Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1914-01-15
The Golden Prize.



necusly looked mp from their books,
and with glances of curiosity re-
garsled Madame De Lancy, of whose
boarding school they were all mem
bers. Having secured their. atten-I
tion, the teacher proceeded.
sgYoa are aware, young ladies'.
that our semi-annual. exhibition IL
appointed for the twenty-fourth Of
this month, or three weeks from to-
day. IL is scarcely necessary for
me to say that desire il to appear
as well as possible. A part Of the
exercises viii consist of essays, the
best six that have been writton dur
ing the term being selected. In
order to excite your emulations.
and induce you to exert yourselves
more than you otherwise would, ]
offer this gold pencil as q prize. TO
be given tossthe writer of the best
essay, by q member of this school.
They are to be handed in fortnight
from to-day, aud the decision will
be announced the day before exhi-
bition. i viii add that the manu-
script must be perfectly neat and
that 4 blot will be considered sufii-
cient to exclude it from COMPETE
ton"
The gold pencil which Madame
DE i.ancy held up was elegant and
without doubt costly.
II was natural that more than one
Of the girls should have fels a strong
desire to possess it. Yet most
hoped against expectations, feeling
that there was only one present who
would probably bear off the coveted
prize. much as they might exert
themselves.
This fortunate one was Marian
Hamilton, brilliant, dashing girl
with considerable beauty, and not n
little talent. She was generally
considered a genius" being able
to iaake snowy recitation after .
slender preparation. In truth, she
was Ettle disposed to exert herself.
conhding in her readiness and n;ak-
ing il her boast.
1t coald hardly be said that she
was iavorite. She was toe i'm
pcrions, and too exacting of admi-
ration for that. Yet, by sort OF
tacit consent, the chief place i'm the
school was assigned to her.
At recess she remarked To COM
panien who expressed her admira-
ton Of the prize.
Yes, it is very pretty. 1t will
be just the thing for me TO wear at
my birthday party"
when will your birth day
Gomez"
"On the twenty-seventh, three
days after the exhibition.
Then, of course, you will exert
yourself to get it."
4 shall 1writsi for it," said
Miriam, proudly, but l conceive
that It will he hardly necessary for
me to exert myself particularly,
Marian Trevor"
oh, no, certainly not, said her
comnlaisant friend. Everybody
knows you are THE best writer in
school,"
Standing at the distance of few
feet, sufficiently near to hear every
word that was said was plain girl,
dressed in cheap calico, whose APP
pearaHce contrasted strongly with
the rich attire of the brilliant
Miriam.
An expression of pain swept over
the face of Jane Ashton, as she
heard these words, and she said to
herself, despondingly, of course.
Marian win get the prize. Why
should ] be foolish enough to hope
for liz And yet / would like to
get it. 1t would please DIR. Her
man so much.'
She fell into a reverie. We will
improve the time of her self-com.
munion by mentioning briefly the
outlines of her history.
I'm the first place. she was poor
II needed only glance at her plain
dress to assure one of that. How
then did she happen to be in atten-
dance at Madame De Lancy's fash
ionable boarding. school? She was
not there as q boarding scholar. A
few day scholars were admitted.
and she was one of these. Even
the high rates of tuition would have
been too much for her slender
means. but this was betrayed by a
young Physician. DR.. Herman.
who bad taken an interest in her
She had al first. with considerable
Independence, declined his generous
proposal, bu, he promised her that
when she became a teacher-the
goal OF her ambition and had saved
enough to make it perfectly conve-