HONORING THE SENIORS
"Oh!" screamed Jennie, as she made a rush from the platform and fell in
a faint just as Alice Keene caught her.
"Oh!" cried several women teachers.
Professor McCloud and a number of the men instructors dashed for the
animal, but it lowered its horns and shook its head in a way that made
them hesitate.
"Take it away!"
"Let me hide!"
"Save me!"
Various girls were thus crying in different parts of the room.
"Come on, boys! Let's get her out!" cried Bart as he advanced toward the
cow. As he did so Mr. Kenton, the language teacher, came down from the
platform and advanced upon the animal. He was very near sighted and a
trifle deaf.
"What has happened?" he asked of Mr. Long. "Is it some visitor whom the
pupils are cheering? I would like to meet him. He seems to be a great
favorite."
"It's a cow," Mr. Long said, beginning to laugh as he appreciated the
joke. But Mr. Kenton had passed on unheeding and was right in front of
the animal. He imagined the exercises had been interrupted by the
entrance of some instructor from a neighboring institution, as they
frequently attended on the closing day of the high school. Then Mr.
Kenton, peering through his glasses saw what the intruder was.
"Why, it's a cow!" he exclaimed in such an accent of strange surprise
that the boys, girls and teachers burst into a roar of laughter. This
effectually disposed of the fright, and the girls calmed down.
In the meanwhile several boys had surrounded the cow that had advanced
into the room. Professor McCloud had hurried into his office for a long
ruler. Several of the men teachers were looking for ropes, while others
were calling down speaking tubes in frantic tones for the janitor.
Most of the women teachers had fled to a small room to the right of the
platform, and a number of girls had hidden under the seats. Many of
them, however, remained standing up to see what would happen.
"Come on, boys," repeated Bart. "We'll lead her out."
At that moment a farmer appeared in the doorway behind the cow. He held
a rope in one hand and a whip in the other. He seemed much surprised at
the commotion on every side.
"I was waiting down in the yard for my cow," he said, in a loud voice,
"and when I heard this here racket I thought maybe the critter had
broken loose. Has she caused you any trouble? Hadn't ought to as she's a
very gentle, mild critter. Did the experiment succeed?"
"Experiment? What experiment?" inquired Professor McCloud indignantly.
"Did you bring this cow here, sir?"
"Well I did, but I didn't lead her upstairs. She followed a line of salt
some one had sprinkled. She's terrible fond of salt. All critters is."
"What do you mean?" demanded the principal.
"Why I was visited by one of your teachers yesterday--at least he said
he was a teacher--and he paid me five dollars for the hire of my cow
for this afternoon. Said the faculty of the high school was going to
experiment on her. Make her moo into one of them phonograph machines
and then see if cows had a language of their own. Said it was for the
benefit of the human race. So I agreed to bring the critter here. I
left her with the teacher who met me downstairs, and then I went off to
git a drink of cider. When I come back the cow was gone and I heard a
terrible racket. Then I see some one had sprinkled a line of salt from
that court, where I left the critter, right up the stairs. Course I
knowed then what had happened. Is the experiment over?"
"What teacher came to you?" asked the principal, trying not to smile.
"Why he gave me his card," and the farmer fumbled in his pocket. "Here
it is. Mr. Bo Vine. Don't he teach here?"
"I'm afraid there has been a mistake," said Mr. McCloud. "We did not
arrange for any experiment on a cow. I am sorry you had this trouble for
nothing."
"Oh, I got paid for it," replied the farmer. "Maybe I made a mistake in
the school."
"Perhaps," said the principal. "Can you induce your bovine quadruped to
accompany you?"
"My what?" asked the farmer, looking about him in a
puzzled manner.
"Your cow," translated the principal.
"Oh, you mean this critter. Sure, yes, she'll follow me. Come on, Bess,"
and he held out a handful of salt, which the cow began to lick up
greedily. Then the farmer retreated down the stairs, the animal slowly
following.
"Sorry you couldn't do that experiment," Mr. Craft called out as he
gave the cow more salt. "I'd liked to have heard that there phonograph
machine. You see my critter's real tame. She often comes up to the back
door, and once, when she was a calf she came into the kitchen. So I
said, when that there young feller, Mr. Bo Vine, asked if the cow could
walk up a short flight of stairs, that she could. And she done it too,"
he added proudly. "Well I'll bid you good day," and the farmer, who by
this time had gotten the animal into the lower court placed a rope
about the horns and led her away.
"So that's Ned's trick," said Bart softly to his chums. "Wouldn't wonder
but what he'd be expelled for it."
"If he gets found out," put in Frank.
It was some time before the school quieted down. Jennie, under the
ministrations of Alice, recovered from her fainting fit, and the
prospective nurse began looking around for others whom she might
practice on. But there were no more. The women teachers, and those
girls who had hidden under desks returned to their seats.
"Young ladies and gentlemen," began Professor McCloud, "this has been an
unexpected--"
Then he happened to think of Mr. Kenton's mistake, and he had to turn
aside to cover a laugh.
"I think, under the circumstances, we will omit the rest of the
program," he added. "I will say nothing further about--about the cow. I
think I understand how it happened, and, in view of the fact that it is
the close of the term, we will overlook what otherwise we could not. The
seniors will now come forward and receive their diplomas and the
exercises will be at an end."
The senior class advanced to the platform and stood in a semi-circle
about it. Ned's chums noticed that he had quietly entered the assembly
hall by a rear door and taken his seat.
"You're a lucky dog," whispered Bart.
"Why?" asked Ned, in seeming surprise.
"Oh, just as if you didn't know! I always believed you were very fond of
milk."
"Milk?"
"Yes, and cows."
"Cows? Was there a cow here?" and Ned acted as though that was the first
he had heard of it. "I was in the laboratory getting some chemicals for
home experiments during vacation," he added with a perfect look of
innocence on his face.
"Yes, you were," and Bart smiled. "But never mind,--it was a peach of a
joke. We'll soon be out now."
"Let's serenade the seniors," suggested Ned.
"How?" asked Frank, coming over to where the two chums were. Discipline
had ended for the day, as the last of the diplomas had been presented
without formality.
"Follow me. We've got to honor 'em somehow. It's the last we'll see of
'em."
As the seniors, bearing their precious diplomas, filed out, which was a
signal for the rest of the pupils to follow, the four chums, led by Ned,
went down a rear stairway. Ned took them into the now deserted lunch
room and produced several comical false faces, some paper hats of odd
design and a number of tin fifes.
"Get some of the other fellows," Ned said to Stumpy. "We must have
enough for a band."
About ten other lads came, in answer to Fenn's quick summons, and were
soon arrayed in the masks and caps, while their coats, turned wrong side
out, added to their fantastic appearances.
"All ready!" called Ned, and then, every one playing a different tune on
his fife, they marched out on the campus.
The seniors, in accordance with an old custom, had gathered in a circle
about an ancient elm tree and were singing. The song was "Farewell to
Thee, Dear Alma Mater," and they were in the midst of the touching
lines:
"We shall be here never more;
Some go to a foreign shore,"
"Toot! Toot!" sounded shrilly on the fifes and then the band of
masqueraders, followed by scores of other boys and girls, began
circling the seniors.
The farewell song was drowned in a burst of weird noises, tootings,
yells and shouts.
"Farewell to the seniors!" called Ned.
"Farewell!" echoed the crowd.
"Here we go 'round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry
bush!" sang Bart. "All join hands!"
Then began a mad, merry dance. The seniors looked on helplessly. Some of
them were laughing, and some of the girls were crying just a little bit,
at the thought of leaving all their happy comrades.
"Farewell, farewell, farewell!" the other pupils sang, as they ran
around in a circle, hands joined to hands.
"Now give 'em 'How Can I Bear to Leave Thee,'" suggested Ned, and the
pupils quieted down and sang the song with feeling.
Then the circle broke up, and the seniors, waving their diplomas, and
trying to say good-bye to scores at once, broke away from the old oak
tree and started home--high school pupils no longer. But there were
plenty left.