In the good, steadfast atmosphere of a sensible home, whose heads were
not easily stampeded, Betty felt better. Father was told quietly by
Mother. But Betty’s sleep was troubled that night and it was with many
an inward qualm that she started to school the next morning. She
intended to go on through the day, as her mother advised her, with as
much quiet dignity as she could command, discussing the matter with no
one.
Peggy, however, referred to the conversation of the day before when she
met her by her locker, next to Betty’s. “The boys _were_ up to
something, as I told you. It wasn’t Jakey but the boy behind him, Sam,
that I was glaring at, as you said. He tried to snatch a piece of paper
off my desk, a blank sheet, it was, and I thought the boys were doing
that just to be smart, taking things off the girls’ desks and seeing
what they could do without being caught. I mean that bunch of boys, you
know, not Mickey or Andy. So maybe somebody got hold of part of your
paper.”
“The wind from that open window blew some paper off my desk once,” mused
Betty. “I believe it must have been Jakey that handed it to me, but I
didn’t think it was part of my paper that was written on. I stuck it
under the rest. I did write out my translations on an extra paper first,
for I didn’t want to make any erasures and have a messy paper. But Jakey
knows as much as I do. It certainly wasn’t Jakey whose paper was like
mine.”
“Time will tell,” said Peggy. “Don’t worry too much, Betty. Whatever
happens, your friends among us girls will believe what you say.”
“Thanks, Peggy. You’re a comfort. Please don’t say anything to Carolyn
yet.”
“She might know something.”
“How could she?”
“I don’t know. But at least I can tell her how I was questioned, and
everybody knew that you had to stay after school, so how can you help
telling her?”
“I’ll tell her that I was questioned, too.”
Betty however, had started to school as late as she dared. In
consequence lessons and the day’s program were upon them. At lunch she
remained in the room until after Carolyn and the rest of those going up
to lunch had gone, and pretended to be detained by some notes she was
writing. Perhaps it was not a pretense either, she thought, for she
needed the notes. But she would not have taken them then if she had not
wanted to avoid being with the rest of the girls. A few who were not
going to lunch were nibbling crackers or chocolate bars and stirring
about the room a little. The colored girl in her Latin class was there
and Betty wondered if she had enough money for the lunch, little as some
of it cost.
Sure enough, there were some chocolate bars and an apple in her locker!
She had the chocolate bars in her sweater pocket and the apple had been
presented to her in the hall by no less a friend than Budd LeRoy. She,
too, would miss lunch and divide with Sally. Quickly she ran out to her
locker, rifled the pocket of her sweater, discarded since the early cold
morning, and brought her apple and her pocket knife.
“Have a bar with me, Sally,” she said, “if you are not going to lunch
either, and I’ll cut this apple in two.”
“Why–thanks, Betty. That looks good. No, I thought I wouldn’t go to
lunch today. But you’d better keep all of your apple.”
“It’s too big and it looks awfully juicy,” added Betty as she cut the
apple in halves. “With my compliments, Miss Sally,” and Betty assumed
quite an air as she handed the fruit to Sally, who laughed and thanked
Betty again.
“Have you always lived in this city?” asked Betty for something to say,
as Sally sat down in her own seat which was opposite Betty’s, by chance,
just as in the Latin class.
In the soft voice and accent peculiar to her race at its best, Sally
answered this question and asked Betty how she liked this and that
teacher, Miss Heath among others. Miss Heath had not met her class that
morning, to Betty’s deep disappointment.
“I saw Miss Heath come in the uppah hall,” said Sally, “jus’ befo’ the
last class. She hurried into the office and I suppose she couldn’t get
here this mawnin.’”
“Oh, is she here?” asked Betty brightening.
“Yes. Say, Betty, did you see Jakey Bechstein take some of your papers
off your desk at the test?”
“No; did he?”
“Yes, while you were sharpening your pencils. The boys were having fun
behind Miss Masterson’s back when she was pulling down one window and
putting up another for ventilation, though she didn’t know I suppose
that they’re not supposed to do that with the system they’ve got here.
They were pretendin’ to look at each other’s papers and grab a few off
the desks and Jakey grabbed yours. But he kept them a while, and I saw
him sneak them back just before you started for your seat.”
“I didn’t notice. But Jakey knows as much about Latin as I do. What
would be the point?”
“Keeping you from getting ahead of him,” said Sally, taking a large bite
of the apple and being obliged to catch some of the juice in her
handkerchief. “Jakey’s not studying so much, I reckon, since he started
basketball.”
Betty listened soberly and remembered the remark Jakey had made about
not studying for the test. _Could_ it be that he had copied anything
from her paper?
It was worth while staying from lunch and sharing with Sally to hear
this. Yet could she use the information to help herself out?
“If anything should come up about Jakey, Sally, or anybody, would you be
willing to tell Miss Heath what you saw?”
“I sure would. I guess the teacher kept you and Peggy about something
like that yesterday, didn’t she? I saw her look at Peggy when I heard
Peggy snap off the kid that snatched at her paper.”
“Miss Masterson did ask some questions, Sally.”
Betty was deep in her lesson for the next hour when the girls came back
from lunch. “Where _were_ you, Betty?” asked Carolyn.
“Oh, I just decided that I didn’t want to go up, and I happened to have
some chocolate bars and an apple. I’ll fill up when I get home after
school.”
“I always do, and eat lunch, too,” said Peggy. “Miss Heath was upstairs
for lunch. I saw her go into the teachers’ lunch room. It was funny for
her to come in the middle of the day, wasn’t it?”
The girls wondered, but Miss Heath, though not feeling equal to a day of
teaching, had come over for something else, as she had an idea which she
wanted to share with the assistant principal. When Betty depressed, went
into the office of the assistant principal after school, Miss Heath was
there and looked like a fountain in the desert, or the sun shining
through clouds, to Betty.
“Good afternoon, Betty,” she said pleasantly, though with dignity. “I
came over to see about the little matter of the test. As soon as your
principal is at liberty, I want to go over the questions with you.”
This was surprising–did she mean the real _principal_? Evidently not,
for when Mr. Franklin came into the office, stopped on the way by
several people, both teachers and pupils, she drew out a paper. “I am
ready to go over the questions with Betty, Mr. Franklin,” she said.
“Very well,” said he, closing the door.
“Do you remember the questions, pretty well, Betty?” asked Miss Heath.
“I would know them if I saw them.”
“Have you looked up anything you did not know?”
“Yes–I wasn’t sure about several things that I wrote down; but I have
forgotten what they were now.”
“Perhaps you will recall them as I go through the questions. I have your
paper here,” and Miss Heath took out what Betty recognized as her own
paper.
What was the point of doing all this! Betty felt confused, but she would
answer all the questions if that would help establish her innocence of
the cheating.
One by one the examination questions, or directions in regard to what
was desired, were read. Betty replied slowly, saying in several places,
“I didn’t put that all down on my paper, I think, Miss Heath. I thought
afterward that I had omitted it, though I went all over it so
carefully.”
Later, when they came to the translation, she said, “I couldn’t think of
the name of that Dative, so I just put Indirect Object, because you said
that in a way all Datives were indirect objects. But I looked it up and
I could tell you now.”
“Take a piece of paper, Betty, and write again the English to Latin
sentences.”
Mr. Franklin indicated by a nod some paper on his desk. Betty took the
list of questions, thought a moment and wrote, slowly. “I always Have to
take plenty of time on the English to Latin,” she said, “and there is
one that I wrote two ways, but I wasn’t sure that either were right.
It’s the one that has the accusative of place to which in it.”
Miss Heath nodded and her eyes twinkled. Whatever idea she had was
turning out successfully, it seemed. But Betty was very busy with the
sentences. She handed over the paper saying “It did not take so long,
because I’d thought it out before.”
“I see. Betty, why did you use _appello_ instead of _voco_ here?”
“Because it is calling in the sense of naming, as you told us in such
sentences.”
“Good. Why did you use the Ablative in the second sentence?”
“Because it specifies that in respect to which”–Betty got no farther
because Miss Heath interrupted her.
“That is enough, Betty. Mr. Franklin, I’m satisfied, are you? The other
person did not know, and the third youngster plainly copied the whole
thing from him.”
Mr. Franklin nodded assent. “Betty,” he said, “you are cleared from all
suspicion of copying and cheating. We know which ones of these papers
were copied. You may thank Miss Heath for her little scheme to find out.
We have already met with the others, but we can not tell you their
names.”
“Oh, I don’t want to know!” exclaimed Betty. “Thank you so much!”
It was another Betty that ran down the steps, to find both Peggy and
Carolyn waiting for her. Her face must have told them the story. “O,
Betty! Is is all right?” eagerly asked Carolyn. “Peggy told me, when I
asked her why she was waiting for you. Oh, you should have told me and
let me worry with you! Was that why you wouldn’t come up to lunch?”
“Yes.”
“Please tell us how they found out that you didn’t—” Carolyn would not
finish.
“Well, you saw Miss Heath, that darling woman! She came over on purpose
to see all about it and she had the scheme to bring the questions and
find out how much each of us really knew about things. I really don’t
see how she told, but it must be that whoever copied couldn’t give good
reasons for what he would have missed on or something. She’s a regular
Sherlock Holmes!”
“And now, if you’ll never tell a soul, I’ll tell you what Sally Wright
told me during lunch. I learned a lot by staying down and giving Sally
an old chocolate bar!”
The girls promised, and the three, Betty in the middle, walked slowly
toward the street, heads together, arms about each other.