Family -- Juvenile fiction; Schools -- Juvenile fiction
"Got my load now," said the driver promptly, but pleasantly. "You'll
have to go in the next car."
"That's full of primary kids--we don't belong in there with them,"
protested Fannie. "Oh, look, there are Sarah and Shirley
Willis--they can't go in this car, they belong in the primary
grades."
"Now Fannie, don't be disagreeable," begged Miss Penfield. "Rosemary
wants her younger sisters with her which is perfectly natural. It
won't hurt you to ride in one of the other trucks. Do it to be
obliging, if for no other reason."
"I'm sure Fannie doesn't want to be disobliging, Miss Penfield,"
said Nina smoothly, "but Mr. Oliver distinctly said there were two
trucks for the grammar grades and that we should not go out of our
assigned cars. Besides, Fannie and I want to sit with our friends
and they're all in this car. Rosemary needn't move, but I think
Sarah and Shirley should go where they belong."
Miss Penfield flushed with vexation and annoyance. Mr. Oliver had
made just that ruling and she knew that Nina was quoting the letter
of his order, while ignoring the spirit. If she chose to make a
scene she could probably send the two girls to the other car, but it
was a question whether in attempting to enforce her commands she
might not at the same time spoil the day for Rosemary.
"Are you crowded, Miss Penfield?" called Jack Welles, standing up in
the first truck and looking back. "We have room for three up here;
send them along, if you need space."
"You go, Rosemary, and take Sarah and Shirley," said Miss Penfield
quickly. "Now come in here, Nina and Fannie, and for pity's sake let
us have no more of this jangling."
The high school cars held the coveted lead in the line and Jack
happened to be in the first one. Rosemary and Sarah and Shirley were
welcomed joyously by the older boys and girls and Nina and Fannie
furiously regretted their insistence. They would have liked to go in
the high school truck and if they had only waited, or had been less
determined in their demands, they might have found places there.
When the large field, where the Eastshore picnics were always held,
was reached, the trucks were parked in a circle and the pupils
scattered to amuse themselves according to their varying ages and
ideas. Shirley joined the little girls and shrieking games of "Tag"
were immediately under way. Sarah, ignoring the suggestions of her
classmates that they hunt for wildflowers, dropped flat on her
stomach and began a search for bugs. Rosemary left the lunch boxes
under the eyes of the teachers who gathered in a ring and took out
knitting and fancy work, and went off with half a dozen girls her
age to gather and wash wild-grape vine leaves to serve as plates at
the luncheon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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