from Robbie Belle. It was the
afternoon before the Easter vacation, and Lila and I were in Berta's room
to help her pack her trunk. At least Lila held the nails while Berta
mended the top tray and I did the heavy looking on. When Berta stopped
hammering and put her thumb in her mouth, I remarked that nobody who
squealed ouch! in company could belong to our highest class in manners.

Lila's expression changed from the pained sympathy of friendship to the
scientific zeal of character study. "Girls, have you noticed Mary
Winchester lately? It is the strangest thing! She seems more alone and
alien than ever. The girls avoid her as if she had the plague. In the
library and the corridor to-day it was as plain as could be. They stop
talking when she comes around. They watch her all the time though they
try not to let her know it. Of course, she couldn't help feeling it. They
point her out to each other, and raise their brows and whisper after she
has passed. She moves on with her head up and her mouth set tight. Her
manners are worse than ever."

"When I met her this morning, she looked right through me and didn't see
anything there, I reckon," said I, "and, oh, Lila, you were mistaken
about her borrowing your skates without leave. It was Martha who had them
that morning. In rushing to class she got mixed up and threw them in at
the wrong door, that's all. Our example is corrupting the infant."

Berta forgot her aching thumb. "Something is wrong. Mary's eyes are those
of a hunted creature. Driven into a corner. Everybody against her. I
wonder----"

Robbie Belle walked slowly into the room, her clothes dripping with
water.

"Mary Winchester fell into the lake," she said, "you did it."

In the silence I heard Berta draw a long sigh. Then she dropped her
hammer.

"She broke through the ice," added Robbie Belle.

"But the ice is rotten. How did she get on it?" asked my voice.

"She walked," answered Robbie Belle, "I saw her." Then she crossed over
to Berta, put both arms around her neck, hid her face against her
shoulder, and began to shake all over. "I helped pull her out, and she
fought me--she fought----"

At that moment little Martha, our freshman roommate, came running in.
"That queer girl jumped into the lake. I saw them carrying her to the
infirmary. She did it because everybody knows her father is in the
penitentiary. They heard about it at the skating carnival. Her brother is
an outlaw too----"

Robbie Belle