S.B.--All!
Briarwood Hall!
Sweetbriars, do or die-- This be our battle-cry-- Briarwood Hall!
_That"s all!_"
CHAPTER XXV
AUNT ALVIRAH AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Mr. Cameron, Helen"s father, and Mrs. Murchiston, who had acted as governess for the twins until they were old enough to go to boarding school, were motoring to Briarwood Hall for the graduation exercises. They proposed to pick Tom up at Seven Oaks Military Academy, for he would spend another year at that school, not graduating until the following June.
They also had another guest in the big automobile who took up a deal of the attention of the drygoods merchant and Mrs. Murchiston. A two-days"
trip was made of it, the party staying at a hotel for the night. Aunt Alvirah was going farther from the Red Mill and the town of Cheslow than she had ever been in her life before.
First she said she could not possibly do it! What ever would Jabez do without her? And he would not hear to it, anyway. And then--there was "her back and her bones."
"Best place for old folks like me is in the chimbly corner," declared Aunt Alvirah. "Much as I would love to see my pretty graduate with all them other gals, I don"t see how I can do it. It"s like uprooting a tree that"s growed all its life in one spot. I"m deep-rooted at the Red Mill."
But Mr. Cameron knew it was the wish of the old woman"s heart to see "her pretty" graduate from Briarwood Hall. It had been Aunt Alvirah"s word that had made possible Ruth"s first going to school with Helen Cameron. It was she who had urged Mr. Jabez Potter on, term after term, to give the girl the education she so craved.
Indeed, Aunt Alvirah had been the good angel of Ruth"s existence at the Red Mill. n.o.body in the world had so deep an interest in the young girl as the little old woman who hobbled around the Red Mill kitchen.
Therefore Mr. Cameron was determined that she should go to Briarwood. He fairly shamed Mr. Potter into hiring a woman to come in to do for Ben and himself while Aunt Alvirah was gone.
"You ought to shut up your mill altogether and go yourself, Potter,"
declared Mr. Cameron. "Think what your girl has done. I"m proud of my daughter. You should be doubly proud of your niece."
"Well, who says I"m not?" snarled Jabez Potter. "But I can"t afford to leave my work to run about to such didoes."
"You"ll be sorry some day," suggested Mr. Cameron. "But, at any rate, Aunt Alvirah shall go."
And the trip was one of wonder to Aunt Alvirah Boggs. First she was alarmed, for she confessed to a fear of automobiles. But when she felt the huge machine which carried them so swiftly over the roads running so smoothly, Aunt Alvirah became a convert to the new method of locomotion.
At the hotel where they halted for the night, there were more wonders.
Aunt Alvirah"s knowledge of modern conveniences was from reading only. She had never before been nearer to a telephone than to look up at the wires that were strung from post to post before the Red Mill. Modern plumbing, an elevator, heating by steam, and many other improvements, were like a sealed book to her.
She disliked to be waited upon and whispered to Mrs. Murchiston:
"That air black man a-standin" behind my chair at dinner sort o" makes me narvous. I"m expectin" of him to grab my plate away before I"m done eatin"."
The day set for the graduation exercises at Briarwood Hall was as lovely a June day as was ever seen. The Cameron automobile rolled into the grounds and was parked with several dozen machines, just as the girls were marching into chapel. The fresh young voices chanting "One Wide River to Cross" floated across to the ears of the party from the Red Mill, and Aunt Alvirah began to hum the song in her cracked, sweet treble.
The automobile party followed the smaller girls along the wide walk of the campus. There was the new West Dormitory, quite completed on the outside, and sufficiently so inside for the seniors to occupy rooms. Not the old quartettes and duos of times past; but very beautiful rooms nevertheless, in which they could later entertain their friends who had come to the graduation exercises.
The organist began to play softly on the great organ in the chapel, and played until every girl was seated--the graduating cla.s.s upon the platform. Then the school orchestra played and Helen--very pretty in white with cherry ribbons--stood forth with her violin and played a solo.
Mrs. Tellingham welcomed the visitors in a short speech. Then there was a little silence before the strains of an old, old song quivered through the big chapel. Helen was playing again, with the soft tones of the organ as a background. And, in a moment Ruth stood up, stepped forward, and began to sing.
The Cheslow party had all heard her before. She was almost always singing about the old Red Mill when she was at home. But into this ballad she seemed to put more feeling than ever before. The tears ran down Aunt Alvirah"s withered cheeks. Ruth did not know the dear old woman was present, for it was to be a surprise to her; but she might have been singing just for Aunt Alvirah alone.
"This pays me for coming, Miz" Murchiston, if nothin" else would,"
whispered Aunt Alvirah. "I can see my pretty often and often, I hope. But I"ll never hear her sing again like this."
The exercises went smoothly. A learned man made a helpful speech. Then, while there was more music, a curtain fell between the graduating cla.s.s and the audience.
When it rose again the girls were grouped about a light throne, trimmed with flowers, on which sat the girl who had proved herself to be the best scholar of them all--the lame girl, Mercy Curtis. She was flushed, she was excited and, if never before, Mercy Curtis looked actually pretty.
Laughing and singing, her mates rolled the throne down to the edge of the platform, and there, still sitting in her pretty, flowing white robes, Mercy gave them the valedictory oration. It was Ruth"s idea, filched from the transformation scene in her moving picture scenario.
Afterward the other girls had their turns. Ruth"s own paper upon "The Force of Character" and Jennie"s funny "History of a Bunch of Briers"
received the most applause.
Mrs. Tellingham came last. As was her custom she spoke briefly of the work of the past year and her hopes for the next one; but mainly she lingered upon the story of the rebuilding of the West Dormitory and the loyalty the girls had shown in making the new building a possibility.
There was a debt upon it yet; but the royalties from the picture play were coming in most satisfactorily. The preceptress urged all her guests to do what they could to advertise the film of "The Heart of a Schoolgirl" in their home towns, and especially urged them to see it.
"You will be well repaid. Not alone because it is a true picture of our boarding school life, but because the writer of the scenario has produced a good and helpful story, and Mr. Hammond has put it on the screen with taste and judgment."
These were Mrs. Tellingham"s words, and they made Ruth Fielding very proud.
The diplomas were given out after a touching address by the local clergyman. The girls received the parchments with happy hearts. Their faces shone and their eyes were bright.
The graduating cla.s.s held a sort of reception on the platform; but after a time Helen urged Ruth away from the crowd. "Come on!" she said. "Let"s go up into the new-old-room. We"ll not have many chances of being in it now."
"That"s right. Only to-night," sighed Ruth. "Away to-morrow for the Red Mill. And next week we start for Dixie. I wonder if we shall have a good time, Helen. Do you think we ought to have promised Nettie and her aunt that we would come?"
"Surely! Why, we"ll have a dandy time," declared Helen, "just us girls alone."
This belief proved true in the end, as may be learned in the next volume of this series, to be ent.i.tled "Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie; Or, Great Days in the Land of Cotton."
"I didn"t see your father or Tom or Mrs. Murchiston," Ruth said, as she and Helen walked across the campus.
"They are here, just the same," said Helen, laughing.
"Where?"
"I shouldn"t be surprised if we found them up in our old quartette. Ann is with her Uncle Bill Hicks, and Mercy is with her father and mother. We shall have the room to ourselves. We"ll get out my new tea set and give them tea. Come on!"
Helen raced up the stairs, opened the door of the big room, and then got behind it so that Ruth, coming hurriedly in, should first see the little, quivering, eager figure which had risen out of the low chair by the window.
"My pretty! my pretty!" gasped Aunt Alvirah. "I seen you graduate, and I heard you sing, and I listened to your fine readin". But, oh, my pretty, how hungry my arms are for ye!"
She hobbled across the floor to meet Ruth and, for once, forgot her usually intoned complaint: "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" Ruth caught her in her strong young arms. Helen slipped out and joined her family in the hall.
In a little while Tom thundered on the door, and shouted: "Hey! we"re dying for that cup of tea Helen promised us, Ruthie Fielding. Aren"t you ever going to let us in?"