Betty Lee, Freshman Part 23

"And then, Father, I believe that it's better not to be sokeyed up, as Mother says, and wanting to beat."

"The habit of success is a good thing, Betty."

Betty pondered a moment. "I see what you mean. It's only too easy to let down."

"Yes, and when one studies a subject there is more satisfaction in really covering the ground, being accurate, I mean, not just having a sort of hazy idea."

"Father, there's too much! You just can't get it all."

"You have done pretty well so far, my child. I am satisfied with your grades. Isn't there always an honor roll?"

"Yes, and I'm on it, so far."

"Then that is enough. You need not try to beat anybody. Wasn't that the trouble with your friend that copied your answers?"

"Yes. I wouldn't do that, of course, but there is a sort of nervousness about reciting well and making an impression on the teacher, whether you have your lesson or haven't had a chance to get it real well. And sometimes you recite when you don't know much."

"I see. It is a problem, Betty. I see nothing for it but to make a good general plan, not including too much, then work it out every day the best you can. But it's the little decisions every day that count in anything. I have it in business too. And I wouldn't let down altogether in the ideals of hard work and getting lessons. It's chiefly in putting your mind on it when you are working, isn't it?"

"A good deal."

"You would really like to be in that orchestra, wouldn't you, Betty?"

Betty looked up at the smiling face of her father, who wasn't so very old, after all. He had a fellow feeling!

"Didn't you take a few violin lessons once?"

"Yes, when that college girl taught a cla.s.s for a while, but I can't _play_, Father. They wouldn't _look_ at me for the orchestra!"

"Probably not now; but if you took more lessons, and of a proper teacher this summerhow about it?"

"I might," said Betty, dropping her flowers in her lap to clap her hands. "Would you _let_ me?"

"Would you like it as much as that?"

"I'd love it!"

"Then we shall see about it at once. I'm going to send your Mother and Amy Lou to your grandmother's this summer, but not all of you could go there. d.i.c.k and Doris might take turns. And how would you like to keep house for me, practice violin, and get taken on rides to give you an occasional breath of the country?"

"That would be great. I'm not a good housekeeper, though."

"We'll never tell anybody how we keep house, Betty, and I'll be 'boss.'

We'll drive over to the Conservatory, Sat.u.r.day, sign you up for violin with somebodycome on child. Gather up your flowers. We must go home."

Mr. Lee sprang to his feet, gave a hand to Betty, who did not need it, but accepted it.

"But _Father_, I don't know how good the old violin is and the bow is terrible. It never did do what it ought to! How _can_ I begin?"

"The trouble with the 'old violin' is not that it is 'old,' Betty,"

laughed Mr. Lee, as Betty ran after him on his way to the car. "It simply isn't much good at all. You shall have a better one. You used to play some sweet little tunes. Here's for a Stradivarius or 'whatever it is,' as you say. And you shall see how I keep you at hard work this summer! We'll have some of the school extras or perish in the attempt."

Betty chuckled as she climbed into the car. "All right, my dear Daddy.

The neighbors will hate me, but _I'll practice_, and it can't be any worse than that horn across the street. How did you read my mind and know that I'd rather be in an orchestra than take piano lessons?"

"It was just instinct, Betty," replied Mr. Lee, as he started the car, "with perhaps a few deductions and putting two and two together."

"Really, Father, can you afford to get me a good violin and let me take lessons?"

"Yes. It is necessary to do things _when_ they ought to be done, and we shall do this. But I'm counting on my girl to make good."

"Oh, I will try! But you know me!"

"I'm not expecting too much, Betty, only the same effort that you always make in everything. I shall watch to keep you well and safe. Perhaps the athletics that you like so much will help to keep you well. But don't get reckless in 'gym.' We'll see about the riding some other year, perhaps."

CHAPTER XVII: SPRING AT LYON HIGH

If the autumn, with its excitement of football and the starting of school activities, was thrilling to Betty Lee, what should be said of the springtime, with those same activities matured and new interests of the season? It was baseball among the boys now. Seniors were thinking of their graduation. Freshmen had nearly completed their first year of high school and had changed by contact with the older cla.s.ses and with their own new ambitions.

Betty could not keep up with it all, nor attend all of the entertainments offered by the different organizations. In some of them she had a part, as when the Girl Reserves did something special with a good program, or when the swimming contests took place, for then not alone the best swimmers took part, but those of modest attainments. In this Betty had occasion to take a little pride in winning points.

Her mother accompanied her to attend the great musical affair of the year, when all the musical organizations, orchestra and glee clubs, combined to show their parents what they could do. Mrs. Lee exclaimed over the ability of the orchestra and Betty explained. "In the first place, Mother, they have a wonderful leader. He's a foreigner and hasn't much patience with anybody, Ted says, but it isn't a bad thing for the way things turn out, you see. Then the boys and girls are used to hearing good music."

"They hear some very terrible jazz, too," remarked Mrs. Lee.

"I'll have to admit it," laughed Betty, "but not in school, except, perhaps, at the minstrel show they had. I wasn't there, so I can't state."

The school grounds were more attractive than in the fall. The garden club worked under the direction of the botany teacher. First came the forsythia, in welcome yellow delicacy all over the city, and here and there about the grounds. Then other flowers came on, with magnolia and j.a.panese cherry trees in blossom, and in their time gay tulips, and purple iris lining some of the walks. With the windows of cla.s.s rooms, study halls and library open, the pupils and teachers could hear the songs of birds, more free than they were, to be sure, but with their daily bread and nesting entailing much hunting and work on the part of the little creatures. Betty never failed to visit a part of the grounds devoted to wild flowers, including May-apples and jack-in-the-pulpit.

She was occasionally out at the Gwynne place, when Carolyn carried her off in a car which sometimes came for her, or accompanied her as far as the street car went, to take the rest of the way in a strolling hike, enlivened with much discourse, after the manner of girls. They saw very little of the boys, by the way, for baseball and other active, outdoor affairs engaged their attention; but the girls, with so many of their own, did not notice it. Of these girl activities, Color Day, the annual track meet of the girls was of importance.

This was held on the last of April in the stadium and the compet.i.tion was between cla.s.ses. The freshmen girls were quite excited over it, for they had some very athletic girls in their various teams this year, and while they did not expect to win the meet they expected to make a good showing. Both Betty and Carolyn were in this, though Betty was not allowed to do compet.i.tive running. But there was the throwing, baseball and hurl-ball, and some other events. Numbers told for your cla.s.s, it seemed. And when it finally came off it was great fun, Betty reported.

"You ought to have been there, Mother!" she cried when she came home.

"You simply _must_ come more next year. We'll get somebody to stay with Amy Lou, though she would think anything like this just wonderful, wouldn't you, Amy Lou?"

"Yes, Betty. Why can't I go?"

"You can next time. You ought to have seen the girls run and jump over the hurdles and everything! We had a tug of war and the freshmen won that. Then one of our freshman girls made a brand-new record in the sixty-yard hurdles. I've forgotten just what it was, but it beat last year's record just a little bit.

"I didn't do so badly in the throwing, Mother, but I didn't take first place by any means; and the relay in overhead basketball was great!"

"It seems to me that you make work of your playing, Betty."

"Yes, I suppose we do. But isn't it better to have athletics watched over and amounting to something?"