Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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Madge who was more than a trilie bored at first, was getting interested. It was . such an unusual thing to be consulted in Betsey's eseapades except to assist her in evading the wrath of the ever vigilant lady prin. Now Madgie Beth continued, with her arms around her room-mate as they 7 3 sat together on the floor, I'm serious. Madge smiled indulgently. You know ' in to write that lovely paper about the beauties of Rivers for the com- youre go g mencement number of the Students' Monthly, and you haven't even seen the finest thing about the whole town. You've never had even the tiniest little squint at the YJ grade and lake at night-by moonlight. Well Betsey, I know, but how am I going to see it? You don't expect me to 'l l'k Y climb out of my window at ten o'clock and crawl down a ladder, just li ce- 1 'e - ar mortal who regards a three as a necessity of life and a four as a fearful and wonderful luxury never to be indulged in except on occasions. You know I wasn't going to say that, Madge remonstrated. Y s I know clear and I don't expect you to go climbing around and destroying 9 1 J , your clothes and your dignity. I just want you to walk downstairs and out of the cellar door like our friend, Bridget, the 'quane' of the kitchen, mum. Oh, now you ' 3, Any commonplace, vulg 7 begin to look curious. Well, I'll be magnanimous and relieve your suspense. I'd like to hear, of course, Betsey, but you know I couldn't think of doing any such thing as that, even if some of the other girls do, Madge said decidedly. ouldn't, but I thought maybe you would, even if you couldn't. No, of course you c A id don't you dare assert that I haven't a conscience as tender as the youngest prep- 1 let's Well, your blessed brother, Dick, and his blessed room-mate, lom, and my ll ssed self Betsey have this little scheme. Dick heard the cook planning with her i es , , best beloved to leave the hall at eight and go to a dance. Of course, she wont be l. k til awfully late, or awfully early, rather. My lady prm will try all the doors at nc un ten but she'll never think of the outside cellar door. 'I hereat Dame Bridget will go i d ou and I will follow in her footsteps. We'll meet Tom and Dick down out, an y . street. I'll let the proctor into our little scheme. She won't tell and she can make excuses to the girls if anyone should happen to come to our room. Now, Madgie, don't say you won't. You never go anywhere with me. Lots of the girls do such things and one of the boys is your own brother. So it isn't the least bit out of the way. Mad e laughed in spite of herself. Out of the way? I should say it wasn't. S Maybe you can get permission. Seriously, l'd like to go, Betsey. I suppose such things are fun. But you know I have an obstructed will Cto quote Brother Janiesl and always see the obstacles. Why, Betsey, you don't think. What if we should be u ht and sent home I'd never get over the disgrace. I know I'd go crazy. ca g . . . But, Madgie, we can't possibly get caught. I should 'think you could see that. You don't want Tom and the rest of the boys to think you're a grind and a prigf' Did Tom say so? Well, I think that is nice of him, ejaculated Madge. I wudna say that he did and I wudna say that he didna. No. no, Madgie, he didn't, he didn't, don't get excited. But I'm afraid that that's what people will say if you don't do anything the rest of the girls do, and you know I tlnnk so much of you I can't bear to have people say such things. Well, if that's what they call me, a grind and a prig, I guess I'll go, because I'm not anything of the sort, and you know it yourself, Betsey. ' Of course I do, Beth asserted joyfully. Half past eight found the two girls creeping stealthily down the back-stairs in the 29

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The Reward of the Wicked eyes ache? Don't you think your brain's - Madge Burton, don't you think your - ,,,, , , fatigued? Dont you think your nervous - N4 f system will be shattered? And above all N -s things, don't you think you're just too lazy if to study another minute? Yes, I think you unquestionably are. l1Vith this satisfactory soliloquy, Madge sent her Sophocles rattling down to the table and threw herself upon the tloor hy the open window to enjoy the languorous delight of an early June day. The warm air was heavy and sweet with a mingled fragrance. Every breath brought the drowsy hum of summer life. Students sanntered in the sunlight past the dormi- tory where nearly all the girls of Rivers College boarded. Madge buried her chin in her hand and allowed herself to drift away into dreamy memories of her child- M- l1ood's home, its huge gray rocks and wil- low-bordered pond. She had not wan- dered long, however, before a merry laugh aroused her and she leaned far enough out of the second-story window to see her room-mate and her own brother, Dick, below. A half wonder tlitted .through her mind as to what joke would be perpetrated now and who would he the unhappy victim. Then she quickly lapsed back into her dream. A moment more and her room-mate came bounding up the stairs, hanged the door and dropped into a chair in mock horror. Margaret Alton Burton, the Saints preserve us, and you're not studying, just sitting there on the floor like any ordinary mortal! I'd be willing to het-no, you said it was vulgar to bet, didn't you?- well, 1'd be willing to asseverate that you haven't looked at your Latin and German, you, the most lnciferous star in the whole class. Kladgic, dear, you're not. you're snrc you'rc not in love? You don't feel any longings to write poetry. do you? or stroll around the campus at a rate that would shame any self-respecting snail? Oh. dear mc, no. What -i 1' . I 'dl 'J' R rf,i i ' lxi' ,ti ,ll ,f it ,,:,, ,N It 't Y I . -D ' ' xg f Z1-f--...,,.,g f A -f ,J , f if ,ir Q. t X J X x if iff' LG . eq I anti, A if if.fvf'f,t 't Rf fe- 3 tl M i - ri! Z d -Q' ' ix' ii J- it can l he thinking of? Madge gave a despairing Betsey, Betsey. what is the matter with you ? Matter with mc, my most adored? Not a thing in the world. Just wait until I'm sure that there is not the faintest retreating shadow of the lady prin. about these parts and I will disclose to your scholastic eye a most scrumptious plan. No lady prin in the closet, no lady prin in the hall, no lady prin under the hed. Now I'll close the transom and pull down the window. 'l'hen we'll assemble stealthily in the middle of the room. 28

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dark. Madge had to stifle a good many misgivings, but now that she had started she would not go back. At the foot of the steps a voice reached them. It's the dread dame, herself, descending to an altercation with some unlucky Wight who wasn't as wary about her performances as we are, Beth whispered. Oh don't you wish, don't you wish, my lady prin that some little bird would just bring you an inkling of wh.at's going on out here? We'll come home at eleven or later and get into bed and you'll never be a jot the wiser. It took but a moment to scurry noiselessly across the kitchen fioor, down-stairs and out the cellar door. Soon all four were walking briskly away toward the grade. This grade, built years before for a railroad which had never appeared, led from a spot just outside' the village, down through dense tamarack swamps, to a little lake about a mile distant. It had for years been the favorite scene of every sort of student escapade. We'll give our best respects to Dame Bridget, said Tom, as they were well on the way tothe lake, and hope that Patrick will propose to her tonight and take her back to Ireland where she may live in peace and happiness to a good old age. Yes, indecd,l' Betsey agreed. Let's buy her an organdy dress for a wedding present, and write on the card, 'From four unknown admirers who would have liked to marry you, only according to the cruel law of this land, even for a woman so accommodating as yourself, tive at once are too many.' We shouldn't think her so obliging now, Tom said teasingly, if we should find the door locked when we got back. Oh, you needn't worry, laughed Betsey. f'She'll do well if she gets back in time to cook breakfast. If she's late she'll have a pitiful tale to tell the wrathful matron of what terrible toothaches and headaches she had, and all the other aches that man is heir to. At first Madge was quiet, noting the beauty of the night, peering out from the white moonlit grade into the dead black of the tamaracks where the fire-fiies glimmered now and then. But even she was soon carried away by this contagious hilarity of her noisy little room-mate and her mischievous brother. As they neared the lake, Dick climbed a stump and with a grand sweep of his arm toward the tall tamaraeks began: This is the forest primeval, the wandering lads and the lassies, Shaking with glee and in garments dark, indistinct in the moonlight, Escaped from the clutch of the lady prin by the help of fair Bridget - Oh, Dick, Dick, Tom called, such a public exhibition of your wondrous powers isn't modest. just come down off that stump, will you, or you can be 'the eat that walks by himself,' for wc're going to leave you. Besides, don't be too grateful to Bridget. If we should find the door - Oh, Tom, do be still, Betsey whispered. Don't tease Madge any more. You know we'rc perfectly safe about getting in. Of course you are. I can't help it. It's such fun to tease her. I don't see how you ever managed it, anywayf' lk an wk -if wo- Even to Madge, who was the least merry of the company, it seemed not more than an hour from the time that they started before they were again climbing the college hill toward the dormitory. While they were stealing quietly through the business part of the town at the foot of the hill she had time to reflect on her first escapade. It had 30