Laura fidgeted at
the window and filled every pause with a threat to leave us instanter for
the tournament positively had to be written up that day. Finally I put
the question to the vote, for Jo is so decided in her manner that she
makes me feel wobbly unless I am conscious of being backed up by Robbie
Belle. I suppose it is because my own opinions are so shaky from the
inside view that I hate to appear variable from the outside. It would
have been horrid to yield to Jo's arguments and change my ideas right
there before the whole board. The rest of them except Jo had fallen into
a way of deferring to my judgment, for I had seemed to hit it off right
almost always in accepting or rejecting contributions. Nobody knew how
much I had depended on Robbie Belle.

The board awarded the prize to number seven, my choice, you know. Janet
was on my side because the story had a nice lively plot, and that was all
she cared about. Laura put in a blank ballot, saying that her head ached
so that it was not fair to either side for her to cast any weight upon
the scale. Adele of course voted with me. Jo stuck to number fifteen till
the end.

"Well, that's over!" sighed Laura and escaped before any one had put the
motion to adjourn. Janet vanished behind her, and Jo picked up the
manuscript of which she was champion.

"By the way, girls," she said, "I will return this to its writer, if you
don't mind. And I shall tell her to offer it to the Annual. The committee
will jump at the chance. Find out who she is, please."

I slipped the elastic band from the packet of fifteen sealed envelopes
and selected the one marked with the title of the story. The name inside
was that of a sophomore who had already contributed several articles to
the Monthly. Then I opened the envelope belonging to number seven.

"Maria Mitchell Kiewit," I read, "who in the world is she? I've never
heard of her. She must be a freshman."

Jo who was half way out of the room stopped at the word and thrust her
head back around the door. "Did little Maria Kiewit write that? No wonder
it is simple and jerky. She's a mathematical prodigy, she is. Her mother
is an alumna of this college. See! The infant was named after our great
professor of astronomy. She wants to specialize herself in mathematical
astronomy when she gets to be a junior. Her mother was head editor of the
Monthly in her day. Maria rooms somewhere in this corridor, I believe. It
will be a big thing for her