"It"s easy for you, because you know all the words, but--"
"I worked more than two hours on mine yesterday," said Priscilla, "and I can"t afford it either. I have to save some time for geometry."
"_I just simply can"t do it_," Rosalie wailed. "And she thinks I"m stupid because I don"t keep up with Patty."
Conny Wilder drifted in.
"What"s the matter?" she asked, viewing Rosalie"s tear-streaked face.
"Cry on the pillow, child. Don"t spoil your dress."
The Latin situation was explained.
"Oh, it"s awful the way Lordie works us! She would like to have us spend every moment grubbing over Latin and sociology. She--"
"Doesn"t think dancing and French and manners are any good at all,"
sobbed Rosalie, mentioning the three branches in which she excelled, "and I think they"re a lot more sensible than subjunctives. You can put them to practical use, and you can"t sociology and Latin."
Patty emerged from a moment of revery.
"There"s not much use in Latin," she agreed, "but I should think that something might be done with sociology. Miss Lord told us to apply it to our everyday problems."
Rosalie swept the idea aside with a gesture of disdain.
"Listen!" Patty commanded, springing to her feet and pacing the floor in an ecstasy of enthusiasm. "I"ve got an idea! It"s perfectly true. Eighty lines of Virgil is too much for anybody to learn--particularly Rosalie.
And you heard what the man said: it isn"t fair to gage the working day by the capacity of the strongest. The weakest has to set the pace, or else he"s left behind. That"s what Lordy means when she talks about the solidarity of labor. In any trade, the workers have got to stand by each other. The strong must protect the weak. It"s the duty of the rest of the cla.s.s to stand by Rosalie."
"Yes, but how?" inquired Priscilla, breaking into the tirade.
"We"ll form a Virgil Union, and strike for sixty lines a day."
"Oh!" gasped Rosalie, horrified at the audacity of the suggestion.
"Let"s!" cried Conny, rising to the call.
"Do you think we can?" asked Priscilla, dubiously.
"What will Miss Lord say?" Rosalie quavered.
"She can"t say anything. Didn"t she tell us to listen to the lecture and apply its teaching?" Patty reminded.
"She"ll be delighted to find we have," said Conny.
"But what if she doesn"t give in?"
"We"ll call out the Cicero and Caesar cla.s.ses in a sympathetic strike."
"Hooray!" cried Conny.
"Lordy does believe in Unions," Priscilla conceded. "She ought to see the justice of it."
"Of course she"ll see the justice of it," Patty insisted. "We"re exactly like the laundry workers--in the position of dependents, and the only way we can match strength with our employer, is by standing together. If Rosalie alone drops back to sixty lines, she"ll be flunked; but if the whole cla.s.s does, Lordie will _have_ to give in."
"Maybe the whole cla.s.s won"t want to join the union," said Priscilla.
"We"ll make "em!" said Patty. In accordance with Miss Lord"s desire, she had grasped some basic principles.
"We"ll have to hurry," she added, glancing at the clock. "Pris, you run and find Irene and Harriet and Florence Hissop; and Conny, you route out Nancy Lee--she"s up in Evalina Smith"s room telling ghost stories. Here, Rosalie, stop crying and dump the things off those chairs so somebody can sit down."
Priscilla started obediently, but paused on the threshold.
"And what will you do?" she inquired with meaning.
"I," said Patty, "will be labor leader."
The meeting was convened, and Patty, a self-const.i.tuted chairman, outlined the tenets of the Virgil Union. Sixty lines was to const.i.tute a working day. The cla.s.s was to explain the case to Miss Lord at the regular session on Monday morning, and politely but positively refuse to read the last twenty lines that had been a.s.signed. If Miss Lord proved insistent, the girls were to close their books and go out on strike.
The majority of the cla.s.s, hypnotized by Patty"s eloquence, dazedly accepted the program; but Rosalie, for whose special benefit the union had been formed, had to be coerced into signing the const.i.tution.
Finally, after a wealth of argument had been expended, she wrote her name in a very wobbly hand, and sealed it with a tear. By nature, Rosalie was not a fighter; she preferred gaining her rights by more feminine methods.
Irene McCullough had also to be forced. She was a cautious soul who looked forward to consequences. One of the most frequently applied of St. Ursula"s punishments was to make the culprit miss desserts. Irene suffered keenly under this form of chastis.e.m.e.nt; and she carefully refrained from misdemeanors which might bring it upon her. But Conny produced a convincing argument. She threatened to tell that the chambermaid was in the habit of smuggling in chocolates--and poor hara.s.sed Irene, threatened with the two-fold loss of chocolates and dessert, sullenly added her signature.
"Lights-out" rang. The Virgil Union adjourned its first meeting and went to bed.
Senior Latin came the last hour of the morning, when everyone was tired and hungry. On the Monday following the founding of the Union, the Virgil cla.s.s gathered outside the door, in growing perturbation as the actual time for the battle approached. Patty rallied them in a brief address.
"Brace up, Rosalie! Don"t be a cry-baby. We"ll help you out if the last lines come to you. And for goodness" sake, girls, _don"t_ look so scared. Remember you"re suffering, not only for yourselves, but for all the generations of Virgil cla.s.ses that come after you. Anyone who backs down now is a COWARD!"
Patty established herself on the front seat, directly in the line of the fire, and a slight skirmish occurred at the outset. Her heavy walking boots were conspicuously laced with pale blue baby ribbon, which caught the enemy"s eye.
"That is scarcely the kind of shoe laces that a lady adopts. May I ask, Patty--?"
"I broke my other laces," Patty affably explained, "and since we didn"t go shopping on Friday, I couldn"t get any more. I don"t quite like the effect myself," she conceded, as she stuck out a foot and critically surveyed it.
"See that you find some black ones immediately after cla.s.s," Miss Lord acidly suggested. "Priscilla, you may read the first ten lines."
The lesson progressed in the usual manner, except that there was a visible tightening of nerves as each recitation was finished, and they waited to hear the next name called. Conny"s turn ended with the sixtieth line. No one had gone beyond that; all ahead was virgin jungle.
This was the point for the Union to declare itself; and the burden, true to her forebodings, fell upon poor trembling little Rosalie.
She cast an imploring glance toward Patty"s sternly waiting countenance, stammered, hesitated, and miserably plunged into a sight translation.
Rosalie never had the slightest luck at sight translations; even after two hours of patient work with a dictionary, she was still extremely hesitant as to meanings. Now, she blindly forged ahead,--amid a profound hush--attributing to the Pious aeneas a most amazing set of actions. She finished; and the slaughter commenced. Miss Lord spent three minutes in obliterating Rosalie; then pa.s.sed the lines to Irene McCullough.
Irene drew a deep breath--she felt Conny encouragingly patting her on the back, while Patty and Priscilla, at either hand, jogged her elbow with insistent touch. She opened her mouth to declare the principles that had been foisted upon her over night; then she caught the cold gleam of Miss Lord"s eye. Rosalie"s sobs filled the room. And she fell.
Irene was fairly good at Latin--her sight translation was at least intelligible. Miss Lord"s comment was merely sarcastic, as she pa.s.sed to Florence Hissop. By this time the panic had swept through the ranks.
Florence would like to have been true to her pledged troth, but the instinct of self-preservation is strong. She improved on Irene"s performance.
"Take the next ten lines, Patty, and endeavor to extract a glimmering of sense. Please bear in mind that we are reading poetry."