Miss Thornton felt the sudden tears come into her throat. Poor little
Emma Binns! No trees. Never enough to eat. And not without a forlorn
charm. Prissy Adams, who had caught a glimpse of Clara's greenish
countenance, remained grim and unmoved.
"Dear child, you should have told me. Come to my tent afterward. We
can talk it over. Meantime it was fine and brave of you to tell the
truth. It shows that you are a real Penguin--" she gave her warm,
beloved chuckle--"almost, but not quite, perfect."
Everyone laughed and cheered except the Penguins, who for some unknown
reason sank into the profoundest gloom. Clara VanSittart had left the
table hurriedly.
* * * * *
Pip-Emma peeked out of the tent. The Penguin Circle was near the lake,
and she could see the parents, looking better from a distance, lined
up on benches along the water's edge. She could pick out Janet's
parents because they were younger than the others. They didn't seem to
be quarreling. They didn't seem even to be speaking to each other.
"O.K.," Pip-Emma said. She walked beside Janet like a trainer. She
gave last instructions. Everyone knew Janet was her Gang. So Janet,
who had never won anything, had to win. It was Prissy's opinion that
if Janet did win, the Penguins, as a class, were licked. She said
sharply to Clara,
"If you feel as bad as you look, you'd better throw up the sponge."
It was an unfortunate suggestion. Clara gulped. But she was game. The
prestige of the Penguins, the VanSittarts--one might say the whole
Social Register--was in her hands. She mumbled, "I'm a' right," and
slid with a smothered moan into the water.
Mr. and Mrs. Cooper waved dutifully to Janet. In her white cap and
bathing suit she looked like a pet white mouse in charge of a dark and
aggressive field mouse. Both parents had the same thought, with one
small but important variation: "If he (she) had made a decent home for
the poor child, she might have amounted to something."
"How's the little old complex?" Pip-Emma asked.
"I--I don't know, Pip. I think it's all right."
"Don't think about it. You ain't got it, see? So you're going to win.
'Cause you swim better than any of 'em. You just got to know it, and
you'll be fine."
"Honest, Pip-Emma?"
"Honest."