Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School

by Josephine Chase

  CHAPTER XXIV

  CONCLUSION

  The special policemen sent out to the Putnam estate were not doomed todisappointment. After an hour's waiting, their patience was rewarded,and the two housebreakers appeared upon the scene. Before they could doany damage they were apprehended and a bag containing a complete outfitof burglar's tools was taken away from them. They fought desperately,but without avail, and were marched to jail to await their hearing.

  Judge Putnam was greatly agitated over the affair. He had a large sum ofmoney in the house, not to mention old family silver and othervaluables.

  "I realize I've had a narrow escape," he exclaimed to the chief the nextday. "I might have been murdered in cold blood. I'll have a burglaralarm put in at once and a telephone, too. I had no business to let allthe servants except old James go for the night. Who did you say broughtthe news? Tom Harlowe's little girl? She always was a wide awakeyoungster. I wonder what I can do for her to show her that I appreciateher bravery?"

  "I don't believe she'd accept anything, Judge," replied the chief."She's not that sort."

  "We shall see. We shall see," said the judge, rubbing his hands. "I havea plan I think she'll listen to."

  In the meantime, on reaching home Grace had been cried over by hermother and put to bed as though she were a baby. The story had been toldby her chums throughout the school the next day, and Grace found herselfthe "observed of all observers."

  "Any of you would have done the same," she said when surrounded by abevy of admiring schoolmates.

  "That's what you always say," exclaimed Nora. "But let me tell youI should have been in hysterics if I had been left alone in the darktwelve miles from nowhere."

  Judge Putnam did not at once make his plan known to Grace. He called,thanking her and complimenting her on her bravery and presence of mind.

  "I shall have something to ask you when school closes, my dear child,"he said as he rose to go. "Something that concerns you and your friends,and you mustn't say 'no' to an old man."

  "What on earth does he mean?" said Grace to her chums, as she repeatedthe judge's words. "I shall be eaten up with curiosity until schoolcloses."

  "Wish to goodness it was over now," growled Nora O'Malley. "I don'tbelieve the last of June will ever come."

  The morning after commencement, eight highly excited girls gathered onthe Harlowe's veranda. Grace had received a note from Judge Putnamrequesting that the Phi Sigma Tau call upon him at ten o'clock thatmorning.

  "Do hurry," said Jessica, as they neared the judge's beautiful home."The sooner we get there the sooner we'll know."

  "Good morning, young ladies," said the judge, bowing with old-timegallantry as James ushered the eight girls into the library. "You looklike a garden of roses. There's nothing like youth; nothing like it. Sitdown and make yourselves comfortable while I tell you why I asked you tocome and see an old man."

  "You are just like Mrs. Gray, Judge," said Grace, "always imaginingyourself old, when you know you're just a great big boy."

  "Very pretty, my dear," chuckled the judge. "But if I am as young as yousay, then I must do something to keep young. Now, the way I proposedoing it is this: I have a camp up in the Adirondacks that needsattention, so I wrote my youngest sister about it and she agrees withme. She is going up there this week with a couple of servants to openthe bungalow and put it in readiness for eight girls who call themselvesthe Phi Sigma Tau, providing their fathers and mothers can spare themfor a few weeks. Do you think they will care to go?"

  "Oh-h-h-h! How lovely!" breathed the eight girls in concert.

  "Care to go? Well I should say so. It will be the greatest lark ever,"cried Grace.

  "If you know any young men who can make themselves useful, we mightinvite them. I don't like the idea of being the only boy, you know."

  "David and Tom," said Grace and Anne.

  "Hippy can go, I'm sure," said Nora.

  "Not to mention Reddy and Arnold Evans," murmured Jessica, with a glanceat Miriam.

  "It looks as though I shall not lack masculine company," remarked thejudge, with twinkling eyes. "Tell your parents that my sister will writethem."

  "I move that we give three cheers and the High School yell for JudgePutnam, and then go straight home and get proper permission," criedGrace.

  The cheers were given with a will, and after shaking hands with thejudge, the girls said good-bye.

  "How did Judge Putnam know about the Phi Sigma Tau; even to its name?"asked Marian Barber curiously.

  "Lots of people know of it," remarked Eva Allen.

  "Girls," said Grace earnestly, "don't you think our society has been asuccess so far?"

  "Yes, indeed," was the united answer.

  "Our sorority has made us fast friends, loyal to each other, throughgood and evil report," she continued. "Let us resolve now, that duringour senior year we will stand firmly together, and make the Phi SigmaTau represent all that is best and most worthy in High School life."

  When next we meet Grace Harlowe and her girl chums, they will haveentered upon their senior year at High School. In "GRACE HARLOWE'SSENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; Or, The Parting of the Ways," we shall learnhow the Phi Sigma Tau kept their sorority pledge. Eleanor Savell willagain seek revenge, and Grace Harlowe will once more prove herself equalto the occasion. Those who have followed the "High School Girls" throughthree years of school life cannot fail to be interested in what befellthese lovable everyday girls during their senior year.

  THE END