Grace Harlowes Plebe Year at High School

Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School, by

Jessie Graham Flower This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls
Author: Jessie Graham Flower
Release Date: January 28, 2007 [EBook #20472]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR ***

Produced by David Newman, Sigal Alon, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School
OR
The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls
By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M.
Author of Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School, Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School, Etc.

PHILADELPHIA HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY Copyright, 1910

[Illustration: A Troop of Black-Robed Figures Were Stealthily Approaching.]

CONTENTS
I. The Accident of Friendships
II. The Sponsor of the Freshman Class
III. Mrs. Gray Engages a Secretary
IV. The Black Monks of Asia
V. Anne Has a Secret
VI. The Sophomore Ball
VII. All Hallowe'en
VIII. Miss Leece
IX. Thanksgiving Day
X. Grace Keeps Her Secret
XI. Mrs. Gray's Adopted Daughters
XII. Miriam Plans a Revenge
XIII. Christmas Holidays
XIV. A Midnight Alarm
XV. Tom Gray
XVI. The Marionette Show
XVII. After the Ball
XVIII. A Winter Picnic
XIX. Wolves!
XX. The Gray Brothers
XXI. The Lost Letter
XXII. Danger Ahead
XXIII. In the Thick of the Night
XXIV. The Freshman Prize

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A Troop of Black-Robed Figures Were Stealthily Approaching.
"Miss Pierson, Do You Recognize This Figure?"
"Give That Back! It Is Not Yours."
Tom Gray Escapes from the Wolves

Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School
CHAPTER I
THE ACCIDENT OF FRIENDSHIPS
"Who is the new girl in the class?" asked Miriam Nesbit, flashing her black eyes from one schoolmate to another, as the girls assembled in the locker room of the Oakdale High School.
"Her name is Pierson; that is all I know about her," replied Nora O'Malley, gazing at her pretty Irish face in the looking glass with secret satisfaction. "She's very quiet and shy and looks as if she would weep aloud when her turn comes to recite, but I'm sure she's all right," she added good naturedly. For Nora had a charming, sunny nature, and always saw the best if there was any best to see.
"She is very bright," broke in Grace Harlowe decisively. "She went through her Latin lesson without a mistake, which is certainly more than I could do."
"Well, I don't like her," pouted Miriam. "I never trust those quiet little things. And, besides, she is the worst-dressed girl in----"
"Hush!" interrupted Jessica Bright, touching a finger to her lips. "Here she is."
A little, brown figure entered the room just as Miriam finished speaking. But Jessica was too late with her warning. The young girl had, without doubt, heard the cruel speech and her face flushed painfully as she pinned on a shabby old hat, slipped her arms into a thin black jacket and stepped out again without looking at the crowd of schoolmates who watched her silently.
"Miriam, I should think you'd learn to be more careful," exclaimed hot-tempered Nora, her soft heart touched by the appealing little stranger.
"Well, what difference does it make?" replied Miriam. "If Miss Pierson doesn't know already that she's the shabbiest girl in school, it's high time she found it out. I have a suspicion her mother takes in washing or something, and I mean to find it out right now. We can't invite a girl like that to our class parties and entertainments. She would disgrace us."
"Miriam," said Grace quietly, "I believe we are all privileged to invite whom we please to our homes. I intend to give a class tea next Saturday, and I mean to follow Miss Pierson right now and ask her to help me receive."
The two girls looked into each other's faces for a moment without speaking. Grace was quiet and contained, Miriam flushed and furiously angry. They had been rival leaders always at the Grammar School, but the rivalry had never come to open battle until now.
Miriam was the first to drop her eyes. She did not reply, but from that moment she was the sworn enemy of Grace Harlowe and her two friends, Nora and Jessica.
"Well, we had better hurry," said Jessica, trying to calm the troubled scene. "Nobody knows exactly where Miss Pierson lives and she will be out of sight before we can catch her."
The three girls ran lightly out of the basement of the fine old building that was the pride of Oakdale. It was large and imposing, built of smooth, gray stone, with four huge columns supporting the front portico. A hundred yards away stood the companion building, the Boys' High School, exactly like the first in every respect except that a wing had been added for a gymnasium which the girls had