Missy

e their sting When World and Heart hear the call of Spring! You ask me why mere friendship so Outweighs all else that but comes to go?... A truce, a truce to questio

s and effects, their trials turning to glory, their disappointments and surcease inexplicable, came revelations, swift and shifting, or what is really worth while

was a two-hours' train ride away. The most picturesque scenery she knew was at Rocky Ford; it was far from the place where the melons grow, but water, a ford and rocks were there, and it had always shone in that prairie land and in Missy's eyes as a haunt of nymphs, water-babies, the Great Spirit, and Natur

in the very name! And mountains, and eternal snow upon the peaks, and s

was young, beautiful, and delightful. Au

g forth much that is unforeseen, amazing, revolutionizing. Es

hematics Missy found an inexplicable, unalloyed torture; history for all its pleasingly suggestive glimpses of a spacious past, laid heavy taxes on one not good at remembering dates. But Missy was about to learn to take a more modern view of high school possibilities. Shortly before school opened Cousin Pete came to see his grandparents in Cherryvale. Perhaps Pete's filial devotion was due to the fact that Polly Currier resided in Cherryvale; Polly was attending the State University where Pete was a "Post-Grad." Missy listened to Cousin Pete's talk of college life with respect, admiration,

ed a second,

s a-what makes a

rge, patronizing manner o

girl-and a good sport, and a

y see. She decided to m

es Polly

dulgently. "And some dancer. And crack basket-ball forward-Glee

the chance mention of one Charlie White, a Cherr

ommented Pete, and his tone damn

?" asked Miss

t know-he's

d

Polly, so he beamed on her benignantly as he

mart person ev

imes. It a

Currier

if defending the lady

d puzzled;

he ever

ometimes she flunks.

to the pinnacle of prominence. Evidently smartness and studiousness had nothing to do with it, and Missy felt a pleasurable thrill. Formerly she had envied Beulah

erself could

r boys that sounded as if her eyes were a little nice. "Big Eyes" he had called her, as if that were a joke; but maybe it meant something pleasant. But the High School did not have a Glee

of the annual elections of the two "literary societies," Iolanthe and Mount Parnassus. The "programmes" of these bodies were held in the auditorium every other Friday, and each pupil was due for at least one perfo

framed by some boys who complained that the honours always went to girls and that it was time men's rights were recognized.

trained excitement. On the first ballot Raymond and Beulah stood even. There was a second ballot-a third-a fourth. And still the deadlock

the rather stilted manner which befits such assemblages, "I propose that we

ght Raymond's eye on her, smiling encouragement, and she mistily glowed back at him. And on the very

now he had helped her up to this noble elevation! He must think she would adorn it. Adorn!-it w

e amazed most of all; she felt as if she were making the acquaintance of a stranger, an increasingly fascinating kind of stranger. How wonderful to fin

al. The rehearsals Missy personally conducted, with Raymond aiding as her first lieutenant-and he would not have played second fiddle like that to another girl in the class-he said so. She herself chose the cast, contrived the "scenery"; and she and Raymond together wrote the dialogue and lyrics. It was wonderful how they could do

alent placed her on a much higher plane than if she were me

w months before Missy would have been overwhelmed at the turn of things, but now she casually mounted her new height, with as

rd: Missy failed in Geometry and was conditioned i

ty bad, isn't

lty feeling to bring that express

I know I'm not smart

glasses and though

. The trouble's that this is worse than it's ever been. And today I got a lett

ttle indignant

t responsibil

ities?" repe

uietly by, also with a disapproving

e and class flummery wou

mme

eldom able to keep up with the understanding of their children," replied mother, with unfamiliar sarcasm. "However, right here's where I presume t

lived through, in vivid prospect, a hundred times! Oh, moth

began father

iday. Missy's got to learn balance and moderation. She lets any wild enthusiasm carry h

avy pause, then mother

you ought to buy that

nths she had been teasing father to buy a car, as so many of the girls' fathers we

ailty should call forth such enthrallingly sinister comments. "Lets any wild enthusi

oblem Allen, mysterious and complicated. Missy stared at the endangered recesses of her soul-and wondered what R

ity. It was a hard resolution to put through, especially when she conceived a marvellous idea-a "farce" like one Polly Currier told her about when she was home for her Easter vacation. Missy wrestled with temptation like some Biblic

leadership, through latter March, through April, through early May-lengthening, balmy, burgeo

se there was plenty of blame from adults that must be laid somewhere; but as for Missy, a floating kind of ecs

ather to see visions of golf-course or fishing-boat flickering in the translucent air; for old Jeff to get out his lawn-mower and lazily add a metallic song to the hum of the universe. And for him or her who mu

riots hanging above the encircling blackboard, the sea of heads restlessly swaying over receding rows of desks, all faded hazily away. Her soul flitted out through the window, and suffused itself in the bit of bright, brigh

lesson. But Missy didn't bring herself back to think of that; wou

, compelling madness a da

w, for no definable reason at all, she felt her soul welling up and up in vague but poignant craving. She asked permission to get a drink of water. But instead of quenching her thirst, she wandered to the entry of the room

a "secret, deep, interior urge" to show what she could do. The seductive May air stole into her blood, a stealthy, intoxicating elixir, and finally the Inspiration came, with such tumultuous swiftness that she could never have told whence or how. Passed on to her fellows, it was caught up with an ardour equally mad and unreckoning. One minute the unpastor

that, onward rush; only one vast, enveloping, incoherent, tumultuous impulse-away! away! Away from dark walls into the open; away from the old into

lpool. Some began breaking off floral sprays to decorate hat-band or shirt-waist. But Missy, feeling her resp

re!" she admonished

e going to shout at them. But Raymond waited to break off a lilac cluster for Missy. He was so cool about it; it ju

the comparative retreat of Silver Street, beyond. But they were not yet safe-away! away! Missy urged them westward,

selves down by the railroad tracks. There, in front of the Pacific depot, stood the 10

Osawatomie!

action as the last Junior clambered pantingly o

their way t

with that bright balminess streaming in through the open windows-hard to sit still, or to think, or to

ts, pl

appalled-in Cherryvale the girls never dreamed of carrying money to school; then furtively they glanced at the boys. Just as furtively the boys were exploring into pockets, but though they brought fo

or impatien

ts, pl

ecognized in a class president, began to put her case with

rryvale High School-we wish to go

g they had been known to work wonders with father and mother and other grown-ups, even with the austere Professor Sutton. But this burly figure in the baggy blue

ring-tank," he ordained.

atering-tank

nture, there fell upon the festive group a mom

going to do now?

idn't start teasing him about her; but everyone was too taken up waiting for Missy to proclaim. She set her very soul vibrating; shut her e

ky F

ing, almost unconscious cry of the inspired. And,

s the ticket!"-"We'll have a pic

lf a mile away. Again it shone in all its old-time romantic loveliness

somehow and she was turned into a swan or something. Off on either side the creek, the woods stretched dim and mysterious; but nearby, on the banks, the little new leaves stirred and sparkled in the sun like green jewels; and the water dribbled and sparkled over the flat white stones of t

ensely soft and bright. Why is it that the sun can seem s

onsciousness of Raymond-Raymond himself-began to seem all mixed up with this ineffable, surging effulgence. Missy recognized that she had long experienced a secret, strange, shy kind of feeling toward Raymond. He was so handsome and so gay, and his dark eyes told

tank toward Rocky Ford, Raymond had taken his place by her side, and he maintained it there masterfully though tw

ch before, but this was different. Those other times did not count. She knew that this was diffe

ry carefully, so she could creep under without mishap. And when they neared the woods, he kicked all the twigs from her path, and lifted aside t

lunch. What need to go hungry when there were eggs in a farmer's henhouse not a half-mile away, and potatoes in the farmer's store-house, a

eggs were ready, all was devoured with a zest that paid its own tribute to the fair young cooks; and the health of the fair young cooks was drunk in Swan Creek water,

stretch out in the grass, and half-close her eyes, and gaze up at the bits of shining, infinite blue of the sky, and dream. But

ere all the others

now? What'll

o work. Around the flat white stones of the for

wading!"

di

tell it, shoes and stockings were off and the new game was on. Missy stood on a stepping-stone, suddenly diffident; the water now looked colder and deeper, the whispering cascadelet

one to stone till, unexpectedly, she lost her slipper

k, red-faced and dripping, feeling very wretched and very happy at the same time-wretched because Ra

ce, but took his hat and began ener

s curly like Kitty

ymond, unplaiting the long br

l the prettier when i

the nicest," he s

ng her dress in uneven patches; the whisperings of the green-jewelled leaves and the swishing of the diamond-bubbles on the stones; the drowsy, mysterious sounds from far away in the woods, and fr

ncing in a new way. Even when Raymond, as he manipulated her hair, inadvertently pulled the root

t on fannin

considerable pause during which, evidently, his th

ssy found herself saying an i

e a lock-if

And she felt herself blushing again; sh

want

d his improvised fan and w

?" he

blade; what if he should let it slip?-but, just then, even mutila

ou want," s

where it twines round your ear-

Of course it was all t

er breath and shut her eyes. A derisive shout caused he

of her hair! Missy gave R

ot now a pleasure; she looked up, the

got to play fair, M

heard her voice, which didn't seem to b

n have one, too, i

dn't really want to give the lock to Don, and yet, at the same time, she felt strangely thrilled at that lowering look on Raymond's face. It was curio

udged along beside Don Jones. She didn't feel like talking to Don Jones. Nor was the rest of the crowd, now, a lively band; it was harder to laugh than it had been in the morning; harder even to talk. And when they did talk, little unsuspected irritabilities began to gleam out. For now, when weary feet must somehow cover those three

l kinds of shadows rising up to eclipse brightness in her soul. What would Professo

way? That lock of hair didn't mean anything! She wished she hadn't given it to him; why had

she'd have such a short time to try making it up. For in less than a month she'd have to go with Aunt Isabel to Colorado; and, then, she wouldn't see Raymond for weeks and weeks. Colorado! It was like talking of g

te may work to confound

ass, in toto, was suspended for the two closing weeks of the semester, with no privilege of "making up" the grades. And the legend runs that

retched picnic. She sighed a sigh that was not connected with the grade card in her pocket. For one trouble dwarfs another in this world; and friendship is more than honours-a sacred thing, friendship! Only Raymond was so unreasonable over Don's lock of hair; yet, for all the pa

ing Kitty Allen a lock of his hair? And doing it before Missy herself-"Kitty, here's that lock I promised you"-just like that. Then he had laughed and joked as if nothing unusual had happened-

in the past-before she offended him. And how much more is fri

nder whether Raymond looked on friendship as a light, come-and-go thing, and on locks of hair as meaning nothing at all. For he had never been intimate with Kitty

telling? Oh, life is a muddle! And here, in less than a week, Aunt Isabel would come by and whisk he

rd! How dreary life can

for father to be stern. But when Missy, all mute appeal, extended him the report, he looked it

ed at last. "I see

eeks' grades," the culprit tried to

'" Mother's tone was

think of g

think. You'll have to stay home and make up those grades this summer. Yo

had the quiet

disappointment on his daughter's face. But Missy was gazing down her n

the budding ramblers, and of the freshly-mowed lawn, became her own fragrant odour; the soft song of the breeze rocking the leaves became her own soul's lullaby. Oh, it was a heavenly world, and the future bloomed with enchantments! She could stay in Cher

re! But what a dear, true friend he was, and how much more is friendship t

poetic companion-where she'd left it on a bench, dreamily picked it up, turned a fe

her might have been heard commenting

st see to it that she has a good time at home-poor young o