even though mimi heard the announcement in chapel that green cap week began today, something had to happen to her before she realized its significance. she was hurrying down the hall to english. classes were under way and she was having a time finding the different rooms and getting there on time.
“wait a minute,” olivia said, holding out her arms and blocking the door to the room. “another girl whose hearing is deficient, whose eyesight faileth. away, lowly one, and wash that powder off your face.”
“what?” mimi stammered incredulously.
“go read the bulletin board. ever hear of green cap week?”
mimi couldn’t be late to english. she didn’t want to get a bad start so she ducked under olivia’s arm into the classroom, only to collide with betsy.
“trouble?” she asked olivia.
“a mere trifle—miss hammond hasn’t time to remove her make-up.”
“yes, she has.”
“i’ll be late,” mimi protested. she could feel her cheeks burning. why hadn’t she collided with anyone else in school but betsy?
“be late, but when you do get here, your face will be so bright and shining miss lipscomb may mistake it for intelligence.” betsy’s tone left no alternative. mimi turned in her most dignified manner and walked toward the stairs. she did not run until she turned the landing and was out of sight.
only last night she had been sure she and betsy would be friends and now——
in her confusion she opened the bathroom door with such violence she almost knocked chloe down. chloe was drying her face and sue’s roly-poly figure was doubled over the lavatory. she was still scrubbing.
“what! y’all too?”
then mimi saw how funny it was. going without make-up was no trial for her. she used very little anyhow. she only side-swiped her nose with a powder puff on special occasions. but sue couldn’t set her hair! chloe couldn’t put polish on her nails! no rouge, no powder, no lipstick, no mascara for a week. it would be much worse in college hall than in prep hall. green cap week had started in college hall for the freshmen. in a year or so the preps had taken up this light form of hazing and applied green cap week regulations to all new girls regardless of class. mrs. cole was constantly on guard for fear they would overdo it. she heartily approved of one rule, however. no college freshman or new girl could leave the campus the entire week. prep girls never could leave unchaperoned. thinking over the rules, mimi wondered if there’d ever be time to go to town.
even chloe smiled broadly before they hustled back to their classes. about as well be a good sport.
mimi had recovered her poise when she dashed by tumble inn between dinner and class time. betsy and two other old girls were there grouped around the treasure chest finishing the date cake.
“’scuse,” mimi apologized, “but i live here, too.”
“glad you came.” betsy’s tone made it evident they were waiting for her. “i didn’t stop for my mail. bring it up, please. they will let you have it. i have arranged with the girl.”
“i mustn’t let her see she is getting under my skin—i mustn’t—i mustn’t,” mimi gritted her teeth together.
“be a pleasure. going by anyway. so long.”
“oh mimi,” one of the other girls called, “since you’re going that way, stop in 223 and pick up my laundry and take it down to the maid’s entrance. it’s all tied up and tagged.”
“223? just love to,” mimi fibbed. they couldn’t see her flushed face. they mustn’t know she was teased. there were ruts and bumps on the trail now but mimi would forge ahead. once she determined to do something she kept at it doggedly. at camp she had resolved to find the beautiful in life, and where it was not, to create beauty. she had chosen as her watchword, “hojoni,” a navajo word meaning “trail of beauty.” in darkest moments she uttered it prayerfully. as she turned in 223 she whispered to herself, “hojoni.” gingerly she picked up the soiled clothes tied up in a big bath towel and holding them at arm’s length away from her averted nose, fled down the back stairs and left them.
she reached the post office just in time to have the windows closed in her face—and there was a letter in her box! it could be for chloe but again it could be from mother dear! all period she tried to concentrate on the fact that “a straight line is the shortest distance between two points,” but who could focus her attention on geometry when she had been humiliated? when she might have her first news from home? the post office wouldn’t be open again until three-thirty. how could she wait?
going to her first gym class helped, or she thought it would.
getting out of her uniform and putting on black shorts and a clean white shirt perked her up. mimi loved the freedom of gym clothes. she liked to fling her arms, stretch her legs, to run and dance and play. the greatest disappointment she had had so far at sheridan was the fact that there was no swimming pool. plans for the completion of a modern swimming pool with lights beneath the water were under way but that didn’t help mimi this year. to make up for not having a pool, there were macadam tennis courts and an excellent hardwood basket ball floor. today she would find out about them and from miss bassett! dit might be there, too.
again mimi was disappointed. something besides play was happening in the gymnasium. girls were huddled in the anteroom. two doctors, two nurses and half a dozen college seniors—yes, dit was one of them—majoring in physical education were busy. miss bassett was here and there.
“in line alphabetically,” she said as mimi straggled in. “new girls in anteroom to the left, alphabetically, please.”
when miss bassett spoke, people acted.
“what is it all about?” chloe asked mimi. there was something so appealing about her wide-eyed question, mimi put her arm around her. chloe looked so small and helpless in her gym clothes. her legs and arms were paper-white in contrast to mimi’s ruddiness.
“physical examination,” mimi guessed, and she was right. “i took one to get my medical card for camp and it isn’t bad,” mimi reassured chloe.
she was not half so composed as she sounded. daddy had examined her for camp. hastily he had run down the card, checking the contagious diseases she had had—measles, mumps, whooping cough—writing yes or no after questions about vaccination and serums. he had thumped her chest a time or two, pressed his ear above her heart. laughing heartily he had said:
“go to it, camper! swim, ride, row—shoot the works! nothing the matter with my girl.”
daddy was so proud of his tomboy. mimi sensed this examination would be different, and it was.
first a senior ushered you into a dressing room where another senior was seated. the senior with the fountain pen and stack of cards looked up at mimi——
“last name first, please.”
“hammond, mimi.”
“age?”
“fourteen.”
on and on the questions came. mimi had to think hard to remember all the answers. when the senior handed her the card with instructions to take it to the nurse in the next room, mimi was not at all sure she had answered truthfully.
here mimi had a new experience.
suddenly the nurse struck a match quite close to mimi’s eye. she closed her eyes and flinched.
“there. all over. merely testing your reflexes.”
she hadn’t known she had any.
the nurse wrote on the card while the doctor listened to her heart, thumped both her chest and between her shoulder blades. carefully he noted her posture. she was weighed, height measured and before it was over her footprints noted.
mimi had laughed about this. first, she had stepped in a basin of water and then made wet tracks like the ones she left in the hall when cissy called her to the telephone from the bathtub. one more test and the examination was over. the last nurse wiped the tip of mimi’s finger with alcohol, stuck it so skillfully that it did not hurt, and squeezed a drop of blood on a small glass plate. then wiping the finger again she sent mimi to her room.
sue was there before her, crosswise of the bed, sobbing softly.
homesick, mimi guessed. then she remembered the letter in box 207. she ran all the way downstairs and when she got it, it was for chloe. she took the letter back upstairs and put it on chloe’s dresser.
“sue, honey, can i do anything about it?” mimi asked gently.
“no,” sue blubbered, “it’s done. miss taylor cut my finger nails nearly to the quick so i wouldn’t fray my violin strings and peck the keyboard and now that old nurse sticks my middle finger. i know my fingers will be so sore i can’t practice for days. i hope i can’t!” she dabbed at her eyes with her middy collar. “whose letter?”
“it is not betsy’s. she didn’t have any and i am glad! it’s chloe’s. say, we have to keep study hall tonight seven-thirty to nine. i thought we stayed in our rooms and studied that time like the college girls, but we don’t. we have to sit at those desks in the chapel. i’ll never live through it. cheer up, sue. if i can sit still an hour and a half every night, you can surely stand your fingers a little bit sore. what a life!”
what a life it was that week——
since this was the last year sheridan would have a preparatory department, the old girls greatly outnumbered the new; consequently, mimi and sue flunkied all week long. they made beds, shined shoes, swept rooms—thank goodness the maids swept the halls—carried towels to the floor showers and worst of all wore silly green felt caps all week. they dared not take them off until lights out. sue’s hair was stringy and mimi’s freckled nose shone.
chloe got off easier. she kept every rule. her first waking thought was to put her green cap on. she obeyed so meekly and was so shy the old girls soon let her alone. they picked on sue and hounded mimi. it was more fun to tease girls who resented it and had to battle themselves to remain good sports. mimi felt like a martyr but she gritted her teeth and bore the persecutions.
this was a week mimi never forgot. she completed her schedule, became acquainted with her teachers, tried out for soccer and tennis. sue tried out for orchestra and was assigned second violin. chloe began spending all her spare time in the library or better, the art studio. betsy tried out for the same things mimi did. she was good at them. her chances for soccer looked better than mimi’s. mimi admired her skill, her sense of fair play. only once did her admiration waver.
mimi was stretched out on the window ledge in the gym when she heard two girls talking below her outside. she recognized betsy’s voice immediately. it was tense with repressed excitement. after becoming interested in their plot, mimi peeped over the ledge and recognized magdalene.
“this has been the tamest green cap week i ever heard of,” betsy was saying.
“it sure has and it ends tonight.”
“wish we could stir up a little excitement. don’t you remember last year we rolled that trash can down the stairs, nonstop flight from third floor to basement, at midnight?”
“do i remember? i’ve never heard such a clatter in my life. it nearly scared me out of my wits. i wasn’t in on it. i was one of the ones it awakened.”
“oh boy! did mrs. cole rave!”
“i never shall forget how funny she looked with that outing kimona wrapped around her and her hair twisted up on kid curlers. she was a fright.”
“she never did find out who did it.”
“betsy, surely you can hatch up something as good as that. think hard.”
“i have thought of something better, only i can’t think of anyone with nerve enough to do it.”
magdalene’s eyes gleamed. she was a nervous, high-strung girl. she adored betsy and would run any risk to win favor in betsy’s eyes. betsy knew this.
“dare me, why don’t you?”
“why magdalene—you’d be afraid!” betsy certainly knows how to work her schemes, mimi thought.
“i would not! name it and see!”
betsy lowered her voice until mimi had to strain her ears to catch what she was saying. she did not get it all but she did hear “alarm bell,” “basement,” and “midnight.”
because mimi liked to play pranks herself, her first thought was, will that be a riot? it won’t scare me. i’ll be listening. i’ll tell sue and chloe and we’ll stay up for the fun.
then she saw more clearly what the plot was and what its consequences might be.
evidently there was, somewhere about the building, an emergency alarm. betsy wanted magdalene to wait until the building was quiet and dark and then set it off. mimi remembered all the stories of panic she had heard; how people jumped out windows, trampled each other, fainted from fright. chloe might faint, and in spite of the resentment she had felt toward chloe for being forced on her, she was beginning to love her. she loved her so much she didn’t want her badly frightened. poor mrs. cole. she had had a miserable week getting things organized and running.
“what to do?”
by the time mimi had made up her mind that the alarm must not ring tonight, supper was over and she was seated in study hall. “i’ll ask permission to speak to betsy and tell her i know.” no. she couldn’t do that. she wouldn’t have time to explain all her reasons and betsy might think she was a sissy. besides, she was afraid betsy didn’t like her much anyhow.
suppose she spoke to magdalene? she didn’t know her well enough to interfere. suppose she told mrs. cole? that would only get the two would-be culprits in trouble. mimi had already heard how you received long campus sentences for even small offenses. they might be sent home for this prank. besides, she couldn’t be a tattletale.
tick-tock-tick-tock——
the hands of the study hall clock were getting around too fast. before she chose her course of action, study hall was over. gathering up her books, which had been open before her but unread, she started after betsy and magdalene who were strolling down the hall together.
dit detained her. she came striding down from college corridor, one hand in the pocket of her big white sweater with the green letter, the other holding a list she was carefully scanning.
“mimi, you are on number one soccer squad and number one tennis club.” everything had a number. “that doesn’t mean team but it means a good chance. report at two-twenty tomorrow.”
“oh thanks, dit. thanks a lot.”
“where’s betsy?”
“gone.” she and magdalene had disappeared. mimi ran upstairs. she must find them.
they were not in tumble inn. sue, who was brushing her hair one hundred strokes every night paused long enough to say——
“fifty-five—betsy is spending the night with madge—i guess mrs. cole gave her permission.” then she changed her hairbrush to her other hand and continued brushing—“fifty-six, fifty-seven.”
so that was it. madge’s room (sue insisted on calling her that) was on the third floor at the head of the stairs. it would be easier to sneak down from there. perhaps she should ask sue what to do. but no, mimi was a lot like the cat who walked by herself. she could figure this out and act alone. if she ran the risk of being caught out of her room after light bell, and if her plan did not succeed she might be caught and considered a plotter herself.
mimi tried to be natural as she undressed, cleaned her teeth, and said her prayers. chloe almost sat on mimi’s flashlight she had sneaked under her pillow.
“chloe.” sue sounded so lonesome in the darkness. “please, come sleep with me. i can’t go to sleep by myself.”
“move over and give me your warm place and i will.”
mimi didn’t stir until several minutes after she heard chloe’s bare feet patter across the floor. she could get up now without disturbing anyone. carefully she eased up to a sitting position, then lifted herself noiselessly to her feet. the bed springs squeaked as she stood up and mimi stood rigid listening. she slipped into her felt slippers and bathrobe and, inch at a time, opened the door.
the hall was twilight dark—only dim lights above the bathroom entrances. staying close to the wall she moved toward the stairs. she froze in her tracks, one foot on the first step, as she heard a door close softly and a whisper “sh-sh.” then acting without knowing why, mimi hid in the bathroom and waited. peeping out she saw madge and betsy creep by, casting goblin shadows against the wall.
for a mad instant mimi wanted to join them rather than foil their plans. then she decided to have some fun of her own. she’d pay miss betsy back for some of the insults she had endured during green cap week.
giving the girls a safe start she followed them down, down, down to the basement. at the foot of the stairs the two girls turned right and back. mimi ran on tiptoe left and back to meet them under the stairs. she crouched down behind a large trash container and waited. betsy’s flashlight was playing against the wall.
“there’s the buzzer,” she whispered. “give me a minute to get back to the foot of the stairs so you can find me by the light and so we can run.”
the alarm buzzer was right over mimi’s head. she could reach up and touch it herself. but she had decided on her course. better to scare one girl or two girls out of their wits, than turn the whole school inside out.
“o. k.” betsy whispered tensely. “let’er go and scram!”
when madge’s thin white arm reached up, mimi grabbed her wrist and with her other hand she threw her flashlight in her own face so that madge would know instantly she would not be harmed. “steady, steady,” she whispered.
madge did not cry out. all sound died in her throat but mimi could feel her trembling all over. mimi was thinking fast now. she extinguished her light, and pulled madge toward her.
“what’s wrong?” betsy called in a low tone.
“tell her—nothing—bell out of order,” mimi hissed in madge’s ear.
“nothing—it won’t r-r-ring—must be out of fix.” she was still shaking.
mimi couldn’t hear what betsy said but she was shoving madge toward the stairs.
“go to bed. not a word about me.”
“y—yes,” madge promised, running toward betsy and light.
mimi followed them as soon as she dared. her speed increased as she neared tumble inn. she was almost safe when mrs. cole’s door popped open and a light snapped on.
“who is it?” miss cole asked coming toward mimi.
it was mimi’s turn to shake with fright and she did.
“mimi hammond, mrs. cole—i——”
“what are you doing out of your room at this hour?”
“i am sick at the stomach, mrs. cole, and i started to go to the kitchen to see if i could find some soda but i got scared.”
mimi hadn’t known before she could fib so readily. once she started there was no stopping.
“don’t you know you shouldn’t prowl around the building at night? why didn’t you call me?”
“i’m not scared,” another fib, “and i didn’t want to disturb you.”
“come in my room now.”
mimi followed meekly. anything to keep mrs. cole from going to tumble inn and finding betsy out. she was sure all along betsy did not have permission. she watched mrs. cole pry the top from a box of salts.
“i’d rather have soda water, please.”
“this will do you more good,” said mrs. cole, stirring vigorously. “here, drink it.”
what else could mimi do?
while the bitter taste was in her mouth she wished she had let the alarm sound, that mrs. cole had been scared worst of all. but as she finally closed the door of tumble inn safely behind her, she knew that one dose of salts was better than two girls suspended, especially when one of them was betsy.
