"SHERIDAN, MY SHERIDAN"
A cannibal king
With a big nose ring
Once loved a Zulu maid;
And every night
When the moon was bright
Across the canal he'd wade;
To hug and kiss
His dusky Miss
While under the greenwood tree,
And when they met
They sang a duet
That went like this to me:
Sheridan,
Sheridan,
Green and white against the sky;
Sheridan,
Sheridan,
We'll love Thee till we die!
Afterwards, Mimi wondered how they ever lived through it all--cleaning
up after the wedding, putting slip covers over the living room
furniture, packing away blankets in moth proof containers, putting
linens in the cedar chest--the frenzy of shopping and sewing--the
packing.
The nicest thing happened to Mimi during those busy days. Mother bought
a small new light-weight trunk and gave Mimi her big wardrobe one. Mimi
had always wanted a wardrobe trunk but she hadn't hoped to have one of
her own until she was ready for college. In fact, she had already made
up her mind to take the big metal trunk out in the garage and like it,
but Mother was going to pack things in it that could go straight to
Leipzig without being opened, except, of course, for the Customs. Mimi
kept the wardrobe trunk open in her room with the hangers pulled out
and every time another dress was finished and pressed she hung it up
and admired it. It was fun to see it fill up. Mimi knew she was a lucky
girl to have six dresses; the peacock blue jersey was new and so was
the plaid wool. The orchid organdy was, practically. It was such a
grown-up thing to pack. The long full skirt had to be looped over the
hangers twice. Such care had to be taken so as not to crush the sash.
The others were made-overs but they did look nice. No one at Sheridan
would know them.
"It seems foolish to put so much time on your clothes when you will
have to wear navy blue uniforms like all the other girls in the
Preparatory Department," Mother said. She was being sure that Mimi
packed neatly. She was having a terrible time with her boots.
"But there will be many times I can use them, Mother."
"I know and I want you to have plenty to last you. I will be away, so
far away, and so long--anything could happen----"
The quaver in Mother's voice caused Mimi to look up quickly. For a
poignant instant they looked at each other and then Mimi's arms went
around her Mother's neck. Tightly they clung to each other and all the
dread of parting, which each had been choking back, rushed around them.
Again mother was holding her baby and, with all the self assurance her
fourteenth birthday had brought melted away, a baby Mimi was clinging
to her Mother.
"There, there, child," Mother was saying in a steadier voice--Mother
was so brave--"I must get the rest of your underclothes. You polish
your tennis shoes so they will be dry enough to pack." Mother had gone
quickly.
That day the packing was finished and the trunk snapped shut and Mimi
hung the key around her neck on a blue ribbon.
That day, Mimi said goodbye to Von, to King, who was being sent to the
pasture for the winter, to Honky, to the campers, to Cissy, and to her
dear, dear family. She couldn't say goodbye to Miss Jane for she was
still honeymooning.
And the next day, Mimi arrived at Sheridan School. She was a day early,
but Mother and Daddy wanted her safely there before they left and they
were sailing soon now; consequently, she was the only Sheridan student
on the train. She was one more than was expected apparently.
"Heah you is, Miss," said the Red Cap, who bundled Mimi off the
train--Daddy had given him fifty cents and told him to "see after the
young lady." The porter looked up and down the empty platform and back
at Mimi, "Shall I put you in a cab?"
"Yes," Mimi answered the porter, trying not to appear nonplused by not
being met. "To Sheridan School--Preparatory Hall," she said aloofly to
the driver as if taking a cab was something she did every day. That was
the last time she ever said Preparatory Hall. From then on it was Prep
Hall.
Though outwardly composed, Mimi was upset inside. She had always
imagined arriving at school in the midst of a great hubbub, old girls
rushing up to greet you, new girls making friendly approaches,
chaperones taking your baggage checks. She knew Daddy had wired Mrs.
Cole, the matron. Here she was alone in a taxi going no telling where!
The taxi had skirted the business district and turned off the main
thoroughfare. Mimi clutched her pocket book. Suppose--no she mustn't
imagine such silly things, but the papers were full of taxi
hold-ups--last week in Chicago--but this wasn't Chicago. It was a
sleepy southern town--bump, bump, and just as Mimi was about to
convince herself that she was being taken to a desolate wayside, the
taxi turned right on to the Boulevard--bump, bump, right again on to a
long winding gravel driveway. Leaning forward Mimi made a mental
picture of Sheridan School, the size of the windshield. Between the
winding rows of deep-set pin oaks and frost-kissed maples, Mimi saw the
enormous red brick building with its three colonial porches set at
intervals, dividing the building into sections called "halls." The
center point of the horseshoe curve of the drive practically touched
the concrete steps of the central porch.
The taxi stopped here and the driver blew his horn.
Although there were many signs of activity--windows open, mattresses
airing, gardeners busy--it was several minutes before the door opened
and a very flustered Mrs. Cole popped out. She was setting her hat
aright and buttoning the coat of her blue suit as she came out.
"Oh, dear, dear!" she was sputtering to the driver. "I must meet that
one-forty train." All the time she was speaking she was hurrying toward
the taxi.
"But Ma'am----"
Then she saw Mimi----
"Why--" And Mrs. Cole's eyebrows arched up like a cat's back and her
whole face was one big question mark.
"I am Mimi Hammond," Mimi announced calmly. She adored being very cool
and collected when other people were confused. It gave her the most
grown-up, fourteen year old feeling.
"I was going to meet you, child! Dear, dear, what a day--everything
upside down. I just this minute found your father's wire. Are you all
right? Here driver, take the bags to the last entrance down. That is
the Preparatory entrance. Come with me, Mickey--I mean--what did you
say your name was?"
"Mimi."
She'll have to stop eventually to get her breath, Mimi thought. She bit
her lips to keep from giggling. In that minute she did three things:
she liked Mrs. Cole, felt sorry for her and knew by Mrs. Cole's
apologetic manner that she had the upper hand of her. As she followed
Mrs. Cole down the corridor to room 207, she was convinced that Mrs.
Cole's job was too big for her. "She's not a bit like Miss Jane or our
camp director. I bet they keep her because they hate to fire her," Mimi
was thinking.
"I'll put you in here for the time being--er--er--Mimi." She had the
name at last.
"Thank you."
"You'll have to get along the best you can the rest of the afternoon.
The supper bell will ring at six-thirty and you be there."
Mrs. Cole didn't say where the dining room was; she didn't say a lot of
other things that Mimi discovered for herself that sunny autumn
afternoon. The campus paths, the friendly trees, the inscription on the
corner stone:
"SHERIDAN SCHOOL, DEDICATED TO CHRISTIAN
PIETY AND FEMALE EDUCATION."
All informed her. The lonely corridors rang with her echoing footsteps.
Once she glanced around quickly, as if a dainty hand had patted her
shoulder saying, "Don't be lonesome--we're here." She wondered which
rooms they had lived in--great Aunt Patricia, Auntie Gay and Mother
Dear.
The great dining hall with only one of so many tables set for supper
did not bewilder Mimi. The faculty members who had been arriving all
afternoon did not awe her. They rather ignored her or looked bored as
if to say, "Can't we have a last fling without a student butting in?"
Mimi sat next to Mrs. Cole at the end of the table. Of all the faces
about her, one in particular stood out. It was fresh and the voice was
crisp and vigorous. From that supper time on, Mimi loved Miss Bassett,
the physical education teacher who still remembered her school days at
Sargeant and planned things the girls enjoyed. She had the knack of
making fun out of work.
"You needn't be afraid to stay in your room by yourself, Mimi. Several
of us would hear you if you called out. I shall be up early myself. Run
along now and write your parents." When all else slipped her mind, Mrs.
Cole said, "Write your parents, dears."
Mimi intended to. She located her fountain pen, dusted off the study
table, but then she pulled the curtain back to let the breeze in and
saw the harvest moon rising full and splendid from behind a dark bank
of clouds and treetops. She rested her red head on her arms and gazed
up at the moon as a seer would gaze into a golden crystal. What lay
ahead of her here at Sheridan? Sometime later she picked up the pen,
wrote a few feverish impressions into her new diary and, putting on her
gayest new pajamas, went to bed.
She was awakened next morning by hurrying feet, excited voices. Over
night the corridors had come to life. Some Magic had peopled the
cave-like halls and summer-musted rooms with an ever increasing number
of chattering girls. Mimi had slept through breakfast, a thing she
would not be permitted to do again unless she were ill, and the arrival
of the station wagon which had met the first train.
Which of those strangers would be Mimi's roommate? How she wished one
of the campers could have come to Sheridan, too! "I do hope I get
somebody peppy and cute!" Mimi wished aloud as she finished putting on
the plaid wool dress and started to the office of the registrar.
"Freshman?" one of the most attractive girls Mimi had ever seen asked
as she entered the office.
"No--Prep."
"Sorry," the girl replied, and turned to another "lost sheep" and asked
the same question. The new girl answered, "Yes." The attractive girl
took her in charge immediately. Mimi looked after them.
"That inimitable, incomparable creature of the inferior species," said
a sassy voice over Mimi's shoulder, "is Elizabeth Lewiston, known to
her fellow inmates of this particular prison as 'Dit.' She is a Senior
in the College, Physical Ed major and assistant to Miss Bassett."
Mimi already loved Miss Bassett and from afar she adored "Dit" the
entire year.
"What oracle do I thank for this information?" Mimi turned to her
informer to size her up.
"Ah! Charming! You understood--comprehended--savvied, in other words.
I'd feared my comprehensive vocabulary was past your feeble
comprehension and 'tis not!"
By now Mimi was laughing, but the girl, whom Mimi never heard speak the
entire year without making some one goggle-eyed at her vocabulary,
continued:
"You have the honor of addressing Olivia Pendleton, near-child prodigy,
who this year with a straight A card, God wot, shall graduate from the
Sheridan Prep. Yo--a--a Sheridan----"
"I'm new," Mimi replied but she felt neither new nor strange as, arm in
arm with Olivia, they went from hall to hall, room to room, visiting
and getting acquainted. Olivia seemed welcome everywhere in spite of
her bookwormish appearance and Mimi was welcome with her. In fact, many
other new Preps took it for granted Mimi was an old girl; she seemed so
at ease and was smiling and saying hello to every one. Friendliness was
natural with Mimi, and her sunny disposition plus adaptability and
independence developed by her camping experience made her popular
immediately.
That evening when all the girls new and old, college and preps alike,
gathered in the spacious, historic old parlors for a get-acquainted
rally, it was only natural that Mimi be in the center of the group of
new preps. Mimi knew so many cute yells and songs and she plunged into
the task of teaching her group a yell with characteristic enthusiasm.
The old preps had centered around Betsy Buchanan. Betsy, till now, had
been their undisputed leader. She was a striking looking girl of
perhaps fifteen; her short brown hair was slicked back from her
forehead making a peculiarity about her eyes more noticeable. She had
one blue eye and one brown eye, and the thickest, curliest eyelashes
imaginable. Mimi had admired her all afternoon but hadn't met her. She
looked questioningly toward her now. Mimi could feel a crisis. There
was always a shaky feeling in the pit of her stomach when something
vital was about to happen. She felt that way now.
Steadily she returned Betsy's look.
Olivia pulled Betsy's sleeve, forcing her attention. "Let's give a
locomotive for the new girls." Betsy repeated, "Locomotive for the new
girls--One, two, three." The cheer went up.
For answer Mimi drew the heads of the new girls closer to her and in a
stage whisper had them repeat after her a long yack--yack--yack, ending
in a sky rocket for the old girls. Twice they rehearsed it. "Pitch your
voice low--make it snappy--now! One--two--three----"
Another yell went up.
As Mimi jumped up in the center of her group and flung her arms up
wildly to end the sky rocket, she saw something she couldn't believe--a
short plump girl with a weekend bag in one hand and a violin in the
other was standing in the hall with Mrs. Cole.
"Sue!" Mimi gasped. "Sue!" and dived through the crowd. As she ran she
had shed her worries about a roommate. Here was Sue and what could be
more perfect! She did not dream she was racing to a disappointment. She
did not know that Betsy was glad she was gone.