The Girls of Central High; Or, Rivals for All Honors

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  LAURA OVERTURNED THE FULL GLOBE, FISH AND ALL, UPON THEFLAMES! _Page_ 28]

  The Girls of Central High

  OR

  RIVALS FOR ALL HONORS

  BY GERTRUDE W. MORRISON

  Author of the Girls of Central High on Lake Luna, the Girls of Central High At Basketball, Etc.

  _ILLUSTRATED_

  NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

  BOOKS FOR GIRLS

  BY GERTRUDE W. MORRISON

  12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.

  THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH SERIES

  THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH Or, Rivals for All Honors

  THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA Or, The Crew That Won

  THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL Or, The Great Gymnasium Mystery

  THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE Or, The Play That Took the Prize

  THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND FIELD Or, The Champions of the School League

  GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS--NEW YORK

  Copyright, 1914, BY Grosset & Dunlap

  The Girls of Central High

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE I A blow at the High Cost of Living 1 II Athletics--Pro and Con 11 III A Real Alarm 21 IV "Poor Bobby" 31 V Whom Do You Believe? 38 VI False Evidence 46 VII The Committee on Organization 54 VIII Laura and the Principal 62 IX "The Day of the Touch" 74 X The Joke on Hester 80 XI The Man on the Spire 86 XII The M. O. R. Initiation 95 XIII The Haunted House 104 XIV The Test 112 XV A Very Real "Ghost" Indeed 119 XVI Where Is Laura? 126 XVII The Mystery 135 XVIII On the Eve of the Contest 143 XIX Hester Fouls the Game 151 XX The Eight-oared Shell 159 XXI The Finish of the Boat Race 166 XXII Staging a Thunderstorm 178 XXIII The Unveiling of Hester 186 XXIV The First Field Day 194 XXV "Mother Wit" 202

  THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH

  CHAPTER I--A BLOW AT THE HIGH COST OF LIVING

  "Hey, Laura!"

  The side window of James Belding's jewelry store was open behind thegrillwork of strong steel bars. Laura had just finished dusting theinside of the last show case in the row on that side of the wide shop,and had replaced the trays. This was Laura Belding's usual Saturdaymorning task; her father would not trust Chet to do it, although the ladoften waited on customers.

  Just now Mr. Belding was at the front of the store, showing a tray ofhis most valuable rings to a customer. The shopper was a stranger toboth the jeweler and his daughter, who were alone in the place;therefore Mr. Belding's eyes did not leave the tray before him.

  "Hey, Laura!"

  The call was repeated in a loud "stage whisper"; the sound came from theopen window. Laura started and turned to look. She could see a fly-awaymop of flaxen hair, a line of forehead, and two sparkling brown eyes.

  "Bobby Hargrew!" she cried, and went to the window.

  "Oh, Laura! I want something," whispered her friend, fairly dancing upand down outside the window. "I've got _such_ a scheme!"

  "What is it now?" asked Laura, sedately. "Bobby" Hargrew's schemes wereoften very crack-brained indeed. Everybody--except her grandmother--calledher "Bobby" instead of "Clara." There were no boys in the Hargrewfamily; but her father, Tom Hargrew, declared that Clara was just asmuch fun as any boy. And she certainly was a "fly-away."

  "Get your father to let you have that big magnifying glass we werelooking at last week, and bring it along to the store," whispered Bobby,chuckling while she preferred the request.

  "What for?"

  "Never mind! I'll show you when we get to the store. Dad's about to shutup. Hurry, now!"

  Tom Hargrew's grocery store was on the block just beyond the Beldingshop.

  "I--don't--know," murmured Laura, glancing at her father and his customer."Pa's busy."

  "Oh, come on!" cried the harum-scarum Bobby. "I won't hurt the oldglass."

  Thus adjured, Laura put on her hat and walked slowly to the front of thestore with the magnifying glass in her hand.

  "Father," she said softly, touching his arm, "I want to borrow this fora little while. I will bring it back."

  He nodded. He could not leave his customer then. So Laura walked out ofthe store and joined her school friend in Market Street. The girls weresophomores in Central High School of the city and they had always livedin adjoining streets, so were very good friends. Bobby was so full ofmischief that it was hard to keep her out of trouble; but sometimes themore quiet daughter of the jeweler had a restraining influence over theyounger girl.

  "Oh, I've got the greatest scheme!" gasped Bobby, choked with laughter."Hurry up before Daddy closes."

  "What have you been doing now?" asked her friend, admonishingly.

  "Just dressing one of the store windows--honest to goodness! that's allI've been doing."

  "But why the magnifying glass?"

  "That's it. You'll see the joke. Hurry," urged Bobby, pulling Lauraalong the walk.

  They came to Mr. Hargrew's grocery store and Bobby halted her friendbefore the first window. It was tastefully arranged with canned goodsand package products; but in the center, in a bed of different coloredtissue paper, was an ordinary loaf of bread of small size. Above it wasa freshly lettered card bearing the legend:

  Why Worry About THE HIGH COST OF LIVING?

  ONLY 5 CENTS

  "But I don't see the joke," murmured Laura, turning to her gigglingfriend, curiously.

  "Wait!" cried Bobby. "You'll see. Give me that glass."

  She snatched the magnifying glass from her friend's hand and whiskedinto the store. In a moment she had set the glass in such a way beforethe loaf of bread that anybody passing the window must look at the breadthrough it--and the loaf certainly looked to be a huge one for the statedprice on the card above.

  Laura had to laugh. And she knew it would make many other people laughbefore Monday morning. Such little jokes attracted trade, too, and BobbyHargrew was full of novel ideas. Her father came outside and viewed theadvertising display admiringly.

  "
Hasn't that young one got a great head?" he said. Bobby's capersusually "tickled" her father. Having no son, he made her his companionas though she were a boy.

  Already pedestrians had begun to stop before the window and laugh overthe joke. Laura turned to go back to her father's store.

  "You're coming up to the school this afternoon, Bobby?" she asked.

  "I don't know," returned her friend, slowly. "I wanted to see the EastHigh boys beat the West High boys. First baseball game of the season,you know; I just hope Central will win the pennant."

  "So do I," murmured Laura. "But I think we girls should have someinterest in athletics besides our loyalty to the boys' baseball andfootball teams. I want the girls of Central High to organize for our ownimprovement and pleasure. Don't you?"

  "Do you suppose anything will come of the meeting this afternoon?"queried Bobby, doubtfully. "Old 'Gee Gee' is opposed to it."

  "How do you know Miss Carrington doesn't like the idea?" asked Laura,quickly.

  "She told us if we did not stand well in deportment, as well as in ourstudies, we could not belong to the new association--if it was formed."

  "Well, why should we? We've got to play the game, Bobby. It's onlyhonest in us to do our work well if we want the fun of playingbasket-ball, and learning to dance, and row, and swim, and all the restof it."

  "Well, it's little fun I'll get out of it," sighed Bobby. "Gee Gee isforever putting black tally-marks down against me."

  "Miss Grace G. Carrington, whom you so impolitely term 'Gee Gee,'"laughed Laura, "is thoroughly familiar with you, Miss Bobby Hargrew. Youcannot fool her for one little minute--that's why you don't like her."

  The grocer's daughter flushed; but she laughed, too.

  "Perhaps you're right," she admitted. "She always _does_ catch me atthings."

  "Then don't do 'things,'" advised Laura Belding, with a smile.

  "Can't all be 'Miss Prims,' like you, Laura," cried Bobby saucily.

  "You'll come to the meeting, just the same?" urged her friend.

  "Oh, yes; I'll come. I hope we'll get a girls' athletic associationformed, too. The boys won't let us play with them if we want to, and I'dlike to learn how to play some game beside Puss in the Corner and Dropthe Handkerchief. We're all getting so dreadfully lady-like and grownup. I _hate_ to grow up. If I've got to be all stiff and starched allthe time, I'd rather be a boy. Why! Nellie Agnew looks so much like hermother, back to, when she's dressed up, that last Sunday I asked afterher rheumatism in my best-bred voice before I saw 'twas Nell!" and againBobby broke into one of her jolly laughs.

  "You come to the meeting. Mr. Sharp approves, and maybe he'll be there;so will Mrs. Case, our gymnastic teacher."

  "I'll come, Laura," promised the harum-scarum, as the jeweler's daughterwent on to her father's shop. The customer had gone when she arrived andMr. Belding was putting up the grating at the door. The more valuablearticles of the stock had been put into the huge safe at the back of theroom, and the safe locked.

  "We'll go to Mostyn's to lunch in a minute, Laura," said her father."Your dusting is done, isn't it?"

  "Yes, sir," replied Laura, smiling.

  It was a regular Saturday treat to accompany her father to thefashionable restaurant for luncheon. Laura did not begrudge the time shespent helping in the store during that forenoon, when the treatfollowed.

  Most of the stores on Market Street closed for the Saturday halfholiday, even if, like Mr. Belding's jewelry store, they opened againfor the evening trade. For the town was interested in athletics, andSaturday afternoon in pleasant weather the year around was given up tofield sports of some kind.

  Centerport was advantageously located for both land and water sports,being situated on the level shore of a beautiful lake, many miles inextent, with a range of low hills behind it to shelter the city from thenorth.

  The boys of the three High Schools of the city--East, West andCentral--were rivals in baseball, football, rowing, and track athletics;and on this particular Saturday the first baseball game of the seasonwas to be played between East and West High School nines. Central High,which Laura Belding and Bobby Hargrew attended, had a good team, too,and the girls--loyal to their boy friends--would have "rooted" for thehome team had the Central club been playing.

  However, the girls of Central High--especially the Sophomores andJuniors--had a particular reason for attending no baseball game on thisafternoon. As soon as her luncheon was finished, Laura excused herselfand hurried away from Mostyn's restaurant toward the schoolhouse.

  Her route lay past Mr. Hargrew's grocery--one window of which was thescene of Bobby Hargrew's latest practical joke. The sun was very hot forso early in the year, and the grocery was on the sunny side of thestreet. It was long enough past noon for the sun's rays to pour into thewide window.

  Just before Laura reached Mr. Hargrew's store she saw a tow-headed boy,with a baseball cap stuck on the very back of his head, coming whistlingalong the hot walk with his hands in his pockets.

  "Billy Long might just as well not have any hat on at all," thoughtLaura, smiling as she beheld the freckled, good-natured face of thetowhead.

  And then, quite suddenly, Billy Long's actions amazed Laura Belding.

  He halted, as though struck motionless by the sight of Bobby's joke inthe store window. Then he leaped to the window, leaped back, turned tolook up and down the almost deserted street (there was nobody in sightbut Laura for two or three blocks) and then dashed toward the cornerwhich the girl had but a few seconds before passed.

  "What's the matter with you, Billy Long?" cried Laura.

  "Fire!" bawled the boy. "Mr. Hargrew's store's afire! Fire!"

  "Nonsense!" cried Laura, and ran forward. "Are you fooling me, Short andLong?"

  But in a moment she saw smoke rising from the very middle of the showwindow--in the heart of the bed of tissue paper.