Page:A Girl of the Limberlost.djvu/139

Rh given up chasing the dog and, angry and ashamed, stood waiting a half block away. "Come back!" screamed Billy. "You great big dunces, come back! They's a new kind of meat, and cake and candy." The boy delayed, but the girl joined Billy.

Ellen wiped her fingers, stepped to the cement abutment and began reciting "Horatio at the Bridge!" substituting Elnora wherever the hero appeared in the lines. Elnora gathered up the sacks, and gave them to Belle, telling her to take the food home, cut and spread the bread, set things on the table, and eat nicely. Then Elnora was hustled into the wagon with the girls, and driven on the run to the high school. They sang a song beginning—

as they went. Elnora did not know it, but that was her initiation. She belonged to "the crowd." She only knew that she was happy, and vaguely wondered what her mother and Aunt Margaret would have said about the proceedings.