



Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks, Mary Meehan, David
Newman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team









                 Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School

                                    OR

                          The Parting of the Ways

                       BY JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M.

Author of Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School, Grace Harlowe's
Sophomore Year at High School, Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High
School, etc.




[Illustration: "Who is that Girl?"]




CONTENTS


       I. A Puzzling Resemblance

      II. What the Day Brought Forth

     III. What Happened in Room Forty-Seven

      IV. Grace Turns in the Fire Alarm

       V. Nora Becomes a Prize "Suggester"

      VI. The Thanksgiving Bazaar

     VII. A Thief in the Night

    VIII. Marian Asserts Her Independence

      IX. The Judge's House Party

       X. Christmas with Judge

      XI. Santa Claus Visits the Judge

     XII. The mistletoe Bough

    XIII. Tom and Grace Scent Trouble

     XIV. Grace and Anne Plan a Study Campaign

      XV. The Phi Sigma Taus Meet with a Loss

     XVI. The Unexpected Happens

    XVII. Anne Becomes Famous

   XVIII. The Theatre Party

     XIX. Grace Meets with a Rebuff

      XX. Marian's Confession

     XXI. What Happened at the Haunted House

    XXII. Grace and Eleanor Make a Formal Call

   XXIII. The Message of the Violin

    XXIV. The Parting of the Ways




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


"Who is that Girl?"

The Girls Circled Around the Judge

Hippy Sat With A Piece of Fudge in Either Hand

Grace Held Her Breath in Astonishment




Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School




CHAPTER I

A PUZZLING RESEMBLANCE


"Oakdale won't seem like the same place. What shall we do without you?"
exclaimed Grace Harlowe mournfully.

It was a sunny afternoon in early October, and Grace Harlowe with her
three chums, Anne Pierson, Nora O'Malley and Jessica Bright, stood
grouped around three young men on the station platform at Oakdale. For
Hippy Wingate, Reddy Brooks and David Nesbit were leaving that afternoon
to begin a four years' course in an eastern college, and a number of
relatives and friends had gathered to wish them godspeed.

Those who have read "Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School"
need no introduction to these three young men or to the girl chums. The
doings of these merry girls made the record of their freshman year
memorable indeed. The winning of the freshman prize by Anne Pierson,
despite the determined opposition and plotting of Miriam Nesbit, also
aspiring to that honor, Mrs. Gray's Christmas party, the winter picnic
that ended in an adventure with wolves, and many other stirring events
furnished plenty of excitement for the readers of that volume.

In "Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School" the interest
of the story was centered around the series of basketball games played
by the sophomore and junior classes for the High School championship. In
this volume was narrated the efforts of Miriam Nesbit, aided by Julia
Crosby, the disagreeable junior captain, to discredit Anne, and force
Grace to resign the captaincy of her team. The rescue of Julia by Grace
from drowning during a skating party served to bring about a
reconciliation between the two girls and clear Anne's name of the
suspicion resting upon it. The two classes, formerly at sword's points,
became friendly, and buried the hatchet, although Miriam Nesbit, still
bitterly jealous of Grace's popularity, planned a revenge upon Grace
that nearly resulted in making her miss playing on her team during the
deciding game. Grace's encounter with an escaped lunatic, David Nesbit's
trial flight in his aeroplane, were incidents that also held the
undivided attention of the reader.

In "Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School" the four chums
appeared as members of the famous sorority, the "Phi Sigma Tau,"
organized by Grace for the purpose of helping needy High School girls.

In that volume Eleanor Savelli, the self-willed, temperamental daughter
of an Italian violin virtuoso, furnished much of the interest of the
book. The efforts of Grace and her chums to create in this girl a
healthy, wholesome enjoyment for High School life, and her repudiation
of their friendship, and subsequent attempts to revenge herself for
fancied slights and insults, served to make the story absorbing.

The walking expedition through Upton Wood, the rescue of Mabel Allison,
an orphan, by the Phi Sigma Tau, from the tender mercies of a cruel and
ignorant woman with whom she lived, proved interesting reading.

The class play in which Eleanor plotted to oust Anne Pierson, the star,
from the production and obtain the leading part for herself, the
discovery of the plot at the eleventh hour by Grace, enabling her to
balk Eleanor's scheme, were among the incidents that aroused anew the
admiration of the reader for capable, wide-awake Grace Harlowe.

The seven young people on the platform looked unusually solemn, and a
brief silence followed Grace's wistful question. Saying good-bye
threatened to be a harder task than any of them had imagined it to be.
Even Hippy, usually ready of speech, wore a look of concern decidedly
out of place on his fat, good-humored face.

"Do say something funny, Hippy!" exclaimed Nora in desperation. "This
silence is awful. In another minute we'll all be weeping. Can't you
offer something cheerful?"

Hippy fixed a reflective eye upon Nora for an instant, then recited in a
husky voice:

    "Remember well, and bear in mind,
    That fat young men are hard to find."

There was a shout of laughter went up at this and things began to take a
brighter turn.

"Now will you be good, Nora?" teased David.

"Humph!" sniffed Nora. "I knew his sadness was only skin deep."

"After all," said Anne Pierson, "why should we look at the gloomy side.
You are all coming home for Thanksgiving and the time will slip by
before we realize it. It's our duty to send you boys away in good
spirits, instead of making you feel blue and melancholy."

"Anne always thinks about her duty," laughed Jessica, "but she's right,
nevertheless. Let's all be as cheerful as possible."

"I hear the train coming," cried Grace, always on the alert. "Do write
to us, won't you, boys! Please don't forget to send us some pictures of
the college."

"Yes, don't let that new Eastman of yours go to waste, Reddy," said
Nora.

"I will make Hippy pose the minute we strike the college campus,"
laughed Reddy, "and you shall have the first results, providing they are
not too terrifying."

"I want pictures of the college, not the inmates," retorted Nora.

"Inmates!" cried Hippy. "One would think she was speaking of a lunatic
asylum or a jail. I forgive you, Nora, but it was a cruel thrust. Here
comes the train. Get busy, you fellows, and make your fond farewells to
your families, who will no doubt be tickled pink to get rid of you for a
while."

With that he made a rush to where his father and brother stood. David
turned to his mother and sister Miriam, kissing them affectionately,
while Reddy grasped his father's hand with silent affection in his eyes.

The last good-byes were reserved for the four chums,