ionary work to us all the way. When I think of
the tons of candy and the mountains of flowers and the wagonloads of
latest books that we lavished, and of the hard feelings it made in other
quarters, and of our loneliness amid all this gayety, and of our frantic
efforts to make the prom a success, with ten couples dancing and the
rest decorating the walls, I sometimes wonder whether the college was
worth our great love for it after all.

But we were winning out. By April it was easy to see this. The Blanks
thawed with the snow-drifts. They got real friendly and sociable, and
after the warm weather came on we simply had to entertain them all the
time, they liked it so. When I think of those beautiful spring days,
with us sauntering with our political fates about the campus, and the
nicest girls in the world walking two and two all by themselves--Oh,
gee! Why, they even made us cut chapel to go walking with them, just as
if it was a genuine case of "Oh, those eyes!" and "Shut up, you thumping
heart."

[Illustration: Why, they even made us cut chapel to go walking with them
_Page 280_]

All this time Miss Hicks wouldn't accept any invitation at all. She just
flocked by herself as usual, and watched us taking her votes away from
her without any concern apparently. I always felt that she had something
saved up for us, but I couldn't tell what it was; and anyway, we had
those votes. By the time the Athletic election came around there wasn't
a doubt of it.

I must say the women did pretty well during the year. They'd cleaned up
the Oratorical debt, and somehow there was about three times as much
money in the Athletic treasury after the football season as there had
ever been before. But they'd raised a lot of trouble too. No passes.
Dues had to be paid up. Nobody got any fun out of the class affairs.
They got up lectures and teas and made the class pay for them. And,
anyway, we wanted to run things again. We'd felt all year like a bunch
of last year's sunflowers. Besides, we'd earned it. We'd earned a starry
crown as a matter of fact, but all we asked was that they give our
little old Athletic Association back and let us run it once more.

Miss Hicks announced herself as a candidate, and we felt sorry for her.
Not one of her gang was with her. They were enthusiastically for us.
We'd planned the biggest party of the year right after the election in
celebration, and had invited them already. Election day c