It was a thrush, singing in the early morning rain, that awakened Betsey
next day. She had slept at the cottage, on the couch beside the
toy-cupboard and had seen through the window, as she dropped asleep, the
sky all bright with stars and had thought vaguely of how they must be
shining in the pool. Through her dreams, however, she had heard, toward
the dawn, the patter of rain on the sloping roof above her head and she
had remembered how dry the grass was growing and how thirsty the garden,
and had smiled to hear it fall. The thrush seemed to be glad also, for
he sat just opposite her window, hidden among the wet leaves, and
singing with all his soul to greet the gray morning. She got up and
knelt by the casement to watch him, while he, too intent upon his trills
and warbles and flute-like runs, seemed to pay no heed to the fact that
some one was peering at him over the sill. When he had finished and
flown away, when the cool rain had ceased and the sun was beginning to
send long rays into the dripping garden, she remembered for the first
time that this was the long-dreaded day, the morning of the
examinations.
For some reason that she could not explain, she no longer minded the
thought at all. The events of the day before had seemed to clear her
mind, to drive the cobwebs from her brain, to give her courage. David,
she knew, when there was nothing more he could do in preparation, had
begun to look forward to the occasion since the very fact that the
chances were against him lent some excitement to the affair. What he did
know he had mastered well, but did he know the right things? He had
reached a point where he was quite on edge to find out. It was necessary
for him to take his examinations at the college itself, so that he would
be gone for the three days that they lasted and would not see Betsey
again until the trials of both of them were over. As she dressed and
went downstairs she was so busy wishing him luck that she had little
time to think of herself.
After all her nervous worry, she was astonished at her present calm,
that lasted even while she sat in the big quiet school room with fifty
others, waiting for questions to be distributed. The one thought that
kept going through her head, oddly enough, was, “I am so glad I did not
go with Aunt Susan!” The paper was handed to her, Plane and Solid
Geometry, the most difficult subject first as it should be. She smiled
joyfully as she saw, like the face of an old friend looking up at her,
the question concerning the frustum of a pyramid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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