"Oh, I've learned a few things about human nature," said Amanda on her
second visit home. "You know I told you last week how nice the older
girls are to the new ones. A crowd of Seniors came into our room the
other day and they were lovely! One of them told me she adored red hair
and she just knew all the girls were going to love me because I have
such a sweet face and I'm so dear--she emphasized every other word! I
wondered what ailed her. She didn't know me well enough to talk like
that. Before they left she began to talk about the Page Literary
Society--'Dear, we're all Pageites, and it's the best, finest society
in the school. We do have such good times. You ought to join. All the
very nicest girls of the school are in it.' I promised to think it
over. Well, soon after they left another bunch of girls came into our
room and they were just as sweet to us. By and by one of them said,
'Dear, we're all in the Normal Literary Society. It's the best society
in the school; all the very nicest girls belong to it. You should join
it.'"
"Ha, electioneering, was they!" said Uncle Amos, laughing. "Well, leave
it to the women. When they get the vote once we men got to pony up. But
which society did you join?"
"Neither. I'm going to wait a while and while I'm waiting I'm having a
glorious time. The Pageites invited me to a fudge party one night, the
Normalites took me for a long walk, a Pageite treated me to icecream
soda one day and a Normalite gave me some real home-made cake the same
afternoon. It's great to be on the fence when both sides are coaxing
you to jump their way."
"Well," said Millie, her face glowing with interest and pride in the
girl, "if you ain't the funniest! I just bet them girls all want you to
come their way. But what kind o' meals do you get?"
"Good, Millie. Of course, though, I haven't any cellar to go to for pie
or any cooky crock filled with sand-tarts with shellbarks on the top."
"Don't you worry, Manda. I'll make you sand-tarts and lemon pie and
everything you like every time you come home still."
"Millie, you good soul! With that promise to help me I'll work like a
Trojan and win some honors at old M.S.N.S. Just watch me!"
Amanda did work. She brought to her studies the same whole-hearted
interest and enthusiasm she evinced in her hunts for wild flowers, she
applied to them the same dogged determination and untiring efforts she
showed in her long search for hidden bird nests, with the inevitable
result that her brain, naturally alert and brilliant, grasped with
amazing celerity both the easy and the hard lessons of the Normal
Training course.