CHAPTER XVI A PICNIC
"Could I hire any of you ladies to swim for me next Tuesday?" inquiredClarice, popping out of the back door and perching on the porch railing.
It was Saturday morning. Patricia, Anne, Frances, Katharine, and Bettyhad washed their hair, and were strung along the sunny top steps dryingit, preparatory to going to town for a wave.
"None of us were keen enough about that swimming exam to be looking forchances to try it twice," replied Katharine decidedly.
"You ought not to mind it," drawled Anne sleepily; "you're a regularmer--maid," her last word cut short by a huge yawn.
"Look out, Anne," cried Frances, grabbing her by the shoulders, "you'llbe sound asleep in a minute and roll down the steps."
"It's this strong sunlight," said Anne, leaning comfortably back againstFrances' knees, and closing her eyes.
"What's the matter with you doing your own swimming?" asked Betty,glancing up at Clarice through a tangle of brown hair.
"Can't. Don't know enough about it," replied the girl nonchalantly,swinging one foot. "I hate it."
"Do you mean to say that you've been in gym class all this year, anddon't know yet how to swim?" inquired Katharine bluntly.
"Guilty!"
"I should think Professor Wilson would have killed you off long ago,"remarked Frances. "He's such an irritable creature."
"Yes," agreed Clarice, "and also so near-sighted that he doesn't knowhalf the time who's in the pool and who's out of it. Haven't you noticedhow dependent he is on his class books?"
"Then can't you take a chance on his being too near-sighted to see thatyou can't swim?" asked Betty.
"No such luck! All women may look alike to him, but not all strokes inswimming."
"How did you manage all term?" inquired Patricia, shaking her yellow mopof hair vigorously.
"Oh, he was always hollering at me."
There were two divisions of the Sophomore Gymnasium class. Clarice was inthe second, while all the rest of the Alley Gang were in the first. To beable to swim was absolutely necessary for promotion to the Junior classat the end of the year, and the second week in May had been assigned forthe final tests. Professor Wilson, a critical, quick-tempered little man,was an excellent teacher, but he did not like women and never bothered toget acquainted with the individual members of his classes, which did notat all add to his popularity.
"When I can swim out of doors by myself, I think I shall like it,"commented Anne, "but not while Professor Wilson dances around the rim ofthe pool snapping like a turtle."
"That's the way I feel about it," agreed Patricia. "Why don't we go outto Green Lake some Saturday and try our skill?"
"Let's go next Saturday," proposed Katharine enthusiastically. "We'll goin the morning, and have a roast."
"Who?" asked Betty.
"Us and the rest of the Gang. Everybody willing, hold up the left foot,"directed Katharine.
A laughing scramble ensued during which Clarice nearly fell off therailing. When they had settled back into their former positions, Patriciasuggested hesitatingly, "Let's take Rhoda. She's so very nice to all ofus."
"Good idea," agreed Katharine promptly.
"But who'd take her place?" questioned Betty doubtfully. "Could she getoff for the whole day?"
"I think so. That day she was ill, Sue Mason subbed for her; and sheprobably would again. Sue doesn't have many dates," said Frances.
"I wish we could invite her, too, then," said Patricia slowly. "It mustbe pretty lonely to be among so many girls, and not be in on their goodtimes."
"I know, but you can't start asking people from upstairs," protestedAnne. "If you do, there'll be no stopping place."
"What's the matter with Sue, anyhow?" asked Patricia.
"Mostly her queer ways," replied Clarice quickly. "Last year she wasalways rapping on people's doors and asking them to keep quiet so shecould study. Then she complained to the Dean every so often about howlong some of the girls kept her out of the bathroom. She also felt it herduty to report the maid several times for being late in distributing theclean linen. In short, Sue just disapproved of the way everything wasrun, and got herself in most awfully wrong. She belongs in some boardinghouse, not in a dorm."
"How did she happen to come back here, since she found so much fault withthe place?" inquired Patricia.
"Don't know. Maybe she found out that she liked it after all. Hasn'topened her mouth this year, so the girls upstairs say; but she queeredherself for good and all last year," replied Clarice carelessly. "But toreturn to my original question, can't I interest any of you in helping meout?"
"I don't know what we could do," began Anne.
"Go into the pool for me when my name is called," answered Clariceboldly. "There's a ten in it for anybody who will."
"You're surely not in earnest," said Patricia, pushing back her hair tolook directly at the girl on the railing above her. Patricia was soeasily embarrassed for others, frequently an embarrassment in which the"others" took no part.
"Why shouldn't I be?" retorted Clarice.
"Why, Clarice!" cried Frances reprovingly.
"I can't help it if you _are_ shocked. If it were as necessary for any ofyou to be graduated from this institution as it is for me, you'd go thelimit, too!" Clarice's tone was defiant, but as she slid off of therailing and hurried into the house, Patricia who was still watching hersaw sudden tears fill the girl's hard, black eyes.
Anne shrugged her shoulders as the back door banged. Frances raised hereyebrows and looked troubled. Betty and Katharine nonchalantly continuedthe business of hair drying. Patricia sighed--"I wish we could help herout," she said thoughtfully. "I know a little of what graduation means--"
"Then why doesn't she work?" demanded Betty sharply.
No one was able to answer that question, so after a moment they began todiscuss plans for the picnic. In the meantime a girl who had been sittingquietly at an open window above the back porch left her room and went insearch of Clarice.
By four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, the swimming tests were over andthe gym was filled with chattering girls discussing the probabilities ofsuccess and failure.
"I won't draw a full breath until I see the list posted," declaredFrances, as she left the building with Anne and Patricia.
"I imagine we all passed," observed Anne placidly.
"Wish I knew how poor Clarice came out," said Patricia. "Yet I hate toask her right out."
"Haven't heard her mention the subject since Saturday morning," saidFrances. "Have you?"
Both girls shook their heads.
"Maybe she took some time to practice, and managed to pull through,"suggested Anne. "Clarice can do almost anything _if_ she tries."
"I truly hope so," said Patricia fervently.
That evening the Alley Gang was in such a furore over arrangements forthe picnic that the test was not even mentioned.
"Isn't the water going to be awfully cold so early in the season?"objected Jane, when the question of "eats" had been satisfactorilysettled, and that of bathing was under discussion.
"If the day is fairly warm, and we go in where it's sunny, I think itwill be all right," replied Katharine.
"All right for an out-door girl like you," retorted Betty, with a shiver,"but it doesn't sound altogether attractive to me."
"Then stay out of it," advised Katharine sensibly.
"Yes; anybody who doesn't want to go in can get busy around the fireplaceand have a big feed all ready for us. We'll be starved."
"Never saw you when you weren't, France," called Clarice, who just thenappeared in the doorway of Jane's room where the girls had congregated.
"Know anybody who runs up to the Varsity Shoppe any oftener than you do?"retorted Frances quickly.
"Don't quarrel, children," admonished Jane. "We can all do our share whenit comes to eating."
"By the way," inquired Anne, "what did Rhoda say when you asked her? Wi
llshe go?"
"She wasn't quite sure," replied Patricia, "but will let us know onFriday."
"Say," interrupted Frances, leaning forward to look at Patricia, "doesanybody know why she goes over to Mrs. Brock's early in the morning?"
Patricia glanced at Jane and Ruth before she replied with a laugh, "I'msure I don't."
"How do you know she _does_ go?" demanded Lucile quickly.
"Saw her, this very morning."
"What were _you_ doing, awake before the bell rang?" inquired Anne.
"My shade was flapping; and if there's anything I can't stand, it's aflapping shade. I got up to fix it."
"What time was it?" queried Ruth.
"Five o'clock."
"You dreamed it," jeered Lucile.
"I did _not_!"
"Maybe she was just coming home from a party," suggested Mary's mildvoice.
"I saw her one morning, too," admitted Hazel. "I got up at five to study,wrapped a blanket around me, and was curled up in a chair beside thewindow cramming French verbs--"
"Now I know that you were asleep, too," interrupted Lucile.
"When I saw Rhoda," continued Hazel, throwing a pillow at Lucile, "shewas coming out of the back door of Big House. When she passed our window,I said 'Hello!' and she jumped a foot."
"What did she say?" asked Jane.
"Nothing; she just glanced up, put her finger on her lips, and hurriedinto the Hall. She is always so smiling and good-natured, but she didn'tlook at all pleased to see me."
"How did she get in without ringing the bell?" inquired Clarice eagerly.
Everybody laughed.
"That interests you most, doesn't it?" inquired Lucile sweetly.
"She went around to the laundry door," explained Hazel. "I think she hasa key for it."
"That's an idea!" cried Clarice. "Why can't we borrow that key some nightwhen we want to go out?"
Four stone steps led down from the path on the east side of the dormitoryto a small door which opened directly into the laundry, located underFrances' and Katharine's room.
"And spend the rest of the night in the laundry?" exclaimed Hazel. "Anironing board for a bed doesn't appeal to me."
"Why not come up?" inquired Anne idly.
"Because, darling, Dolly herself locks that door at the head of thestairs on her eleven o'clock round every night," replied Ruth.
"Then I don't see how Rhoda gets up," said Frances, frowning inperplexity.
"Oh, bother Rhoda!" cried Hazel impatiently. "Let's plan how we're all ofus and our luggage going to get out to Green Lake and back, when we'veonly two cars available."
"Pat and I can take the eats and a couple of girls to guard them, andthen come back for the rest of you," proposed Mary, who owned the onlyother car in the Gang.
"That's a good idea," approved Anne; and so the matter was settled.
Saturday proved to be one of those warm, sunny days which often usher inan early summer.
"See that haze on the hills?" said Katharine, as they were packing thecars in the driveway. "That means heat. We'll be able to swim after all.Isn't it fine that we all passed the test, even Clarice?"
"Didn't look much like a picnic at this time yesterday," observedPatricia with a shiver at the recollection. "Wasn't it a cold, dismalday?"
"It sure was! Who's going on this load?" inquired Anne, turning to thegirls who were bossing the job of loading.
"Katharine and Frances will go with Pat," responded Jane, "and I'll keepMary company. Don't any of the rest of you wander off and have us huntingall over for you when we come back. All aboard who's going aboard!"
By eleven o'clock the whole Gang, including Rhoda, was swarming over thepicnic grounds situated on a wooded hill overlooking Green Lake, anoblong body of very deep water. At one end, the lake was bordered byflat, treeless meadows, and the low shore line provided a fairly goodsandy beach. At the other end, heavily wooded land sloped down to thewater on all sides, giving it a gloomy, deep green cast. A rough pathfollowed the irregular stretch of water on the east side, and wound on upthe hill into the woods where a depression between two steep slopesformed a small picnic ground. The few tables, benches, and stone ovenswhich occupied the space were unclaimed today; so the girls had theirchoice. They decided on a table from which they could look through anopening in the trees, directly down onto the still, green water.
"Swim first," announced Katharine, after the food had been placed uponone table, and the extra wraps upon another.
"Will our things be safe here alone?" inquired Betty doubtfully, whenthey were ready to go down to the lower end of the lake.
"I'll stay with it," offered Rhoda.
"Oh, no," protested Anne. "Come on down with us and swim."
"I can't swim," replied Rhoda, "and I don't care for bathing. I brought abook along, and I'd just as soon as not stay here and read until you comeback."
Seeing that the maid really meant what she said, Anne followed the restof the girls who were already half way down the hill.
"Where's Rhoda?" asked Patricia, looking around, when they reached thebeach and were about to dive into the water.
"I should think she'd like at least to come and watch us," said Patricia,when Anne had explained. "I'll go up after a while and bring her down."
Swimming in the open was very different from swimming in a tank, andafter fifteen minutes of strenuous exercise the girls came out to lie onthe sand in the warm sun for a little rest.
"Lend me your cloak, Anne," requested Patricia, "and I'll run up forRhoda."
"Don't believe she'll come," replied Anne, handing Patricia her woollybath cape.
"I'll make her. The things will be all right. There isn't a soul heretoday, except us."
Wrapping the cape closely around her, Patricia started briskly along thepath toward the picnic grounds. Rhoda was sitting on a big stone, halfway down one of the sloping sides of the depression, in a pool ofsunlight which some broken branches let through. So deeply interested wasshe in her book, that she did not see Patricia until the girl stood rightin front of her.
"I came back to get you," panted Patricia. "We don't like to have you uphere all by yourself. That's no fun. Come on!" taking the book out of themaid's hands.
"I really don't mind," began Rhoda.
"But we do," Patricia cut her short, putting out both hands to help herup from the stone.
Laughing a little in protest, Rhoda got up and the two started down thehill.
"Why, there's Clarice," said Patricia, stopping short in surprise, as shecaught sight of the girl, swinging carelessly along beside the lake justbelow them. "She's all dressed. I thought she was with the rest of thecrowd. I wonder what happened."
"She's too near the ragged edge," exclaimed Rhoda sharply.
Hearing voices, Clarice looked up without checking her pace. Her footstruck a hole in the bank beside the path, and with a cry she slid downinto the lake. Dropping Anne's cloak, Patricia dashed down the hill anddove into the water.
A treacherous current had immediately swept Clarice away from the bankand was bearing her out toward the center of the lake. "No use to callfor help," thought Patricia; "the rest of the girls are too far away.Lucky that Clarice learned to swim after all; for she'll be able to helpherself a little. She's gone down!" Striking out frantically, with legsand arms, Patricia made what speed she could toward the place where shehad seen Clarice disappear. Fear and necessity gave her extra strengthand speed, so that she was near enough to Clarice when the girl came upto seize her by the collar of her sweater.
With the irresistible inclination of a drowning person, Clarice tried tothrow her arms around Patricia, who knew that meant disaster for both ofthem.
"Stop that!" she snapped. "Swim!"
"I can't," moaned Clarice, frantic with fear.
"You've got to! We'll both drown if you don't. Put your hand on myshoulder and strike out as I do. If you try to grab me around the neck,I'll leave you."
Clarice pulled herself together
and tried to obey. It seemed to Patriciaas if they made no progress at all, so weighed down was she withClarice's weight. Just one more stroke, she said to herself, when itseemed as if she could go no farther. Now one more. That wasn't so bad.Now another. Encouraging herself, straining each muscle to the utmost,she at last reached the bank where Rhoda stood with one arm wound aroundthe tree trunk and the other extended to help them scramble up the roughstones, slippery with moss.
As soon as they were safe again, Clarice threw herself flat on the groundand burst into a violent fit of tears.
"Let her cry," advised Rhoda, as Patricia bent over the sobbing girl."She'll get over the shock more quickly."
"But she'll take cold," objected Patricia, throwing Anne's cloak over theprone figure.
"And so will you," added Rhoda, removing her own coat, preparatory towrapping it around the shivering girl beside her.
"You keep that. I'll get my own," protested Patricia, running up the hillto where the wraps were piled on one of the tables. Pulling her longbrown coat from under several others, she wrapped it around her andreturned to Clarice and Rhoda.
The former was still weeping with her face hidden in a bed of ferns.
"Clarice, get up!" ordered Patricia sternly. "No sense in havingpneumonia just because you won't control yourself. Get up, I said."
Taking her firmly by the arms, with Rhoda's help she raised the girl andwrapped Anne's cape more closely around her.
"It's a judgment on me!" quavered poor Clarice, as they led her up thehill.
"What's a judgment?" demanded Patricia rather sharply.
"Being drowned because I cheated."
"But you aren't drowned," objected Patricia, laughing in spite ofherself. Clarice was such a child!
"I would have been, if it hadn't been for you. I'll never cheat again;I'm sure of that."
"How and when and where did you cheat?" inquired Patricia, puzzled.
"Swimming test. A girl from upstairs went in when my name was called,passed, and Professor Wilson never knew the difference. She's about mysize."
Patricia was speechless. What should one say under such circumstances?She shrank from the holier-than-thou attitude; yet to remain quiet mightbe taken as approval.
"What can we do about dry clothing for her, Miss Randall?" inquiredRhoda, saving the situation.
"I don't know," replied Patricia in a worried tone. "I guess I'd betterdrive her home to get some. It won't take long."
"I'd rather _stay_ home, if you don't mind," said Clarice, drying hereyes.
"Why?"
"Oh, because."
"It would be just as well if she'd take a hot bath and go right to bed,"advised Rhoda. "Shall I come, too, to help you?"
"Oh, no," said Clarice quickly. "I'll be all right."
"And you'll do as Rhoda suggests?" asked Patricia.
Clarice nodded and went toward Patricia's car, while Patricia said toRhoda in a low tone: "If any of the girls come back while I'm gone, tellthem Clarice didn't feel very well and I took her home. No point inletting them in on poor Clarice's story."
"You're quite right," agreed Rhoda.
"Patricia," said Clarice, when they were on their way out of the parkingsection, "I don't know how to thank you."
"Don't bother about it. I'm glad I happened to be there."
"Should I tell about the test?" inquired Clarice slowly after beingsilent for several minutes. "I've made up my mind to learn to swim beforecollege closes for the summer."
"Good! Then under those circumstances, you'll be getting your promotionfairly; and it seems to me that any revelation of your--your--"
"My cheating," supplied Clarice frankly.
"Would involve too many people. You see, Professor Wilson'snear-sightedness would be revealed, and perhaps cause his dismissal; thegirl who subbed for you would be drawn into it, and probably get intotrouble--perhaps even be dropped; then the girls in your section who knowabout it--"
"There aren't any."
"How's that?"
"We were called out of the dressing room one at a time, according tonumbered cards; and nobody paid any attention to who was out. It's such alarge section."
"I see. Well, anyhow, since you're going to correct the wrong, as far aspossible, I can't see any object in broadcasting the story. That remindsme, I asked Rhoda to tell the girls that you didn't feel very well and Ihad taken you home. So the three of us will keep our own counsel."
"Pat, you're just the best sport I ever knew!"
"What's the matter with Clarice?" inquired Hazel, an hour later, as theyall sat around the table disposing of steak, potatoes, sugared buns,fried cakes, and coffee.
"She had a chill," replied Patricia calmly, opening a box ofmarshmallows; "but she attended to it in time, so I think she'll be allright tomorrow."
The subsequent devotion of the black sheep to swimming aroused muchcomment among the members of the Alley Gang. Many were the theoriesadvanced, but the girl kept her own secret and worked doggedly until shewas as proficient as most of her companions.