College stories; Women college students -- Juvenile fiction
"Yes, Beth, I suppose so; but I'm not a bit sleepy to-night. I could
sit up till midnight and just talk. You go to bed. I think I'll just
read a little more of this story and perhaps I'll get sleepy."
"Oh, don't read any more, Jean; you'll be sleepy enough after you once
get into bed. It's excitement that makes you feel so wide awake."
"All right, dear, I'll do as you say. You see I do need you to make me
take care of myself," and the two happy but tired girls were soon in
their beds and asleep.
Jean had set the alarm clock for half-past five o'clock, and dressing
in some old clothes started for the field back of the dormitories where
it was white with daisies. She was chairman of the committee to make
the daisy-chain, and was anxious that it be a success. She found four
of the other girls ahead of her filling great baskets which they had
brought for the purpose. After they had picked all they could possibly
carry they went up to the gymnasium and began weaving the chain. When
they arrived, it was long after the breakfast hour, but one girl, more
thoughtful than the others, had brought a box or two of crackers and so
saved her starving companions. More girls arrived every few minutes,
and all worked hard, so that they were able to finish the long chain
about half-past nine o'clock. They looked much the worse for wear and
their dresses were wet and stained from the flowers, and Jean's hair
was fast coming down round her face and neck. Her dress was badly torn
in the front where she had stepped upon it in her haste to get into the
gymnasium.
As she and Elizabeth and Anne were hurrying down the Row to Merton,
Anne, looking down toward the station, spied a young man coming in
their direction, with a suit-case in his hand. "Here comes some one's
man," she said. "Hope he's early enough. Evidently some one forgot to
meet him."
"Why, girls," exclaimed Jean, "there's something strangely familiar
about him. I do believe it's my brother Tom. He must have taken an
earlier train than I wrote him about. What a sight I am to meet him!
I had planned to dress in my very best and go down to the ten-thirty
train, and here I am looking more like a tramp than anything else. It
is Tom, and I can't help how I look; I'm going to meet him," and she
ran down the Row and was soon in her brother's arms, while the other
girls hurried into the dormitory away from sight.
"Oh, Tom, I'm so glad to see you! Don't look at me. I'm ashamed to have
you find me like this, but I've been working since six o'clock on our
daisy-chain. I didn't expect you for another hour. What do you mean by
coming out at this time of day?"
"Well, sister, you see I got in town very early this morning and didn't
have a thing to do after I finished my breakfast. Time began to hang
heavily on my hands, and then, too, I wanted to see you, so I came out
here on the first train I could get, but I'll go back if you are so
disturbed at my early arrival."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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