Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/26

16 "Say! you ought to be up there," cried the unconscious Bobby. "I just came past the house and it was all lit up like—like a hotel. And Mr. Sharp was just coming out with Mrs. Kerrick. Mrs. Kerrick is going to do something big for us girls of Central High."

"What do you mean?" asked Jess, only half interested in Bobby's gossip.

"Going to give us a chance to win a prize, or something," pursued Bobby.

"Oh! how do you know?" Jess showed more interest now.

"Why, I heard Mr. Sharp say, as he was helping Mrs. Kerrick into Colonel Swayne's auto:

The girls of Central High should be delighted, Mrs. Kerrick—and very grateful to you, indeed. Two hundred dollars! And a chance for any smart girl to win it!'—just like that. Now, Jess, you and I are both smart girls, aren't we?" demanded Bobby, roguishly.

"We think we are, at any rate," returned Jess, more eagerly. "Two hundred dollars! Oh! wouldn't that be fine!"

"It would buy a lot of candy and ice-cream sodas," chuckled Bobby.

But to herself Jess Morse thought: "And it would mean the difference, for mother and me, between penury and independence! Oh, dear