Beatrice Leigh at College A Story for Girls   By: Julia Augusta Schwartz (1873-)

A Story for Girls

by

JULIA A. SCHWARTZ

A SONG CALENDAR BY A. L. C.

I

"When blood of autumn Runs warm and red In all the branches Over head Sing clear bright sunshine, And tender haze, Sing glad beginning Of College Days!

II

"When pines and spruces Are bowed with snow, When ponds are frozen And keen winds blow Sing cozy corners Or jingling sleighs, Sing work or frolic Of College Days!

III

"When comes sweet April, With soft slow rain, And earth has broken Her frozen chain Sing low shy birdnotes, And woodland ways, Sing mirth and music Of College Days!

IV

"When June days linger, And warm winds blow O'er fields of daisies Adrift like snow Sing sad leave takings And tender praise Of all the mem'ries Of College Days!"

Vassarion, '95.

Cordial acknowledgment is due to the editors of the Youth's Companion for their courteous permission to reprint in the following chapters of college life the episodes entitled respectively "Wanted: a Friend," and "Her Freshman Valentine."

BEATRICE LEIGH AT COLLEGE

A Story for Girls

by

JULIA A. SCHWARTZ

Author of "Elinor's College Career" etc.

Illustrated by Eva M. Nagel

[Illustration: SHE HID HER FACE AGAINST MARTHA'S DRESS]

The Penn Publishing Company Philadelphia MCMVII

Copyright 1907 by the Penn Publishing Company

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I Bea's Roommate 9 II Enter Robbie Belle 35 III A Question of Economy 59 IV Her Freshman Valentines 81 V The Giftie Gie Us 92 VI A Wave of Reform 115 VII Four Sophomores and a Dog 145 VIII Classes in Manners 172 IX This Vain Show 198 X Consequences 214 XI A Girl to Have Friends 231 XII An Original in Math 255 XIII Just This Once 283 XIV Classmates 299 XV Victory 321

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE SHE HID HER FACE AGAINST MARTHA'S DRESS Frontispiece Lila Stood Staring Out at the Snow 28 "Anything New?" 73 "Oh, Thank You; I Don't Want Anything to Eat" 96 We Handed Over Five Dollars Apiece 201 She Waved an Open Letter In Her Hand 276 She Held Both Hands, Smiling 301

BEATRICE LEIGH AT COLLEGE

CHAPTER I

BEA'S ROOMMATE

Lila Allan went to college in the hope of finding an intimate friend at last. Her mother at home waited anxiously for her earliest letters, and devoured them in eager haste to discover some hint of success in the search; for being a wise woman she knew her own daughter, and understood the difficulty as well as the necessity of the case.

The first letter was written on the day of arrival. It contained a frantic appeal for enough money to buy her ticket home immediately, because she had a lonesome room away up in the north tower, and nobody had spoken to her all the afternoon, and her trunk had not come yet, and she did not know where the dining room was, and the corridors were full of packing boxes with lids scattered around, and girls were hurrying to and fro with step ladders and kissing each other and running to hug each other, and everything.