Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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TJic .lui iisla Seminary Annual. 23 roll-call, so she had to rush at break-neck speed down covered-way, in order to escape her teacher ' s reproachful look. But she didn ' t escape it, for as she ran along in a dreadful hurry, the daemon saw her suddenly stop short be- fore the way leading off to the Infirmary, and pick up a hair pin lying at her feet. Her eyes glanced swiftly over the plank and lattice walls of the covered way in search of a nail. At last she saw one in a post many yards distant, and was doubtful whether she could reach it in the required ten steps. Tlie feat, though difficult, was accomplished by means of ten long steps and a sly skip, and the trophy was hung upon the nail. All this had taken time, and though Violet was now full} ' five minutes late, she walked unconcernedly into chapel, and met the teacher ' s sternly reproving eye with all the calmness of one conscious of having done a worthy deed. It seemed to the daemon who was by this time quite in- terested in her fortunes, that his friend ' s luck of the morning treated her rather shabbily as the day wore on. He had learned a little about the curious beliefs of school-girls in lucky and unlucky omens, and so it was a great surprise to him when he found from his perch on the back of Violet ' s chair in the dining-room, that there w-ere thirteen at the table. But Violet had long ago learned to endure the torture of this unlucky number, and had come to look upon it as a necessar) ' evil. The sympathetic little imp ' s heart bled for her, as one by one he; witnessed her misfortunes. She knocked over a chair, and he heard her whisper to her neighbor in a tone of anguish that ' she just knew she was going to be an old maid; ' she spilt the salt, and there being no fire at hand into which she could throw a pinch to propitiate the unfriendly Fates, she grew quite melancholy at the thought of an untimely death. The sight of a pin lying on the floor with the head turned toward her, made her turn pale, and when the pie was handed to her with the point turned from her, she was moved to tears. In the afternoon, Violet, arrayed in all the bravery of her new spring suit, started to go walking with the girls. Thinking she saw a hole in her parasol, she opened it and was examining it closely when her room-mate cried in a

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22 The Atignsla Seminary Anintal. turned around to look for Violet, and nearly fell off the screen in his astonishment. No wonder. In the place of the Violet with hair bristling over her head in little paper knobs, with sleeping eyes, and lazy, dawdling movements, there stood a beauteous maiden whose appearance filled the little imp ' s breast with admiring awe. The knobs had blossomed into tresses so crisp, so stiff, so kinky, that even the most ill-natured had to confess that they had never seen anything to equal it. The daemon followed this radiant vision into the hall, at a respectful distance, and took his stand in a transom. From this coign of vantage he watched the girls crowding down the hall between the two rows of trunks standing on each side. Violet Deering, cried afresh 3 oung voice, ' ' you luck} girl ! You ' ve got your apron vrongside out. ' ' — Dear me, how fortunate I am, and the two friends walk- ed off arm in arm, Violet followed by the eyes of all observ- ers. For Violet, as the daemon found out afterwards, was the darling of the school, the sweetest, dearest, most per- fectly lovely of all the two hundred and fifty maidens, and altogether just too cute for anything. From his position on an electric light arc, the daemon behaved with proper decorum during chapel, and when morn- ing services were over, slid down the banisters of the wind- ing stairs in the wake of Violet. Flitting along outside, and peeping through the lattice work, he watched her pushing and struggling up the covered-way, then crowded with laughing, romping, chat- tering girls. As she reached the first steps, a large girl with an anxious expression of face jostled her elbow, and her Latin Grammar fell with outspread leaves upon the E, cut upon the top step. All vi- ' ere in too much of a hurry to come to her help, so Violet had to pick up the book herself, but as she first took the precaution to kiss it she had no fear of missing her lessons. The daemon did not venture into the class-room to which his near friend was bound, but sat on the porch rail outside until Violet ' s reappearance. Her self-satisfied look when she came out, told him that she had recited perfectly. She was a few minutes late, as she had waited to answer to

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2Jf The Angzisla Scminaiy Annual. horrified voice: Violet, don ' t 3 ' OU know that its dreadfully unlucky to open an umbrella in the house? — Why no, said the poor girl faintly, I never heard of it. It was a very depressed and woe-begone Violet that issued from the Seminary gate when the girls went walking that evening. — I do hope her luck will change, ' ' the daemcn was thinking, as he skipped along the curb-stone beside her, when, Oh ! I must run back and get my gloves, he heard her cry. It ' s bad luck to turn back after j ' ou ' ve started, continued her companion. That ' s so, said Violet miser- ably. She stood undecided for a moment, then a relieved look crossed her face, and stooping, she swiftly made the sign of the cross on the pavement at her feet, then ran gaily back for he gloves. After they had gone a little way, the daemon heard Vio- let ' s friend sa5 There goes a white horse, I never will see ninety-nine. I ' ve been counting for two weeks, and have only sixty-five. However, I ' ll never have the opportunity here to shake hands with a man. — Pshaw, answered Violet, tilting her nose disdainfully, I ' m counting red cravats. It ' s a great deal more interesting than looking for horses. I ' ve only got to get one more and I ' ll have a hundred. By the way my nose itches, some one ' s coming to see me soon, and if it is my fate, I hope he ' ll have on a red cravat. As the long string of girls passed by the City Treasur- er ' s new house, they came to a ladder leaning against the unfinished brown-stone front. Now there was plenty of room for them to have passed under it, but with one accord, the whole line crowded pell-mell into the street, putting to flight a cow browsing peacefully near b} ' , a creature from which, at any other time, every girl in the line would have fled with shrieks of terror. The daemon was separated from his friend in the confusion but came up with her just as she was saying, What a lucky escape. I ' d rather face a cow any day than go under a ladder, and let me tell you, I ' m just as afraid of cows as any other girl. After going a little further, Violet, here comes a load of hay, let ' s make a wish, cried her companion. All right, but we musn ' t tell what it is, or it won ' t come true.