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THE LUCKIEST GIRL IN THE SCHOOL

by

ANGELA BRAZIL

Author of
"A Harum-Scarum Schoolgirl,"
"The Princess of the School,"
"A Popular Schoolgirl,"
"The Head Girl at the Gables."

Illustrated by Balliol Salmon







[Illustration: "'THOSE AREN'T MY PAPERS,' WINONA FALTERED"]




A. L. Burt Company
Publishers New York
Published by arrangement with Frederick A. Stokes Company Printed in
U.S.A.
Copyright, 1916, by
Frederick A. Stokes Company
All Rights Reserved
First Published in the United States of America, 1922.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER

I. A GREAT CHANGE

II. AN ENTRANCE EXAMINATION

III. SEATON HIGH SCHOOL

IV. THE SYMPOSIUM

V. AUNT HARRIET

VI. A CRISIS

VII. AN AUTUMN FORAY

VIII. CONCERNS A CAMERA

IX. THE SCHOOL SERVICE BADGE

X. A SCARE

XI. THE OPEN-AIR CAMP

XII. CAPTAIN WINONA

XIII. THE HOSTEL

XIV. THE HOCKEY SEASON

XV. WINONA TURNS CHAUFFEUR

XVI. THE ATHLETIC DISPLAY

XVII. BACK TO THE LAND

XVIII. A FRIEND IN NEED

XIX. THE SWIMMING CONTEST

XX. THE RED CROSS HOSPITAL

XXI. THE END OF THE TERM




THE LUCKIEST GIRL IN THE SCHOOL




CHAPTER I

A Great Change


"There's no doubt about it, we really must economize somehow!" sighed
Mrs. Woodward helplessly, with her housekeeping book in one hand, and
her bank pass-book in the other, and an array of bills spread out on the
table in front of her. "Children, do you hear what I say? The war will
make a great difference to our income, and we can't--simply _can't_--go
on living in exactly the old way. The sooner we all realize it the
better. I wish I knew where to begin."

"Might knock off going to church, and save the money we give in
collections!" suggested Percy flippantly. "It must tot up to quite a
decent sum in the course of a year, not to mention pew rent!"

His mother cast a reproachful glance at him.

"Now, Percy, _do_ be serious for once! You and Winona are quite old
enough to understand business matters. I must discuss them with
somebody. As I said before, we shall really have to economize somehow,
and the question is where to begin."

"I saw some hints in a magazine the other day," volunteered Winona,
hunting among a pile of papers, and fishing up a copy of _The
Housewife's Journal_. "Here you are! There's a whole article on War
Economies. It says you can halve your expenses if you only try. It gives
ten different recipes. Number One, Dispense with Servants. Oh, goody! I
don't know how the house would get along without Maggie and Mary! Isn't
that rather stiff?"

"It's impossible to be thought of for a moment! I should never dream of
dismissing maids who have lived with me for years. I've read that
article, and it may be practicable for other people, but certainly not
for us. Oh, dear! Some of my friends recommend me to remove to the town,
and others say 'Stay where you are, and keep poultry!'"

"We can't leave Highfield! We were all born here!" objected Winona
decisively.

"And we tried keeping hens some time ago," said Percy. "They laid on an
average three-quarters of an egg a year each, as far as I remember."

"I'm afraid we didn't know how to manage them," replied Mrs. Woodward
fretfully. "Percy, leave those papers alone! I didn't tell you to turn
them over. You're mixing them all up, tiresome boy! Don't touch them
again! It's no use trying to discuss business with you children! I shall
write and consult Aunt Harriet. Go away, both of you, now! I want to
have a quiet half-hour."

Aunt Harriet stood to the Woodward family somewhat in the light of a
Delphic oracle. To apply to her was always the very last resource.
Matters must have reached a crisis, Winona thought, if they were
obliged to appeal to Aunt Harriet's judgment. She followed Percy into
the garden with a sober look on her face.

"You don't think mother would really leave Highfield?" she asked her
brother anxiously.

"Bunkum!" replied that light-hearted youth. "We always have more or less
of a fuss when my school bills come in. It'll soon fizzle out again!
Don't you fret yourself. Things will jog on as they always have jogged
on. There'll be nothing done, you'll see. Come on and bowl for me,
that's a chubby one!"

"But this time mother really seemed to be in earnest," said Winona
meditatively, as she helped to put up the stumps.

Mrs. Woodward had been left a widow three years before this story opens.
She was a fair, fragile little woman, still pretty, and pathetically
helpless. She had been accustomed to lean upon her husband, and now, for
lack of firmer support, she leaned upon Winona. Winona was young to act
as prop, and though it flattered her sense of importance, it had put a
row of wrinkles on her girlish forehead. At fifteen she seemed much
older than Percy at sixteen. No one ever dreamt of taking Percy
seriously; he was one of those jolly, easy-going, happy-go-lucky,
unreliable people who saunter through life with no other aim than to
amuse themselves at all costs. To depend upon him was like trusting to a
boat without a bottom. Though nominally the eldest, he had little more
sense of responsibility than Ernie, the youngest. It was Winona who
shouldered the family burdens.

The Woodwards had always lived at Highfield, and in their opinion it was
the most desirable residence in the whole of Rytonshire. The house was
old enough to be picturesque, but modern enough for comfort. Its quaint
gables, mullioned windows and Cromwellian porch were the joy of
photographers, while the old-fashioned hall, when the big log fire was
lighted, would be hard to beat for coziness. The schoolroom, on the
ground floor, had a separate side entrance on to the lawn, leading
through a small ante-room where boots and coats and cricket bats and
tennis rackets could be kept; the drawing-room had a luxurious ingle
nook with cushioned seats, and all the bedrooms but two had a southern
aspect. As for the big rambling garden, it was full of delightful
old-world flowers that came up year after year: daffodils and violets
and snow-flakes, and clumps of pinks, and orange lilies and Canterbury
bells, and tall Michaelmas daisies, and ribbon grass and royal Osmunda
fern, the sort of flowers that people used to pick in days gone by, put
a paper frill round, and call a nosegay or a posy. There was a lawn for
tennis and cricket, a pond planted with irises and bulrushes, and a wild
corner where crocuses and coltsfoot and golden aconite came up as they
liked in the spring time.

Winona loved this garden with somewhat the same attachment that a French
peasant bears for the soil upon which he has been reared. She rejoiced
in every yard of it. To go away and resign it to others would be
tragedy unspeakable. The fear that Aunt Harriet might recommend the
family to leave Highfield was sufficient to darken her horizon
indefinitely. That her mother had written to consult the oracle she was
well aware, for she had been sent to post the letter. She had an
instinctive apprehension that the answer would prove a turning-point in
her career.

For a day or two everything went on as usual. Mrs. Woodward did not
again allude to her difficulties, Percy had conveniently forgotten them,
and the younger children were not aware of their existence. Winona lived
with a black spot dancing before her mental eyes. It was continually
rising up and blotting out the sunshine. On the fourth morning appeared
a letter addressed in an old-fashioned slanting handwriting, and bearing
the Seaton post mark. Mrs. Woodward read it in silence, and left her
toast unfinished. Aunt Harriet's communications generally upset her for
the day.

"Come here, Winona," she said agitatedly, after breakfast. "Oh, dear, I
wish I knew what to do! It's so very unexpected, but of course it would
be a splendid thing for you. If only I could consult somebody! I suppose
girls nowadays will have to learn to support themselves, and the war
will alter everything, but I'd always meant you to stop at home and look
after the little ones for me, and it's very--"

"What does Aunt Harriet say, mother?" interrupted Winona, with a catch
in her throat.

"She says a great deal, and I dare say she's right. Oh, this terrible
war! Things were so different when I was a girl! You might as well read
the letter for yourself, as it concerns you. I always think she's hard
on Percy, poor lad! I was afraid the children were too noisy the last
time she was here, but they wouldn't keep quiet. I'm sure I try to do my
best all round, and you know, Winona, how I said Aunt Harriet--"

But Winona was already devouring the letter.


"10 Abbey Close,

"Seaton,

"August 26th.

"MY DEAR FLORITA,--You are quite right to consult me
in your difficulties, and are welcome to any advice which I am
able to offer you. I am sorry to hear of your financial
embarrassments, but I am not surprised. The present increase in
the cost of living, and extra taxation, will make retrenchments
necessary to everybody. In the circumstances I should not advise
you to leave Highfield. ("Oh, thank goodness!" ejaculated
Winona.) The expense of a removal would probably cancel what you
would otherwise save. Neither should I recommend you to take
Percy from Longworth College and send him daily to be coached by
your parish curate. From my knowledge of his character I
consider the discipline of a public school to be indispensable
if he is to grow into worthy manhood, and sooner than allow the
wholesome restraint of his house master to be removed at this
critical portion of his life, I will myself defray half the cost
of his maintenance for the next two years.

"Now as regards Winona. I believe she has ability, and it is
high time to begin to think seriously what you mean to do with
her. In the future women will have to depend upon themselves,
and I consider that all girls should be trained to gain their
own living. The foundation of every career is a good
education--without this it is impossible to build at all, and
Winona certainly cannot obtain it if she remains at home. The
new High School at Seaton is offering two open Scholarships to
girls resident in the County, the examination for which is on
September 8th. I propose that Winona enters for this
examination, and that if she should be a successful candidate,
she should come to live with me during the period of her
attendance at the High School. The education is the best
possible, there is a prospect of a University Scholarship to be
competed for, and every help and encouragement is given to the
girls in their choice of a career. With Winona off your hands, I
should suggest that you should engage a competent nursery
governess to teach the younger children the elements of order
and discipline. I would gladly pay her salary on the
understanding that I should myself select her.

"Trusting that these proposals may be of some service, and
hoping to hear a better account of your health,

"I remain,

"Your affectionate Aunt

"and Godmother,

"Harriet Beach."



Winona laid down the letter with an agitated gasp. The proposition
almost took her breath away.

"What an idea!" she exclaimed indignantly. "Mother, of course you won't
even dream of it for an instant! I'd _hate_ to go and live with Aunt
Harriet. It's not to be thought of!"

"Well, I don't know, Winona!" wavered Mrs. Woodward. "We must look at it
from all sides, and perhaps Aunt Harriet's right, and it really would be
for the best. Miss Harmon's a poor teacher, and I'm sure your music, at
any rate, is not a credit to her. You played that last piece shockingly
out of time. You know you said yourself that you were getting beyond
Miss Harmon!"

Whatever impeachments Winona may have brought against her teacher, she
was certainly not prepared to admit them now. She rejected the project
of the Seaton High School with the utmost energy and determination,
bringing into the fray all that force of character which her mother
lacked. Poor Mrs. Woodward vacillated feebly--she was generally swayed
by whoever was nearest at the moment--and I verily believe Winona's
arguments would have prevailed, and the whole scheme would have been
abandoned, had not Mr. Joynson opportunely happened to turn up.

Mr. Joynson was a solicitor, and the trustee of Mrs. Woodward's
property. He managed most of her business affairs, and some of her
private ones as well. She had confidence in his judgment, and she at
once thankfully submitted the question of Winona's future to his
decision.

"The very thing for her!" he declared. "Do her a world of good to go to
a proper school. She's frittering her time away here. Send her to Seaton
by all means. What are you to do without her? Nonsense! Nobody's
indispensable--especially a girl of fifteen! Pack her off as soon as you
can. Doesn't want to go? Oh, she'll sing a different song when once she
gets there, you'll see!"

Thus supported by masculine authority, Mrs. Woodward settled the
question in the affirmative, and replied to her aunt by return of post.

Naturally such a stupendous event as the exodus of Winona made a
sensation in the household.

"Well, of all the rum shows!" exclaimed Percy. "You and Aunt Harriet in
double harness! It beats me altogether!"

"It's atrocious!" groaned Winona. "I'm a victim sacrificed for the good
of the family. Oh! why couldn't mother have thought of some other way of
economizing? I don't want to win scholarships and go in for a career!"

"Buck up! Perhaps you won't win! There'll be others in for the exam.,
you bet! You'll probably fail, and come whining home like a whipped
puppy with its tail between its legs!"

"Indeed I shan't!" flared Winona indignantly. "I've a little more spirit
than that, thank you! And why should you imagine I'm going to fail? I
suppose I've as much brains as most people!"

"That's right! Upset the pepper-pot! I was only trying to comfort you!"
teased Percy. "In my opinion you'll be returned like a bad halfpenny,
or one of those articles 'of no use to anybody except the owner.' Aunt
Harriet will be cheated of her prey after all!"

"If Win goes away, I shall be the eldest daughter at home," said Letty
airily, shaking out her short skirts. "I'll sit at the end of the table,
and pour out tea if mother has a headache, and unlock the apple room,
and use the best inkpot if I like, and have first innings at the piano."

"You forget about the nursery governess," retorted Winona. "If I go, she
comes, and you'll find you've exchanged King Log for King Stork. Oh,
very well, just wait and see! It won't be as idyllic as you imagine. I
shall be saved the trouble of looking after you, at any rate."

"What I'm trying to ascertain, madam," said Percy blandly, "is whether
your ladyship wishes to take up your residence in Seaton or not. With
the usual perversity of your sex you pursue a pig policy. When I venture
to picture you seated at the board of your venerable aunt, you protest
you are a sacrifice; when, on the other hand, I suggest your return to
the bosom of your family, you revile me equally."

"You're the most unsympathetic _beast_ I've ever met!" declared Winona
aggrievedly.

When she analyzed her feelings, however, she was obliged to allow that
they were mixed. Though the prospect of settling down at Seaton filled
her with dismay, Percy's gibe at her probable failure touched her pride.
Winona had always been counted as the clever member of the family. It
would be too ignominious to be sent home labeled unfit. She set her
teeth and clenched her fists at the bare notion.

"I'll show them all what I can do if I take a thing up!" she resolved.

In the meantime Mrs. Woodward was immersed in the subject of clothing.
Every post brought her boxes of patterns, amongst which she hesitated,
lost in choice.

"If I knew whether you're really going to stay at Seaton or not, it
would make all the difference, Winona," she fluttered. "It's no use
buying you these new things if you're only to wear them at home, but I'd
make an effort to send you nice to Aunt Harriet's. I know she'll
criticize everything you have on. Dear me, I think I'd better risk it!
It would be such a nuisance to have to write for the patterns all over
again, and how could I get your dresses fitted when you weren't here to
be tried on? Miss Jones is at liberty now, and can come for a week's
sewing, but she'll probably be busy if I want her later. Now tell me,
which do you really think is the prettier of these two shades? I like
the fawn, but I believe the material will spot. What have you done with
the lace collar Aunt Harriet gave you last Christmas? She's sure to ask
about it if you don't wear it!"

Having decided that on the whole she intended to win a scholarship,
Winona bluffed off the matter of her departure.

"I've changed my mind, that's all," she announced to her home circle.
"It will be a great comfort to me not to hear Mamie scraping away at her
violin in the evenings, or Letty strumming at scales. Think what a
relief not to be obliged to rout up Dorrie and Godfrey, and haul them
off to school every day! I'm tired of setting an example. You needn't
snigger!"

The family grinned appreciatively. They understood Winona.

"Don't you worry! I'll set the example when you're gone," Letty assured
her. "I'll be as improving as a copy-book. I wish I'd your chance; I'd
stand Aunt Harriet for the sake of going to a big High School. Younger
sisters never have any luck! Eldests just sweep the board. I don't know
where we come in!"

"Don't you fret, young 'un, you'll score later on!" cooed an indulgent
voice from the sofa, where Percy sprawled with a book and a bag of
walnuts. "Remember that when you're still in all the bliss and sparkle
of your teens, Winona'll be a mature and _passee_ person of twenty-two.
'That eldest Miss Woodward's getting on, you know!' people will say, and
somebody'll reply: 'Yes, poor thing!'"

"They won't when I've got a career," retorted Winona, pelting Percy with
his own walnut-shells.

"You assured us the other day that you despised such vanities."

"Well, it depends. Perhaps I'll be a lady tram conductor, and punch
tickets, or a post-woman, or drive a Government van!"

"If those are careers for girls, bag me for a steeple jack," chirped
Dorrie.

It was perhaps a good thing for Winona that such a short interval
elapsed between the acceptance of Aunt Harriet's proposal and the date
of the scholarship examination. The ten days were very busy ones, for
there seemed much to be done in the way of preparation. Miss Jones, the
dressmaker, was installed in the nursery with the sewing-machine, and
demanded frequent tryings-on, a process Winona hated.

"I shall buy all my clothes ready made when I'm grown up!" she declared.

"They very seldom fit, and have to be altered," returned her mother. "Do
stand still, Winona! And I hope you're learning up a few dates and facts
for this examination. You ought to be studying every morning. If only
Miss Harmon were home, I'd have asked her to coach you. I'm afraid
she'll be disappointed at your leaving, but of course she can't expect
to keep you for ever. I heard a rumor that she means to give up her
school altogether, and go and live with her uncle. I hope it's true, and
then I can take the little ones away with an easy conscience. I don't
want to treat her badly, poor thing, but I'm sure teaching's not her
vocation."

Winona really made a heroic effort to prepare herself for the coming
ordeal. She retired to a secluded part of the garden and read over her
latest school books. The process landed her in the depths of
despondency.

"I'll never remember anything--never!" she mourned to her family. "To
try and get all this into my head at once is like bolting a week's meals
at a single go! I know a date here and there, and I've a hazy notion of
French and Latin verbs, and a general impression of other subjects, but
if they ask me for anything definite, such as the battles of the Wars of
the Roses, or a list of the products of India, I'm done for!"

"Go in for Post-Impressionism, then," suggested Percy. "Write from a
romantic standpoint, and don't condescend to mere facts. Stick in a
quotation or two, and a drawing if possible, and make your paper sound
eloquent and dramatic and poetical, and all the rest of it. They'll mark
you low for accuracy, but put you on ten per cent. for style, you bet! I
know a chap who tries it on at the Coll., and it always pays."

"It's worth thinking about, certainly," said Winona, shutting her books
with a weary yawn.




CHAPTER II

An Entrance Examination


The Seaton High School was a large, handsome brick building exactly
opposite the public park. It had only been erected two years ago, so
everything about it was absolutely new and up-to-date. It supplied a
great need in the rapidly growing city, and indeed offered the best and
most go-ahead education to be obtained in the district.

It was the aim of the school to fit girls for various professions and
careers; there was a classical and a modern side, a department for
domestic economy, and a commercial class for instruction in business
details. Art, music, and nature study were well catered for, and manual
training was not forgotten. As the school was intended to become in time
a center for the county, the Governors had offered two open free
scholarships to be competed for by girls resident in other parts of
Rytonshire, hoping by this means to attract pupils from the country
places round about.

On the morning of September 8th, precisely at 8.35, Winona presented
herself at the school for the scholarship examination. There were twenty
other candidates awaiting the ordeal, in various stages of nervousness
or sangfroid. Some looked dejected, some confident, and others hid their
feelings under a mask of stolidity. Winona joined them shyly. They were
all unknown to one another, and so far nobody had plucked up courage to
venture a remark. It is horribly depressing to sit on a form staring at
twenty taciturn strangers. Winona bore for awhile with the stony
silence, then--rather frightened at the sound of her own voice--she
announced:

"I suppose we're all going in for this same exam.!" It was a trite
commonplace, but it broke the ice. Everybody looked relieved. The
atmosphere seemed to clear.

"Yes, we're all going in--that's right enough," replied a ruddy-haired
girl in spectacles, "but there are only two scholarships, so nineteen of
us are bound to fail--that's logic and mathematics and all the rest of
it."

"Whew! A nice cheering prospect. Wish they'd put us out of our misery at
once!" groaned a stout girl with a long fair pigtail.

"I'm all upset!" shivered another.

"It's like a game of musical chairs," suggested a fourth. "We're all
scrambling for the same thing, and some are bound to be out of it."

The ruddy-haired girl laughed nervously.

"Suppose we've got to take our sporting luck!" she murmured.

"If nineteen are sure to lose, two are sure to win at any rate," said
Winona. "That's logic and mathematics and all the rest of it, too!"

"Right you are! That's a more cheering creed! It doesn't do to cry
'Miserere me' too soon!" chirped a jolly-looking dark-eyed girl with a
red hair-ribbon. "'Never say die till you're dead,' is my motto!"

"I'm wearing a swastika for a mascot," said a short, pale girl,
exhibiting her charm, which hung from a chain round her neck. "I never
am lucky, so I thought I'd try what this would do for me for once. I
know English history beautifully down to the end of Queen Anne, and no
further, and if they set any questions on the Georges I'll be stumped."

"I've learnt Africa, but Asia would floor me!" observed another, looking
up from a geography book, in which she was making a last desperate
clutch at likely items of knowledge. "I never can remember which side of
India Madras is on; I get it hopelessly mixed with Bombay."

"I wish to goodness they'd go ahead and begin," mourned the owner of the
red hair-ribbon. "It's this waiting that knocks the spirit out of me.
Patience isn't my pet virtue. I call it cruelty to animals to leave us
on tenter-hooks."

Almost as if in answer to her pathetic appeal the door opened, and a
teacher appeared. In a brisk, business-like manner she marshaled the
candidates into line, and conducted them to the door of the
head-mistress' study, where one by one they were admitted for a brief
private interview. Winona's turn came about the middle of the row.

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