The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-11-12

Orpha stood up straighter than
ever when she heard OF any new act
Of this sort. "If you wish TO be a
scholar, you must subordinate every
thing TO that end" she told herself.
Then she went back to her lonely lit
tie room and was very unhappy.
The afternoon OF the dress re-
hearsal, actors and committee were in
the hall waiting for Keith and the
heroine. Every one was excited, for
the play was always the event of the
year to the class Each class gave
one year, and rivalry ran high.
Keith entered and cast herself on a
pile of properties.
"The play is ruined!"
"What?r in frightened chorus.
Margaret has broken her ankle!"
A dead silence, then all talking at
once.
mo, we can't postpone 1t! Every
Saturday is taken, up to commence
ment. We can't even give 1t up, for
we can get another heroine. Emma
Twemlow acted the part at home last
summer. She was as stiff as q poker,
and oh, you know her volcel"
"And she's as awkward as duckl"
cried Tilly. "Keith, she'll make the
whole play absurd"
Il know 1t, but can't help 1t! She
knows about Margaret and she
offered. If we don't give the play,
of course we lose all chance OF the
prize cupl"
Orpha stole out. She walked
long way before she knew what she
was doing.
II don't look like Rosalind"-the
play was "As You Like It"-"but l
know ! can be like her." She spoke
out loud Orpha had an English
voice, sweet, with organ tones In It,.
"The Morgan prize!" She had for
gotten that.
The Morgan pEize was one offered
to the sophomore class for the best
essay on given subject. If you won,
you had two hundred dollars, and un-
limited glory Orpha longed unspeak-
ably for the glory. A
She wanted her people at home to
know what great things she was do
ing. Most of all, she wanted the
girls to realize how very clever she
really was. She had been ruffied seri-
ously, during the progress of the play,
by her unskilfulness in practical af-
fairs. She would prove that her mind
was too great for such trifes. She
knew she could win.
The competition closed the next
night the night of the play. Her
essay was finished in conception, but
1t had yet to be written out. Orpha
was slow worker. She has. planned
to spend all that day and the next, up
to the play, on 1t.
She sat down in a deserted corner
of the campus. There she fought
fierce battle. On one side warred
ambition, her wounded pride, her real
scholarship; on the other-she knew
not what. Confused ideas of Keith's
disappointment, Keith, whom SHE had
begun to love-of the shame of the
class at failing in its play-of the
girls loving her, too, and crying,
Good girl, Orpha! all these
thoughts chased one another through
her brain.
Orpha stood shyly before the dreary
party just starting for Emma Twem-
low.
Keith she had never called her
that before won't you let me be
Rosalind? know 1 can be, even if
l don't look her. / have heard the
rehearsals so often l know the part,
and I'm willing to rehearse all day
tomorrow"
The hall was full. Girls sat on the
acknowledges and crowded the door
ways. There were the seniors, friend
ly to the sophomores, of course, but
rather superior; the juniors and
freshmen fiercely hostile; the class
itself hopeful, but nervous. Besides
the undergraduates, there were
number of visitors, alumnae and out
siders.
Orpha stood in the wings. She had
seen the amused smiles of the audi
ence as 1t read her name on the COM
mittee. Up to this time the names
of all concerned had been kept secret.
and to enhance the excitement Mar
garet's name had not been taken from
the program. The girls knew only
that Rosalind was to be surprise.
Orpha had never acted before. In
all that audience there was not one to
give her a hand" for friendships
sake.
She stepped out on the stage. In
the dead silence she heard whisper
from the front seats. What, that
gloomy grind!" and a giggle.
She felt sick. That was what she
was-a grind, Miss Dryasdust She
had no place among these alive girls.
She was a fool ever to have tried to
oe like them. She stood perfectly
still in silence that might have been
of hours.
Her eyes travelled slowly, to the
wings. In the wings stood the COM
mittee. Their faces were rather
white and their eyes looked unusually
large, but they smiled and clapped
and Keith blew her a lit
tie round kiss. They did not think of
her as grindl She had become one
OF "us. +" She was frightened, they
must help her out.
Orpha turned to the audience with
a smile that made her dimples peep