sobbed harder than before.
Betsy went over to her and said, “Dearie, don’t cry now! Didn’t Miss Piquilin excuse you?”
“Yes. Yes,” the girl sobbed, “but, Oh Betsy, I wish I hadn’t done it, especially now that she has been so kind. When I thought she was a mean, horrid old thing, it wasn’t so hard to do. Oh dear! Oh dear!”
Then, all of her own free will, Becky told what she had done that she so deeply regretted. We were all horrified when Betsy told us half an hour later.
“We had a meeting of ‘The Lucky Thirteen’ in my room to try to decide what was best to do and Becky Hensley was with us. You simply never could guess the April Fool’s trick that Rose Hedge of ‘The Exclusive Three’ had planned, and so I will have to tell you.”
“Becky Hensley, you don’t mean to tell us that Rose Hedge actually wrote a letter to Professor Pixley and signed Miss Piquilin’s name to it?”
Becky nodded. “I feel like a traitor telling you girls. Rose and Hattie will hate me and they’ll make my life so miserable I’ll just have to leave school.”
Betsy Clossen slipped an arm about the younger girl. “Dear,” she said, “your conscience would make you more miserable if you did not try to right the wrong you have done in the lives of these two good people, and, as for Rose and Hattie, I do not like to speak unkindly of anyone, but do you think they are the girls your mother would want you to choose for your best friends?”
“No, indeed not,” Becky declared “and I do so want to get the letter back if I can.” Then she looked eagerly at Betsy, as she asked, “Do you suppose that we could get it before it is delivered? I slipped out and put it in the street mail box before the nine-ten collection.”
“Then it has been delivered by this time,” Betsy replied. “What was in the letter?”
“Rose wrote it,” Becky said, “and she wouldn’t let me read it all, but this was the beginning, ‘Dear Professor Pixley, thank you for asking me to marry you. I will be glad to do so next June,’ and then it was signed ‘from your loving Beatrice.’ Rose copied Miss Piquilin’s signature from a letter she found in the waste basket.”
“Oh, how dreadful!” we all said with horrified glances one at another.
“Miss Piquilin will be mortified when she finds out and of course it will completely shatter their romance.”
Suddenly Betsy sprang up as she exclaimed, “Girls, it is moonlight, I suggest that three of us cut through the woods, go down to the Chocolate Shop and telephone to Professor Pixley and tell him that the letter he received was just an April Fool joke, and beg him never to tell our dear Miss Piquilin a word about it. I am sure he’ll understand because he has such twinkling eyes.”
Of course Betsy and Becky were two of the three to go, and Betsy chose me for the third. She and I have been chums, Megsy, since you left. Well, it was 8 o’clock and we knew we would have to hurry if we were to be back and in our beds before 9 o’clock, lights out, bell rang and so away we skipped.
It was dark in the woods but through the trees we could see the little creek gleaming in the moonlight. It was so pretty down there in the spring when the water is high.
Suddenly Betsy clutched my arm and pointed. Just ahead of us was a white object that looked for all the world like a ghost. Unfortunately for us, Becky screamed. A dark object appeared at the side of the ghost and they hurried toward us. It was our Miss Piquilin and Professor Pixley. Scared as we were, we could see that both looked radiantly happy.
“Girls!” Miss Piquilin exclaimed with an attempt at severity, “What does this mean? Where are you going?”
“Don’t scold them, Beatrice,” the young professor intervened, “They probably came to see the moonlight on the water just as we did.” Then he added, “Young ladies, you will have to look for another algebra teacher next term for your Miss Piquilin and I are to be married in June.”
“Oh—oh—I am so glad!” Becky gasped, then seizing us each by the hand she fled back to the school with Betsy and me in tow.
We never knew what happened, but it didn’t matter, for surely all is well that ends well. The very next day Alice Barker went home for the rest of the year, and so Becky Hensley was admitted to membership in “The Lucky 13,” and wasn’t she the happiest girl?
Goodbye, dear cow-girls! You’ll see me in two months and one week. Lovingly, your BABS.
“Wasn’t that an interesting letter?” Virg said. “Good! Here comes Malcolm. Now we can tell him about Tom Wentworth.”